Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 1 · II.1.2–II.1.5a

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Facing Pages · Branch 7 of 516

Book II Chapter 1 · II.1.2–II.1.5a

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 10

Εὐριπίδου Φιλοκτήτῃ

II.1.2

Τί δῆτα θάκοις ἀρχικοῖς ἐνήμενοι σαφῶς διόμνυσθ’ εἰδέναι τὰ δαιμόνων; οἱ τῶνδε χειρώνακτες ἄνθρωποι λόγων. ὅστις γὰρ αὐχεῖ θεῶν ἐπίστασθαι πέρι, οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον οἶδεν, ἢ πείθειν λέγων.

Ἀναξανδρίδου Κανηφόρῳ

II.1.3

Ἅπαντές ἐσμεν πρὸς τὰ θεῖ’ ἀβέλτεροι, κοὐκ ἴσμεν οὐδέν.

Σοφοκλέους

II.1.4

Ἀλλ’ οὐ γὰρ ἂν τὰ θεῖα κρυπτόντων θεῶν μάθοις ἄν, οὐδ’ εἰ πάντ’ ἐπεξέλθοις σκοπῶν.

Φιλήμονος

II.1.5a

Θεὸν νόμιζε καὶ σέβου, ζήτει δὲ μή· πλέον γὰρ οὐδὲν ἄλλο τοῦ ζητεῖν ἔχεις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 1

p. 11

Euripides in Philoctetes

II.1.2

Why then, seated in seats of authority, do you swear that you know the gods’ affairs clearly? Human beings are the craftsmen of these speeches. Whoever boasts of knowing about the gods knows nothing more than how to persuade with words.⁷

Anaxandrides in The Basket Bearer

II.1.3

We are all foolish when it comes to divine things, and we know nothing.⁸

Sophocles

II.1.4

You could not learn divine things while the gods conceal them, even if you went through everything in your search.⁹

Philemon

II.1.5a

Acknowledge God and revere him, but do not inquire; you gain nothing beyond the inquiry itself.¹⁰

7.The excerpt questions human claims to divine knowledge. The printed ἀρχικοῖς describes seats of authority; its apparatus records an earlier reading ἀρχαῖοις, “ancient.” “Craftsmen” renders χειρώνακτες, a pointedly human image of making and working. The final line follows the printed infinitive πείθειν, “to persuade,” rather than the manuscript πείθει, “he persuades.”

8.The attribution and play title follow the printed heading. The comic register is retained: ἀβέλτεροι is blunt, not a technical term for a philosophical suspension of judgment.

9.The condition matters: the gods’ concealment defeats the investigation. The fragment does not itself deny the possibility of divine disclosure.

10.Νόμιζε can mean acknowledge, recognize, or hold in customary regard. The capitalized English “God” follows the singular expression without assigning the maxim a particular theology. The heading attributes it to Philemon.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.