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 7 · II.7.3a.1–II.7.3a.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 70 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.3a.1–II.7.3a.2

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 136

Περὶ τέλους

II.7.3a.1

Τέλος λέγεται πολλαχῶς· ὡς τὸ πέρας, ᾧ ἀντιδιαιρεῖται ἀρχὴ καὶ μέσον· καὶ ὡς τὸ τέλεσμα ⟨τὸ⟩ φορικόν· ὡς τὸ ἀνάλωμα, καθὸ λέγεται αὐτοτελής τε καὶ εὐτελής· ὡς ὁ γάμος παρὰ τοῖς Δωριεῦσιν, ἤτοι παρὰ τὸ συμπέρασμα τῆς νεότητος, ἢ διὰ τὸ τελειοῦν τὸν ἄνδρα τῇ πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα συνόδῳ, καθὸ τὴν γαμήλιον Ἥραν ⟨ἢ⟩ συζυγίαν καὶ τελείαν ἐπονομάζουσι· τέλος δὲ καὶ γνώσεως καὶ πράξεως καὶ ποιήματος τὸ ἀποβαῖνον, ὡς παρ’ Εὐριπίδῃ

Ἀχαλίνων στομάτων ἀνόμου τ’ ἀφροσύνας τὸ τέλος δυστυχία.

Περὶ τέλους · συνέχεια

II.7.3a.2

Τέλη δὲ λέγονται καὶ αἱ τῶν πολιτειῶν ἀρχαί, τὰ τέλη Λακεδαιμονίων εἰ τύχοι. Παρὰ δ’ Ὁμήρῳ ἐν τῷ τῆς Ἰλιάδος δεκάτῳ

Αἶψα δ’ ἐπὶ Θρηικῶν ἀνδρῶν τέλος ἷξον ἰόντες·

τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶν ἔναρχον τάγμα.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 137

On the End · 1

II.7.3a.1

“End” is said in many senses: as the limit, distinguished from beginning and middle; as a payment of tribute; as expense, in the sense in which one speaks of being self-supporting or inexpensive; as marriage among the Dorians, either because it brings youth to its conclusion or because it completes the man through union with the woman, which is why they call Hera “Marital” ⟨or⟩ “Of Union” and “Of Completion.” “End” also means the outcome of knowledge, action, or a work, as in Euripides:¹⁵⁶

Of unbridled mouths and lawless folly the end is misfortune.¹⁵⁷

On the End · 2

II.7.3a.2

The ruling offices of constitutions are also called “ends,” for example the authorities of the Lacedaemonians. In Homer, in the tenth book of the Iliad:

Swiftly, as they went, they reached the company of Thracian men.

Here it means a formation under command.¹⁵⁸

156.Τέλος can mean an end, completion, tax, or expense. No single English word reproduces the whole range. The compounds αὐτοτελής and εὐτελής illustrate the financial sense. Hera’s epithets συζυγία and τελεία connect marriage with union and completion; “of completion” keeps the connection with τέλος visible. The supplied article ⟨τὸ⟩ is expressed through English grammar; ⟨ἢ⟩ is retained as ⟨or⟩.

157.Euripides, Bacchae 386–388. The lyric form ἀφροσύνας is genitive singular, coordinated with “of unbridled mouths.” The quotation illustrates an outcome, not yet the philosophical definition of the end of life.

158.The plural τέλη can denote civic authorities; the Homeric singular denotes a military company (Iliad X.470). These are additional meanings of the same word, not claims that political office or military service is life’s final good. Wachsmuth retains ἔναρχον, “under command,” although his apparatus questions the reading and suggests ἐναργῶς, “plainly.” The English follows the printed text.

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.