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Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.3d
Ancient Greek
p. 146Περὶ τέλους · εὐδαιμονία
Τὴν δ’ εὐδαιμονίαν συνωνυμεῖν τῷ τέλει λέγουσιν. Εὐδαιμονία δ’ ἐστὶ τὸ ἄριστον ἐν τῷ βίῳ, ἢ τὸ μέγιστον τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἢ τὸ κράτιστον. Ταῦτα γάρ ἐστι τῶν περὶ αὐτῆς ἐννοημάτων ἁπλούστερα. Κἂν λέγῃ δέ τις μακαριότητα καὶ τὸ μακαρίως ζῆν, εἰς ταὐτὸ συνδραμεῖται τοῖς τελικοῖς. Προσδιαιρετέον οὖν.
Τῶν περὶ τέλους διαλεχθέντων οἱ μὲν ψυχικὸν εἶναι διενοήθησαν, οἱ δὲ σωματικόν, οἱ δὲ μικτὸν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν. Φράσω δὲ παραδείγματος χάριν· ὁ μὲν τοίνυν ἀρετὴν λέγων τουτέστιν ἐν ἀρετῇ κείμενον ψυχικὸν ὑπείληφεν· ὁ δ’ ἡδονὴν σωματικόν· ὁ δὲ τὸ καλῶς καὶ ἡδέως ζῆν κοινόν. Εἴποι δ’ ἄν τις αὖ κἀκείνως· οἱ μὲν λογικόν, οἱ δ’ ἄλογον, οἱ μὲν διανοητικόν, οἱ δὲ παθητικόν. Πάντα δὲ τὴν ἐν τούτοις ὀνόμασιν ἔχοντα διαφορὰν εἰς ταὐτὸ συντρέχει. Ἐκ γὰρ σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς τἀνθρώπου συνεστῶτος, ἀνάγκη καὶ τὴν εὐζωΐαν αὐτοῦ περὶ ταῦτα καὶ διὰ τούτων συνίστασθαι.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7
p. 147On the End · Happiness
They say that happiness is synonymous with the end. Happiness is the best thing in life, or the greatest of goods, or the most excellent. These are among the simpler conceptions of it. Even if someone speaks of blessedness or living blessedly, he will arrive at the same point as those who discuss ends. We must therefore make a further division.166
Of those who have discussed the end, some conceived it as belonging to the soul, others to the body, and others as a mixture of both. I shall give examples. Whoever says virtue, that is, an end lying in virtue, has taken it to belong to the soul; whoever says pleasure, to the body; whoever says living nobly and pleasantly, to both. One might also put it this way: some say rational, others nonrational; some intellectual, others a matter of feeling. All the distinctions expressed in these terms converge on the same point. For since the human being is constituted of body and soul, a good life must also be constituted in relation to these and through them.
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.3d
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.