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.7.5b4.1–II.7.5b4.2

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b4.1–II.7.5b4.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 194

Τέλειαι ἀρεταὶ καὶ δυνάμεις ψυχῆς

II.7.5b4.1

Ταύτας μὲν οὖν τὰς ῥηθείσας ἀρετὰς τελείας εἶναι λέγουσι περὶ τὸν βίον καὶ συνεστηκέναι ἐκ θεωρημάτων· ἄλλας δὲ ἐπιγίνεσθαι ταύταις, οὐκ ἔτι τέχνας οὔσας, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεις τινάς, ἐκ τῆς ἀσκήσεως περιγινομένας, οἷον τὴν ὑγίειαν τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τὴν ἀρτιότητα καὶ τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ κάλλος. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ὑγίειαν εὐκρασίαν εἶναι τῶν ἐν τῷ σώματι θερμῶν καὶ ψυχρῶν καὶ ξηρῶν καὶ ὑγρῶν, οὕτω καὶ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ὑγίειαν εὐκρασίαν εἶναι τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ δογμάτων.

Ἰσχὺς καὶ κάλλος ψυχῆς

II.7.5b4.2

Καὶ ὁμοίως ὥσπερ ἰσχὺς τοῦ σώματος τόνος ἐστὶν ἱκανὸς ἐν νεύροις, οὕτω καὶ ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς ἰσχὺς τόνος ἐστὶν ἱκανὸς ἐν τῷ κρίνειν καὶ πράττειν ἢ μή. Ὥσπερ τε τὸ κάλλος τοῦ σώματός ἐστι συμμετρία τῶν μελῶν καθεστώτων αὐτῷ πρὸς ἄλληλά τε καὶ πρὸς τὸ ὅλον, οὕτω καὶ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς κάλλος ἐστὶ συμμετρία τοῦ λόγου καὶ τῶν μερῶν αὐτοῦ πρὸς ⟨τὸ⟩ ὅλον τε αὐτῆς καὶ πρὸς ἄλληλα.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 195

Complete Virtues and Capacities of the Soul

II.7.5b4.1

They say that the virtues just mentioned are complete in relation to life and are constituted from principles. Others follow upon these, being no longer arts but certain capacities that arise from exercise: for example, the soul’s health, soundness, strength, and beauty.²²⁰ For just as the body’s health is a good blending of the hot, cold, dry, and moist constituents in the body, so the soul’s health is a good blending of the beliefs within it.²²¹

Strength and Beauty of the Soul

II.7.5b4.2

Similarly, just as bodily strength is sufficient tension in the sinews, so strength of soul is sufficient tension in judging and acting, or not doing so.²²² And just as bodily beauty is the proportion of its limbs to one another and to the whole, so beauty of soul is the proportion of reason and its parts both to ⟨the⟩ whole of the soul and to one another.²²³

220.“Complete” renders τέλειαι, and “principles” renders θεωρήματα. The text distinguishes virtues constituted as arts from capacities resulting from exercise; it does not simply rename each capacity as another art. Ἀρτιότης is soundness or intactness. Four capacities are named, although the following comparisons separately explain health, strength, and beauty rather than giving a fourth comparison for soundness.

221.Εὐκρασία is a good or balanced blending. The bodily comparison names the qualities hot, cold, dry, and moist, not four named bodily fluids. The corresponding constituents in the soul are δόγματα, beliefs or judgments. The passage presents an ancient explanatory analogy; its account of bodily health belongs to that context.

222.Τόνος is tension or firmness, applied in parallel to bodily sinews and the soul’s judging and acting. Νεῦρα here means sinews, rather than the modern nervous system. Wachsmuth prints ἢ μή, “or not,” where his apparatus records καὶ μή, “and not”; the English retains the printed alternative without supplying a further phrase such as “as one ought.”

223.Συμμετρία is proportion among parts and between parts and the whole. The printed αὐτοῦ makes the parts those of reason; Wachsmuth records alternatives in his apparatus, but they have not replaced his text. The following αὐτῆς refers to the soul. The supplied article before “whole” remains bracketed in English.

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.