DiotimosReading Desk

Virtue and the good

Aging and dying well

εὐγηρεῖν; εὐθανατεῖν

eugērein; euthanatein

These verbs name passing through old age and ending life well.

From the book

Stobaeus, Volume II

John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordAging and dying well are defined through virtue and the quality of a life stage or death, not simply through comfort, longevity or external honor; the account separately qualifies when departure is appropriate.
  • In StobaeusThe report extends its concern with virtuous use of circumstances from being blessed in children to old age and death, while denying that virtue alone automatically requires either remaining alive or departing.
  • In this editionKeep the ethical quality and appropriate-action criteria explicit, and do not infer a particular method of death or an unconditional instruction to remain or leave from these general classifications.
  • A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 11q Read the definitions of aging and dying well after the qualification about being blessed in children, then compare the separate passage measuring life and death by appropriate action.
English renderings
age well; die well

Meaning

These verbs name passing through old age and ending life well. Their explanation connects the quality of those events with virtue.

Use in the book

The Stoic report says only the virtuous person ages and dies well, defining each through a life stage or death of a certain quality in accordance with virtue. Dying well is not simply an easy, painless or externally honored death. The neighboring account of appropriate departure from life separates virtue and vice from an automatic requirement to remain or leave. These are the report’s ethical classifications of how a life is used. They do not describe a particular death procedure or identify every departure as appropriate.

The paragraph first qualifies being blessed in children: their excellence alone is not sufficient without the agent’s use of the relationship. Aging and dying well are then likewise defined through a certain quality in accordance with virtue. This places the emphasis on how circumstances enter a life, not merely on their external description. The separate account of departure says that virtue does not keep someone alive and vice does not drive someone out. Appropriate action supplies the measure, preventing a simple inference from moral status to a universal decision about remaining or departing.

“Only the virtuous person ages well and dies well.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11q).

Places to read

  1. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11q2Both verbs are defined through virtue.
  2. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11m · Passage 122Remaining and departing are measured by appropriate action.

Translation in this edition

“Die well” preserves the ethical verb without importing modern institutional meanings.

εὐγηρεῖν

Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11q; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 114.

Εὐγηρεῖν τε μόνον καὶ εὐθανατεῖν τὸν σπουδαῖον· εὐγηρεῖν γὰρ εἶναι τὸ μετὰ ποιοῦ γήρως διεξάγειν κατ’ ἀρετήν, εὐθανατεῖν

εὐθανατεῖν

Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11q; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 114.

χρήσασθαι αὐτοῖς ὡς τοιούτοις. Εὐγηρεῖν τε μόνον καὶ εὐθανατεῖν τὸν σπουδαῖον· εὐγηρεῖν γὰρ εἶναι τὸ μετὰ ποιοῦ γήρως διεξάγειν

Source note

Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 110, 114. No manner of death absent from the source is supplied.