From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe two nouns distinguish an adverse occurrence from a wrong act. The fragment explains the contrast through fortune on one side and choice on the other.
- In StobaeusThe dramatic saying assigns different explanatory grounds to misfortune and wrongdoing, so a shared bad outcome is insufficient to make the two descriptions interchangeable.
- In this editionRetain both terms and their stated contrast. Do not expand the couplet into a complete doctrine of responsibility, causation or the consequences of every human action.
- A place to readChapter 8 · Excerpt 7 Read the second line as the explanation of the first, where fortune and choice distinguish the grounds on which the two adverse things are described.
- English renderings
- misfortune; wrongful act; wrongdoing
Meaning
The two nouns distinguish an adverse occurrence from an unjust act. Their juxtaposition matters: not everything harmful to someone is thereby a wrong that the sufferer chose or committed.
Use in the book
The Menandrian couplet explicitly says that misfortune and wrongdoing differ: one occurs through fortune, the other through choice. It gives an ethical distinction between sources of harm rather than a complete taxonomy of every mixed case. Another Euripidean fragment says that most evils for mortals are self-chosen; its “most” leaves room for other sources. Read together, the excerpts prevent both wholesale excuse through fortune and wholesale blame of sufferers. They remain separately attributed dramatic sayings, not premises in a single continuous proof.
The couplet begins by announcing a difference and then gives one paired explanation. Its concision makes the distinction sharp but leaves its full application unstated. It does not classify mixed cases or explain whether an intended act can also encounter unexpected events. The reader can preserve the contrast between what happens through fortune and what is attributed to choice without reconstructing those absent details. In the chapter’s wider sequence, the saying supplies a useful distinction rather than a complete theory shared by every contributor.
Places to read
- Chapter 8 · Excerpt 72Menander distinguishes harm through fortune from wrongdoing through choosing.
- Chapter 8 · Excerpt 112A Euripidean fragment calls most mortal evils self-chosen.
- Chapter 8 · Excerpt 162Democritus attacks fortune used as an excuse for poor counsel.
Translation in this edition
“Wrongdoing” preserves the ethical force of adikēma. “Mistake” alone would weaken the contrast with misfortune; “misfortune” need not imply that chance is literally causeless.
Ἀτύχημα
Attested. Chapter 8 · Excerpt 7; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 154.
Ἀτύχημα κἀδίκημα διαφορὰν ἔχει· τὸ μὲν διὰ τύχην γίγνεται, τὸ δ’ αἱρέσει.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 154–156. The entry keeps the two attested nouns together because the running text expressly defines them against one another. It does not infer that every adverse event has only one simple cause.