Welcome to The-Digital-Stoic-Library Discussions! #1
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Hi Walter, thank you for this important project. I haven't had much of a look yet, but I just wanted to comment about the term 'hegemonikon.' As we know, that's the technical Stoic term for the ruling faculty; it's a neuter noun (-on ending). But I see that in the word resource in the project, it's given as the masculine form (-os ending). I can see why this has probably happened - most adjectives and participles (I think the term is a participle) are usually given in the masculine as a default. But the use of the neuter is significant: it denotes an abstract concept, not a particular individual. I hope that makes sense. |
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Thank you! Will add to the high-priority edits. The initial list of words for the "Stoic Lexicon" were extracted from the Lemmatized Ancient Greek Texts project (v1.2.5) which used the lemma ἡγεμονικός (hegemonikos). Will replace with the neuter form ASAP. |
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So this is another thought. I'm just looking in the Epictetus Handbook, and decided to check about 'aitia.' This is given as 'causal explanations (antecedent vs. internal causes).' It does, in a technical sense, mean this, but it also means every other kind of cause, and its cognates also have the sense of 'blaming,' 'attributing as a cause in a negative way.' As shown in the highlighted cognate terms in the passage, Epictetus plays on this (1.11) in saying: καὶ οὔτʼ οἰκέτην ἔτι αἰτιασόμεθα οὔτε γείτονα οὔτε γυναῖκα οὔτε τέκνα ὡς αἴτιά τινων κακῶν ἡμῖν γινόμενα πεπεισμένοι ὅτι, 'We shall no longer blame slave, or neighbor, or wife, or children as being the causes of any evils to us.' 'aitiasometha' = 'we blame'. So it's great that all the cognate terms get highlighted, but that also, perhaps, shows up that the given definitions can be on the limited side. I hope people take the opportunity to explore the highlighted cognates! |
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Hmm. I see that the formal definition of 'prohairesis' calls it 'the only thing truly good.' I would say that, rather, it is the only thing truly in our power. The only thing truly good is virtue, but in the definition of 'arete' it only gives the four cardinal virtues. In addition, 'arete' also means 'excellence' in a general sense, and this is increasingly being preferred as a translation in ancient virtue ethics. So maybe both the entries (prohairesis and arete) could be augmented? For discussion, I guess. Sorry if I'm getting to be a pain here, but I assume you really do want comments and thoughts. |
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No, not a pain at all! This is critical input! I think these suggestions are spot on and will update the tags ASAP. Thank you and please don't hesitate to comment on any of the tag translations! These need a lot of expert refinement. I attached an excel sheet in the link below with the 45 lexical tags used. Thank you Judith! |
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And with updates: |
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It occurs to me that Kahty Chen has been studying Greek and is a close reader. Walter, you may want to ping her in Discord and tell her that what you are doing might be of interest. |
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Thank you Mitch. Will do! |
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…On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 12:21 PM Walter Moss ***@***.***> wrote:
No, not a pain at all! This is critical input! I thing these suggestions
are spot on and will update the tags ASAP. Thank you and please don't
hesitate to comment on any of the tag translations! These need a lot of
expert refinement.
Lexical_Tags.xlsx
<https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24754486/Lexical_Tags.xlsx>
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Welcome to the Digital Stoic Library!
I am happy to share this project with the community. The Digital Stoic Library is an open-source initiative to provide technically rigorous, digital-first editions of core Stoic texts—bridging the gap between ancient texts and modern accessibility through AI and computational linguistics.
Project Highlights
Interactive Greek-English Mapping: Our readers for the Meditations, Enchiridion, and Discourses allow you to click on technical terms to see their definitions and highlight every instance of that lemma within the original Greek text.
Modern LLM Translations: Utilizing Gemini 3 Pro to generate context-aware translations that maintain thematic continuity.
Philological Accuracy: Using the Classical Language Toolkit (CLTK) to ensure all inflected forms of Stoic terms (like prohairesis or logos) are captured and indexed.
How to use this Discussion space
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