Greek Texts & Translations

Zeno, the son of Mnaseas (or Demeas), was a native of Citium in Cyprus, a Greek city which had received Phoenician settlers. He had a wry neck, says Timotheus of Athens in his book On Lives. Moreover, Apollonius of Tyre says he was lean, fairly tall, and swarthy - hence some one called him an Egyptian vine-branch, according to Chrysippus in the first book of his Proverbs. He had thick legs ; he was flabby and delicate. Hence Persaeus in his Convivial Reminiscences relates that he declined most invitations to dinner. They say he was fond of eating green figs and of basking in the sun.

He was a pupil of Crates, as stated above. Next they say he attended the lectures of Stilpo and Xenocrates for ten years - so Timocrates says in his Dion - and Polemo as well. It is stated by Hecato and by Apollonius of Tyre in his first book on Zeno that he consulted the oracle to know what he should do to attain the best life, and that the god's response was that he should take on the complexion of the dead. Whereupon, perceiving what this meant, he studied ancient authors. Now the way he came across Crates was this. He was shipwrecked on a voyage from Phoenicia to Peiraeus with a cargo of purple. He went up into Athens and sat down in a bookseller's shop, being then a man of thirty. As he went on reading the second book of Xenophon's Memorabilia, he was so pleased that he inquired where men like Socrates were to be found. 7.1.3 Crates passed by in the nick of time, so the bookseller pointed to him and said, "Follow yonder man." From that day he became Crates's pupil, showing in other respects a strong bent for philosophy, though with too much native modesty to assimilate Cynic shamelessness. Hence Crates, desirous of curing this defect in him, gave him a potful of lentil-soup to carry through the Ceramicus ; and when he saw that he was ashamed and tried to keep it out of sight, with a blow of his staff he broke the pot. As Zeno took to flight with the lentil-soup flowing down his legs, "Why run away, my little Phoenician ?" quoth Crates, "nothing terrible has befallen you."

For a certain space, then, he was instructed by Crates, and when at this time he had written his Republic, some said in jest that he had written it on Cynosura, i.e. on the dog's tail. ^note Besides the Republic he wrote the following works :

Of Life according to Nature.

Of Impulse, or Human Nature.

Of Emotions.

Of Duty.

Of Law.

Of Greek Education.

Of Vision.

Of the Whole World.

Of Signs.

Pythagorean Questions.

Universals.

Of Varieties of Style.

Homeric Problems, in five books.

Of the Reading of Poetry.

There are also by him :

A Handbook of Rhetoric.

Solutions.

Two books of Refutations.

Recollections of Crates.

Ethics.

This is a list of his writings. But at last he left Crates, and the men above mentioned were his masters for twenty years. Hence he is reported to have said, "I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck." But others attribute this saying of his to the time when he was under Crates. 7.1.5 A different version of the story is that he was staying at Athens when he heard his ship was wrecked and said, "It is well done of thee, Fortune, thus to drive me to philosophy." But some say that he disposed of his cargo in Athens, before he turned his attention to philosophy.

He used then to discourse, pacing up and down in the painted colonnade, which is also called the colonnade or Portico ^note of Pisianax, but which received its name from the painting of Polygnotus ; his object being to keep the spot clear of a concourse of idlers. It was the spot where in the time of the Thirty 1400 Athenian citizens had been put to death. ^note Hither, then, people came henceforth to hear Zeno, and this is why they were known as men of the Stoa, or Stoics ; and the same name was given to his followers, who had formerly been known as Zenonians. So it is stated by Epicurus in his letters. According to Eratosthenes in his eighth book On the Old Comedy, the name of Stoic had formerly been applied to the poets who passed their time there, and they had made the name of Stoic still more famous.

The people of Athens held Zeno in high honour, as is proved by their depositing with him the keys of the city walls, and their honouring him with a golden crown and a bronze statue. This last mark of respect was also shown to him by citizens of his native town, who deemed his statue an ornament to their city, ^note and the men of Citium living in Sidon were also proud to claim him for their own. Antigonus (Gonatas) also favoured him, and whenever he came to Athens would hear him lecture and often invited him to come to his court. This offer he declined but dispatched thither one of his friends, Persaeus, the son of Demetrius and a native of Citium, who flourished in the 130th Olympiad (260-256 b.c.), at which time Zeno was already an old man. According to Apollonius of Tyre in his work upon Zeno, the letter of Antigonus was couched in the following terms :