Greek Texts & Translations

A Rhodian, who was handsome and rich, but nothing more, insisted on joining his class; but so unwelcome was this pupil, that first of all Zeno made him sit on the benches that were dusty, that he might soil his cloak, and then he consigned him to the place where the beggars sat, that he might rub shoulders with their rags ; so at last the young man went away. Nothing, he declared, was more unbecoming than arrogance, especially in the young. He used also to say that it was not the words and expressions that we ought to remember, but we should exercise our mind in disposing to advantage of what we hear, instead of, as it were, tasting a well-cooked dish or well-dressed meal. The young, he thought, should behave with perfect propriety in walk, gait and dress, and he used continually to quote the lines of Euripides about Capaneus :

Large means had he, yet not the haughtiness

That springs from wealth, nor cherished prouder thoughts

Of vain ambition than the poorest man. ^note

Again he would say that if we want to master the sciences there is nothing so fatal as conceit, and again there is nothing we stand so much in need of as time. To the question "Who is a friend?" his answer was, "A second self (alter ego)." We are told that he was once chastising a slave for stealing, and when the latter pleaded that it was his fate to steal, "Yes, and to be beaten too," said Zeno. Beauty he called the flower of chastity, while according to others it was chastity which he called the flower of beauty. ^note Once when he saw the slave of one of his acquaintance marked with weals, "I see," said he, "the imprints of your anger." To one who had been drenched with unguent, "Who is this," quoth he, "who smells of woman?" When Dionysius the Renegade asked, "Why am I the only pupil you do not correct?" the reply was, "Because I mistrust you." To a stripling who was talking nonsense his words were, "The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less." 7.1.24 One day at a banquet he was reclining in silence and was asked the reason : whereupon he bade his critic carry word to the king that there was one present who knew how to hold his tongue. Now those who inquired of him were ambassadors from King Ptolemy, and they wanted to know what message they should take back from him to the king. On being asked how he felt about abuse, he replied, "As an envoy feels who is dismissed without an answer." Apollonius of Tyre tells us how, when Crates laid hold on him by the cloak to drag him from Stilpo, Zeno said, "The right way to seize a philosopher, Crates, is by the ears : persuade me then and drag me off by them ; but, if you use violence, my body will be with you, but my mind with Stilpo."

According to Hippobotus he forgathered with Diodorus, with whom he worked hard at dialectic. And when he was already making progress, he would enter Polemo's school : so far from all selfconceit was he. In consequence Polemo is said to have addressed him thus : "You slip in, Zeno, by the garden door - I'm quite aware of it - you filch my doctrines and give them a Phoenician make-up." A dialectician once showed him seven logical forms concerned with the sophism known as "The Reaper," and Zeno asked him how much he wanted for them. Being told a hundred drachmas, he promptly paid two hundred : to such lengths would he go in his love of learning. They say too that he first introduced the word Duty and wrote a treatise on the subject. It is said, moreover, that he corrected Hesiod's lines thus:

He is best of all men who follows good advice: good too is he who finds out all things for himself. ^note

The reason he gave for this was that the man capable of giving a proper hearing to what is said and profiting by it was superior to him who discovers everything himself. For the one had merely a right apprehension, the other in obeying good counsel superadded conduct.

When he was asked why he, though so austere, relaxed at a drinking-party, he said, "Lupins too are bitter, but when they are soaked become sweet." Hecato too in the second book of his Anecdotes says that he indulged freely at such gatherings. And he would say, "Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue." "Well-being is attained by little and little, and nevertheless it is no little thing itself." [Others attribute this ^note to Socrates.]

He showed the utmost endurance, and the greatest frugality ; the food he used required no fire to dress, and the cloak he wore was thin. Hence it was said of him :

The cold of winter and the ceaseless rain

Come powerless against him : weak the dart

Of the fierce summer sun or racking pain

To bend that iron frame. He stands apart

Unspoiled by public feast and jollity :

Patient, unwearied night and day doth he

Cling to his studies of philosophy.

Nay more : the comic poets by their very jests at his expense praised him without intending it. Thus Philemon says in a play, Philosophers :

This man adopts a new philosophy.

He teaches to go hungry : yet he gets

Disciples. One sole loaf of bread his food ;

His best dessert dried figs ; water his drink.

Others attribute these lines to Poseidippus.

By this time he had almost become a proverb. At all events, "More temperate than Zeno the philosopher" was a current saying about him. Poseidippus also writes in his Men Transported :

So that for ten whole days

More temperate than Zeno's self he seemed.