Zeno explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Origins and Succession of Philosophical Schools

  Zeno is established as the founder of the Stoic school; the chapter details his disciples (e.g., Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Sphaerus) and the succession of the school.

• Political Engagement and Tyranny

  Zeno's high regard by the Athenians (keys to walls, golden crown, bronze statue) and his correspondence with King Antigonus illustrate the philosopher's engagement with political power; the reference to the Thirty Tyrants' murders in the Stoa provides a backdrop of tyranny.

• Natural Philosophy and Cosmology

  The chapter outlines Stoic natural philosophy, including the division into topics of bodies, principles, elements, Gods, boundaries, place, and vacuum, and the doctrine of two principles (active and passive) with God as the active reason.

Characters to notice

• Zeno of Citium

  Founder of the Stoic school; taught in the Painted Colonnade; honored by the Athenians with keys to the walls, a golden crown, and a bronze statue; corresponded with King Antigonus; lived to age eighty.

• Antigonus of Carystus

  King who respected Zeno, attended his lectures, and invited him to his court; Zeno declined due to old age and sent Persaeus and Philonides instead.

• Persaeus

  Intimate friend of Zeno, sent to Antigonus as a substitute teacher; a Citiaean by birth, son of Demetrius.

• Cleanthes

  Successor of Zeno in the Stoic school; likened by Zeno to tablets of hard wax that retain what is written.

• Chrysippus

  Follower of Zeno who wrote on the division of philosophy and Stoic doctrines; mentioned in the context of logical and natural philosophy.

• Epicurus

  Mentioned as having referred to Zeno's pupils as Zenonians in his Epistles.

Key passages

• “And he used to walk up and down in the beautiful colonnade which is called the Peisianactium, and which is also called ποικίλη , from the paintings of Polygnotus, and there he delivered his discourses, wishing to make that spot tranquil; for in the time of the thirty, nearly fourteen hundred of the citizens had been murdered there by them.”

  Zeno taught in the Painted Colonnade, a place he sought to make peaceful, despite its history as the site where the Thirty Tyrants had killed about fourteen hundred citizens.

  Describes Zeno's choice of teaching location and its historical significance.

• “Now the Athenians had a great respect for Zeno, so that they gave him the keys of their walls, and they also honored him with a golden crown, and a brazen statue; and this was also done by his own countrymen, who thought the statue of such a man an honor to their city.”

  The Athenians held Zeno in such high esteem that they granted him the keys to the city walls, a golden crown, and a bronze statue, an honor also mirrored by his hometown.

  Highlights the public honors bestowed upon Zeno.

• “The Stoics divide reason according to philosophy into three parts; and say that one part relates to natural philosophy, one to ethics, and one to logic. And Zeno of Citium was the first who made this division, in his treatise on Reason.”

  Zeno was the first to divide philosophy into three branches: natural philosophy, ethics, and logic, as stated in his work On Reason.

  Introduces Zeno's foundational division of philosophy.

• “They think that there are two general principles in the universe: the active and the passive. That the passive is matter, an existence without any distinctive quality. That the active is the reason which exists in the passive, that is to say, God.”

  Stoics believe the universe consists of two principles: passive matter and active reason (God), which pervades matter and shapes everything.

  Summarizes the Stoic cosmological doctrine of active and passive principles.