Cleanthes

Cleanthes (Greek: Κλέανθης, Kléanthēs) of Assos, lived c. 330- c. 230 BC, was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the successor to Zeno as the second head (scholarch) of the Stoic school in Athens. Originally a boxer, he came to Athens where he took up philosophy, listening to Zeno's lectures. He supported himself by working as water-carrier at night. After the death of Zeno, c. 262 BC, he became the head of the school, a post he held for the next 32 years. Although not seen as an especially original thinker, he successfully preserved and transmitted Zeno's doctrines to his pupil Chrysippus who became one of the most important Stoic thinkers. Among the fragments of Cleanthes' writings which have come down to us, the largest is a Hymn to Zeus.

Life

Cleanthes was born in Assos in the Troad about 330 BC.^[1] According to Diogenes Laërtius,^[2] he was the son of Phanias, and early in life he was a boxer. With but four drachmae in his possession he came to Athens, where he took up philosophy, listening first to the lectures of Crates the Cynic,^[3] and then to those of Zeno, the Stoic. In order to support himself, he worked all night as water-carrier to a gardener (hence his nickname the Well-Water-Collector, Greek: Φρεάντλης). As he spent the whole day in studying philosophy with no visible means of support, he was summoned before the Areopagus to account for his way of living. The judges were so delighted by the evidence of work which he produced, that they voted him ten minae, though Zeno would not permit him to accept them. His power of patient endurance, or perhaps his slowness, earned him the title of "the Ass" from his fellow students, a name which he was said to have rejoiced in, as it implied that his back was strong enough to bear whatever Zeno put upon it.

Such was the esteem awakened by his high moral qualities that, on the death of Zeno in 262, he became the leader of the school. He continued, however, to support himself by the labour of his own hands. Among his pupils were his successor, Chrysippus, and Antigonus II Gonatas, from whom he accepted 3000 minae. He died at the age of 99, c. 230 BC.^[1] We are told that a dangerous ulcer had compelled him to fast for a time. Subsequently he continued his abstinence, saying that, as he was already half-way on the road to death, he would not trouble to retrace his steps.^[2]

Simplicius, writing in the 6th century AD, mentions that a statue of Cleanthes was still visible at Assos, which had been erected by the Roman Senate.^[4]

Philosophy

Cleanthes produced very little that was original, although he successfully preserved Zeno's legacy. He wrote some fifty works, of which fragments have come down to us. The largest fragment is the portion of the Hymn to Zeus,^[5][6] which has been preserved in Stobaeus. He is often seen as the most religious of the early Stoics. He regarded the Sun as being divine;^[7] because the Sun sustains all living things, it resembled the divine fire which (in Stoic Physics) animated all living beings, hence it too must be part of the vivifying fire or aether of the universe. He accused Aristarchus of impiety for daring to put into motion "the hearth of the universe" (i.e. the Earth).^[8]

He originated a theory concerning the immortality of the soul; Cleanthes taught that all souls are immortal, but that the intensity of existence after death would vary according to the strength or weakness of the particular soul, unlike his pupil Chrysippus who considered that only the souls of the wise and good were to survive death.^[9] His moral theory was even stricter than that of ordinary Stoicism, denying that pleasure was agreeable to nature, or in any way good.

The direction to follow Universal Nature also led to fatalist conclusions, of which we find traces in his famous Prayer:

Lead me, Zeus, and you too, Destiny,
To wherever your decrees have assigned me.
I follow readily, but if I choose not,
Wretched though I am, I must follow still.
Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.^[10]

The principal fragments of Cleanthes' works are contained in Diogenes Laërtius and Stobaeus; some can be found in Cicero, Seneca and Plutarch.

Further reading

• Hume, David, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, in which "Cleanthes" is a character
• Pearson, A., Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes, (1891). Greek/Latin fragments with English commentary.
• Thom, J., Cleanthes' Hymn to Zeus: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Mohr Siebeck. (2005). ISBN 3-16-148660-9.

Notes

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.