Cleanthes
c. 330 – 230 BCE · Athens
Zeno's successor as head of the Stoa, and by ancient accounts a man of austere habits who supported himself by hauling water at night. Where Zeno was incisive, Cleanthes was devotional: his Hymn to Zeus, the longest continuous early Stoic text to reach us, treats Stoic providence with the cadence of prayer.
Key works
- Hymn to Zeus — A 39-line philosophical hymn — the fullest surviving statement of early Stoic theology.
- Various treatises — On the gods, on virtue, on pleasure; survive in fragments.
Selected passages
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Lead me, O Zeus, and thou O Destiny, wherever your decree has assigned me. I follow readily; and if I would not, wicked and wretched, I must follow still.
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Nothing is done on earth without thee, O God, save what the wicked do in their folly.
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The wise man lacks nothing, and yet needs many things; whereas the fool, on the other hand, needs nothing — for he understands the use of nothing — but lacks everything.
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Jove, author of all things, ruler of all, hail! It is lawful for all mortals to address thee. For we are thy offspring, and we alone of all mortal creatures that live and move upon the earth have the power of imitating the gods.
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Thou knowest how to make things crooked straight and to order the disorderly. The unloved things are loved by thee, for thou hast fitted together all things, good and evil, into one, that there might be one everlasting reason of all things.
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This universe, whatever it be, which encompasses all things, and is in a certain sense divine, is steered by thee according to thy law. Save men from their grievous error and from their wretched ignorance.
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The wise man is not a person who has no passions, but one who has them under control. For he is not free from the first movements of the soul, but he does not consent to them.
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The wise man is the only good priest, the only good poet, and the only good king. For all these offices require the knowledge of what is good and evil.
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The soul is not the body, but the ruling part of the soul is the most divine part of man. We should take care of it more than of anything else.
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The good man is not he who does not sin, but he who quickly recovers from sin. For it is not possible to be free from all error.
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Pleasure is not the good, but the good is not without pleasure. The wise man finds pleasure in the exercise of virtue.