Who is Zeno of Citium?

Early Life

We’re told by the Greek Stoic Persaeus, in his Ethical Discourses, that Zeno of Citium had a lifespan of around 72 years, from roughly 334 to 262 BC. It was enough time for him to make quite a few waves.

Most notably, he was the founder of Stoicism. The word ‘Stoic,’ itself comes from the location where Zeno taught in the Agora of Athens: A painted porch, which, in Greek, was known as the Stoa Poikile.

He was born in Citium in Cyprus, a Greek city that had Phoenician settlers. We rely on Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, for most of the known details of his life.

Zeno is said to have arrived in Athens as a shipwrecked merchant. He had been transporting a cargo of expensive purple dye from Phoenicia to Piraeus, all of which he lost. At a loose end, he wandered into a bookshop in Athens and found the bookseller reading about Socrates.

Intrigued, Zeno asked the store owner where men like Socrates could be found. He was directed to Crates of Thebes, a famous Cynic philosopher, and his so began his philosophical journey.

The Philosopher

Studying under Crates, Zeno developed a deep commitment to philosophy.

He was, however, unwilling to embrace the shameless displays that came naturally for the true Cynics, such as public urination, even fornication. He would go on to study under Stilpo of the Megarian school and Xenocrates the Platonist, among others.

Crates made attempts to rid Zeno of his sense of shame, but ultimately he didn’t succeed. 

One day, he gave Zeno a pot of lentil soup to carry through a large neighbourhood in Athens. When he saw Zeno was trying to keep the pot hidden, Crates broke it by striking it with his cane. Embarrassed and covered in soup, Zeno ran away. As he did so, Crates called after him: “Why run away, little Phoenician? Nothing terrible has happened to you.”

From his early introduction to philosophy onward, Zeno maintained an ascetic attitude. He favoured the simple life. He was extremely frugal and even described as stingy. His powers of endurance were noted, the food he ate was uncooked, and the cloak he wore was thin.

Zeno, however, was uninterested in devoting himself fully to Cynicism.

What he wanted to do instead was start his own school, one that combined all the best features of the schools he had spent the last couple of decades studying.

The Stoic

Zeno began teaching Stoicism around 300 BC. He divided the pursuit of philosophy into three parts: ethics, logic, and physics.

  • Stoic ethics focused on how to live a virtuous and rational life.
  • Stoic physics encompassed the Stoics’ understanding of nature and the universe.
  • Stoic logic was seen as the tool necessary for clear thinking and proper reasoning.

To further explain this, philosophy would later be compared to an animal, with logic being the bones and sinews, ethics being the flesh, and physics being the soul. The parts are never separate, but always blended together.

Zeno was the first to use the term kathêkon, meaning appropriate action. According to Zeno’s Stoicism, every being has duties based on their own nature. An appropriate action, then, is one that is inherently appropriate to one’s natural arrangements. For a human, this means using our unique ability to reason and follow virtue.

The end goal of this following of virtue was to achieve eudaimonia by using our ability to reason and live according to our rational nature.

Eudaimonia is a Greek term that translates to a state of being that encompasses terms such as “happiness”, “flourishing”, “fulfillment”, “well-being”, and the “good life.”

 “Happiness is a smooth flow of life,” said Zeno. The Stoics believed this can only be achieved through the use of right reason.

Works

No complete works of Zeno’s have survived to this day. The only evidence we have of his writing are fragments that have been quoted in the works of later writers.

His most famous work was his Republic. If that sounds familiar it’s because Zeno actually wrote his in direct opposition to Plato’s work of the same name. Although it hasn’t survived, we know it presented Zeno’s dream of the ideal Stoic society.

Despite not having the works themselves, we do know the titles of the books he wrote, some of which include:

  • On Life according to Nature
  • On Impulse, or on the Nature of Humans
  • On Passions
  • On Duty

It’s clear that these would have been extremely valuable in understanding early Stoic thought.

Zeno Quotes

  • “Happiness is a smooth flow of life.”
    Stobaeus, 2.77.6e
  • “Fortune does me a big favor by driving me to philosophy.”
    Laertius, Lives 7.1.5
  • “The reason we have two ears and one mouth is so that we may hear more and talk less.”
    Laertius, Lives 7.1.23
  • “The goal is to live in harmony with nature, which means to live according to virtue; for nature leads us to virtue.”
    Laertius, Lives 7.1.87
  • “A bad feeling is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason, and against nature.”
    Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 4.6
  • “No one entrusts a secret to a drunken man; but one will entrust a secret to a good man; therefore, the good man will not get drunk.”
    Seneca, Letters 83.9

Zeno of Citium – The Legend

The legend of Zeno of Citium’s life clearly gained traction after his death. Especially as, it is said, he executed it in utter Stoic style.

At the age of 72, after one of his lectures, he tripped and broke his finger. He felt the call of nature at that point, apparently, and quoting from Niobe uttered the line: “I am coming why do you call for me?” At which point, he took it upon himself to die, by simply stopping his breath.

Zeno was buried in the Cerameicus in Athens. He was honoured with a bronze statue. Antiphon of Sidon composed the following epitaph for the founder of Stoicism:

Here lies renowned Zeno, dear to Citium, who scaled Olympus,
Not by piling Pelion on Ossa,
Nor by toiling at the labors of Heracles. To the stars
He found the path: that of temperance alone.