Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.2 — Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.2
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno
He was a pupil of Crates, as stated above. Next they say he attended the lectures of Stilpo and Xenocrates for ten years—so Timocrates says in his Dion—and Polemo as well. It is stated by Hecato and by Apollonius of Tyre in his first book on Zeno that he consulted the oracle to know what he should do to attain the best life, and that the god’s response was that he should take on the complexion of the dead. Whereupon, perceiving what this meant, he studied ancient authors. Now the way he came across Crates was this. He was shipwrecked on a voyage from Phoenicia to Peiraeus with a cargo of purple. He went up into Athens and sat down in a bookseller’s shop, being then a man of thirty. As he went on reading the second book of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, he was so pleased that he inquired where men like Socrates were to be found.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.2 (on Zeno), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.2
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesZeno turned to philosophy at about thirty, after a shipwreck cost him his cargo, when a book in an Athens shop made him ask where men like Socrates could be found. He then studied under a series of teachers, and an oracle told him to take on the complexion of the dead, which he understood as a call to study the ancients.
Older wording
- “oracle”
- — a priest or shrine where a god was believed to answer questions
- “Memorabilia”
- — Xenophon's book of recollections of Socrates
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Adversity and hardship
- Searching for meaning
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