Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.37 — Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.37
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno
Ariston, the son of Miltiades and a native of Chios, who introduced the doctrine of things morally indifferent; Herillus of Carthage, who affirmed knowledge to be the end; Dionysius, who became a renegade to the doctrine of pleasure, for owing to the severity of his ophthalmia he had no longer the nerve to call pain a thing indifferent: his native place was Heraclea; Sphaerus of Bosporus; Cleanthes, son of Phanias, of Assos, his successor in the school: him Zeno used to compare to hard waxen tablets which are difficult to write upon, but retain the characters written upon them. Sphaerus also became the pupil of Cleanthes after Zeno’s death, and we shall have occasion to mention him in the Life of Cleanthes.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.37 (on Zeno), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.37
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 notesA list of other pupils of Zeno and their distinctive views. One abandoned the claim that pain is nothing when a severe eye disease made it unbearable, and Zeno compared slow-learning Cleanthes to a hard wax tablet that is difficult to write on but keeps what is written.
Older wording
- “ophthalmia”
- — serious eye inflammation or disease
- “renegade”
- — someone who abandons their former beliefs
- “morally indifferent”
- — neither good nor bad in itself, like health or wealth
Themes and situations
- Pleasure and pain
- Learning and progress
- Illness and the body
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