Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.4 — Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno

Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.4

Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno

For a certain space, then, he was instructed by Crates, and when at this time he had written his Republic, some said in jest that he had written it on Cynosura, i.e. on the dog’s tail. Besides the Republic he wrote the following works: Of Life according to Nature. Of Impulse, or Human Nature. Of Emotions. Of Duty. Of Law. Of Greek Education. Of Vision. Of the Whole World. Of Signs. Pythagorean Questions. Universals. Of Varieties of Style. Homeric Problems, in five books. Of the Reading of Poetry. There are also by him: A Handbook of Rhetoric. Solutions. Two books of Refutations. Recollections of Crates. Ethics. This is a list of his writings. But at last he left Crates, and the men above mentioned were his masters for twenty years. Hence he is reported to have said, “I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck.” But others attribute this saying of his to the time when he was under Crates.