Vitae philosophorum

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius. Hicks, R. D., editor. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.

Amongst those who after the death of Zeno became pupils of Cleanthes was Sphaerus of Bosporus, as already mentioned.[*]( § 37.) After making considerable progress in his studies, he went to Alexandria to the court of King Ptolemy Philopator. [*](222-205 b.c.) One day when a discussion had arisen on the question whether the wise man could stoop to hold opinion, [*](Cf. sup. § 162.)and Sphaerus had maintained that this was impossible, the king, wishing to refute him, ordered some waxen pomegranates to be put on the table. Sphaerus was taken in and the king cried out, You have given your assent to a presentation which is false. But Sphaerus was ready with a neat answer. I assented not to the proposition that they are pomegranates, but to another, that there are good grounds for thinking them to be pomegranates. Certainty of presentation and reasonable probability are two totally different things. Mnesistratus having accused him of denying that Ptolemy was a king, his reply was, Being of such quality as he is, Ptolemy is indeed a king.

The books that he wrote were as follows:

Of the Cosmos, two books.

Of Elements.

Of Seed.

Of Fortune.

V2_287

Of Minimal Parts.

Against Atoms and Images.

Of Organs of Sense.

A Course of Five Lectures on Heraclitus.

On the Right Arrangement of Ethical Doctrine.

Of Duty.

Of Impulse.

Of the Passions, two books.

Of Kingship.

Of the Spartan Constitution.

Of Lycurgus and Socrates, three books.

Of Law.

On Divination.

Dialogues on Love.

Of the School of Eretria.

Of Similars.

Of Terms.

Of Habit.

Of Contradictions, three books.

Of Discourse.

Of Wealth.

Of Fame.

Of Death.

Handbook of Dialectic, two books.

Of Predicates.

Of Ambiguous Terms.

Letters.

Chrysippus, the son of Apollonius, came either from Soli or from Tarsus, as Alexander relates in his Successions. He was a pupil of Cleanthes. Before this he used to practise as a long-distance runner;

V2_289

but afterwards he came to hear Zeno, or, as Diocles and most people say, Cleanthes; and then, while Cleanthes was still living, withdrew from his school and attained exceptional eminence as a philosopher. He had good natural parts and showed the greatest acuteness in every branch of the subject; so much so that he differed on most points from Zeno, and from Cleanthes as well, to whom he often used to say that all he wanted was to be told what the doctrines were; he would find out the proofs for himself. Nevertheless, whenever he had contended against Cleanthes, he would afterwards feel remorse, so that he constantly came out with the lines[*](Eur. Or. 540-1.):

Blest in all else am I, save only where
I touch Cleanthes: there I am ill-fortuned.

So renowned was he for dialectic that most people thought, if the gods took to dialectic, they would adopt no other system than that of Chrysippus. He had abundance of matter, but in style he was not successful. In industry he surpassed every one, as the list of his writings shows; for there are more than 705 of them. He increased their number by arguing repeatedly on the same subject, setting down anything that occurred to him, making many corrections and citing numerous authorities. So much so that in one of his treatises he copied out nearly the whole of Euripides’ Medea, and some one who had taken up the volume, being asked what he was reading, replied, The Medea of Chrysippus.

Apollodorus of Athens in his Collection of Doctrines, wishing to show that what Epicurus wrote with force and originality unaided by quotations was far greater in amount than the books of Chrysippus, says, to

V2_291

quote his exact words, If one were to strip the books of Chrysippus of all extraneous quotations, his pages would be left bare. So much for Apollodorus. Of Chrysippus the old woman who sat beside him used to say, according to Diocles, that he wrote 500 lines a day. Hecato says that he came to the study of philosophy, because the property which he had inherited from his father had been confiscated to the king’s treasury.

In person he was insignificant, as is shown by the statue in the Ceramicus, which is almost hidden by an equestrian statue hard by; and this is why Carneades called him Crypsippus or Horse-hidden. Once when somebody reproached him for not going with the multitude to hear Ariston, he rejoined, If I had followed the multitude, I should not have studied philosophy. When some dialectician got up and attacked Cleanthes, proposing sophistical fallacies to him, Chrysippus called to him, Cease to distract your elder from matters of importance; propound such quibbles to us juniors. Again, when somebody who had a question to ask was steadily conversing with him in private, and then upon seeing a crowd approaching began to be more contentious, he said:

Ah! brother mine, thine eye is growing wild:
To madness fast thou’rt changing, sane but now.[*](Eur. Or. 253.)

At wine-parties he used to behave quietly, though he was unsteady on his legs; which caused the woman-slave to say, As for Chrysippus, only his legs get tipsy. His opinion of himself was so high that when some one inquired, To whom shall I entrust my son? he replied, To me: for, if I had dreamt of there being anyone better than

V2_293

myself, I should myself be studying with him. Hence, it is said, the application to him of the line[*](Od. x. 495.):

He alone has understanding; the others flit shadow-like around;

and

But for Chrysippus, there had been no Porch.

At last, however,—so we are told by Sotion in his eighth book,—he joined Arcesilaus and Lacydes and studied philosophy under them in the Academy.

And this explains his arguing at one time against, and at another in support of, ordinary experience, and his use of the method of the Academy when treating of magnitudes and numbers.

On one occasion, as Hermippus relates, when he had his school in the Odeum, he was invited by his pupils to a sacrificial feast. There after he had taken a draught of sweet wine unmixed with water, he was seized with dizziness and departed this life five days afterwards, having reached the age of seventy-three years, in the 143rd Olympiad.[*](208-204 b.c.) This is the date given by Apollodorus in his Chronology. I have toyed with the subject in the following verses[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 706.):

Chrysippus turned giddy after gulping down a draught of Bacchus; he spared not the Porch nor his country nor his own life, but fared straight to the house of Hades.

Another account is that his death was caused by a violent fit of laughter; for after an ass had eaten up his figs, he cried out to the old woman, Now give the ass a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs. And thereupon he laughed so heartily that he died.

V2_295

He appears to have been a very arrogant man.[*](In §§ 185-189; cf. Wilamowitz,Antig. von K.pp. 104sq.)At any rate, of all his many writings he dedicated none to any of the kings. And he was satisfied with one old woman’s judgement, says Demetrius in his work called Men of the Same Name. When Ptolemy wrote to Cleanthes requesting him to come himself or else to send some one to his court, Sphaerus undertook the journey, while Chrysippus declined to go. On the other hand, he sent for his sister’s sons, Aristocreon and Philocrates, and educated them. Demetrius above mentioned is also our authority for the statement that Chrysippus was the first who ventured to hold a lecture-class in the open air in the Lyceum.