The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
So gave him rest at last among the dead,
Who’d drawn such loads of water while alive.
LIFE OF SPHÆRUS.
I. Sphærus, a native of the Bosphorus, was, as we have said before, a
pupil of Cleanthes after the death of Zeno.
II. And when he made a considerable advance in philosophy he went to
Alexandria, to the court of Ptolemy Philopater. And once, when there
was a discussion concerning the question whether a wise man would allow
himself to be guided by opinion, and when Sphærus affirmed that he would
not, the king, wishing to refute him, ordered some pomegranates of wax
to be set before him; and when Sphærus was deceived by them, the king
shouted that he had given his assent to a false perception. But Sphærus
answered very neatly, that he had not given his assent to the fact that
they were pomegranates, but to the fact that it was probable that they
might be pomegranates. And that a perception which could be comprehended
differed from one that was only probable.
Once, when Mnesistratus accused him of denying that Ptolemy was a king,
he said to him, “That Ptolemy was a man with such and such qualities, and
a king.”[101]
III. He wrote the following books. Two on the World; one on the Elements
of Seed; one on Fortune; one on the Smallest Things; one on Atoms and
Phantoms; one on the Senses; five Conversations about Heraclitus; one on
Ethical Arrangement; one on Duty; one on Appetite; two on the Passions;
one on Kingly Power; on the Lacedæmonian Constitution; three on Lycurgus
and Socrates; one on Law; one on Divination; one volume of Dialogues on
Love; one on the Eretrian Philosophers; one on Things Similar; one on
Terms; one on Habits; three on Contradictions; one on Reason; one on
Riches; one on Glory; one on Death; two on the Art of Dialectics; one on
Categorems; one on Ambiguity; and a volume of Letters.
LIFE OF CHRYSIPPUS.
I. Chrysippus was the son of Apollonius, and a native of either Soli or
Tarsus, as Alexander tells us in his Successions; and he was a pupil of
Cleanthes. Previously he used to practise running as a public runner;
then he became a pupil of Zeno or of Cleanthes, as Diocles and the
generality of authors say, and while he was still living he abandoned
him, and became a very eminent philosopher.
II. He was a man of great natural ability, and of great acuteness in
every way, so that in many points he dissented from Zeno, and also
from Cleanthes, to whom he often used to say that he only wanted to
be instructed in the dogmas of the school, and that he would discover
the demonstrations for himself. But whenever he opposed him with any
vehemence, he always repented, so that he used frequently to say:—
In most respects I am a happy man,
Excepting where Cleanthes is concerned;
For in that matter I am far from fortunate.
And he had such a high reputation as a dialectician, that most people
thought that if there were such a science as dialectics among the Gods;
it would be in no respect different from that of Chrysippus. But though
he was so eminently able in matter, he was not perfect in style.
III. He was industrious beyond all other men; as is plain from his
writings; for he wrote more than seven hundred and five books. And he
often wrote several books on the same subject, wishing to put down
everything that occurred to him; and constantly correcting his previous
assertions, and using a great abundance of testimonies. So that, as in
one of his writings he had quoted very nearly the whole of the Medea of
Euripides, and some one had his book in his hands; this latter, when he
was asked what he had got there, made answer, “The Medea of Chrysippus.”
And Apollodorus, the Athenian, in his Collection of Dogmas, wishing to
assert that what Epicurus had written out of his own head, and without
any quotations to support his arguments, was a great deal more than all
the books of Chrysippus, speaks thus (I give his exact words), “For if
any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages
which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty.”
These are the words of Apollodorus; but the old woman who lived with him,
as Diocles reports, used to say that he wrote five hundred lines every
day. And Hecaton says, that he first applied himself to philosophy, when
his patrimony had been confiscated, and seized for the royal treasury.
IV. He was slight in person, as is plain from his statue which is in the
Ceramicus, which is nearly hidden by the equestrian statue near it; in
reference to which circumstance, Carneades called him Crypsippus.[102]
He was once reproached by some one for not attending the lectures of
Ariston, who was drawing a great crowd after him at the time; and he
replied, “If I had attended to the multitude I should not have been a
philosopher.” And once, when he saw a dialectician pressing hard on
Cleanthes, and proposing sophistical fallacies to him, he said, “Cease
to drag that old man from more important business, and propose these
questions to us who are young.” At another time, when some one wishing to
ask him something privately, was addressing him quietly, but when he saw
a multitude approaching began to speak more energetically he said to him:—
Alas, my brother! now your eye is troubled;
You were quite sane just now; and yet how quickly
Have you succumbed to frenzy.[103]
And at drinking parties he used to behave quietly, moving his legs about
however, so that a female slave once said, “It is only the legs of
Chrysippus that are drunk.” And he had so high an opinion of himself,
that once, when a man asked him, “To whom shall I entrust my son?” he
said, “To me, for if I thought that there was any one better than myself,
I would have gone to him to teach me philosophy.” In reference to which
anecdote they report that people used to say of him:—
He has indeed a clear and subtle head,
The rest are forms of empty æther made.[104]
And also:—
For if Chrysippus had not lived and taught,
The Stoic school would surely have been nought.
VI. But at last, when Arcesilaus and Lacydes, as Sotion records in
his eighth book, came to the Academy, he joined them in the study of
philosophy; from which circumstance he got the habit of arguing for and
against a custom, and discussed magnitudes and quantities, following the
system of the Academics.
VII. Hermippus relates, that one day, when he was teaching in the Odeum,
he was invited to a sacrifice by his pupils; and, that drinking some
sweet unmixed wine, he was seized with giddiness, and departed this life
five days afterwards, when he had lived seventy-three years; dying in the
hundred and forty-third olympiad, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.
And we have written an epigram on him:—
Chrysippus drank with open mouth some wine
Then became giddy, and so quickly died.
Too little reck’d he of the Porch’s weal,
Or of his country’s, or of his own dear life;
And so descended to the realms of Hell.
But some people say that he died of a fit of immoderate laughter. For
that seeing his ass eating figs, he told his old woman to give the ass
some unmixed wine to drink afterwards, and then laughed so violently that
he died.
VIII. He appears to have been a man of exceeding arrogance. Accordingly,
though he wrote such numbers of books, he never dedicated one of them
to any sovereign. And he was contented with one single old woman, as
Demetrius tells us, in his People of the same Name. And when Ptolemy
wrote to Cleanthes, begging him either to come to him himself or to send
him some one, Sphærus went to him, but Chrysippus slighted the invitation.
IX. However, he sent for the sons of his sister, Aristocreon and
Philocrates, and educated them; and he was the first person who ventured
to hold a school in the open air in the Lyceum, as the before mentioned
Demetrius relates.
X. There was also another Chrysippus, a native of Cnidos, a physician,
from whom Erasistratus testifies that he received great benefit. And
another also who was a son of his, and the physician of Ptolemy; who,
having had a false accusation brought against him, was apprehended and
punished by being scourged. There was also a fourth who was a pupil of
Erasistratus; and a fifth was an author of a work called Georgics.
XI. Now this philosopher used to delight in proposing questions of this
sort. The person who reveals the mysteries to the uninitiated commits
a sin; the hierophant reveals them to the uninitiated; therefore the
hierophant commits sin? Another was, that which is not in the city, is
also not in the house; but a well is not in the city, therefore, there is
not a well in the house. Another was, there is a certain head; that head
you have not got; there is then a head that you have not got; therefore,
you have not got a head. Again, if a man is in Megara, he is not in
Athens; but there is a man in Megara, therefore, there is not a man in
Athens. Again, if you say anything, what you say comes out of your mouth;
but you say “a waggon,” therefore a waggon comes out of your mouth.
Another was, if you have not lost a thing, you have it; but you have not
lost horns; therefore, you have horns. Though some attribute this sophism
to Eubulides.
XII. There are people who run Chrysippus down as having written a great
deal that is very shameful and indecent. For in his treatise on the
Ancient Natural Historians, he relates the story of Jupiter and Juno
very indecently, devoting six hundred lines to what no one could repeat
without polluting his mouth. For, as it is said, he composes this story,
though he praises it as consisting of natural details, in a way more
suitable to street walkers than to Goddesses; and not at all resembling
the ideas which have been adopted or cited by writers in paintings. For
they were found neither in Polemo, nor in Hypsicrates, nor in Antigonus,
but were inserted by himself. And in his treatise on Polity, he allows
people to marry their mothers, or their daughters, or their sons. And
he repeats this doctrine in his treatise on those things which are not
desirable for their own sake, in the very opening of it. And in the third
book of his treatise on Justice, he devotes a thousand lines to bidding
people devour even the dead.
In the second book of his treatise on Life and Means of Support, where he
is warning us to consider beforehand, how the wise man ought to provide
himself with means, he says, “And yet why need he provide himself with
means? for if it is for the sake of living, living at all is a matter
of indifference; if it is for the sake of pleasure, that is a matter of
indifference too; if it is for the sake of virtue, that is of itself
sufficient for happiness. But the methods of providing one’s self with
means are ridiculous; for instance, some derive them from a king; and
then it will be necessary to humour him. Some from friendship; and
then friendship will become a thing to be bought with a price. Some
from wisdom; and then wisdom will become mercenary; and these are the
accusations which he brings.”
But since he has written many books of high reputation, it has seemed
good to me to give a catalogue of them, classifying them according to
their subjects. They are the following:—
Books on Logic; Propositions; Logical Questions; a book of the
Contemplations of the Philosopher; six books of Dialectic Terms addressed
to Metrodorus; one on the Technical Terms used in Dialectics, addressed
to Zeno; one called the Art of Dialectics, addressed to Aristagoras; four
books of Probable Conjunctive Reasons, addressed to Dioscorides.
The first set of treatises on the Logical Topics, which concern things,
contains: one essay on Propositions; one on those Propositions which are