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The Hymn of Cleanthes

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The Hymn of Cleanthes T E X T S F O R S T U D E N T S N o 2 6 . ' G E N E R AL E DI R CAROL I N E A S KE E L B . L 1 r TO S : . J. , H W HI TE D D . P W H TN Y D D D C . L . J. , . J. I E , . TH E HYM N O F CL E AN TH E S G RE E K TE X T TRANSLATE D INTO E NGLISH WITH BRIE F I NTR O D U CTI O N AN D N OTE S E H BL AKE N E Y M A . , . L ON DON S O C I E T Y F O R P R O M O T I N G C H R I S T I A N K N O W L E D G E N E W YOR K : THE M ACM I L L AN COM PAN Y The Hymn to Zeus is a spl endid attempt to b ring into harmony the author o f nature wi he tra itiona Zeus and ivin e rovi en th t d l , d p d ce his il T ere is n o attem t to re i with w l . h p disc d t or ho ox b ut rat er t o ur f it and use i s t d y, h p i y t e ements of trut for a er ur ose l h high p p . MAHAF FY. ! 0 0 0 0 » o c 0 ! ! ! . G t 0 9 0 1° 4 I , 3 0 . 0 o . g , 0 9 0 0 0 ! ! 0 o 0 0 J D D ' ’ THE HYMN or oIjE ANTHE s TE ON E T E AND T NO CL AN H S THE S OICS . LE ANTHE S S c A C , the toi philosopher, was born at ssos , in 331 the Troad, about the year and died at an advanced 232 ucc f age in The s essor to Zeno, the ounder of S c S toi ism, he was president of the toa for over thirty cc d C years and was himself su eede by hrysippus . He was evidently a man of profo und earnestness and masterful c s c c c energy, ombining trong intelle tual onvi tions with deep religious feeling . al l c c Like the great tea hers of his s hool, he must be c u A nci re koned as a pantheist, tho gh (as Taylor notes, ent l 7 6 S c Idea s . 3 , i ) toi emotions about the divine are diverse, S - c often vague , pringing from a deep seated reveren e for all ! c we —D ruling law ( all it what will estiny , Nature, Zeus , P c R . S roviden e , or the Universal eason) In toicism , though in some respects Cleanthes revolutioniz ed the study c c d of physi s, whi h he regarde as giving the surest rule for c d c human on u t generally, the main interest of the creed P c t o lies in its moral postulates . hysi s is be regarded as ' in the scafiol d g of ethics . Among the great prophets of ancient Israel religion c c ! c d be ame at on e universal and individual , entre in the ” c C d E vol ution o Reli ion inner life of the subje t ( air , f g , ii . fl 1 1 9) and a not dissimilar proc ess of development may be traced in the philosophy of Stoicism . From the first it was a religious philosophy , and it is here that it makes its s upreme appeal . S c G E thics o Aristotl e toi ism , as rant has shown ( f ) , was mu c os a. 4 THE HYMN OF CLE ANTHE S f f 2 l e ss a genuine produ ct of Hellenic thought . than an t m t importa ion fro he E ast . It represented a synthesis t Hel l eni I a nd be ween s n Oriental speculation . Not one of the greater Stow teachers was a native of Greec e P ’ proper . It is worth remembering that the Apostle aul s c T s s c d birthpla e, ag u , was a stronghold of the ree of the Stoic s and there is no reason to suppose that 1 P L actan tiu s I nsti aul was a stranger to their tenets . ( 9 d c utes . c t , iv ) admits that Zeno had anti ipate ertain features of Christian teaching : Zeno rerum naturae dis ” p ositorem atque Opific em universitatis Adyo v p raedica t d d S c . 1 0 c and the wor s in Heb ii . have a istin tly toi ’ / d 1 i i / 3 7 711 1 0. K a a a flavour : 1 1 7 8 o n 7 0. r t 7 (God is the fic c 2 C S c final and ef ient ause of all things) . ertainly the toi system foreshadowed the doctrine of a true brotherhood of man . What was peculiar to Stoicism was its constant insistenc e ! M an d on orality, its grim earnestness and devout sub ” d v V mission to the i ine will . irtue, in that system , is alone good vic e bad ; all other things are ddi q op a S (indifferent) . It was in a strictly practical spirit that toic c R S c ethi s was developed by the omans, as we see in ene a S c c d c but the later toi ism, onfronte with the fa ts of life , had in some points to soften the rigid outlines of earlier theory , just because the idealism and the pessimism of that earlier ff ! c d theory were fatal to any e ort of moral reform the ol , flawless perfection of triumphant reason was an impossible d c c c mo el , whi h ould only dis ourage and repel aspirants to — ” D Roman Societ . c . the higher life ( ill , y, bk . iii , hap There was no room in suc h an austere doctrine for the 1 Hast n s Dictiona r o the Bibl e iv 61 6 H cks Greek Phil . in i g , y f , . i , N T . 94. , p 2 For t ra c es o f t o c sm l n the Paul n e E stl es se e the l l um n at n S i i i pi , i i i g ” h ! S Paul a n d his e t on o f the d uss on b L t o ot t . en eca in isc i y ig f , S . di i h ch show h l an s . We m ht n stanc e two t ou hts at east w P i ippi ig i h g , l , i l owe som eth n t o t o c sm 1 a vr‘ d xet a 2 or vi that Pau did i g S i i : ( ) p ( C . 2 the wor wi e c t of God h. 1 9 0 0 1 ii . ( ) ld d i y (E p ii , . i NOTE ON CLE ANTHE S AND THE STOICS 5 Christian virtue of humility or of pity there the system broke down . ! Some of the paradoxes of the Porch (notably the crown in S —an im g paradox of the apiens , the ideal wise man 1 1 1 . possible figure) are keenly ridic uled b y Horace (S at. I . 1 2 ’ 4 s . a assim 83 s . C q , II . iii . p , vii . q The hristian s Ide l Figure c ould never be accepted by the Stoic as an example c M an E . R Stoics and of his typi al Wise [ . Bevan , Sce tics . 7 p , p but, in his later years, it is probable that Horac e learnt to appreciate better the doctrine of the S c 1 toi s and to view their system with more sympathy . 2 S c c The pantheism of the later toi s tended , it is lear, more and more towards theism ; God had become to these philosophers (E picurus is a case in point) less of an ab straction ! c , more and more of a living presen e we may do well to remember the famous motto which Seneca lays 3 And c down as a rule of life in his tenth letter . losely bound up with its doctrine of Go d is the Stoic doc trine of d S c immortality . True, the ol er toi s permitted themselves little more than the h0 pe of a limited immortality ; but their thought of Death was far from that of a mere extinction (as we find it set forth in E astern speculation) 3 rather death was the resolution of man ’s earthly nature into its original — — elements a dissolution of the body while the animating c c ! prin iple , the soul, returns to its native birthpla e in the ’ h a l i E n e ven es V . c . We may ompare irgil s line ( vi ’ 1 See D l n H s for r o A to orac e and his A e 84 s . 1 33 . o fs , g , pp . qq , qq , p of th s han e i c g d a ttit ud e .
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