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Xenophanes, of Colophon, poet, theologian, and natural philosopher  

Charles H. Kahn

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Philosophy
Xenophanes of Colophon, poet, theologian, and natural philosopher, left Ionia (see ionians) at the age of 25, probably after the Persian Conquest in 545 bce, and led a wandering life for 67 years, as he tells us himself in a preserved passage from an elegiac poem (DK 21 B 8). He lived in several cities in Sicily, and is reported to have composed an epic on the colonization of *Elea (see colonization, greek), but the tradition that he was the teacher of *Parmenides is doubtful. He is credited with being the first author of satirical verses (Silloi). The extant fragments, in various metres and genres, include two long elegiac passages on how to conduct a civilized *symposium and on the civic importance of his own work and wisdom (sophiē).A skilful poet in the tradition of *Tyrtaeus and *Solon, Xenophanes carried the Ionian intellectual enlightenment to *Magna Graecia.

Article

Zeno (1), of Elea, philosoper and friend of Parmenides  

Malcolm Schofield

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Zeno (1), of Elea is portrayed by *Plato(1) (Prm. 127b) as the pupil and friend of *Parmenides, and junior to him by 25 years. Their fictional meeting with a ‘very young’ *Socrates (ibid.) gives little basis for firm chronology. We may conclude only that Zeno was active in the early part of the 5th cent. bce. Whether the work from which Plato makes him read was his only book is uncertain.

The most famous of Zeno's arguments are the four paradoxes about motion paraphrased by *Aristotle (Ph. 6. 9), which have intrigued thinkers down to Bertrand Russell in our era. The Achilles paradox proposes that a quicker can never overtake a slower runner who starts ahead of him, since he must always first reach the place the slower has already occupied. His task is in truth an infinite sequence of tasks, and can therefore never be completed. The Arrow paradox argues that in the present a body in motion occupies a place just its own size, and is therefore at rest. But since it is in the present throughout its movement, it is always at rest. The Dichotomy raises the same issues about infinite divisibility as the Achilles; the Arrow and the Stadium (an obscure puzzle about the relative motion of bodies) are perhaps directed against the implicit assumption of indivisible minima.

Article

Zeno (2), of Citium, founder of Stoicism  

Julia Annas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Zeno (2), of Citium (*Cyprus), (335–263 bce), founder of *Stoicism. He came to Athens in 313 and is said to have studied with or been influenced by various philosophers, notably *Crates (2) the Cynic, *Antisthenes(1) the Socratic, and the Academics *Xenocrates (1) and particularly *Polemon(2), who seems to have stressed the notion of nature. Zeno taught in the *Stoa Poecile (‘Painted Colonnade’) which gave its name to Stoicism. He was well respected at Athens, and in old age, around 276 bce, was invited by *Antigonus(2) Gonatas to go to his court, but, according to Diogenes Laertius 7.9, he did not go, but sent two students, *Persaeus and Philonides of Thebes, instead.Zeno's writings established Stoicism as a set of ideas articulated into three parts: *logic (and theory of knowledge), *physics (and metaphysics), and ethics. See the general account of Zeno's School and its doctrines under Stoicism. The early writings of Zeno stressed that even basic moral rules could have justified exceptions. In Zeno's Republic an ideal community, radically rejecting convention, was developed.

Article

Zeno (3), of Tarsus, Stoic  

Julia Annas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Zeno (3) of *Tarsus, Stoic (See stoicism), *Chrysippus' successor as head of the Stoa in 204 bce. He had many followers, but wrote little; he had doubts about ekpyrōsis (conversion into *fire).

Article

Zeno (5), of Sidon, Epicurean, b. c. 150 BCE  

William David Ross and Dirk Obbink

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy
Epicurean (See epicurus), pupil of the Epicurean Apollodorus and probably head of the school between him and *Phaedrus(3). *Cicero heard him lecture in Athens in 79–78, and found him querulous and irascible in manner and style: not only did he heap abuse on contemporaries, but he called *Socrates the scurra Atticus (the Attic equivalent of a Roman festive buffoon), and never referred to *Chrysippus except in the feminine gender (Nat. D. 1. 93). No writings by Zeno have been found among the Epicurean library excavated at *Herculaneum, but *Philodemus, whose writings were found there in abundance, studied with him at Athens, and boasts that he was a devoted ἐραστής (admirer) of Zeno while he lived, and an indefatigable ὑμνητής, ‘laudator’ i.e. ‘eulogist’ of him after his death. Philodemus' On Speaking Frankly (Περὶ παρρησίος) is a selection from Zeno's teachings, and Philodemus' On Signs (Περὶ σημείων) reiterates lectures by Zeno and his disputes with adversaries of his own day.

Article

Zeno (6), of Sidon, Stoic  

Julia Annas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Zeno (6) of *Sidon, Stoic (See stoicism), pupil of *Diodorus(2) Cronus and of *Zeno(2).

Article

Zoïlus, of Amphipolis, 4th cent. BCE  

John Francis Lockwood and Robert Browning

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Zoïlus (Ζωΐλος) of *Amphipolis (4th cent. bce), the *Cynic philosopher, pupil of *Polycrates (2) and teacher of *Anaximenes(2) of Lampsacus; is described by the Suda as ῥήτωρ καὶ φιλόσοφος (rhetorician and philosopher), by Aelian, VH 11. 10, as κύων ῥητορικός and ψογερός, a ‘cynic rhetorician’ and ‘censorious’. He was notorious for the bitterness of his attacks on *Isocrates, *Plato(1), and especially *Homer. He probably visited *Alexandria(1) when the Library and *Museum were being established.

(1) Against Isocrates. (2) Against Plato, favourably mentioned by Dion. Hal.Pomp. 1. (3) Against Homer (Καθʼ Ὁμήρου or Κατὰ τῆς Ὁμήρου ποιήσεως ‘Against Homer's poetry’ or perhaps Ὁμηρομάστιξ ‘scourge of Homer’, which became the author's nickname). This work was chiefly devoted to severe, though often captious, criticism of the poet's invention, of the credibility of incidents (e.g. Il.