108 //-1
Cleanthes after [studying with] Zeno; he had made considerable progress
in argumentation and then went off to Alexandria to the court of Ptolemy
Philopator. Once, when a discussion arose about whether the wise man
will form opinions, Sphaerus said that he did not; the king wanted to
refute him and ordered wax pomegranates to be set out; Sphaerus was
fooled and the king shouted that he had assented to a false presentation.
To which Sphaerus nimbly replied by saying that what he had assented
to was not that they were pomegranates, but that it was reasonable that
they were pomegranates, and that there was a difference between a
graspable presentation and a reasonable one ....
- Chrysippus, son of Apollonius, from Soli (or from Tarsus, as
Alexander says in the Successions), was a student of Cleanthes. He had
previously been in training as a long-distance runner; then he studied
with Zeno, or Cleanthes according to Diodes and the majority [of authori-
ties], and left his school while he [Cleanthes] was still alive and became
a significant philosophical figure. He was a man of natural ability and so
extremely clever in all parts [of philosophy] that in most points he differed
with Zeno, and even with Cleanthes, to whom he frequently said that
he only needed to be taught the doctrines and he himself would discover
the demonstrations. Nevertheless, whenever he resisted Cleanthes he
regretted it, so that he constantly quoted this: "I was born blessed in all
else, except with respect to Cleanthes; in this I am not happy."^3
- So famous did he become in dialectic that most people thought
that if there were dialectic among the gods it would be none other than
Chrysippus'. He had abundant material, but he did not get his style
right. He worked harder than anyone else, as is shown by his writings;
for there are more than 705 of them ....
183 .... He was so arrogant that when someone asked "To whom
should I send my son to study?" he said, "to me; for if I thought there
were anyone better than I, I would be philosophizing with him myselfl"
Hence they say that it was said of him, "He alone has wits, and the
[others] rush around like shadows".^4 and, "If there were no Chrysippus,
there would be no Stoa."
In the end he philosophized with Arcesilaus and Lacydes, attending
[their meetings] in the Academy, according to Sotion in book 8. 184.
That is the reason why he argued both for and against [the reliability]
of ordinary experience and used the standard Academic technique when
discussing magnitudes and pluralities.
Hermippus says that he was holding his session in the Odeon when
- Euripides Orestes 540-1, adapted.
- Homer, OdJ'SSeJ' 10.495.
