Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.187 — Diogenes Laërtius on Chrysippus
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.187
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Chrysippus
Again: “If anyone is in Megara, he is not in Athens: now there is a man in Megara, therefore there is not a man in Athens.” Again: “If you say something, it passes through your lips: now you say wagon, consequently a wagon passes through your lips.” And further: “If you never lost something, you have it still; but you never lost horns, ergo you have horns.” Others attribute this to Eubulides. There are people who run Chrysippus down as having written much in a tone that is gross and indecent. For in his work On the ancient Natural Philosophers at line 600 or thereabouts he interprets the story of Hera and Zeus coarsely, with details which no one would soil his lips by repeating.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.187 (on Chrysippus), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.187
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesMore logic puzzles built on faulty reasoning: a man in Megara means no man in Athens, a wagon passes through your lips if you say wagon, and you have horns if you never lost them. Some credit these to another logician. Critics also accuse Chrysippus of coarse, indecent language in his reading of the Hera and Zeus story.
Older wording
- “Eubulides”
- — a logician of the Megarian school known for paradoxes
- “gross”
- — crude and offensive
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Speech and silence
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