Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.27 — Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno

Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.27

Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on Zeno

He showed the utmost endurance, and the greatest frugality; the food he used required no fire to dress, and the cloak he wore was thin. Hence it was said of him: The cold of winter and the ceaseless rain Come powerless against him: weak the dart Of the fierce summer sun or racking pain To bend that iron frame. He stands apart Unspoiled by public feast and jollity: Patient, unwearied night and day doth he Cling to his studies of philosophy. Nay more: the comic poets by their very jests at his expense praised him without intending it. Thus Philemon says in a play, Philosophers: This man adopts a new philosophy. He teaches to go hungry: yet he gets Disciples. One sole loaf of bread his food; His best dessert dried figs; water his drink. Others attribute these lines to Poseidippus. By this time he had almost become a proverb. At all events, “More temperate than Zeno the philosopher” was a current saying about him. Poseidippus also writes in his Men Transported: So that for ten whole days More temperate than Zeno’s self he seemed.