Cleanthes

Cleanthes, a Stoic philosopher, born at Assos, in Troas, about 300 B.C. His poverty was such that he had to work all night at drawing water in order to obtain money for his support and to pay his class-fee while attending the lectures of Zeno—a fact discovered only when the Areopagus called upon the ardent young student to show how he obtained his living. For nineteen years he listened patiently to the great Stoic, and, on his death, succeeded him in his school. He died of voluntary starvation when about eighty years old. Cleanthes differed from the other Stoics in regarding the sun as the governing principle of the world; but none of his writings are extant except a Hymn to Zeus, one of the purest and noblest pieces of poetry in the Greek language, showing an admirable union of religious feeling and philosophic thought.