The hymn of Cleanthes; Greek text tr. into English

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EXTS FOR STUDENTS, No. 26

THE

YMN OF CLEANTHES

GREEK TEXT TRANSLATED INTO
ENGLISH

WITH BRIEF INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

E. H. BLAKENEY, M.A.

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TEXTS FOR STUDENTS. No. 26

GENERAL EDITORS: Caroline A. J. Skeel, D.Lit. ;
H. J. White, D.D. ; J. P. Whitney, D.D., D.C.L.

THE
HYMN OF CLEANTHES

GREEK TEXT TRANSLATED INTO
ENGLISH

WITH BRIEF INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY

E. H. BLAKENEY, M.A.

LONDON

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"The Hymn to Zeus is a splendid attempt
to bring into harmony the author of nature
with the traditional Zeus, and divine providence
with his will. There is no attempt to discredit
orthodoxy, but rather to purify it and use its
elements of truth for a higher purpose."—
Mahaffy.

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, ϊ J ', '• i '.

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THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

NOTE ON CLEANTHES AND THE STOICS.

Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher, was born at Assos, in
theTroad, about the year 331 B.C. and died at an advanced
age in 232 B.C. The successor to Zeno, the founder of
Stoicism, he was president of the Stoa for over thirty
years and was himself succeeded by Chrysippus. He Avas
evidently a man of profound earnestness and masterful
energy, combining strong intellectual convictions with deep
religious feeling.

Like all the great teachers of his school, he must be
reckoned as a pantheist, though (as Taylor notes, Ancient
Ideals, i. 376) Stoic emotions about the divine are diverse,
often vague, springing from a deep-seated reverence for all-
ruling "law " (call it what we will — Destiny, Nature, Zeus,
Providence, or the Universal Reason). In Stoicism,
though in some respects Cleanthes revolutionized the study
of physics, which he regarded as giving the surest rule for
human conduct generally, the main interest of the creed
lies in its moral postulates. Physics is to be regarded as
the scaffolding of ethics.

Among the great prophets of ancient Israel religion
became at once "universal and individual, centred in the
inner life of the subject" (Caird, Evolution of Religion, ii.
119) ; and a not dissimilar process of development may be
traced in the philosophy of Stoicism. From the first it was
a religious philosophy, and it is here that it makes its
supreme appeal.

Stoicism, as Grant has shown (Ethics of Aristotle), was

Mil048'i

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHLS

less a gfti)uinti product of Hellenic thought than an
importation from the East. It represented a synthesis
bet\Teen Hellenism and Oriental speculation. Not one
of the greater Stoic teachers was a native of Greece
proper. It is worth remembering that the Apostle Paul's
birthplace, Tarsus, was a stronghold of the creed of
the Stoics ; and there is no reason to suppose that
Paul was a stranger to their tenets.^ Lactantius (Insti-
tutesj iv. 9) admits that Zeno had anticipated certain
features of Christian teaching : " Zeno rerum naturae dis-
positorem atque opificem universitatis Xoyov priedicat";
and the words in Heb. ii. 10 have a distinctly Stoic

flavour : St' ov τά ττάντα καΙ δλ' ου τα ττάντα (God is the

final and efficient cause of all things). ^ Certainly the Stoic
system foreshadowed the doctrine of a true brotherhood
of man.

What was peculiar to Stoicism was its constant insistence
on Morality, and its " grim earnestness and devout sub-
mission to the divine will." Virtue, in that system, is
alone good ; vice bad ; all other things are αδιάφορα
(indifferent). It was in a strictly practical spirit that Stoic
ethics was developed by the Eomans, as we see in Seneca ;
but the later Stoicism, confronted with the facts of life, had
in some points to soften the rigid outlines of earlier theory,
just because the idealism and the pessimism of that earlier
theory were fatal to any effort of moral reform ; " the cold,
flawless perfection of triumphant reason was an impossible
model, which could only discourage and repel aspirants to
the higher life" (Dill, Roman Society, bk. iii., chap. i.).
There was no room in such an austere doctrine for the

^ Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, iv. 616. Hicks, Gh-eek Phil, in
N. T., p. 94.

2 For traces of Stoicism in the Pauline Epistles, see the illuminating
discussion by Lightfoot, " St. Paul and Seneca," in his edition of the
Philippians." AVe might instance two thoughts, at least, which show
that Paul did owe something to Stoicism : (1) αύτάρκβια (2 Cor. vi, 10),
(2) the worldwide city of God (Eph. ii. 19, Ool. iii. 11).

NOTE ON CLEANTHES AND THE STOICS 5

Christian virtue of humility or of pity ; there the system
broke down.

Some of the paradoxes of the "Porch " (notably the crown-
ing paradox of the "Sapiens," the ideal wise man — an im-
possible figure) are keenly ridiculed by Horace {Sat. I. iii.
124 sq., Π. iii. 'passim, vii. 83 sq. " The Christian's Ideal
Figure could never be accepted by the Stoic as an example
of his typical Wise Man" [E. R. Be van, Stoics and
Sceptics, p. 70]) ; but, in his later years, it is probable that
Horace learnt to appreciate better the doctrine of the
Stoics and to view their system with more sympathy. ^

The pantheism 2 of the later Stoics tended, it is clear,
more and more toΛvards theism ; God had become to these
philosophers (Epicurus is a case in point) less of an ab-
straction, more and more of a "living presence"; we may
do well to remember the famous motto which Seneca lays
down as a rule of life in his tenth letter.^ And closely
bound up with its doctrine of God is the Stoic doctrine of
immortality. True, the older Stoics permitted themselves
little more than the hope of a limited immortality; but their
thought of Death Avas far from that of a mere extinction
(as we find it set forth in Eastern speculation) ; rather death
was the resolution of man's earthly nature into its original
elements — a dissolution of the body — while the animating
principle, the soul, returns to its native birthplace "in the
heavenlies." We may compare Virgil's line {/En. vi. 730),

1 See D'Alton, Horace and his Age, pp. 84 sqq., 133 sqq., for proofs
of this changed attitude.

2 The Stoic conception that God is in all things is balanced by that
of the Neo-Platonists, whose root principle is tliat all things are in
God. For the attitude of Plotinus towards Stoicism consult Inge,
Τΐίβ Philosophy of Ploiinus, vol. i. There is a brief, but valuable, dis-
cussion of Stoicism in its connexion with Christian ethics and theology
in Lake and Foakes-Jackson's The Beginnings of Christianity, part i. ,
pp. 246 sqq. (1920).

•^ " So live with men as if God saw you ; so speak with God as
if men heard you" (Lightf., Essay on "St. Paul and Seneca,"
Philipp.,6 pp. 279 sqq.).

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

" igneus est oUis vigor et caslestis origo," with the solemn
words of Eccles. xii. 7.

What the position of Cleanthes really was, in the sphere
of religion, "vve can neΛ'er fully ascertain; we possess his
teaching only in fragments, and we cannot properly judge
a thinker by the disjecta membra of his philosophy.
But we seem to discover in Cleanthes, when we read his
hymni (was it written in early, middle, or later life?), a
genuinely religious man, "bent on giving a theological
interpretation of the world, and breathing a pious sub-
mission to the world-order which it is refreshing to feel and
come in contact with " (Davidson, The Stoic Creed, p. 27).
NotAvithstanding the materialism apparent in his physical
speculations, *' he can yet infuse into his submission to the
cosmic order such an amount of willing acquiescence as to
give the impression of the deepest religious feeling" (ib.,
p. 229).- Lightfoot was justified in calling his hymn the
noblest expression of heathen de\^otion which Greek litera-
ture has preserved to us. Nothing quite so impressive, of
its kind, Avas ever again to appear in pagan history till,
nearly half a millennium later. Stoicism was destined to
produce its final and exquisite fruit in the Meditations of
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

GREEK TEXT OF THE HYMN.

Κΰδιστ* αθανάτων, ττολνώννμε, παγκρατζς del
Zer, φνσ€ω<5 ο.ρχηγ€, νόμον μίτα ττά,ντα κυβερνών ^
χαΐρζ ' σ€ yap ττάντεσσι θίμι^ θνητοίσι ττροσανΒαν.
€κ σου γαρ yevos ecr/xei/, hos^ μίμημα λαχόΐ'τε?

1 Which may be regarded as a summary of his whole theology.

2 An ethical fervour of a high order is shown in the lines of
Cleanthes (frag. 45) duoled bv Eusebias, Pra'paratio Evangclica, 679=
(ed. Gitford, 1903). '[See "Added Note," p. 16.]

3 The MS. has -ήχου, which gives no sense. Bergk conjectures ό'λου.
W. L. Newman conjectures άγοΟ (from a70s = a leader).

GREEK TEXT OF THE HYMN

5 μοννον^ oora ζώζί τ€ καΐ 'ίρττζί θνητ ΙπΧ yaiav.
τψ σ€ καθνμνήσω^ καΐ συν κράτος atev ctetVw.
σοι 8η ττας o8e κόσμος Ιλισσόμζνος Trepl γαιαι/
ΤΓζίθεται, y k€v ayySy καΐ €κών νττο σ€ΐο κρατ€Ϊταί *
τοΐον €;(eis viro^pyov aviKr^TOts ΙνΙ \€ρ(τΙν

ΙΟ άμφήκη, ττυρόεντα, ά€ίζο)θντα κζραννόν,

του yap νπο 7Γληyrjs φύσεως πάντ eppiya^iv,
ω συ κατευθύνεις kolvov Xoyov ος 8ta πάντων
φοιτγ.^ μtyvύ μένος μεyάλoLς μίκροΐς τε φάεσσιν^
ως τόσσος γ€γαώ9, ύπατος βασιλεύς 8ta παντός.

15 ού8ε τι yίyvετaι Ipyov επΙ γθονί σου 8ίγα, 8αΐμον^
ούτε κατ αιθέρων θείον πόλον ουτ* ενί πόντω,
πλην οπόσα ρεζουσι κακοί σφετερ^σιν άνοίοΛς,
άλλα συ καΐ τα περισσά επίστασαι άρτια θειναι^
κα\ κοσμεΐν τα άκοσμα, καΐ ου φίλα σοΙ φίλα εστίν,

20 ώδ€ γαρ εις εν ατταντα συνήρμοκας εσθλά κακοΐσιν^
ωσθ' ενα yίyvεσθaι πάντων λόyov αΐεν εόντα,
ον φεύyovτες εωσιν 'όσοι θνητών κακοί εισι,
8ύσμοροι, οϊ τ αγαθών μεν άε\ κτησιν ποθεοντες
οϋτ εσορωσι θεού Koivhv νόμον, ούτε κλύουσιν,

25 φ κεν πειθόμενοι συν νω βίον εσθλον εχοιεν»

αύτοΙ 8' αυθ' όρμωσιν άνευ κάλου άλλος επ άλλα,
ot μεν υπέρ 8όξης σπου8ην 8υσεριστον έχοντες,
οΐ δ* επΙ κερ8οσύνας τετ ραμμένοι ού8ενϊ κόσμο)^
άλλοι δ' εις ανεσιν και σώματος η8εα e/aya,

30 σ7Γ€ΰδοι/τ€5 μάλα πάμπαν ei/ai/rta των8ε yεvεσθaι.
άλλα Ζεύ πάν8ωρε, κελαινεφες, άρχικεραυνε^
ανθρώπους ρύοιο άπειροσύνης άπh λυγρης,
ην συ, πάτερ, σκε8ασον \1η)χης απο, 8ος 8ε κυρησαι
yvώμηςJ y πίσυνος συ 8ίκης μετά πάντα κυβερνάς^

35 όφρ αν τιμηθεντες άμειβώμεσθά σε τι/λΓ,
ύμνούντες τα σα 'εpya 8ιηνεκες, ώς επεοικε
θνητον εόντ, επεί άντε βροτοΐς yεpaς άλλο τι μείζον,
ούτε θεοΐς, ή κοινον άεΐ νόμον εν 8ίκΊ] ΐ'μνεΐν.

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

TRANSLATION OF THE GREEK TEXT.

Most glorious of Immortals, mighty God,

Invoked by many a name, 0 sovran King

Of universal Nature, piloting

This world in harmony with Law, — all hail !

Thee it is meet that mortals should invoke,

For Λve Thine offspring are, and sole of all

Created things that live and move on earth

Receive from Thee the image of the One.

Therefore I praise Thee, and shall hymn Thy power

Unceasingly. Thee the wide world obeys.

As onward ever in its course it rolls

Where'er Thou guidest, and rejoices still

Beneath Thy sway : so strong a minister

Is held by Thine unconquerable hands, —

That two-edged thunderbolt of living fire

That never fails. Under its dreadful blow

All Nature reels ; therewith Thou dost direct

The Universal Reason which, commixt

With all the greater and the lesser lights,

Moves thro' the Universe. How great Thou art,

The Lord supreme for ever and for aye !

No work is wrought apart from Thee, 0 God,

Or in the world, or in the heaven above.

Or on the deep, save only what is done

By sinners in their folly. Nay, Thou canst

Make the rough smooth, bring wondrous order forth

From chaos ; in Thy sight unloveliness

Seems beautiful ; for so Thou hast fitted things

Together, good and e\dl, that there reigns

One everlasting Reason in them all.

The wicked heed not this, but suffer it

To slip, to their undoing ; these are they

TRANSLATIoii OF THE GEEEK TEXT

Who, yearning ever to secure the good,
Mark not nor hear the law of God, by wise
Obedience unto which they might attain
A nobler life, with Eeason harmonized.
But now, unbid, they pass on divers paths
Each his own way, yet knowing not the truth, —
Some in unlovely striving for renown,
Some bent on lawless gains, on pleasure some,
AVorking their own undoings self-deceived.
0 Thou most bounteous God that sittest throned
In clouds, the Lord of lightning, save mankind
From grievous ignorance ! Oh, scatter it
Far from their souls, and grant them to achieve
True knowledge, on whose might Thou dost rely
To govern all the world in righteousness ;
That so, being honoured, we may Thee requite
With honour, chanting without pause Thy deeds.
As all men should : since greater guerdon ne'er
Befalls or man or god than evermore
Dv.ly to praise the Universal Law.

ARGUMENT OF THE HYMN.^

(1) Clean thes feels himself akin to the divine, and
therefore worthy to hold communion with it ; (2) he
expresses his admiration for, and submission to, the divine
order of the world ; (3) he recognizes that the moral evil in
the world is the result not of fate but of man's freewill ;
(4) he prays God to free human souls from ignorance ;
and (5) closes with an apostrophe in praise of God's law.

^ [Note. — The editor is indebted to various writers for valuable
suggestions embodied in his introduction and notes ; but a general
acknoAvledgement must here suffice. — February, 1921.]

10 THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

COMMENTAEY.

1. 7Γολυώνυ/^€: most of the "di majores"are called
τΓολνώννμοί by the poets (e.g., Dionysus, with his sixty
titles : he was distinctly ττολνζώης καΐ ττολνμορφοζ, Plut.
Moralia, 389^). Cf. Theocr. xv. 109 (Aphrodite), ττολυ-
ώι/ν/Λ€ κοΧ πολύναζ. So Artemis is designated in Aristophanes
by the titles Dictynna, Agrotera, Pandrosus, Phosphorus,
Tauropolis : Rogers on JFas^s, 368, Ellis on Catull. xxxiv.
21, sis quocunque tibi placet | sancta nomine. In Baby-
lonian mythology the god of Babylon received the names,
attributes, and powers of the older deities (Merodach or
Marduk = Ea = Hadad = Sin : cf. Sayce, Gifford Lectures^
1902, p. 329); similarly Egyptian theology saw in the
various gods mere forms of one divinity (for example,
Nu = Temu = Ra. As Ra was the father of the gods, every
god in the Egyptian pantheon represents some phase of
him, and he represents every god : Budge, EgijiMan
Religion^ chap. iii.). In the Fdg-Veda (i. 164, 46) one poet
says : " That which is One the sages name in various ways
— Agni, Yama, Matarisvan." The thoughtful Hindu of
to-day looks through the maze of his mythology to the
philosophical background of the One eternal self- existent
Being in whose unity all visible symbols are gathered
(Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom^ chap. i.). For a note on
πολυώνυμος sec Sykes and Allen on Homeric Hymn to
Demeter, 18. The word appears to have possessed a special
significance from the Stoic standpoint, as Diogenes
Laertius indicates. The concept implied in 11. 1, 2 is
criticized by St. Basil, Hexcem. Hom. i. On αρχηγός, cf.
Clem. Alex., Strom, vii. 840.

2. νόμου : cf Cic. de Nat. Dem\ i. 36, Zeno naturalem
legem divinam esse putat eamque vim obtinere [ = hepya)
recta imperantem prohibentemque contraria. Heraclitus
was the first to identify the law of nature with the will of

COMMENTARY 11

God : frag. 91, τρέφονται πάντες ol ανθρώπινοι νόμοι νπο €Vo?
του θζίον. This view was adopted by the Roman jurists
(cf. Cic. de Legg. ii. 8, " law is no device of man ") ; and
Wordsworth in his Ode to Duty has made the thought
current coin — "stern daughter of the voice of God, 0
Duty !" Cleanthes is several times referred to in Cic. de
Nat. Deor. — e.g. ii. § 13, iii. § 16 (see J. B. Mayor's notes) :
cf. also Minucius, 19, § 10.

κυβερνών: cf. 1. 29. Parmenides, frag. 12, (in the
midst of these circles is the) δαι/χίοι/ η πάντα κνβερνζι, viz.
the dea genetrix (Aphrodite, ace. to Plut. Amator. 13; but
cf. Burnet, Early Greek Pliilosophy^ 2nd ed., § 94). For
κυβερνάν in metaph. sense, see n. in Lightfoot, Ignat.'-^
(Polye. ii.),

4. €K σου yap yevos εσμεν: see ActS xvii. 28,
where the words are given του γαρ καΐ yevos εοτμεν. St.
Paul may have derived them directly from the Φαινο'/χ€ΐ/α of
Aratus of Soli (in Cilicia), fior. 270 B.C. ; but probably they
were almost proverbial in the Apostle's day. The human
reason, according to Aratus, is a "fragment" of the
divine; it is the doctrine of divine immanence. Man's
moral sense is an " efflux of God," "a particle (άττόστασ/χα)
of Zeus," and so far is one with the moral movement of the
universe {cf G. H. Rendall, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to
Himself Introd., p. cxxix) : cf Eurip. frag. 1007, ό vovs yap
ήμων €στ6ΐ/ εν εκάστω θεό?. There is a curious parallel to be
found in the so-called ΑΟΓΙΑ IHCOY (from an early
Greek papyrus discovered nearly twenty-five years ago) :
[Jesus said] εγειρον Toi/ λίθον κάκεΐ ενρϊΐσεις με, σχίσον το
ξύλον καγώ εκεΐ ειμί {if. Matt, xviii. 20, John xiv. 20, and
other passages quoted in Lock and Sanday's ed., 1897).
Compare William Watson, The Unhioion God :

" The God I know of I shall ne'er

Know, though he dwells exceeding nigh :
Raise fJioii the stone and find me therCy
Cleave tJiou the wood, ami there am I."

12 THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

We may recall here the Orphic lines :

Zei>s Ίτρωτοί -yivero,
Zeys ΰστατο$ άρχικ^ραυροί,
ZeiiS κ€φα\η, Ζβύί μέσσα
Διό? δ' έκ ττάντα τέτυκται.

The pantheistic sense of the word Zevs (v. 2) ought not
to be overlooked. God, in the Stoic creed, was not
personal (in the Christian sense), but an unknown living
Power immanent in Nature — natura natimms, είμαρμίνη,
vovs.

€vos μ ί μη μα: see Driver on Gen. i. 3. Philo de-
scribes the spirit (the essence of man's rational part) as a
" figure and impress of divine power," and goes on to say
μίμημα καΙ άττζ.υκόνισμα dvOpLoiros (i.e. φvσeωs XoytKrjs of
which God is the άρχ^τυττον); cf. Musonius ajy. Stob.
καθόλου 81 α.νθρω7Γ0<ζ μίμημα μ\ν Oeov μόνον των ίττιγείων

ίστίν. Clem. Rom. speaks of man as an impress of the
divine image (ad Cor. i. 33 ; cf. Heb. i. 3) ; so in Wisd. ii. 23
we read, "God created man to be immortal and made
him to be an image of His own eternity " (proper being,
RV.). Plat. Tim. 37^ develops this thought. For the
sense cf. Hom. //. xvii. 447, Odijss. xviii. 13L

6. Cf. Ps. cxlv. 1. Aratus, Phcenom. 1, ck Δώ? αρχώμ€-
σθα τον ουδετΓΟτ dvSpes €ωμ€ν \ άρρητον.

7. Cleanthes seems here to be endeavouring to interpret
the Cynic formula, "live agreeably to nature" {ομολογον-
μ€νως τη φνσει ζην). But in his hands it gets an added
meaning, for in nature {φνσι<;) — whether the nature of
things or man's inward nature — the Stoic doctor finds a
common reason {λόγο<;) and a common law {v6μos). See
James Seth's Studi/ of Ethical Principles (chapter on
" Eigorism ") ; Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, lect. i.

We may illustrate the religious attitude of Cleanthes
still further by the lines reproduced by Epictetus
{Enchirid. 53) :

COMMENTARY 13

&yov δ' μ', & 7j€v, και σύ y' η Πεπρωμένη
δτΓΟί ΊΓοθ' ϋμιν βίμι ζίατετα^μένο^'
ws 'έψομαί y &οκνο$ • τ)ν be μη θέλω
KaKOs yev6μevot ούδΐν ήττον 'έ\ρομαι.

Thus rendered by Seneca {Ejp. 107, § 10) :

due, 0 parens celsique dominator poli,
quocumque placuit : nulla parendi mora est.
Adsuni inipiger. fac nolle : comitabor gemens
malusque patiar facere quod licuit bono,
ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.

The lines are by way of answer to the objection that
irpovoLa cannot exist with the doctrine of freewill.

9. α viK-rJ TO is: Hom. II viii. 30; Soph. O.C. 1515;
Job xlii. 2.

10. Kepavv6v\ from Homer onward the weapon of Zeus
(κεραννοφόροζ, κ€ραννουχο^, tonans, tonitrualis). Heracl.
frag. 20 with Bywater's reiF., ib. 28, τά 8e πάντα οίακίζα
Kepavvos '. Ritter-Preller, 28. κεραυνός was a semi-oracular
word for fire : " The peculiar kind of matter forming, as it
were, the body of the Logos, Her. believes to be fire"
(Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece, p. 223). According to
Cleanthes the " Logos " was eternal, and so it was conceived
by Heraclitus himself; "it" was without beginning or
end, piloting [οίακίζα) all things through all, like a wary
steersman.

For 11. 9-13 cf. Heb. iv. 12 (Westcott).

12. KOLvhv λόγον: Ritter-Preller (ed. 7, 1888),
398 (c). In Plotinus the word λόγο? has several shades of
meaning — Reason, Creative power (or activity), etc., Inge,
Phil, of Plotinus, i. 156. In Philo we find the λόγο? separated
from the supreme God, and it is frequently personified (as
in N.T., John i. 14), becoming the immanent reality of the
world (not unlike the Socratean conception of God as 7} Iv
τω τταντι φρόνησι^, \Yordsworth's " Wisdom and Spirit of
the Universe": Adam, loc. cit., p. 371). In Cleanthes'
hymn, as generally in Stoicism, the world is permeated by

U THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

Reason, which is ethical, not merely intellectual. The
emphasis on kolvos should not be overlooked. The great
masters of Stoicism were cosmopolitan in their outlook, as
they were in origin. The κοινωνία of the Universe is a
familiar thought with them ; all men share in the universal
reason of God (the world-soul), subject to a ωιηιηοη law
and a common citizenship. In the Meditations of M.
Aurelius it is not without significance that the word kolvos
(and its compounds) occurs more than eighty times : Dill,
Roman Society, pp. 324 5^. ; G. H. Kendall, oj). cit,, Introd.,
p. cxxxvii. Observe how the author of 4 Maccabees
would enlist the Stoic doctrine in the service of Jewish
philosophy.

13. Slo. πάντων φοιτά : Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey,
(a Presence) "that rolls thro' all things."

14. ΰ 7Γ α τ 0 9 : often in Homer as an epithet of Zeus.

15. ty. John i. 3. For Βαΐμον cf. Bacchyl. iii. 37, ντΓ^ρβίζ
Βαΐμον (of Zeus).

16-18. Nature is here put under the immediate govern-
ment of the deity.

17-20. Evil is not directly due to God, but a necessary
accompaniment of the process by which He created the
world out of Himself. Cleanthes appears to argue somewhat
as Browning would do : cf. Plat. Bep. ii. 379<=, ovB' άρα 6
eeos κ.τ.λ. ; Eccles. vii. 13 foil, (and Tyler's Introd. to
his ed. of Eccles., p. 73, ed. 2). The hymn is throughout
inspired by the consciousness that it is one spiritual power
which penetrates and controls the Universe, and is the
source of every work done under the sun, "except what
evil men do in their folly." Caird, Evol. of Eelig. in
Greek Philosophers^ ii. 76 ; E. R. Be van, Stoics and Sceptics,
p. 54.

18. τΓ€ρισ•σά> <αρτ la, odd )( even {i.e. the recon-
ciliation of opposites) ; cf. Plat. Gorg. 45 Ρ ; Ritter-Preller,
53, 55.

COMMENTARY 15

19. Cf. Heracl. frag. 61, τφ fxlv θ€ψ καλά ττάντα καΙ ά-γαθα
και δίκαια, άνθρωτνοι δε ά μίν άδικα ύττειλϊ^φασιν, ά δε δίκαια.

21. The everlastingness of the Logos : cf. Heracl. frag. 2.
Similarly M. Antoninus. Cf. Butler, Sermon xv.

24. Cf. Heracl. frag. 101, quoted in n. on 1. 2.

28. ov8€VL• κόσ μω =ατάκτω^, 7'ecMeSSly.

29. ανεσ Lv = indulgence. Cf. Plat. Eep. 561*.

30. The text is very uncertain here, and I am not sure
that I have grasped the sense. Perhaps = "bringing about
the opposite of what they wish."

31. ττάν8ωρ€: epithet of Earth, Fate (Bacchyl. frag.
20). Cf. the (hexameter) line in Jas. i. 17, ττασα δόσι?
κ. τ. λ., with which we may quote the words in Plat.
Euthyjp, 18, ov8lv yap ήμΐν kcmv dyadov 6 τί αν μη €Κζΐνοί
(i.e. the gods) δώσιν.

κζλαίνεφζζ•. Homeric epithet. Cf. Ps. xcvii. 2-4.

32. ατΓ e ιροσ-ύνη? = οίγνοία<ί (the condition of the
φαύλοι).

33. σ κ e δ α σ 0 V : in the Platonic philosophy ignorance
is the source of evil. With this and the next line cf.
Heracl. frag. 19, eV το σοφόν, (ττίστασθαι γνώμην ή
κυβερνάται πάντα δια πάντων. Plutarch's Kx^epv^ats θεον.

37, 38. Cf. the celebrated words with which Hooker
concludes the first book of his Ecclesiastical Polity. The
Stoics seem to have been the first to introduce into morals
the concept of Law — " which is law for man because it is
the law of the universe": Acton, Hist, of Freedom in
Antiquity, pp. 24, 25. In many respects the Stoic teaching
is the nearest approach to Christianity. AVarde Fowler,
Socicd Life at Eome, p. 117; Gwatkin, Church Hist. i. pp.
22, 23. Similarly among the Jews the law (Torah) was
the revelation in time of what is timeless and eternal.

The reader should carefully compare the lines in Soph.
O.T. 863 sqq. (of the immutable order of law) : cf El. 1093
s^., Ajao:, 1130 sqq., 1343 sqq. The whole argument of the

16 THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

?

Antigone turns on the conflict between divine law and
human ordinance ; and, as we know, these rival principles
often come into sharp conflict: August. Conff. iii. 8 (an
important chapter); Thomas Aquinas, Summa c. Gentiles^
chaps, cxvi., cxxvii., who points out, however, that the
terminus ad quern of all divine law is the love of God. Cf.
the noble words of Dante {Paradiso) :

Ε la sua voluntate e nostra pace.

ADDED NOTE.

The passage in Eusebius runs thus :

Tayadbv έρωτας μ' οίον εστ' ; &kov€ δη.
Ύβτα^μένον, δίκαιον, 'όσων, ΐύσββέ^,
κρατούν έαντου, χρήσιμον, καλόν, δέον,
αύστηρόν, αύθέκαστον, άεισύμφερον,
άφοβον, άλντΓον, Χυσιτ€\έί, άνώδυνον,
ώφέΧιμον, ενάρβστον, άσφα\έ$, φίλον,
'έντίμον, όμόλο'/ούμζνον , . . .
ey/cXe^s, ατυφον, eTriyueXe's, ττραον. σφοδρ
χρονιξόμενον, άμεμιττον, ael διαμένον.

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