CLEANTHES

Form: Gr. Kleanthes.

A Greek philosopher, native of Assos in Asia Minor. He was originally a boxer, and while attending at Athens the lectures of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, he got a livelihood at night by carrying water. He was Zeno's disciple for nineteen years, and in 260 B.C. succeeded him as head of the Stoic school. He died in his eighty-first year by voluntary starvation. A beautiful hymn to Zeus is the only one of his writings that has come down to us.