SVF I.527
- Stoic
- Cleanthes of Assos
- Ancient source
- Epictetus, Encheiridion, chapter 53 — Ench. 53
- Source language
- Ancient Greek
- Source status
- Direct quotation · Fragment
Original — Ancient Greek
ἄγου δέ μ᾽, ὦ Ζεῦ, καὶ σύ γ᾽ ἡ πεπρωμένη,
ὅποι ποθ᾽ ὑμῖν εἰμὶ διατεταγμένος,
ὡς ἕψομαί γ᾽ ἄοκνος· ἢν δέ γε μὴ θέλω
κακὸς γενόμενος, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἕψομαι.StoicOs Translation
Lead me, O Zeus, and you too, Destiny, wherever I have been appointed by you: I shall follow without hesitating. And if, grown bad, I should be unwilling, I shall follow no less.
Context
Epictetus closes the Encheiridion with these verses as the sum of the philosophic life; Arrian's Discourses quote them repeatedly, and Seneca translates them for Lucilius, apologising that he follows 'the example of Cicero' in rendering verse. Von Arnim prints them among Cleanthes' fragments On Fate.
Source notes:Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 527, pp. 118–119 (OCR of the scanned edition). Verse 1 is also quoted at Arrian, Diss. II 23,42; III 22,95; IV 4,34; verses 1–2 at IV 1,131. Seneca, Ep. 107,10–11 gives his own five-line Latin version ending “ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt”. In v. 1 the reading σύ γ᾽ ἡ is an editorial correction (manuscripts: οὐ ἡ / σὺ καὶ ἡ); in v. 4 Vettius Valens transmits the variant κακὸς γενόμενος αὐτὸ τοῦτο πείσομαι.
What the source actually tells us
Cleanthes' own verses, quoted as such across the Stoic tradition — Epictetus introduces the poet elsewhere by name — and independently versioned by Seneca, whose closing line 'the fates lead the willing, drag the unwilling' became proverbial. Among the best-attested direct quotations of any early Stoic.
Philosophical meaning
Freedom is not exemption from fate but agreement with it. The prayer asks not for outcomes but for willingness: the good person follows gladly; the one who refuses follows anyway, only badly. Four verses compress the whole Stoic doctrine of providence, assent and the one thing that remains ours — the manner of our following.
Scholarly uncertainty
Epictetus quotes without naming the book; whether the verses come from a hymn, a tragedy-like composition or stood alone is unknown. Verse 1's exact wording is editorially restored, and a fifth line quoted elsewhere ('whoever nobly yields to necessity…') is Euripides, not Cleanthes.
Biographical context
Go deeper
About this edition
StoicOs Ancient Library is a developing multilingual digital study edition of surviving early Stoic material. The Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta assembled by Hans von Arnim provides the traditional reference framework. StoicOs distinguishes carefully between fragments, testimonia, later reports and interpretation. StoicOs translations are prepared from the surviving ancient-language sources where available.