SVF I.537

Original — Ancient Greek

Κύδιστ᾽ ἀθανάτων, πολυώνυμε, παγκρατὲς αἰεί, Ζεῦ, φύσεως ἀρχηγέ, νόμου μέτα πάντα κυβερνῶν, χαῖρε· σὲ γὰρ πάντεσσι θέμις θνητοῖσι προσαυδᾶν. ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ γένος εἴσ᾽ ἤχου μίμημα λαχόντες μοῦνοι, ὅσα ζώει τε καὶ ἕρπει θνήτ᾽ ἐπὶ γαῖαν· τῷ σε καθυμνήσω καὶ σὸν κράτος αἰὲν ἀείσω. σοὶ δὴ πᾶς ὅδε κόσμος, ἑλισσόμενος περὶ γαῖαν, πείθεται, ᾗ κεν ἄγῃς, καὶ ἑκὼν ὑπὸ σεῖο κρατεῖται· τοῖον ἔχεις ὑποεργὸν ἀνικήτοις ὑπὸ χερσὶν ἀμφήκη, πυρόεντα, ἀειζώοντα κεραυνόν· τοῦ γὰρ ὑπὸ πληγῆς φύσεως πάντ᾽ ἔργα ⟨τελεῖται⟩· ᾧ σὺ κατευθύνεις κοινὸν λόγον, ὃς διὰ πάντων φοιτᾷ, μιγνύμενος μεγάλοις μικροῖς τε φάεσσι· ᾧ σὺ τόσος γεγαὼς ὕπατος βασιλεὺς διὰ παντός. οὐδέ τι γίγνεται ἔργον ἐπὶ χθονὶ σοῦ δίχα, δαῖμον, οὔτε κατ᾽ αἰθέριον θεῖον πόλον οὔτ᾽ ἐνὶ πόντῳ, πλὴν ὁπόσα ῥέζουσι κακοὶ σφετέραισιν ἀνοίαις· ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ τὰ περισσὰ ἐπίστασαι ἄρτια θεῖναι, καὶ κοσμεῖν τἄκοσμα καὶ οὐ φίλα σοὶ φίλα ἐστίν. ὧδε γὰρ εἰς ἓν πάντα συνήρμοκας ἐσθλὰ κακοῖσιν, ὥσθ᾽ ἕνα γίγνεσθαι πάντων λόγον αἰὲν ἐόντα, ὃν φεύγοντες ἐῶσιν ὅσοι θνητῶν κακοί εἰσι, δύσμοροι, οἵ τ᾽ ἀγαθῶν μὲν ἀεὶ κτῆσιν ποθέοντες οὔτ᾽ ἐσορῶσι θεοῦ κοινὸν νόμον, οὔτε κλύουσιν, ᾧ κεν πειθόμενοι σὺν νῷ βίον ἐσθλὸν ἔχοιεν. αὐτοὶ δ᾽ αὖθ᾽ ὁρμῶσιν ἄνοι κακὸν ἄλλος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλο, οἱ μὲν ὑπὲρ δόξης σπουδὴν δυσέριστον ἔχοντες, οἱ δ᾽ ἐπὶ κερδοσύνας τετραμμένοι οὐδενὶ κόσμῳ, ἄλλοι δ᾽ εἰς ἄνεσιν καὶ σώματος ἡδέα ἔργα. ⟨ἀλλὰ κακοῖς ἐπέκυρσαν⟩, ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοτε δ᾽ ἄλλα φέρονται σπεύδοντες μάλα πάμπαν ἐναντία τῶνδε γενέσθαι. ἀλλὰ Ζεῦ πάνδωρε, κελαινεφές, ἀργικέραυνε, ἀνθρώπους ⟨μὲν⟩ ῥύου ἀπειροσύνης ἄπο λυγρῆς, ἣν σύ, πάτερ, σκέδασον ψυχῆς ἄπο, δὸς δὲ κυρῆσαι γνώμης, ᾗ πίσυνος σὺ δίκης μέτα πάντα κυβερνᾷς, ὄφρ᾽ ἂν τιμηθέντες ἀμειβώμεσθά σε τιμῇ, ὑμνοῦντες τὰ σὰ ἔργα διηνεκές, ὡς ἐπέοικε θνητὸν ἐόντ᾽, ἐπεὶ οὔτε βροτοῖς γέρας ἄλλο τι μεῖζον, οὔτε θεοῖς, ἢ κοινὸν ἀεὶ νόμον ἐν δίκῃ ὑμνεῖν.

StoicOs Translation

Most glorious of the immortals, called by many names, almighty forever, Zeus, founder of nature, steering all things with law — hail! For it is right for all mortals to address you: from you we are born, having received, alone of all that lives and moves as mortal upon the earth, a likeness of your voice. Therefore I shall hymn you and sing your might forever. You this whole cosmos, wheeling about the earth, obeys wherever you lead, and willingly is it ruled by you: such a servant do you hold in your unconquerable hands — the two-edged, fiery, ever-living thunderbolt, under whose stroke all works of nature are accomplished. By it you direct the common reason that moves through all things, mingling with the great and the small lights; by it you have become so great, highest king through all. No work comes to pass on earth apart from you, divinity, nor in the divine ethereal vault, nor in the sea — except what the bad do in their own follies. But you know how to make the odd even and to order the disordered; and what is not dear is dear to you. For so have you joined all things into one, the good with the bad, that one reason comes to be of all things, everlasting — which those mortals who are bad flee and abandon, ill-fated ones who, forever longing to possess goods, neither see nor hear god's common law, by obeying which, with understanding, they could have a good life. Instead they rush, senseless, each after a different evil: some in quarrelsome zeal for glory, some turned to gain without measure, others to indulgence and the pleasant works of the body — ⟨but they meet with evils⟩, and are carried now here, now there, striving hard to become the very opposite of all this. But Zeus, giver of all, shrouded in dark clouds, lord of the bright thunderbolt, deliver human beings from their ruinous ignorance; scatter it, Father, from the soul, and grant that we attain the insight trusting in which you steer all things with justice — so that, being honoured, we may repay you with honour, hymning your works without ceasing, as befits a mortal; since there is no greater privilege for mortals or for gods than duly to hymn forever the common law in justice.

Context

Stobaeus opens his chapter on Zeus with this hymn under the simple heading 'Of Cleanthes'. It survives in a single manuscript — the longest continuous piece of early Stoic writing we possess, philosophy composed as cult poetry in Homeric-epic language.

Source notes:Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 537, pp. 121–123 (OCR of the scanned edition), from the single manuscript F of Stobaeus under the heading “Of Cleanthes”. Editorial interventions follow von Arnim's text: v. 4 εἴσ᾽ is von Arnim's own metrical correction (F reads ἐσμέν); v. 11 ⟨τελεῖται⟩ supplied by von Arnim; v. 14 ᾧ σὺ τόσος is his correction of F's ὡς τόσσος (Pearson rejected the verse); v. 26 ἄνοι is Wachsmuth's conjecture (F: ἄνευ); v. 30 opens with von Arnim's exempli-causa supplement ⟨ἀλλὰ κακοῖς ἐπέκυρσαν⟩ for a lacuna; v. 33 ⟨μὲν⟩ added by Scaliger.

What the source actually tells us

A direct quotation of thirty-nine hexameters under Cleanthes' name — his own voice, not a report. The doctrine is demonstrably Stoic and Cleanthean: Zeus as law-governing nature, the thunderbolt-fire as instrument (cf. the sun-doctrine, SVF I.499), the common logos through all things, evil confined to the follies of the bad, and the closing ethics of willing obedience that matches SVF I.527 and I.552.

Philosophical meaning

The Hymn is Stoic physics turned prayer. Zeus is not a person beside the world but the law that steers it; his thunderbolt is the ever-living fire; the 'common logos' runs through great and small. Evil has no cosmic standing — only the bad, deaf to the common law, produce it, and even their disorder is harmonised into the whole. The petition asks for one gift only: insight (gnōmē), the deliverance from ignorance. Praise of the common law, sung in justice, is the highest human act — philosophy and worship made one.

Scholarly uncertainty

A single-manuscript text with real editorial intervention: verse 4 as printed ('a likeness of your voice/sound') rests on von Arnim's own emendation where the manuscript reads 'from you we are born' with Aratus' parallel; verse 14 was rejected outright by Pearson; verse 30 opens with a modern supplement for a lacuna. The hymn's occasion, date and place within Cleanthes' works are unknown. Our prose translation renders von Arnim's printed text, marking his supplements with ⟨ ⟩.

Biographical context

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.527 — Lead me, Zeus: the prayer to Zeus and Fate →
• Read SVF I.529 — the argument for a supreme living being →
• Read SVF I.552 — the goal: living in agreement with nature →