SVF I.203
Stoic: Zeno of Citium · Ancient source: Stobaeus, Eclogae, Book II — II 7,1 p. 38,15 W. · Source language: Ancient Greek · Source status: Testimonium, Paraphrase by ancient source
Original — Ancient Greek
οἱ δὲ κατὰ Ζήνωνα τὸν Στωικὸν τροπικῶς· ἦθός ἐστι πηγὴ βίου, ἀφ᾽ ἧς αἱ κατὰ μέρος πράξεις ῥέουσι.
StoicOs Translation
Those who follow Zeno the Stoic define it metaphorically: character (ēthos) is the fountain of life, from which the individual actions flow.
Context
In the prologue of his ethical anthology, Stobaeus collects the schools' definitions of ēthos (character); this one is filed under the banner of “those who follow Zeno the Stoic”, with the note that it is meant as a figure (tropikōs).
Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 203, p. 50 (OCR of the scanned edition). The OCR garbles the final verb; the reading ῥέουσι (“flow”), required by the fountain image and printed by Wachsmuth, is restored.
What the source actually tells us
A one-sentence school definition preserved under Zeno's banner — not attributed to Zeno personally, but to “those who follow Zeno”. Its compressed, imagistic form is characteristic of the definitions the early Stoa carried under the founder's name.
Philosophical meaning
Actions are not isolated choices: they flow from a source. Work on the fountain — the settled state of one's character — and the individual deeds follow of themselves. The image compresses the whole Stoic programme of self-formation into six Greek words, and explains why the school judged persons by their hexis, not by single acts.
Scholarly uncertainty
The attribution is to “those who follow Zeno” (hoi kata Zēnōna), not to Zeno verbatim: a school definition under his banner, possibly his own, possibly a pupil's. The final verb is restored (ῥέουσι) where the OCR of the scan is garbled; the fountain image guarantees the sense.
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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.