Knowra Zeno of Citium Zeno of Citium Zeno of Citium was an ancient Greek philosopher from Citium who founded Stoicism in Athens in the early third century BCE. His teachings organized philosophy around logic, physics, and ethics.
Stoicism : A Hellenistic philosophy that teaches living virtuously in accordance with reason and nature. The school Zeno founded, later developed by generations of Greek and Roman thinkers.
Citium : An ancient city on Cyprus, known in antiquity as Kition. Zeno was born in this Cypriot city before traveling to Athens.
Cleanthes : A Greek Stoic philosopher who succeeded Zeno as head of the Athenian school. His leadership preserved and extended the school after Zeno’s death.
Epicureanism : A Hellenistic philosophy that identifies pleasure, understood as freedom from distress, as the highest good. Epicureans and Stoics offered competing accounts of happiness, nature, and the good life.
Hellenistic philosophy : Philosophy that developed in the Greek-speaking world from Alexander the Great’s era through late antiquity. Zeno founded his school amid new Hellenistic approaches to ethics and life.
Athens : A Greek city-state that became a major center of politics, literature, and philosophy. Zeno established his teaching community in Athens.
Chrysippus : A Greek Stoic philosopher who systematized Stoic logic, physics, and ethics. He gave the school much of the detailed doctrine later associated with its founding.
Platonism : A philosophical tradition based on the teachings and writings of Plato. Zeno’s school differed from the Academy’s doctrines while drawing on the same Athenian intellectual world.
Virtue ethics : An approach to ethics that centers moral character and the virtues needed to live well. Zeno made virtue the sole genuine good and the basis of a flourishing life.
Stoa Poikile : A painted colonnade on the north side of the Athenian Agora. Zeno and his followers taught at this public portico, giving Stoicism its name.
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