Cleanthes hymn to Zeus and his philosophical interpretation

Doctoral Dissertation uoadl:2959834 159 Read counter

Unit:
Falulty of Philosophy
Library of the School of Philosophy
Deposit date:
2021-09-08
Year:
2021
Author:
Gkioka Eleni
Dissertation committee:
Ιωάννης Καλογεράκος,Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Παναγιώτης Πανταζάκος,Καθηγητής,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Ευαγγελία Μαραγγιανού-Δερμούση,Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Μαρία Πρωτοπαπά-Μαρνέλλη,Διευθύντρια Ερευνών Κ.Ε.Ε.Φ. της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών
Γεώργιος Βασίλαρος,Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Γεώργιος Αραμπατζής,Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Γεώργιος Στείρης,Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής,Τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής Έκπα
Original Title:
Ο Ύμνος στον Δία του Κλεάνθη και η φιλοσοφική ερμηνεία του
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
Cleanthes hymn to Zeus and his philosophical interpretation
Summary:
The theme of the dissertation’s abstract is “Cleanthes’s hymn to Zeus and its philosophical interpretation”. There has been used both secondary and first bibliography. The relation between Theology and Physics is showcased as well as Stoics’ moral teaching and particularly Cleanthes’s. The philosopher’s beliefs are investigated not only by the aspect of the tradition’s interpretation which he follows, but also by the aspect of the ancient Greek philosophy’s main exponents’ beliefs.
Philosopher Assius follows the three-fold theme pattern which is traditionally found to hymn related contexts: a) invocation to deity, b) praising speech to Zeus, c) doxology-request to God.
In Chapter A and B there is an attempt of showcasing the historic-philosophical context of the text. In Chapters C, D and E we follow its interpretative-analytical approach.
In the first subchapter of the First Chapter becomes evident that the theological approach and the explanatory interpretation of the earthly events, comes from the Homer and Isiodos’s era, where Zeus as the highest cosmological Authority interferes within the world’s borders as the providence authority. He is the Highest God’s Justice, which aims either to reinforce or to prevent every human action or choice. The human’s actions must be in accordance to God’s Will. When human does not obey to God’s Will, he commits the sin of hybris.
In the second subchapter it is appeared that the philosopher makes good use of the syllogistic utterances of pre-socratic’s intellectual and cognition representatives. The approach of earthly process by natural terms hires a theological dimension and consequently cross-sections of moral type. The searches begin from the early ionic thought, Thales, Anaximandros, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus, by whom Cleanthes has been influenced according to theological interpretation of the existent and by his moral teaching. Then, there is a reference to Eleats, and to the founder of the school, Parmenides. The stoic philosopher has been mainly influenced referring to the epistemic facts that compose a complete moral sentence. Afterward, focusing on the Pythagoreans, the term “armonii” characterizes absolutely the stoic philosopher. Empedocles must had been the thinker that fed into the later philosophers with moral content of a special type for ontology and Cosmology by the terms of friendliness and nikos (quarrel) that he uses. At the end of the end second part, there is a reference to Anaxagoras and the Atomic philosophers Leucippus and Democritus. Democritus by the term “euthimii” approaches close enough to the bliss of the Stoics’ wise.
In the third subchapter, the influences of Cleanthes by Plato appear. In Plato’s contexts, the human existence denotes at the same time God’s existence as a casual cause. The human cognition, an element that distinguishes humans from the rest living species, can perceive the evaluating cross tensions to orientate her life or to set himself consistent of all the charismatic of the First Authority, that are announced to him by God’s Care. The casual cause relationship betokens the relative relationship of these two as well as the inherit potentials of the latter to showcase himself or to ascend to the area of the first. The specific achievement is perceived, epistemologically and morally, as bliss.
During the development of the fourth part, it is examined if the aristotelian moral teaching functions attributively or even conditionally of the Stoics’ and Cleanthes’s moral teaching.
According to Aristotle the casual relationship god-world is defined as a relationship of maker-suffering. The first one is defined as the active and the second one as the passive cause of the universe. The aristotelian god exists out but also in the world, infinite and finite. He is also defined as Mind, who is found existing into the human mental interiority.
The human is obliged to drag up the internal divine elements that he has at his disposal, to compose again his atomic mind, making the Mind an internal active (energia) reality. The active (energia) internal actualization of the Mind leads to a rational entity in a spiritual exaltation. Only in this condition it is possible for the human to succeed for himself the “evdemonos zin” (living in bliss), as sighting of the internal existent God.
In the first subchapter of Chapter B, there are presented elements of Cleanthes’s bibliography, as they are quoted in the work of the biographer Diogenes Laertius. Cleanthes (331-330-232 B.C.E.) with ancestry from Assos, was an immigrant of the city of Athens. Because of his terrible financial situation, he flung himself into occupations during the night, so that he can be able to attend to the propositions of his teacher.
Dedicated to Zeno, he was soon distinguished among his fellow students. He has also won the respect of his teacher. He has been a loyal listener for nineteen years of Zenon’s philosophical teachings and he distinguished as the most capable of all his fellow students. Thus, he succeeded his teacher to the management of the School. Cleanthes has written a great number of canons but only one has been saved in an undivided form – from Ioannis Stoveos – The Hymn to Zeus. He deceased in a ripe age as a victim of suicide, due to a painful incurable disease.
In the second subchapter, there is an attempt of showing that Cleanthes is still consistent to the main directions of the School that he represents, which he reformulates in the perspective of the distinguish between Theology and Philosophy, where the first constitutes on of the individual fields of the second.
According to the Stoics, God acts among the whole and the everything, among the end and the infinity. He is the creative cause of the world, which he creates by the composition of the four primary elements – fire, earth, air and water, which come from him. The distant Authority does not develop only in the world its creative action, for that reason it has various meanings, as “En” (One), “Nous” (Mind), “Imarmeni” (Destiny), “Fisis” (Nature), Zeus, in order to highlight semantically the special role that it develops each time.
Human must establish himself as nature’s counterpart, in agreement to the Divine intervening action, which is activated beneficially for him. In this way, he will secure a happy and virtuous life.
In the third subchapter of Chapter B there is a reference to the main directions which have been hired by the Stoics’ moral teaching in Cleanthes’s work. There is a presentation of the aspects of the philosopher’s cosmological beliefs, which constitutes a clearly theological tone and it is explained that the theological approach of the existent raises to the spotlight of its reference moral issues.
A causal relationship is shaped between God and the world. Human will is the one that defines this causal relationship. It is human will that chooses if it will identify with divine will or with divine planning.
In the fourth subchapter an introductory sighting of Hymn to Zeus’s methodological issues is attempted. Cleanthes stands out a genuine exponent of the philosophical tradition that he represents. Through the text he presents the religious tradition of his time and he gives it a new special moral shade. Assios philosopher structures a poetic language in honor of Zeus and he follows the establishes structural form of the ancient Greek hymns.
Chapter C concerns the analytical approach of the poem. Firstly, there are the definitions of the nomenclature that Cleanthes gives to the ultimate Authority, Zeus. In the first subchapter there is a presentation of the many predicates that Cleanthes gives to the existence of Zeus. Zeus gathers all virtues in his existence, he inserts in the world the divine definitions of his virtues and in this way, he shares his existential superiority over his creations. The special doxological nomenclatures aim to showcase the metaphysical value range of the first Authority.
In the second subchapter there is a clarification of the term “fisis” (nature). Zeus dominates in the wholeness of nature and he constitutes its cause, he stands as a superior to it, as the absolute “fisis”, as “fisis”. God’s domination over nature as Divine Justice does not arrange only his relation with the wholeness of nature, but also the inner nature moving activity of its parts.
In the third subchapter we notice the presentations of the genealogical identifications of the superior Authority. The human race is of divine ancestry. Human is regulator of this kinship by his free will. He must reflect on the mightiness of God towards him. According to Mirto Dragona – Monachou god identifies with “Imarmeni” (Destiny). It is human’s responsibility to manage his freedom with a fate’s counterpart, the way of God’s Will.
The divine’s superiority as it is recorded in the fourth subchapter becomes evident by the hymnological naming. God creates but also coexists with restrains in the world. The divine is its essential texture and the moving development of the world. The universe’s identity refers implicitly to God. The verb form “pithete” (is persuaded) means the agreement of human towards all that “Imarmeni” prefixes.
In the fifth subchapter of Chapter C there is an interpretation of the three nature’s characteristics which are attributed by the philosopher. Cleanthes characterizes nature as “amfiki” (αμφήκη), “piroenta” (πυρόεντα), “aizoon” (αείζωον). These three characterizations reveal its intervening action. Nature as “amfikis” participates in the same manner as in Providence, as in its earthly acts. As “diapiros” of divine energy, it constitutes its passage since it accommodates or reinforces its channelization till the last fields of the existing. As “aizoos”, eternity appears as characteristic of the first authority. Cleanthes realizes “Fisin” (Nature) in a perpetual and continuous perspective which does not incur with space-time commitments.
The unity of nature is transpired according to Cleanthes by the common divine Speech which it incorporates as Providence. Human must understand the cross sections that rule the whole of existing so as to comprehend himself, too. In this way, he understands his internal existing presence of Divine Speech, to whom he has set his individual speech.

In the first subchapter of Chapter D it is examined how Cleanthes perceives the inherent power of the First Authority. Zeus, overlooking the world, interferes in it in a creatively evolutionary way. He originates the four main ingredients of the universe, fire («πυρ»), water («ύδωρ»), air («αέρα») and earth («γη»), which constitute the matter. Human must comprehend the causal superiority of the divine against himself. Through his actions, God shares his essential – physical infrastructure.
In the second subchapter, the term of evil is examined, through the cognitive and moral dimension. The evil’s existence in the world forms an obstacle of the benefactor intervention. The evil is interwoven with lack of speech (“α-λογία), because it is not integrated to all those that the divine speech distributes to the universe. The term of evil states the absence of good Speech as a parasitic substance of it. The evil’s existence shows, for the rational beings, the authority of free intention or will.
In the third subchapter it is estimated that Divine Speech enters the cross sections of the existing in a dialectical way and sets delimitations and boundary lines into the ontological perspectives that it opens. The involuntary and voluntary misunderstandings of divine assistance are analysed and they relate to a specific human category, this of the bad ones. They are the existences that have set themselves as counterparts of nonsense as inherent to bad luck. The evils are divided in two categories, the one of mindless and the one of unfortunates because they cannot enter the Speech area. The mindless are in a state of total unconsciousness, while the unfortunates choose consciously Divine’s aversion.
In the fourth subchapter of Chapter D there is a reference in Stoics’ teaching About Moral. “Eudemonia” (bliss) is the morally opposed to life’s malice, it is related to the two opposing faces of human life, against nature («παρά φύσιν») and in accordance to nature life («κατά φύσιν ζην»). Life against nature is the one that is based to passions and to mindless impulses of human soul and they remove it from its final destination, “eudemonos zin” (living in happiness). The high Authority sponsors the elements against nature («παρά φύσιν») to people, which destiny («ειμαρμένη») has already arranged that they have to go under this test.
In the first subchapter of Chapter E there is a report of Cleanthes’s belief that “eudemonia” (bliss) has moral but also epistemological determinations. It showcases the progress of mindful subjects in acquisition of universal Truth as an achievement. Knowledge is to philosopher the start of moral development, existential and personal fulfillment of the person.
Afterwards, in the second subchapter it is highlighted for another time the importance of humans’ progress to Cleanthes so as to succeed a complete array of their individual speech to Global Speech, Nature, Providence, “Imarmeni” (Fate), God. Human must exceed his lack of mindfulness and to differentiate from the rest beings. According to Stoics, there is a human model that has succeeded for himself to become wise. The wise has been identified with Divine Speech, has risen levels in cognitive scale, has exceeded materiality, has reached in the state of absolute moral apathy. In other words, he has attained “living in absolute happiness” (ευδαιμόνως ζην) or “lining in accordance to nature” (ομολογουμένως τη φύσει ζην) because he has secured for himself everything that the universality of nature requires.
In the third subchapter, according to the Zeus’s Hymn, it is showed that Cleanthes claims that people, from the moment that they will understand the intervening care of God in the world, they also understand his metaphysical existence and for that reason they express a worshipping-glorious speech, praising divine blessedness. God “shares” and human “understands” and “praises”. Praising is a human obligation.
Human complies with the divine obligation will setting himself as co-modulator of its implementation. Human activity takes place in a scope in which “imarmeni” and “sigatathesis” (consent), hegemonic of the world with human hegemonic are causally intertwined. Human senses are invited by hegemonic to convert the material to spiritual for the formulation real judgements about everything that happens worldwide. Human discovers internally his available Speech, having cultivating mindfulness.
In the fourth subchapter there is a question arose as to if philosopher Assius is a supporter of a philosophical polytheism or of a religious monotheism. Cleanthes does not deny the existence of even inferior to Zeus-Gods. But just like the rest Stoics do not accept the existence of a pantheistic model, like the one of the old religion. They believe that all the divine names are about expressions of the divinity of Zeus. So, Stoics’ monotheism is revealed in Cleanthes’s text and it is documented by philosophical and religious terms.
Main subject category:
Philosophy - Psychology
Keywords:
Cleanthes,Zeus,stoic philosophy,nature,providence,fate
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
No
Number of references:
53
Number of pages:
197
File:
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