CLEANTHES (c. 301-232 or 252 B.C.), Stoic philosopher, was born at Assos in the Troad. He came to Athens, where he listened first to the lectures of Crates the Cynic, and then to those of Zeno the Stoic, supporting himself meanwhile by working all night as water-carrier to a gardener (hence his nickname cbp€avTX ls). On the death of Zeno in 263, he became the leader of the school. Among his pupils were his successor, Chrysippus, and Antigonus, king of Macedon.
Cleanthes produced very little that was original, though he wrote some 5o works, of which fragments have come down to us. The principal is the large portion of the Hymn to Zeus, which has been preserved in Stobaeus. He regarded the sun as the abode of God, the intelligent providence, or (in accordance with Stoic materialism) the vivifying fire or aether of the universe. Virtue, he taught, is life according to nature; but pleasure is not according to nature. The principal fragments of Cleanthes' works are contained in Diogenes Laertius and Stobaeus; some may be found in Cicero and Seneca.