Zeno of Kition

What the founder of Stoicism asked to have added to his name in Athens.

Local name: Ζήνων ο Κιτιεύς

Collection: Larnaca and Ayia Napa · Cyprus · Open in OpenStreetMap

How the story begins

The founder of Stoicism, the story goes, reached Athens as a shipwrecked dye merchant, and the first man who taught him there made him carry soup through the streets. He was Zeno, from this town, which the Greeks called Kition. He was sailing from Phoenicia to the port of Athens with a cargo of purple when his ship was wrecked. At about thirty he sat in an Athenian bookshop reading about Socrates, and asked where men like that could be found.

The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.

Visiting

Europe Square, Athinon Avenue, Larnaca. Public square, free. Two other Zeno monuments stand in town, including a marble bust from 1921 near the Municipal Garden.

Photos

Sources

• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, book 7, Zeno (LacusCurtius, Loeb translation)
• Public Art in Cyprus (Open University of Cyprus): Zeno statue and bust
• Fergus Murray Sculpture: Larnaca, bronze by Kikis Patsalos
• Larnaka Region: Zeno of Kition statues (locations)
• Diogenes Laertius 7, Greek text (Perseus): the word Kitieus on the pillar

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