Chrysippos

Artist: Unknown
Date: About 200 B.C.
Location: Library, First Level

Chrysippos (c. 280-205 B.C.) was an important Greek philosopher. He is primarily known as the third head of the Stoic school. Zeno, who founded the school at the close of the fourth century, taught that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity. The school was so named because Zeno delivered his lectures in the Stoa or painted corridor on the north side of the market place at Athens. Stoicism represents the first fruits of that interaction between west and east which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Chrysippos addressed himself to the congenial task of assimilating, developing and systematizing the doctrines bequeathed to him by Zeno and others and, above all, securing them in their stereotyped and final form.

Descriptive and historical information about the sculptures compiled by Dr. Douglas O. Eason.