Where this was said
Zeno and the Founding of Stoicism
At 13:46 · chapter starts 7:05
Zeno was not an Athenian but a Phoenician merchant trading in Tyrian purple dye — a reminder that ancient Greece was a sprawling, cosmopolitan commercial world. After losing everything in a shipwreck, he washed up penniless in Athens, heard someone reading the story of Hercules at a crossroads, and followed a passing Cynic philosopher named Crates who became his teacher [1] — Ryan Holiday "Stoicism was born from disaster. Zeno, a Phoenician merchant, shipwrecked penniless in Athens, wandered into the agora, heard someone readi…" 07:00 . Holiday recounts the remarkable story of Zeno visiting the Oracle at Delphi, who told him he would become wise when he started 'having conversations with the dead' — a prophecy he only understood when he discovered that reading the works of Socrates was exactly that [2] — Ryan Holiday "Before founding Stoicism, Zeno visited the Oracle at Delphi and was told: 'You will begin to become wise when you start having conversation…" 12:36 . Zeno's school was named not after himself but after the place where he taught: the Stoa Poikile, a public colonnade, reflecting the informal, accessible nature of early Stoic philosophy. Holiday notes the fitting symbolism that Stoicism was born from catastrophe.
Roughly 500 years separate Zeno founding Stoicism in Athens from the Roman Stoics like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius who are most widely read today.
Before founding Stoicism, Zeno visited the Oracle at Delphi and was told: 'You will begin to become wise when you start having conversations with the dead.' He didn't understand it. Then he shipwrecked in Athens and heard someone reading the words of Socrates — who was dead. That was the conversation. Reading is talking to the dead.
