Plato says that Zeno's writings were "brought to Athens for the first time on the occasion of" the visit of Zeno and Parmenides. The main sources on the nature of Zeno's arguments on motion, in fact, come from the writings of Aristotle and Simplicius of Cilicia. WorksĪlthough many ancient writers refer to the writings of Zeno, none of his works survive intact. After failing, he had "with his own teeth bit off his tongue, he spit it in the tyrant’s face". According to Plutarch, Zeno attempted to kill the tyrant Demylus. Valerius Maximus recounts a conspiracy against the tyrant Phalaris, but this would be impossible as Phalaris had died before Zeno was even born. According to Laërtius, Heraclides Lembus, within his Satyrus, these events occurred against Diomedon instead of Nearchus. Zeno may have also interacted with other tyrants. Within Men of the Same Name, Demetrius said that the nose was bit off instead. He "did not let go until he lost his life and the tyrant lost that part of his body". When Nearchus leaned in to listen to the secret, Zeno bit his ear.
According to Valerius Maximus, when he was tortured to reveal the name of his colleagues in conspiracy, Zeno refused to reveal their names, although he said that he did have a secret that would be advantageous for Nearchus to hear. Eventually, Zeno was arrested and tortured. Other perhaps less reliable details of Zeno's life are given by Diogenes Laërtius in his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, where it is reported that he was the son of Teleutagoras, but the adopted son of Parmenides, was "skilled to argue both sides of any question, the universal critic", and that he was arrested and perhaps killed at the hands of a tyrant of Elea.Īccording to Diogenes Laërtius, Zeno conspired to overthrow Nearchus the tyrant. Plato says that Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth … reported to have been beloved by Parmenides". Assuming an age for Socrates of around 20 and taking the date of Socrates' birth as 469 BC gives an approximate date of birth for Zeno of 490 BC. In the dialogue of Parmenides, Plato describes a visit to Athens by Zeno and Parmenides, at a time when Parmenides is "about 65", Zeno is "nearly 40", and Socrates is "a very young man". Although written nearly a century after Zeno's death, the primary source of biographical information about Zeno is Plato's Parmenides and he is also mentioned in Aristotle's Physics.
Little is known for certain about Zeno's life. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell described as "immeasurably subtle and profound". Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. By silence, I hear other men's imperfections and conceal my own.
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