Abstract
AtM.7.433 the sceptic Sextus Empiricus infers from the statement that the early Stoics did not profess themselves to be sages that ‘Cleanthes did not know whether he was a human being or a beast more complex than Typhon.’ Since in two other passages, atM.7.264 andPH2.22, Sextus ascribes (variations upon) this confession of ignorance to Socrates rather than Cleanthes, whom Sextus otherwise obviously presents as one of his dogmatic adversaries, it has been alleged that the reference to one of the heads of the Stoic school must simply have been a ‘wilful misreading’ on Sextus' behalf. As I hope to show, there are good reasons for Sextus to refer to a Stoic here, or rather even better reasons for a Stoic to have brought up this reference himself.As has been picked up well in modern scholarship, Sextus' inference atM.7.433 (as in the other two passages) ultimately refers back to the beginning of thePhaedrus, at 229e–30a, which contains an image (or perhaps even self-portrait) of Socrates.
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