We may recall here the Orphic lines:
Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετο,
Ζεὺς ὕστατος ἀρχικέραυνος,
Ζεὺς κεφαλὴ, Ζεὺς μέσσα
Διὸς δ᾽ ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται.
The pantheistic sense of the word Ζεύς (v. 2) ought not to be overlooked. God, in the Stoic creed, was not personal (in the Christian sense), but an unknown living Power immanent in Nature—natura naturans, εἱμαρμένῃ, νοῦς.
ἑνὸς μίμημα: see Driver on Gen. i. 3. Philo describes the spirit (the essence of man's rational part) as a “figure and impress of divine power,” and goes on to say μίμημα καὶ ἀπεικόνισμα ἄνθρωπος (i.e. φύσεως λογικῆς of which God is the ἄρχέτυπον); cf. Musonius ap. Stob. καθόλου δὲ ἄνθρωπος μίμημα μὲν θεοῦ μόνον τῶν ἐπιγείων ἐστίν. Clem. Rom. speaks of man as an impress of the divine image (ad Cor. i. 33; cf. Heb. i. 3); so in Wisd. ii. 23 we read, “God created man to be immortal and made him to be an image of His own eternity” (proper being, R. V.). Plat. Tim. 37ᶜ develops this thought. For the sense cf. Hom. Il. xvii. 447, Odyss. xviii. 131.
6. Cf. Ps. cxlv. 1. Aratus, Phænom. I, ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα τὸν οὐδέποτ᾽ ἄνδρες ἐῶμεν | ἄρρητον.
7. Cleanthes seems here to be endeavouring to interpret the Cynic formula, “live agreeably to nature” (ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν). But in his hands it gets an added meaning, for in nature (φύσις)—whether the nature of things or man's inward nature—the Stoic doctor finds a common reason (λόγος) and a common law (νόμος). See James Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles (chapter on “Rigorism”); Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, lect. i.
We may illustrate the religious attitude of Cleanthes still further by the lines reproduced by Epictetus (Enchirid. 53):
