TEORIAS COSMOLÓGICAS NO ESTOICISMO ANTIGO

This paper describes some of the main explanatory points concerning the system of the Universe, just as it has been understood by the ancient Stoics. If, in a first analysis, it can be included in preceding systems of the Greek philosophers (concerning its genesis, structure, way of perpetuation), there are other divergent aspects that deserve our attention. Following a tradition largely disseminated in the Ancient East, from India to the Arabs and to Mesopotamia, stands out their theory of the universal burning and the conception of cosmic cycles, according to which the Universe is submitted to an eternal movement of deaths and renewals. We must equally point out, against the models of Plato and Aristotle, their defence of the extra-cosmic void that served as a basis to the development of physical theories whose nature is strictly stoic.