This poem by Cleanthes, written circa 240 B.C., is one of the earliest statements of Stoic philosophy, and one of the first recorded statements of the concept of Natural Law.

This concept presented humanity with the order of Nature defined as the will of Zeus, the supreme Roman god of the time.

The forces of health and beauty were revealed as divine principles that ordered our world.  The poet describes a new perception of the divine which gave rise to our social understandings of health and Natural Law.
 

Hymn to Zeus

By Cleanthes

O God most glorious, called by many a name,

Nature's great King, through endless years the same;

Omnipotence, who by thy just decree

Controllest all, hail, Zeus, for unto thee

Behoves thy creatures in all lands to call.

We are thy children, we alone, of all.

On earth's broad ways that wander to and fro,

Bearing thine image whereso'er we go.

Wherefore with songs of praise thy power I will forth show.

Lo!  Yonder Heaven, that round the earth is wheeled,

Follows thy guidance, still to thee doth yield

Glad homage;  thine unconquerable hand

Such flaming minister, the levin brand,

Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might

Pulsates through all that Nature brings to light;

Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows

Through all, and in the light celestial glows

Of stars both great and small.  A King of Kings

Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings

To birth, whatever on land or in the sea

Is wrought, or in high heaven's immensity;

Save what the sinner works infatuate,

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight:

Chaos to thee in order:  in thine eyes

The unloved is lovely, who didst harmonize

Things evil with things good, that there should be

One Word through all things everlastingly.

One Word -- whose voice alas!  the wicked spurn;

Insatiate for the good their spirits yearn:

Yet seeing see not, neither hearing hear

God’s universal law, which those revere,

By reason guided, happiness who win.

The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of sin

Self-prompted follow:  for an idle name

Vainly they wrestle in the lists of fame:

Others inordinately riches Woo,

Or dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.

Now here, now there they wander, fruitless still,

For ever seeking good and finding ill.

Zeus the all-bountiful, whom darkness shrouds,

Whose lightning lightens in the thunderclouds;

Thy children save from error's deadly way:

Turn thou the darkness from their souls away:

Vouchsafe that unto knowledge they attain;

For thou by knowledge art made strong to reign

O'er all, and all things rulest righteously.

So by thee honoured, we will honour thee,

Praising thy works continually with songs,

As mortals should;  no higher need belongs

E’en to the gods, than justly to adore

The universal law for evermore.