Eighteenth century Enlightenment author, Voltaire's title character, "Zadig" possesses every virtue and material good needed
for happiness, yet he is constantly tossed about by fate, at the mercy of the some of the worst luck imaginable. The paper shows that the questions that are raised, therefore, involve the conditions on which happiness depends, the qualities needed to be happy, the effects that evil persons can have on one's happiness and the role played by merit, fate, chance or Providence in one's life. The paper shows that these were not new questions when Voltaire raised them in the middle of the
eighteenth century. They were central issues that had absorbed the Greeks more than one thousand years before "Zadig" was invented. The paper shows how this theme of human happiness was reflected in their art (such as Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus"), in their histories (the writings of Herodotus and Thucydides) and in their philosophy (Plato's "Republic"). The paper looks at the similarities and differences between the philosophies during both time periods.