Diogenes of Sinope

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Diogenes by John William Waterhouse, depicting his lamp, tub and diet of onions.

Diogenes "the Cynic", Greek philosopher, was born in Sinope (in modern day Sinop, Turkey) about 412 BC (according to other sources 399 BC), and died in 323 BC at Corinth. According to Diogenes Laërtius, his death occurred on the day that Alexander the Great died at Babylon. (Another legend says that Socrates died on Diogenes' birthdate.)

Contents

1 Life
2 Ideas
3 In art
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

Life

His father, Icesias, a money-changer, was imprisoned or exiled on the charge of adulterating the coinage. Diogenes was included in the charge, and went to Athens with one attendant, whom he dismissed, saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?"

Attracted by the ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, a student of Socrates, Diogenes became his pupil, despite the brutality with which he was received, and rapidly surpassed his master both in reputation and in the austerity of his life. Unlike the other citizens of Athens, he avoided earthly pleasures. This attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what he perceived as the folly, pretence, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct.

The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself to the vicissitudes of weather by living in a tub belonging to the temple of Cybele. He destroyed the single wooden bowl he possessed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands. When asked how to avoid the temptation to lust of the flesh, Diogenes began masturbating. When rebuked later about it, he replied, "If only I could soothe my belly by rubbing it."

He used to stroll through the Agora at full daylight with a torch (or, as legend sometimes has it, a lantern). When asked about it, he would answer, "I am just looking for an honest man".

On a voyage to Aegina, he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Crete to a Corinthian named Xeniades. Being asked his trade, he replied that he knew no trade but that of governing men, and that he wished to be sold to a man who needed a master. As tutor to Xeniades' two sons, he lived in Corinth for the rest of his life, which he devoted entirely to preaching the doctrines of virtuous self-control.

At the Isthmian Games he lectured to large audiences, who turned to him from his one-time teacher Antisthenes. It was, probably, at one of these festivals that he met Alexander the Great. The story goes that Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher (in his tub), asked if there was any favour he might do for him. Diogenes replied, “Stand out of my sunlight.” Alexander still declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes." (In another account, Alexander found the philosopher rummaging through a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, "I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.")

When Plato gave Socrates's definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into Plato's school, and said, "This is Plato's man." After this incident, "with broad flat nails" was added to Plato's definition.

On his death, of which there are several accounts, the Corinthians erected to his memory a pillar on which rested a dog of Parian marble.

Ideas

Virtue, for Diogenes, consisted in the avoidance of all physical pleasure. He maintained that pain and hunger were positively helpful in the pursuit of goodness; that all the artificial growths of society were incompatible with truth and goodness; and that morality implies a return to nature and simplicity. So great was his austerity and simplicity that the Stoics would later claim him to be a sage or "sophos", a perfect man. In his words, "Man has complicated every simple gift of the gods."

Diogenes is the first person known to have said, "I am a citizen of the whole world (cosmos)," rather than of any particular city or state (polis). He thereby invented the concept of cosmopolitanism.

Along with Antisthenes, Crates of Thebes, and Xeno, Diogenes is considered one of the founders of Cynicism.

In art

Both in ancient and in modern times, his personality has appealed strongly to sculptors and to painters. Ancient busts exist in the museums of the Vatican, the Louvre, and the Capitol. The interview between Diogenes and Alexander is represented in an ancient marble bas-relief found in the Villa Albani. Rubens, Jordaens, Steen, Van der Werff, Jeaurat, Salvator Rosa, Nicolas Poussin, Karel Dujardin. and Giovannino (who declared himself as rebirth of Diogenes) have painted scenes from his life.

References

Diogenes, Herakleitos and Diogenes, translated by Guy Davenport (Bolinas: Grey Fox Press, 1979. ISBN 0912516364 (Complete fragments of Diogenes translated into English)

The chief ancient authority for his life is Diogenes Laertius vi. 20; see also Mayor's notes on Juvenal, Satires, xiv. 308-3 14.

External links