(412-323 B.C.)
[Illustration: Diogenes. [TN]]
Diogenes the Cynic, son of Icesius a banker, was born about the 91st
Olympiad, in Sinope, a city of Paphlagonia. He was accused of having
forged money, in concert with his father. Icesius was arrested, and died
in prison. Alarmed at the fate of his father, Diogenes fled to Athens.
When he had arrived at that city, he inquired for Antisthenes; but the
latter, having resolved never to take a scholar, repulsed him and beat
him off with his stick. Diogenes was by no means discouraged by this
treatment. "Strike--fear not," said he to him, bowing his head; "you
shall never find a stick hard enough to make me run off, so long as you
continue to speak." Overcome by the importunity of Diogenes, Antisthenes
yielded, and permitted him to become his scholar.
Banished from his native country and without any resource, Diogenes was
reduced to great indigence. He perceived one day, a mouse running
briskly up and down, without any fear of being surprised by the approach
of night, without any anxiety about a lodging-place, and even without
thinking of food. This reconciled him to his misery. He resolved to live
at his ease, without constraint, and to dispense with everything which
was not absolutely necessary for the preservation of life. He doubled
his cloak, that by rolling himself up in it, it might serve the purposes
both of a bed and of a coverlet. His movables consisted of a bag, a jug,
and a staff; and wherever he went he always carried his furniture along
with him. His stick, however, he used only when he went to the country,
or on some emergency. Persons really lame were, he said, neither the
deaf nor the blind, but those who had no bag.
He always went barefoot, nor did he wear sandals even when the ground
was covered with snow. He endeavored also to accustom himself to eat raw
flesh, but this was a point of perfection to which he never could
arrive. He entreated a person of his acquaintance to afford him some
little hole in his lodging, to which he might occasionally retire. But
as he was dilatory in giving him a positive answer he took possession of
an earthen tub, which he always carried about with him, and which was
the only house he ever had. In the heat of summer when the fields were
scorched by the sun, he used to roll among the burning sands, and in
winter to embrace statues covered with snow, that he might accustom
himself to endure without pain the inclemencies of heat and cold.
He treated everyone with contempt. He accused Plato and his scholars of
dissipation, and of the crime of loving good cheer. All the orators he
styled "the slaves of the people." Crowns were, he said, as brittle
marks of glory as bubbles of water, which burst in the formation; that
theatrical representations were the wonder of fools only. In a word,
nothing escaped his satiric humor.
He ate, he spoke, he slept, without discrimination, wherever chance
placed him. Pointing to Jupiter's porticos on one occasion, he
exclaimed: "How excellent a dining-room the Athenians have built for me
there!"
He frequently said: "When I consider the rulers, the physicians, and the
philosophers whom the world contains, I am tempted to think man
considerably elevated by his wisdom above the brutes; but when, on the
other hand, I behold augurs, interpreters of dreams, and people who can
be inflated with pride on account of their riches or honors, I cannot
help thinking him the most foolish of all animals."
When taking a walk one day, he observed a child drinking from the hollow
of his hand. He felt greatly affronted at the sight. "What!" exclaimed
Diogenes, "do children know better than I do with what things a man
ought to be contented?" Upon which he took his jug out of his bag, and
instantly broke it, as a superfluous movable.
The province in philosophy to which Diogenes attached himself, was that
of morals. He did not, however, entirely neglect the other sciences. He
was possessed of lively parts, and easily anticipated objections.
[Illustration: Diogenes in his tub.]
As he was one day discoursing on a very serious and important subject
everyone passed by without giving himself the least concern about what
Diogenes was saying. Upon this, he began to sing. The people crowded
about him. He immediately seized the opportunity of giving them a severe
reprimand for flocking about him and attending with eagerness to a
mere trifle, while they would not so much as listen to things of the
greatest importance.
Walking out once at noon, with a lighted torch in his hand, he was asked
what he was in quest of. "I am searching for a _man_," said he. On
another occasion he called out in the middle of a street: "Ho!
_men_--_men_." A great many people assembling around him, Diogenes beat
them away with his stick, saying "I was calling for men."
Alexander passing through Corinth on one occasion, had the curiosity to
see Diogenes, who happened to be there at that time. He found him
basking in the sun in the grove Craneum, where he was cementing his tub.
"I am," said he to him, "the great king Alexander." "And I," replied the
philosopher, "am the dog Diogenes." "Are you not afraid of me?"
continued Alexander. "Are you good or bad?" returned Diogenes. "I am
good," rejoined Alexander. "And who would be afraid of one who is good?"
replied Diogenes.
Alexander admired the penetration and free manners of Diogenes. After
some conversation, he said to him: "I see, Diogenes, that you are in
want of many things; and I shall be happy to have an opportunity of
assisting you: ask of me what you will." "Retire a little to one side
then," replied Diogenes; "you are depriving me of the rays of the sun."
It is no wonder that Alexander stood astonished at seeing a man so
completely above every human concern. "Which of the two is richest?"
continued Diogenes: "he who is content with his cloak and his bag, or he
for whom a whole kingdom is not sufficient, but who is daily exposing
himself to a thousand dangers in order to extend its limits?"
Alexander's courtiers felt indignant that so great a king should do so
much honor to such a dog as Diogenes, who did not even rise from his
place. Alexander perceived it, and turning about to them said: "Were I
not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes."
As Diogenes was one day going to Egina, he was taken by pirates, who
brought him to Crete, and exposed him to sale. He did not appear to be
in the least disconcerted, nor to feel the least uneasiness on account
of his misfortune. Seeing one Xeniades, corpulent and well-dressed, "I
must be sold to that person," said he, "for I perceive he needs a
master. Come, child," said he to Xeniades, as he was coming up to
purchase him, "come, child, buy a man." Being asked what he could do, he
said he had the talent of commanding men. "Crier," said he, "call out in
the market, _If anyone needs a master, let him come here and purchase
one_."
Xeniades charged him with the instruction of his children, a task which
Diogenes performed with great fidelity. He made them commit to memory
the finest passages of the poets, with an abridgment of his own
philosophy, which he composed on purpose for them. He made them exercise
themselves in running, wrestling, hunting, horsemanship, and in using
the bow and the sling. He accustomed them to very plain fare, and in
their ordinary meals to drink nothing but water. He ordered them to be
shaven to the skin. He brought them with him into the streets very
carelessly dressed, and frequently without sandals and tunics. These
children had a great affection for Diogenes, and took particular care to
recommend him to their parents.
When Diogenes was in slavery, some of his friends used their interest to
procure him his liberty. "Fools!" said he, "you are jesting. Do you not
know that the lion is not the slave of them who feed him? They who feed
him are his slaves."
Diogenes one day heard a herald publish that Dioxippus had conquered men
at the Olympic games. "Say slaves and wretches," said he to them. "It is
I who have conquered men."
When it was said to him, "You are old, you must take your ease," he
said, "What? must I slacken my pace at the end of my course? Would it
not be fitter that I should redouble my efforts?"
When walking in the streets, he observed a man let fall some bread which
he was ashamed to lift. In order to show him that a man ought never to
blush when he is desirous to save anything, Diogenes collected the
fragments of a broken bottle and carried them through the town. "I am
like good musicians," said he, "who leave the true sound that others may
catch it." To one who came to him to be his disciple, he gave a gammon
of bacon to carry and desired him to follow him. Ashamed to carry it
through the streets, the man threw it down and made off. Diogenes
meeting him a few days after, said to him, "What? has a gammon of bacon
broken our friendship?"
After reflecting on his life, Diogenes smiling said: "That all the
imprecations generally uttered in tragedies had fallen upon him; that he
had neither house, nor city, nor country; and that, in a state of
indigence he lived from day to day; but that to fortune he opposed
firmness; to custom, nature; and reason to the disorders of the soul."
Diogenes was greatly beloved and highly esteemed by the Athenians. They
publicly scourged one who had broken his tub, and gave the philosopher
another.
He was one day asked where he chose to be buried after his death? He
replied: "In an open field." "How!" said one, "are you not afraid of
becoming food for birds of prey and wild beasts?" "Then I must have my
stick beside me," said Diogenes, "to drive them away when they come."
"But," resumed the other, "you will be devoid of all sensation." "If
that be the case," replied he, "it is no matter whether they eat me or
not, seeing I shall not be sensible to it."
Some say that having arrived at the age of ninety, he ate a neat's-foot
raw, which caused indigestion to such a degree that he burst. It is said
by others that feeling himself burdened with age, he retained his
breath, and was thus the cause of his own death. His friends coming next
day, found him muffled up in his cloak. Upon first discovering him they
doubted whether he were not asleep (which with him, was very unusual);
they were soon convinced that he was dead. There was a great dispute
among them about who should bury him; but when on the eve of breaking
out into open violence, the magistrates and old men of Corinth
opportunely arrived to appease the disturbance.
Diogenes was buried beside the gate lying toward the isthmus. There was
erected, beside his tomb, a dog of Parian marble. The death of this
philosopher happened in the first year of the 114th Olympiad, on the
same day that Alexander died at Babylon.