According to some stories, he died after being bitten by a dog. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.Īccounts of Diogenes's death differ. Alexander visits Diogenes living in a barrel at Corinth in an early 19th-century engraving. Diogenes replied that he wanted Alexander to get out of his way because he was blocking the sunlight.
In Corinth Diogenes is said to have met with Alexander the Great, who famously told Diogenes he would offer the philosopher anything he wanted. His cockiness on the auction-block attracted the attention of a man from Corinth called Xeniades.ĭiogenes travelled back to Corinth to manage Xeniades's estate, and to tutor his two sons. It was on this voyage that - if the later accounts are to be believed - he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Sea-dogs and piratesĪt some point, Diogenes the dog became a sea-dog, and he took a voyage to Aegina. It is from this nickname that the philosophical tradition started by Diogenes took its name: in Greek, kynikos means “dog-like.” As far as the Cynic followers of Diogenes were concerned, there was much that was admirable and worthy of emulation in the lives of dogs because dogs live naturally, without the encumbrances of culture and conventional morality. Once, when asked why he was called “the Dog”, Diogenes calmly replied that: I fawn on the people who give me something, bark at those who don’t, and sink my teeth into scoundrels.ĭiogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes, p. But although these terms were meant as insults, Diogenes took the name to heart. Antisthenes had also been known by this insult (or by the even better-sounding “downright dog”). It is this behaviour that gained Diogenes the nickname “the Dog” or kynikos. When the citizens of Athens complained about impropriety, Diogenes apparently retorted, “If only rubbing the stomach could alleviate hunger pains as easily.”
For the following few years, Diogenes lived, ate and even publicly masturbated in his street-dwelling. He became homeless by choice, and he took up residence in a large earthenware storage jar in the street. And he resolved to live unconventionally. When he moved to Athens, Diogenes became a student of Antisthenes, the ascetically minded follower of Socrates. Diogenes understood this as a call to overturn the everyday currency of customs and moral norms that underpinned Greek society. Some accounts say that after fleeing Sinope, Diogenes went to consult the Delphic oracle who told him to keep on defacing the currency. But the textual records are supported by archaeological evidence of defaced coins bearing the name of Hicesias, giving more weight to the story. The exact details of the scandal differ depending on whose account you read, and it's not clear what went so wrong at the Sinope mint.
But there was a scandal about counterfeit, defaced or adulterated coinage, which led to Diogenes fleeing into exile in Athens. He was born around 410 BCE, by which time Sinope was a busy commercial hub, standing at the end of a trade route that stretched all the way to Mesopotamia.Īccording to early accounts of Diogenes's life, his father Hicesias was in charge of managing the Sinope mint. A fierce critic of the hypocrisy of society, he chose instead to live in accord with nature.ĭiogenes - also known as the Dog - was a native of the state of Sinope on the Black Sea coast. Diogenes was the original drop-out philosopher.
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