Irlandos at 21:38, June 15, 2006

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'''Diogenes''', "the Cynic", [[Greece|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 Laertius]], on the day on which [[Alexander the Great]] died at Babylon. (Because of the distance, and with the date of Diogenes' death not being known exactly, Laertius probably retold a legend. Another legend says that [[Socrates]] died on Diogenes' birthday.)

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 pupil of [[Socrates]]), he 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. The stories which are told of him are probably true; in any case, they serve to 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]]. The single wooden bowl he possessed he destroyed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands.

Contrary to the other citizens of [[Athens]], he avoided earthly pleasures. This attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what Diogenes perceived as the folly, pretence, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct. He used to stroll through the [[Agora]] with a torch at full daylight. When asked about it, he would answer "I am just looking for an honest man". Legend sometimes has him holding a lantern, rather than a torch.

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 the two sons of Xeniades, 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 [[Antisthenes]]. It was, probably, at one of these festivals that he met [[Alexander the Great]]. The story goes that Alexander, thrilled at coming face to face with 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, I would 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 there rested a dog of Parian marble. Virtue, for him, consisted in the avoidance of all physical pleasure; that pain and hunger were positively helpful in the pursuit of goodness; that all the artificial growths of society appeared to him incompatible with truth and goodness; that moralization implies a return to nature and simplicity. So great was his austerity and simplicity, that the [[Stoic|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." He has been credited with going to extremes of impropriety in pursuance of these ideas; probably, however, his reputation has suffered from the undoubted immorality of some of his successors. 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.

Diogenes is the first person known to have thought, and 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.

The chief ancient authority for his life is [[Diogenes Laertius]] vi. 20.

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

{{Credit wikipedia}}

==External links==
*[http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dldiogenes.htm Diogenes of Sinope, by Diogenes Laertius, translated by C.D. Yonge]
*[http://www.bartleby.com/66/54/16754.html Diogenes of Sinope; The Columbia World of Quotations]
*[http://www.benbest.com/philo/diogenes.html Diogenes of Sinope]
*[http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/diogenes.htm A day with Diogenes]
*[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.html James Grout: ''Diogenes the Cynic'', part of the Encyclopædia Romana]
*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=46514&dopt=Citation%20The%20Lancet 1975 Lancet article introducing Diogenes syndrome (via PubMed)]

[[Category:412 BC births]]
[[Category:323 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient philosophers]]
[[Category:Cynic philosophers]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Diogenes''', "the Cynic", [[Greece|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 Laertius]], on the day on which [[Alexander the Great]] died at Babylon. (Because of the distance, and with the date of Diogenes' death not being known exactly, Laertius probably retold a legend. Another legend says that [[Socrates]] died on Diogenes' birthday.)
+'''Diogenes''', "the Cynic", [[Greece|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 Laertius, on the day on which [[Alexander the Great]] died at Babylon. (Because of the distance, and with the date of Diogenes' death not being known exactly, Laertius probably retold a legend. Another legend says that [[Socrates]] died on Diogenes' birthday.)
 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 pupil of [[Socrates]]), he 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. The stories which are told of him are probably true; in any case, they serve to 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]]. The single wooden bowl he possessed he destroyed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands.
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Diogenes is the first person known to have thought, and 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.
-The chief ancient authority for his life is [[Diogenes Laertius]] vi. 20.
+The chief ancient authority for his life is Roman writer Diogenes Laertius vi. 20.
 ==References==

Diogenes - Revision history

Irlandos at 21:38, June 15, 2006

Irlandos at 21:33, June 15, 2006