![]() The scene in which Diogenes discards his cup has been painted by Poussin, Rosa, and Martin and the story of Diogenes begging from a statue has been depicted by Restout. Others who have painted him with his famous lantern include de Ribera, Castiglione, Petrini, Gérôme, Bastien-Lepage, and Waterhouse. The famous story of Diogenes searching for an "honest man" has been depicted by Jordaens, van Everdingen, van der Werff, Pannini, and Corinth. The interview between Diogenes and Alexander is represented in an ancient marble bas-relief found in the Villa Albani.Īmong artists who have painted the famous encounter of Diogenes with Alexander there are works by de Crayer, de Vos, Assereto, Langetti, Sevin, Sebastiano Ricci, Gandolfi, Wink, Abildgaard, Monsiau, Martin, and Daumier. Ancient busts exist in the museums of the Vatican, the Louvre, and the Capitol. Art Diogenes by Jules Bastien-Lepageīoth in ancient and in modern times, Diogenes' personality has appealed strongly to sculptors and to painters. All we have is a number of anecdotes concerning his life and sayings attributed to him in a number of scattered classical sources. None of Diogenes’ many writings has survived, but details of his life come in the form of anecdotes ( chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. There he passed his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates, who taught it to Zeno of Citium, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy. ![]() Diogenes was also responsible for publicly mocking Alexander the Great.Īfter being captured by pirates and sold into slavery, Diogenes eventually settled in Corinth. He embarrassed Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaged his lectures. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He begged for a living and slept like a homeless person in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace. There are many tales about him dogging Antisthenes' footsteps and becoming his faithful hound. He used his simple lifestyle and behaviour to criticise the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. He believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. ![]() Diogenes modelled himself on the example of Hercules. After being exiled, he moved to Athens to debunk cultural conventions. ![]() His father minted coins for a living, and when Diogenes took to "defacement of the currency," he was banished from Sinope. Many stories attributed to him are found in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophersĭiogenes of Sinope was a controversial figure. Also known as Diogenes the Cynic, he was born in Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey), an Ionian colony on the Black Sea, in 412 or 404 BC and died at Corinth in 323 BC. "He would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry or who were about to take a voyage, and yet did not take a voyage or who were about to engage in affairs of state, and did not do so and those who were about to rear children, yet did not rear any and those who were preparing to take up their abode with princes, and yet did not take it up."- Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophersĭiogenes of Sinope was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. "It was habit to do everything in public, the works of Demeter and Aphrodite alike." Diogenes refutes the language of philosophers with that of the clown: "When Plato put forward the definition of the human as a featherless biped and was applauded for it, he tore the feathers from a rooster and brought it into Plato's school saying, 'That is Plato's human' as a result, the phrase was added: 'with flattened nails'." - Critique of Cynical Reason (1983) by Peter Sloterdijk "Greek kynicism discovers the animal body in the human and its gestures as arguments it develops a pantomimic materialism. I've seen Plato's cups and table, but not his cupness and tableness "Once, while Diogenes was sitting in the sun in the Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him, "Ask any favour you choose of me." And he replied, " Cease to shade me from the sun.""- Diogenes of Sinope in "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers" "When Plato was discoursing about his " ideas," and using the nouns "tableness" and "cupness " "I, O Plato!" interrupted Diogenes, "see a table and a cup, but I see no tableness or cupness." Plato made answer, "That is natural enough, for you have eyes, by which a cup and a table are contemplated but you have not intellect, by which tableness and cupness are seen." - Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
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