Diogenes of Sinope

Cynics

Named after the Greek word for dog (kyon): our word 'cynicism' derives from it.

💡 Did you know? The Cynics despised wealth and convention: their name comes from the Greek „kyon“ (dog), for they lived shamelessly „like dogs“.

in a barrel

The proverbial 'barrel of Diogenes': symbol of radical freedom from needs.

💡 Did you know? His „barrel“ was really a large earthenware jar (pithos): a symbol of his utter lack of needs.

Stand out of my sun

Alexander reportedly said, impressed: 'If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.'

💡 Did you know? When the most powerful man in the world offered to grant him a wish, Diogenes asked only that he stop blocking the sun.

a human being

A staged provocation: true human beings, living according to reason, were rare.

💡 Did you know? 'Diogenes with the lantern' became a classic motif in art history.

A child drank from its hands

'A child has beaten me in simplicity': even the cup was one possession too many.

💡 Did you know? Seeing a child drink from its cupped hands, he threw away his last possession: his cup.

Antisthenes

A pupil of Socrates: the Cynics invoked Socrates' simple way of life.

💡 Did you know? Antisthenes wanted no pupils and at first drove Diogenes off with a stick: but he persisted.

autarkeia

Only he is free who needs nothing that can be taken from him: plus life 'according to nature' rather than convention.

💡 Did you know? „Autarky“ (self-sufficiency) was the Cynic ideal: free is he who needs nothing.

citizen of the world

The first recorded use of the word: cosmopolitanism begins with Diogenes.

💡 Did you know? Asked where he was from, he answered „cosmopolites“: citizen of the world; he thereby coined the word.

Sinope

Legend says he came to Athens as an exile after his father's coin-debasing affair.

💡 Did you know? He was exiled from his home town of Sinope on the Black Sea over a coin-defacing scandal.

a Socrates gone mad

The two shared a cordial enmity: Diogenes trampled Plato's carpets: 'with Diogenes' pride,' Plato retorted.

💡 Did you know? Plato is said to have called him „a Socrates gone mad“: radical in substance, wild in manner.

Corinth

According to tradition, on the very day Alexander the Great died in Babylon.

💡 Did you know? The Corinthians honoured him with a pillar: topped by a marble dog.

Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes of Sinope was the most famous of the Cynic philosophers: he lived in a jar and provoked with radical want of needs.

💡 Did you know? When Alexander the Great offered him a wish, he asked only: „Stand out of my sunlight.“