Diogenes , known as The Cynic, was born in Sinope , a city in the Paphlagonia region , around 412 BC. Accused with his father of counterfeiting coins, he fled to Athens when the latter was imprisoned, fearing the same fate.
Diogenes, disciple of Antisthenes
Once there, he went in search of Antisthenes, founder of the Cynic school, because his way of thinking and his teachings caught his attention. When she came before the teacher, Diogenes asked her to be his disciple, but Antisthenes, giving him a good blow with his staff, refused him. Far from giving up, Diogenes bowed his head before him and said: “Hit, hit. You won’t find a stick hard enough to make me go away. This conduct surprised Antisthenes, who finally accepted him as a disciple.
Far from his land and without resources, Diogenes found himself in absolute poverty. One day he watched as a little mouse ran and jumped, free from fear and worry of being surprised; he did not seem distressed by not finding shelter or food. This made Diogenes reflect on his existence. It was then that he decided to live only with what was absolutely essential. His possessions were a jug, a bag, a cane and his famous jar, where he lived.
Diogenes treated everyone with sarcasm. He accused Plato and his followers of being shallow and frivolous. He called great orators “slaves of the people.” No one was spared from his scathing comments. He ate, talked and slept where and when he wanted. He was barefoot and violated all the “rules” of “good coexistence.” One day, pointing to the portico of the temple of Jupiter, he exclaimed: “What a stupendous dining room the Athenians have built for me!”
He used to say, “When I see the rulers, the physicists, and the philosophers that the world has, I am tempted to believe that, by his wisdom, man stands above the beasts. But when, on the other hand, I observe the soothsayers, the interpreters of dreams and those who believe they are great because they have honors and riches, I cannot help but think that man is the most idiotic of animals».
The part of Philosophy to which Diogenes belonged was moral, although he never completely abandoned the other branches of this knowledge.
One day, Diogenes began to give a speech in the street about something that he considered important and serious for the Athenians. But no one seemed to listen to him. People passed by, without heeding his words. Then he began to sing, rather, to chirp and chirp like a bird. He was soon surrounded by a crowd that kept looking at him, amazed. Immediately, the philosopher took the opportunity to reproach them for his attitude: “You stop to listen as a fool imitates a bird and you pass by when a wise man talks to you about things that should matter to you.”
One of his most famous anecdotes was that of the lantern. On that occasion, he was walking around the wise man at night, with a lit torch in his hand, and someone asked him what he was looking for. His answer was: “I’m looking for a man.”
Diogenes and Alexander the Great
Once upon a time, Alexander the Great passed through Corinth and found out that Diogenes was there, he was curious to meet him. The great Alexander found him sunbathing, lying next to his jar and said: “I am the great King Alexander.” “And I the dog Diogenes,” replied the philosopher. “Aren’t you afraid of me?” asked the ruler. “Are you good or bad?” Diogenes asked. “I’m good,” Alejandro answered. “And why should I fear someone who is good?” sentenced the wise man.
Alexander the Great was amazed at Diogenes’ responses and comments. He was not strange. The destitute sage was a man who seemed to be above all worldly concerns. “Which of the two is richer: the one who is content with his blanket and his bag, or the one who, having an entire kingdom, is not satisfied and exposes himself daily to innumerable dangers just to extend his limits?”
This question puzzled the great Alexander. The members of his court felt very offended by the treatment that the philosopher received from the ruler, without even having set foot in the palace. Alejandro, realizing this, told them. “If I weren’t Alexander the Great, I’d like to be Diogenes.”
At Aegina , Diogenes was captured and taken to the slave market to be sold. He didn’t seem to care much about the situation. Furthermore, he suggested to the crowd that if anyone wanted a master, they should buy him. A man named Xeniades bought him, entrusted him with the education of his children, a task that the philosopher faithfully performed, and granted him freedom.
During the time he was a slave, some of his friends tried to free him. But Diogenes refused, arguing that “the lion is not a slave to the one who feeds him; the one he feeds is a slave to the lion ». When meditating on his life, Diogenes said with a smile that all the curses of the tragedies had fallen on him. He had no home, no city, no country, and lived in poverty day after day; but he firmly resisted fate, rules with nature, and disorders of the soul with reason.
Some say that, when he was nearly ninety years old, he ate something that gave him indigestion and died. Others, that when he felt like a burden at that age, he himself held his breath and caused his own death.
Next to the tomb where Diogenes was buried, the people of Athens erected a white marble dog, in honor of the name he had earned for how he lived. His death occurred, in Corinth, in the year 323 BC in the first year of the fourteenth Greek Olympics, the same day that Alexander the Great died in Babylon.
