The reason for the name Cynics is uncertain. The name of the school comes from the Greek adjective κυνικός ( kunikos), meaning “dog-like,” after the Greek noun for dog κύων ( kuōn, genitive kunos). Along with his teacher Antisthenes, he was the founder of an influential school of philosophy known as the Cynics. In spite of his antisocial behavior, Diogenes’ influence in ancient philosophy was enormous. Leaving, he is said to have remarked, “If I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes.” Diogenes, who was enjoying the warmth of the autumn sun, answered, “Stand aside to stop blocking the sun.” This abrupt response, showing his utter contempt for the power and prestige that Alexander craved, spawned the large number of artistic renderings that followed.Īlthough Alexander’s attendants took umbrage at Diogenes’ rudeness to their king, Alexander himself was not displeased.

In the most famous exchange of the meeting, Alexander asked Diogenes whether there was anything he could do for him. Alexander, who was an enthusiastic reader of the Iliad, is said to have quoted a line (2.24) spoken by the divine Dream to Agamemnon: “To sleep the whole night through ill befits a man of counsel.” Diogenes, awakening, countered by quoting the very next line while still half-asleep, “Who has people to watch over and a multitude of cares.”Īccording to Diogenes Laertius in his life of Diogenes (at 6.60), Alexander stood over the philosopher and said, “I am Alexander the great king.” To which Diogenes responded, “I am Diogenes the dog.” When Alexander asked what he had done to be called a dog, he said, “I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.” I spy on your absence of wisdom and common sense, which is the only thing forcing you to go and gamble your kingdom and your life in a single moment.”Īccording to Epictetus in his Discourses (at 3.22.92), at the time of the encounter in Corinth, Diogenes was asleep when Alexander approached. According to Plutarch (at Moralia 70d), upon being asked by Philip whether he was a spy, Diogenes had said, “I most certainly am a spy, Philip. The philosopher had supposedly been taken captive by his father King Philip II during an earlier campaign against the Greeks. Most likely Alexander was well aware of who Diogenes was. Different versions of the story of the meeting are found in various ancient sources,* most notably in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander (at 14) and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (at 6.38). Alexander would have been twenty at the time, and Diogenes would have been around seventy. The only occasion on which Alexander visited Corinth was soon after the death of his father in 336 BCE. The brief encounter of the two is generally said to have taken place in Corinth, where Diogenes lived in his later years. Caricatures of him in later times often included a lighted lamp that he is said to have carried even in the daytime, as he went in futile search for an honest man. It was widely known that he urinated, defecated, and masturbated in public, to show his contempt for the conventions of society. He is usually portrayed as almost naked and unkempt, with long hair and a beard.

He can be assumed to have been dressed at the time of the meeting in regal attire befitting his status and to have been accompanied by a retinue of attendants.ĭiogenes was the antisocial, ascetic philosopher who lived in a barrel and rejected all of the norms of civilized behavior. Alexander was the brash young king of Macedonia, who had conquered Greece and was on his way to conquering the world. It is hard to imagine a more unlikely pair.

Wikimedia Commons includes more than fifty artistic renderings of an apocryphal meeting of the young Alexander of Macedonia (later to be known as “the Great”) and the much older Diogenes of Sinope (later to be known as “the Cynic”). For centuries of European art, it was one of the most frequently portrayed moments from classical antiquity.

Diogenes philosophy