Sayings and Anecdotes With Other Popular Moralists

by Diogenes the Cynic; Hard, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780199589241
• ISBN10: 0199589240
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Diogenes the Cynic is famed for walking the streets with a lamp in daylight, looking for an honest man. His biting wit and eccentric behavior were legendary, and it was by means of his renowned aphorisms that his moral teachings were transmitted. He scorned the conventions of civilized life, and his ascetic lifestyle and caustic opinions informed the Cynic philosophy and later influenced Stoicism. This unique edition also covers his immediate successors, such as Crates, his wife Hipparchia, and the witty moral preacher Bion. The contrasting teachings of the Cyrenaic school, founded by Aristippos, a pleasure-loving friend of Socrates, complete the volume, together with a selection of apocryphal letters.

Author Biography

Robin Hard has translated Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and is the author of the Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
The Cynic Succession	p. xxvii
The Cyrenaic Succession	p. xxviii
Note 0n the Texts	p. xxix
Note on the Ancient Sources	p. xxxi
Select Bibliography	p. xxxv
Sayings and Anecdotes
Diogenes and the Early Cynics
A Humorous Portrait of Diogenes and Aristippos	p. 3
Diogenes' Conversion to the Ascetic Life	p. 6
The Sage as Beggar	p. 12
Self-characterization	p. 19
A Short Cut to Philosophy and Virtue	p. 26
The World of Illusion	p. 36
Religion and Superstition	p. 44
Politicians and Rulers	p. 50
The Enslavement of Diogenes	p. 57
Moralistic and Traditional	p. 62
Diogenes as Wit	p. 72
Old Age and Death	p. 79
Immediate Followers of Diogenes	p. 84
Sayings, Anecdotes, and Verses of Crates	p. 88
The Followers of Crates and Later Cynics	p. 99
Postscript: Bion of Borysthenes	p. 105
Antisthenes as Forerunner of Cynicism	p. 117
Aristippos and the Cyrenaics
Aristippos of Cyrene	p. 123
The Cyrenaic School under the Younger Aristippos	p. 143
The Other Cyrenaics	p. 150
Apocryphal Letters
Selections from the Cynic Letters	p. 159
Correspondence of Aristippos	p. 175
Explanatory Notes	p. 181
Index of Names	p. 261
Index of Themes	p. 265
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