Greek Texts & Translations

Onesicritus some report to have been an Aeginetan, but Demetrius of Magnesia says that he was a native of Astypalaea. He too was one of the distinguished pupils of Diogenes. His career seems to have resembled that of Xenophon ; for Xenophon joined the expedition of Cyrus, Onesicritus that of Alexander ; and the former wrote the Cyropaedia, or Education of Cyrus, while the latter has described how Alexander was educated : the one a laudation of Cyrus, the other of Alexander. And in their diction they are not unlike : except that Onesicritus, as is to be expected in an imitator, falls short of his model.

Amongst other pupils of Diogenes were Menander, who was nicknamed Drymus or "Oakwood," a great admirer of Homer ; Hegesias of Sinope, nicknamed "Dog-collar" ; and Philiscus of Aegina mentioned above.

Crates, son of Ascondas, was a Theban. He too was amongst the Cynic's famous pupils. Hippobotus, however, alleges that he was a pupil not of Diogenes, but of Bryson ^note the Achaean. The following playful lines are attributed to him ^note :

There is a city Pera in the midst of wine-dark vapour,

Fair, fruitful, passing squalid, owning nought,

Into which sails nor fool nor parasite

Nor glutton, slave of sensual appetite,

But thyme it bears, garlic, and figs and loaves,

For which things' sake men fight not each with other,

Nor stand to arms for money or for fame.

There is also his widely circulated day-book, which runs as follows :

Set down for the chef ten minas, for the doctor

One drachma, for a flatterer talents five,

For counsel smoke, for mercenary beauty

A talent, for a philosopher three obols.

He was known as the "Door-opener" - the caller to whom all doors fly open - from his habit of entering every house and admonishing those within. Here is another specimen of his composition ^note :

That much I have which I have learnt and thought,

The noble lessons taught me by the Muses :

But wealth amassed is prey to vanity. And again he says that what he has gained from philosophy is

A quart of lupins and to care for no one.

This too is quoted as his ^note :

Hunger stops love, or, if not hunger, Time,

Or, failing both these means of help, - a halter.

He flourished in the 113th Olympiad. ^note

According to Antisthenes in his Successions, the first impulse to the Cynic philosophy was given to him when he saw Telephus in a certain tragedy carrying a little basket and altogether in a wretched plight. So he turned his property into money, - for he belonged to a distinguished family, - and having thus collected about 200 talents, distributed that sum among his fellow-citizens. And (it is added) so sturdy a philosopher did he become that he is mentioned by the comic poet Philemon. At all events the latter says :

In summer-time a thick cloak he would wear

To be like Crates, and in winter rags.

Diocles relates how Diogenes persuaded Crates to give up his fields to sheep pasture, and throw into the sea any money he had.