| Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Diog. Laert.]. | ||
| <<Diog. Laert. 6.7.96 | Diog. Laert. 6.9.103 (Greek) | >>Diog. Laert. 7.1.1 |
May be, you know Menippus,
Phoenician by birth, but a Cretan hound :
A money-lender by the day - so he was called -
At Thebes when once on a time his house was broken into
And he lost his all, not understanding what it is to be a Cynic,
He hanged himself.
Some authorities question the genuineness of the books attributed to him, alleging them to be by Dionysius and Zopyrus of Colophon, who, writing them for a joke, made them over to Menippus as a person able to dispose of them advantageously.
6.8.101There have been six men named Menippus : the first the man who wrote a History of the Lydians and abridged Xanthus ; the second my present subject ; the third a sophist of Stratonicea, a Carian by descent note; the fourth a sculptor; the fifth and sixth painters, both mentioned by Apollodorus.
However, the writings of Menippus the Cynic are thirteen in number :
Necromancy.
Wills.
Epistles artificially composed as if by the gods.
Replies to the physicists and mathematicians and grammarians ; and
A book about the birth of Epicurus ; and
The School's reverence for the twentieth day.
Besides other works.
Menedemus was a pupil of Colotes of Lampsacus. According to Hippobotus he had attained such a degree of audacity in wonder-working that he went about in the guise of a Fury, saying that he had come from Hades to take cognisance of sins committed, and was going to return and report them to the powers down below. This was his attire : a grey tunic reaching to the feet, about it a crimson girdle ; an Arcadian hat on his head with the twelve signs of the zodiac inwrought in it ; buskins of tragedy ; and he wore a very long beard and carried an ashen staff in his hand.
6.9.103Such are the lives of the several Cynics. But we will go on to append the doctrines which they held in common - if, that is, we decide that Cynicism is really a philosophy, and not, as some maintain, just a way of life. They are content then, like Ariston of Chios, to do away with the subjects of Logic and Physics and to devote their whole attention to Ethics. And what some assert of Socrates, Diocles records of Diogenes, representing him as saying : "We must inquire into
Whate'er of good or ill within our halls is
wrought." note
They also dispense with the ordinary subjects of instruction. At least Antisthenes used to say that those who had attained discretion had better not study literature, lest they should be perverted by alien influences. 6.9.104 So they get rid of geometry and music and all such studies. Anyhow, when somebody showed Diogenes a clock, he pronounced it a serviceable instrument to save one from being late for dinner. Again, to a man who gave a musical recital before him he said note :
By men's minds states are ordered well, and households,
Not by the lyre's twanged strings or flute's trilled notes.
6.9.105They hold further that "Life according to Virtue" is the End to be sought, as Antisthenes says in his Heracles : exactly like the Stoics. For indeed there is a certain close relationship between the two schools. Hence it has been said that Cynicism is a short cut to virtue ; and after the same pattern did Zeno of Citium live his life.
They also hold that we should live frugally, eating food for nourishment only and wearing a single garment. Wealth and fame and high birth they despise. Some at all events are vegetarians and drink cold water only and are content with any kind of shelter or tubs, like Diogenes, who used to say that it was the privilege of the gods to need nothing and of god-like men to want but little.
They hold, further, that virtue can be taught, as Antisthenes maintains in his Heracles, and when once acquired cannot be lost ; and that the wise man is worthy to be loved, impeccable, and a friend to his like ; and that we should entrust nothing to fortune. Whatever is intermediate between Virtue and Vice they, in agreement with Ariston of Chios, account indifferent.
So much, then, for the Cynics. We must now pass on to the Stoics, whose founder was Zeno, a disciple of Crates.
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