Diogenes

Diogenes the Cynic, also known as Diogenes of Sinope (c. 413/403–c. 324/321 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism. Renowned for his ascetic lifestyle, biting wit, and radical critiques of social conventions, he became a legendary figure whose life and teachings have been recounted, often through anecdote, in both antiquity and later cultural traditions.
Born to a prosperous family in Sinope, his life took a dramatic turn following a scandal involving the defacement of coinage, an event that led to his exile and ultimately his radical rejection of conventional values. Embracing a life of poverty and self-sufficiency, he became famous for his unconventional behaviours that openly challenged societal norms, such as living in a jar or wandering public spaces with a lit lantern in daylight. Diogenes advocated for a return to nature, the renunciation of materialism, and introduced early ideas of cosmopolitanism by proclaiming himself a "citizen of the world". His memorable encounters, including a legendary exchange with Alexander the Great, along with various accounts of his death, have made him a lasting symbol of philosophical defiance to established authorities and artificial values.
Diogenes was born ca. 413/403 BC in Sinope, a Milesian colony in Paphlagonia on the Black Sea (modern Sinop, northern Turkey). He was the son of Hicesias, a trapezitēs, that is, a moneychanger authorized to exchange foreign currencies for the local money. Nothing is known about his mother. As a child, Diogenes learned to read, write, and quote both epic and tragic verses, while also training in athletics and horsemanship. This background reflects his privileged upbringing, as private education was available only to wealthy families. In his father's footsteps, he held the position of epimelētēs, a magistrate whose duties varied by city, though the specifics of his role remain unknown.
In an episode that would later serve as a metaphor for his philosophical mission, he and his father were accused of "defacing the currency". Ancient sources differ on the details. According to Diocles of Magnesia, Hicesias was responsible for restamping the coinage, forcing his son into exile. In contrast, Eubulides claims that Diogenes himself committed the act and had to leave the city with his father. Meanwhile, anonymous sources cited by Diogenes Laertius report that while Diogenes was guilty of the fraud, his father, who oversaw the public treasury, was arrested and died in prison, and Diogenes managed to escape.
It remains unclear whether Diogenes or his father was responsible for defacing the coins, and for whatever reasons they may have done so. Some scholars believe that this incident might have been a fictional creation inspired by Diogenes' own writings, with his famous goal to "revalue the currency" (paracharattein to nomisma) symbolising his challenge to conventional values. Others, like C.T. Seltman and H. Bannert, have argued that the story might be based on fact, citing defaced coins from Sinope dated between 350 and 340 BC and coins minted after 362 BC bearing the name Hikesio as the official. Diogenes himself admitted his guilt in his lost treatise, Pordalos, and his father's role as trapezitēs would have made the crime possible.
One related account states that Diogenes once asked Apollo's oracle at Delphi (or perhaps Delos) how he might gain renown. The oracle replied, "Adulterate the currency", which he took to mean he should counterfeit coins. However, the Greek word nomisma is ambiguous, as it can refer to both coinage and social institutions. In fact, the oracle meant that his destiny was to subvert urban conventions, not to debase money. In another account, the oracular pronouncement occurs after his departure from Sinope, thus explicitly linking the command to its symbolic meaning, that is to wage a relentless war on the cultural and political "currency" of his contemporaries.
This story of the oracle is most likely fictional. It seems to mimic the oracle that Socrates is said to have received at Delphi, and may have been intended as a parody. According to R. Bracht Branham, the idea that Diogenes consulted an oracle to determine his philosophical mission contradicts his own views on traditional religion. Furthermore, Diogenes himself says that he embraced philosophy in Athens, well after the alleged offense occurred. Roubineau postulates that this legend may have been devised by later authors to downplay his role in any actual fraud.
The exact date of Diogenes' departure from Sinope is uncertain. It is also unclear whether he was banished or exiled, or if he fled out of fear of the consequences. While ancient tradition holds that Antisthenes (who died ca. 366 BC) introduced him to Socratic thought, some modern scholars have questioned the timeline, arguing that Diogenes may have learned about Antisthenes' philosophy only from his writings. Susan H. Prince suggests that he may have arrived in Athens sometime between the 360s and 345 BC, whereas H. Bannert contends that his arrival occurred in the years 370–365. To reconcile those views, some have proposed that he had visited Athens earlier, before the defacement and Antisthenes' death.
Diogenes' exile marked a turning point, and a moment of profound spiritual conversion. In his time, being separated from one's homeland, and thus denied the honour of being buried with one's ancestors, was seen as a tragic fate. Diogenes rejected this sentimental attachment, embracing exile as the ultimate detachment from worldly ties. Plutarch notes that the hardships of exile transformed him into a philosopher. In Cynic thought, noble exiles like Odysseus and especially Heracles, about whom Diogenes wrote tragedies, served as models of exemplary behaviour. One anecdote also claims that a chance encounter with a mouse revealed to him the value of a simple life, since the rodent is capable of adapting itself to any circumstance.
Diogenes reportedly owned a Phrygian slave named Manes. Given Diogenes' poverty after fleeing Sinope, it is more likely that Manes was part of his early life rather than a slave bought in Athens. When the slave escaped, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?". This attitude reflects the Cynic belief that true freedom comes from detaching oneself from possessions and desires, so even owning a slave could be seen as a form of self-enslavement. J. Garcia Gonzalez has argued that this anecdote, like other stories about Diogenes, is symbolic rather than factual, using the names "Manes" and "Diogenes" as generic representations to convey philosophical ideas. Although evading capture, Manes met a tragic end when wild dogs attacked him as he fled to Delphi.
Diogenes spent his mild winters in Athens, taking shelter in a jar (pithos), and his summers outdoors in Corinth, cooled by breezes from the Isthmus. He compared his lifestyle to that of the Great King of Persia, who endured winter in the scorching cities of Babylon and Susa and enjoyed summer in the milder climate of Ecbatana.
Diogenes' life was marked by radical self-sufficiency, courage through passivity to fate, and a rational indifference to suffering. Diogenes went barefoot, and folded his tunic so that it could double as bedding. He openly engaged in behaviours that defied social norms, such as masturbating, spitting, or even urinating on people, and supported himself by begging, which he saw as fair compensation for his role in challenging society's values. The Athenians reportedly held him in high regard, even replacing his jar when a youth broke it. One day, he famously discarded his drinking cup after watching a boy drink water from the hollow of his hands, saying that he was not aware until that moment that "nature had already provided him with a cup." He was also known to wander the marketplace by day with a lit lamp, saying "I am looking for a man".
In his later years, he carried a walking stick when he left town, a symbol of both his itinerant lifestyle and public authority. Ancient texts report that he visited various other cities, which helped shape Diogenes' reputation as a wandering philosopher. Although he admired Sparta, he still employed his trademark method of teaching through criticism while he was there. When a Spartan cited Hesiod's verse "Nor would the ox die, if a neighbor were not evil", Diogenes retorted, "But the Messenians and their oxen have died, and you are their neighbours". Diogenes' other travels remain mysterious. His visits to various cities in Asia Minor, especially Miletus, known for its rich intellectual history, suggest he may have journeyed for philosophical reasons, though the exact details are lost to us.
Another likely apocryphal story claims that, while on a voyage to Aegina, he was captured by pirates led by a man named Scirpalus or Harpalus. Taken to Crete, he was sold at a slave market to a Corinthian man named Xeniades. Noticing Xeniades among the other bidders, he turned to the auctioneer and said, "Sell me to him; he needs a master". Diogenes was asked to oversee the education of his sons and to manage the affairs of his household. After his master freed him, it is reported that he stayed in Corinth, living alone near a gymnasium called 'the Craneum' on the outskirts of the city, nestled in a cypress grove overlooking the harbour.
According to Dionysius the Stoic, Diogenes was taken prisoner in 338 by Philip II of Macedon during the Battle of Chaeronea, in northern Boeotia. Amused by his audacity, Philip decided to release him. In July 336, Diogenes attended the 111th Olympic Games. When a herald announced, "Dioxippus has defeated the other men", he retorted, "On the contrary! He defeats slaves, while I defeat men". When asked if he had come to watch the competitions, Diogenes replied that he was there to take part in them, to combat human ills: anger, mistrust, sadness, desire, and fear. At the Isthmian Games, he even crowned himself victor by placing a pine wreath on his head, an act that prompted the Corinthians to try to remove it.
According to tradition, he met Philip's son Alexander the Great, likely in 336 when Alexander was proclaimed commander of the expedition against Persia at the Isthmus of Corinth. As Plutarch recounts, when Alexander arrived, Diogenes refused to join the formal greeting and instead stayed in his usual spot in a cypress grove outside Corinth. Alexander engaged him in a conversation that later became famous.
Some sources claim that Diogenes died on the same night as Alexander the Great (June 10–11, 323 BC), but this is likely legendary. Modern scholars believe that he died in the late 320s, probably around 324/321 BC. Censorinus writes that Diogenes died at the age of 81, while Laertius holds that he lived to be about 90.
The exact location of Diogenes' death remains disputed. Some accounts claim he died in Corinth, either in the Craneion or at his former master's house, while others suggest he died in Athens, or even near Olympia. Additionally, ancient sources offer various explanations for his death. Some, like Cercidas and Antisthenes of Rhodes, assert that he committed suicide by self-asphyxiation, a method symbolically reflecting his commitment to self-determination. Other accounts attribute his demise to eating a raw octopus in an attempt to demonstrate the uselessness of cooking (Athenaeus), to a fever contracted on the eve of his departure for the Olympic games (Epictetus and Jerome), or to an infected dog bite while trying to divide an octopus among some dogs (Diogenes Laertius).
Diogenes showed little concern for his burial, instructing that his body be discarded, either left unburied outside the city wall for wild animals, thrown into a ditch and covered with dust, or even dumped into the river Ilisos. Diogenes' followers ended up in a violent dispute over how and who should manage his burial, an anecdote that seems to convey they had not fully embraced his lesson of indifference to human customs. Ultimately, the Corinthians arranged a funeral, and he was buried outside the city walls near the western gate, close to where he spent his final years. Eubulus, on the other hand, reports that Diogenes was buried by the children of Xeniades, for whom he had served as a tutor. Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, noted that Diogenes' tomb was among those visible near Corinth.
In ancient Greece and Rome, a philosopher's death was often seen as a final statement on their teachings. Diogenes' death, with its imaginative and varied accounts, became as controversial as his indifference to his own burial. His perspective, as summarised by Teles, was shared by all the Cynics who followed him: "What difference is there between being consumed by fire, devoured by a dog, left above ground to be preyed upon by vultures, or buried below ground to be eaten by worms?"
According to Roubineau, given the tomb at Corinth and the account of his death in the Craneion, it seems likely that Diogenes died in or near Corinth. The more dramatic accounts, such as dying from eating an octopus, a dispute with a dog, or self-asphyxiation, appear to be philosophical fictions, and the most plausible explanation is that he died of old age.
A bronze statue of Diogenes was erected in Sinope after his death, with the following poem from Philiscus of Aegina at its base.
According to Laertius, Diogenes wrote dialogues, letters, and tragedies, though none of these works have survived. His writings may have served as sources for the many anecdotes about him, which vary in reliability and often leave their meanings open to interpretation.
Diogenes is believed to have written a work called Politeia ('Republic'), known mainly through the accounts of Laertius and Philodemus. In this text, he presented controversial views on family, sexuality, and social and political practices that were considered so scandalous that some contemporary Stoics dismissed the work as inauthentic. Another work, Pordalos, appears to contain autobiographical elements, while the dialogue Ichthyas was addressed to a disciple of Euclid who shared the same name. At the time of Athenaeus (late 2nd–early 3rd century AD) Diogene's Cephalion was still a well known work. Finally, debate continues as to whether the chreiai were written by Diogenes himself or if they are accounts about him composed by others, such as Metrocles.
Diogenes' tragedies explored major mythological narratives, featuring characters such as Helen, Thyestes (which allowed him to address the subject of anthropophagy), Heracles (the quintessential cynical hero celebrated for his endurance in adversity), Achilles, Medea (whose magical feats were interpreted allegorically), Chrysippus (the son of Pelops), and Oedipus (whose acts of parricide and incest did not shock him). These plays continued to be read into later centuries, reaching figures like Clement of Alexandria in the 1st century AD and Emperor Julian in the 4th century AD. Some ancient thinkers, and even some Cynics, held a low opinion of these tragedies. Stoics criticised them for addressing highly sensitive topics such as cannibalism, incest and parricide, in an immoral way. Emperor Julian even doubted their authorship, asking, "What reader of these would not abhor them and find in them an excess of infamy not to be surpassed even by courtesans?" Consequently, these tragedies were frequently attributed to one of Diogenes' disciples, such as Philiscus of Aegina or Pasiphon.
Diogenes' philosophy was primarily influenced by Socrates (c. 470 – 399 BC) and Antisthenes (c. 446 – c. 366 BC).
Emulating Socrates, Diogenes publicly questioned those who claimed to possess wisdom, and preferred engaging people in their everyday lives rather than teaching in formal educational settings like other philosophers. While he shared Socrates' goal of converting others to philosophy, his methods were far more abrasive, using harsh language and brutal critiques, a method that led Plato to call him "Socrates gone mad".
Laertius states that Diogenes became a disciple of Antisthenes, himself a student of Socrates. Although the timeline of Diogenes' arrival in Athens and Antisthenes' death raises some doubts about this account, Diogenes clearly absorbed and adapted many of Antisthenes' ideas. These include emphasising virtue over societal laws and customs, prioritising deeds over abstract ideas, and believing in the fundamental equality of men and women.
Diogenes invented an early form of cosmopolitanism, and probably the term itself. When asked about his origin, he responded with a single word: kosmopolitēs ("I am a citizen of the world"). Diogenes maintained that "the only true commonwealth was that which was commensurate with the universe".
Lucian quotes him as saying:
His philosophical outlook was likely shaped by his early years in Sinope and his subsequent exile. Encounters with non-Greek peoples along the Black Sea probably contributed to his development of cultural relativism. Favorinus argued that cosmopolitanism served as both a response to and a consolation for the loss of one's homeland, and Diogenes' experience as a foreigner may have challenged the notion that political power naturally belongs to those born by accident in a particular city.
However, the continuity between ancient and modern cosmopolitanism must not be exaggerated. While Diogenes promoted the idea of being a "citizen of the world", he and his followers did not advocate for a universal brotherhood. Instead, his focus was on revealing that the city-state is an artificial construct rather than a natural state of affairs.
Diogenes authored a treatise called On Wealth. Although the original work has been lost, scholars have been able to partially reconstruct its contents from various aphorisms attributed to him. In one anecdote, he criticises a spendthrift for squandering his inheritance, suggesting that careful habits would have prevented his poverty. In another story, he compares good civic administration to well-managed household affairs, arguing that both require thoughtful, intelligent oversight rather than mere show, reflecting his broader ideas on redefining wealth and the value of intellectual management over manual labor.
When Aristippus asked Diogenes what benefit he derived from philosophy, Diogenes replied: "The ability to be rich without having a single obol". Following Socrates, Antisthenes and Xenophon, Diogenes made a distinction between actual poverty (being economically poor) and the feeling of poverty (suffering from chronic dissatisfaction due to unmet social expectations). In his view, even Greek tyrants could be considered "poor" if they constantly felt unable to meet the financial obligations of their social class.
The Cynics combined the ideals of sufficiency and frugality to develop the practice of mendicancy. It remains unclear whether Diogenes became a beggar before embracing philosophy or if he deliberately rejected working as a philosophical choice, though some credit Antisthenes with this influence. Plutarch records Diogenes' remark: "In rags [Antisthenes] clothed me and condemned me to poverty and cast me out of my home". Diogenes used a large ceramic jar (pithos), originally meant for food storage, as a makeshift shelter. Later Latin interpretations, beginning with Seneca (1st century AD), shifted the term from pithos to 'barrel' or 'cask', influencing modern depictions of the philosopher. However, Diogenes never lived in a barrel, as such containers did not exist in his time. While Diogenes' jar is commonly associated with his time in Athens, some sources also mention it as his home in Corinth.
After Diogenes' death, classical Cynicism diverged into two main paths. One branch, founded by Zeno of Citium (c. 334 – c. 262 BC), evolved into Stoicism. This school embraced Diogenes' (and indirectly Socrates') belief in living according to nature and reason, with virtue as the sole basis for happiness and external factors like one's origin and social status regarded as irrelevant. The other stream, beginning with Crates of Thebes (c. 365 – c. 285 BC) and ending with Sallustius of Emesa (5th century AD), consisted of a succession of Cynics who preserved many of Diogenes' original principles and practices.
In ancient times, Cynicism was frequently overlooked in philosophical histories, with Diogenes often dismissed as a harmless eccentric. In the second century BC, Hippobotus omitted Cynicism from his list of philosophical schools, but Diogenes Laertius (3rd century AD) later argued that Cynicism was a legitimate school of philosophy, not merely a lifestyle. Often misunderstood, Cynicism was not a set of doctrines and did not pretend to the status of philosophical formal system. It was a practical philosophy of action meant to be immediately accessible to everyone, and its adherents lived out their beliefs rather than remaining detached scholars. Besides being criticised for their lack of theoretical sophistication, Diogenes and his followers were also condemned for their perceived immorality. Critics like Cicero argued that their shameless behaviour undermined traditional moral values.
A damaged marble bas relief from the 1st century AD depicting Diogenes in a jar with a dog was discovered in 1726 during excavations at Monte Testaccio, near Rome. The fragment, part of a larger image of the legendary meeting between Diogenes and Alexander, was restored in the 18th century based on a medieval drawing, adding the figure of Alexander and a new head for Diogenes derived from a statue in the Villa Albani.
Diogenes has long inspired Western art since the Renaissance. He is portrayed next to Aristotle in a fresco from 1475 by Davide Ghirlandaio. In Raphael's The School of Athens (1509–1511), Diogenes is depicted sprawled on the steps, his disheveled, weathered cloak covering only part of his body, utterly indifferent to the renowned philosophers gathered around him, especially Plato and Aristotle, who loom above him on the top step.
Jean-Léon Gérôme's Diogènes (1860) portrays the philosopher seated at the mouth of his jar, adjusting his lamp while being observed by four dogs. John William Waterhouse's Diogenes (1882) depicts him inside his jar, holding a scroll with a lamp nearby, as three elegant young women look on. Honoré Daumier also created a series of caricatures featuring Diogenes, occasionally including figures like Alcibiades or Alexander the Great.
In 2006, a statue by Turan Baş was erected in the modern Turkish city of Sinop. It features Diogenes standing on a barrel, holding a lamp, with a dog by his side.
From the 20th century onward, Diogenes' name has come to be applied to Diogenes syndrome, a behavioural disorder characterised by severe self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal, poor personal hygiene, excessive hoarding, and domestic uncleanliness.
The eponym is generally considered a misnomer as Diogenes deliberately rejected common standards of material comfort, actively sought human company by venturing daily to Agora, and was a minimalist.
The fictional Diogenes Club, named after the philosopher, appears in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Greek Interpreter" as the club to which Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft, belongs. Its name reflects the fact that its members are well-educated yet notably quiet and unsociable—much like the philosopher himself.
The Diogenidae family and Diogenes genus of hermit crabs have been named in reference to Diogenes' jar.
In 2005, a European Union program aimed at reducing obesity was named DIOGENES, an acronym for Diet, Obesity, and Genes, referencing Diogenes' longstanding association with frugality.