Diogenes vs. the World: What Happens When You Stop Pretending
When we imagine the Athens of the third century BCE, we think of marble columns, togas, and deep thinkers unmoved by material things – a world apart. Ancient Athens wasn’t so different from our own life, technology notwithstanding. Wealth meant status. Public image mattered. Citizens competed for influence in politics, philosophy, and even generosity. Homes displayed wealth and beauty, banquets were extravagant, and success was on ostentatious display. The drive to acquire money, comfort, and reputation was as strong in the ancient agora as it is today.
What would “radical” look like in that environment? I think it is much like it is today. Into this culture wandered a man named Diogenes who challenged every social norm, not to win followers, but to live authentically. Living in a barrel, carrying a lantern during the daylight hours, looking for an honest man, or confronting Alexander the Great, Diogenes presented the epitome of someone making great effort not to fit in.
Diogenes of Sinope – Background
The city of Sinope is today’s Synop or Sinop, in modern-day Turkey. The area provides a marvelous harbor perfect to support a thriving trading center. Diogenes’ father was a banker, and the family lived in prosperous circumstances. But the next phase of the story could have two different explanations, each leading to the same place. Diogenes and his father were exiled from Sinope for currency defacement. It’s possible that the father, being a banker, was shaving silver from the edges of coins or forging currency. However, the Greek word nomisma, which translates into coinage, can also mean custom or social convention. Thus, it could also have been a defacement of social convention that brought the sentence on them.
We also don’t know for sure whether both were exiled or whether the sentence was passed only on the father and Diogenes accompanied him, or even the opposite situation. In the end, what we do know is that both lives were radically changed. Eventually, they made their way to Athens, likely traveling by sea. The distance from Sinope to Athens is about 530 miles as the crow flies, but sea travel isn’t “as the crow flies,” so we can figure that the total distance was more like 620 miles or more. Once settled, Diogenes adopted a life of extreme simplicity.
Diogenes in Athens
You may have heard of the man who lived in a barrel, but in reality, it wasn’t a barrel as we think of them today, and it wasn’t “living” as we think of our activities in our abodes. The barrel was a clay container that would have stored grain, oil, or wine. It might have been as tall as five or six feet, but, laid on its side, it would only have allowed him to curl up inside. While we conduct much of our lives in our homes, for Diogenes, the barrel was a shelter for sleeping, nothing else.
Considering Athens as a city of acquisitive pursuits, the simple shelter was a flagrant defiance of social norms. It was far from his only challenge to accepted customs. He exhibited shamelessness by putting his bodily functions on display. He called Plato’s definition of a man “a featherless biped,” and he plucked a chicken to mock him. When someone asked Diogenes what he would ask of Alexander the Great (at the time, the most powerful man alive), Diogenes replied, “Stand out of my sunlight.”
It wasn’t just for the shock value, though, and we’d be doing him an injustice to stop there. Diogenes also believed in radical self-sufficiency and virtue through action, rather than theory. One of his most famous acts was wandering through Athens in daylight with a lit lantern, claiming to search for an honest man. It wasn’t a stunt — it was a public indictment of a society he recognized as corrupt, vain, and hypocritical.
Philosophy in Action
We often think of philosophers as theoreticians, who think and ponder and develop maxims for others to live by. Diogenes founded the philosophy of Cynicism and lived it – in the essence of its original definition. Cynicism’s roots are virtue, simplicity, and truth, rejecting pretense, luxury, and social climbing. Cynics valued authenticity over appearance. They lived by example, and often in extreme ways.
Over time, Stoicism grew out of Cynicism, kept the moral core while softening some of the extremism out of it. The Stoics found more social acceptance, and the most visible traits of the Cynics were their grumpiness and outsider status, which contribute more closely to today’s understanding of cynicism.
Why Do We Still Talk About Diogenes?
It’s important to remember the radicals, renegades, and rebels who changed society or made change possible. Diogenes is responsible for Stoicism, which has recently regained popularity among people who seek authenticity in themselves. Yes, he was a proto-anarchist, anti-establishment figure, but he provided us with a provocative model for radical authenticity and defiance of hypocrisy, and I wonder if we can’t use some of that today.
Your Turn
Writing this piece helped me look inward in a way that I hadn’t done in a long time. I wonder what I have or do that I have or do simply because it’s something that one has or does — rather than because it has a genuine meaning to me. So now I’m going to ask you to leave a comment below the Related Posts in response to this question: What conventions do I obey that deserve to be challenged?
Want more Diogenes? Check out these sites!
Diogenes of Sinope – World History Encyclopedia
Diogenes: The Philosopher Who Lived with Virtue and Mocked Convention – Cross College
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