History Creator / Diogenes

!!Diogenes in Popular Culture:
* Diogenes was a popular figure in Renaissance and Enlightenment-era {{paintings}}. An image of him can be seen in Creator/{{Raphael}}'s "Art/TheSchoolOfAthens". Appropriately, he's the one lounging on the steps.
* A statue was supposedly erected in Diogenes' memory in Corinth, but the figure has not survived to the modern age. However, a new statue was made in 2006 by the Turkish sculptor Turan Bas (see page image), to stand in Diogenes' hometown of Sinope (now called Sinop), complete with cistern, lantern, and dog.
* Mycroft Holmes, brother of Literature/SherlockHolmes, is a founding member of the Diogenes Club, a private gentlemen's club for antisocial Londoners. It's depicted as a place where men sit quietly by themselves and don't engage with each other; in fact any kind of social interaction outside of the designated "Stranger's Room" will get you thrown out. According to Sherlock, Mycroft spends nearly all of his free time there.
* The Player Character of ''VideoGame/GettingOverItWithBennettFoddy'' is named Diogenes. He's depicted as a naked man in a clay jar, stoically attempting to overcome the nonsensical obstacles the game places in his way.

* Diogenes was a popular figure in Renaissance and Enlightenment-era paintings. An image of him can be seen in Raphael's [[https://www.raphaelpaintings.org/the-school-of-athens.jsp "School of Athens"]] Appropriately, he's the one lounging on the steps.

** Responding to the arguments of Zeno of Elea, who argued that motion is impossible, by silently standing up and walking.

** In another version of the story, Alexander found him sorting through a pile of human remains. Diogenes told him he was looking for Alexander's father's bones, but couldn't tell them apart from the bones of a slave. In this version, Alexander seemingly [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint missed]] the [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair obvious point Diogenes was trying to make to him]], while still [[MisaimedFandom admiring him]].

** In another version of the story, Alexander found him sorting through a pile of human remains. Diogenes told him he was looking for Alexander's father's bones, but couldn't tell them apart from the bones of a slave. In this version, Alexander seemingly [[IgnoredEpiphany missed]] the [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair obvious point Diogenes was trying to make to him]], while still [[MisaimedFandom admiring him]].

* The Player Character of VideoGame/GettingOverItWithBennettFoddy is named Diogenes. He's depicted as a naked man in a clay jar, stoically attempting to overcome the nonsensical obstacles the game places in his way.

** His meeting with Alexander the Great, recorded by Plutarch. A fan of his work, Alexander sought him out to find him soaking up rays in the Corinthian marketplace. When Alexander asked if there was anything Diogenes wished of him, Diogenes simply said, "Yes. I would have you stand from between me and the sun." Alexander recognized that Diogenes would compromise his integrity if he showed any respect to him, and he was so impressed that when he returned, he told his followers that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes. (Diogenes may have overheard from some distance away and shouted that if ''he'' were anyone else, ''he'' would also elect to be Diogenes.)

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: His meeting with Alexander the Great, recorded by Plutarch. A fan of his work, Alexander sought him out to find him soaking up rays in the Corinthian marketplace. When Alexander asked if there was anything Diogenes wished of him, Diogenes simply said, "Yes. I would have you stand from between me and the sun." Alexander recognized that Diogenes would compromise his integrity if he showed any respect to him, and he was so impressed that when he returned, he told his followers that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes.

-->--'''Diogenes Laertius''', laying out one of Diogenes of Sinope's many antics in ''Lives of the Eminent Philosophers''

* AnimalMotifs: The Cynics thought the dog was the most virtuous animal. In fact, the Greek word "κυνικός", from which the English word "cynic" is derived, means "dog-like." To be a Cynic is to aspire to be like a dog, that is, to live in accordance with virtue and not by social convention; Diogenes took this and ran with it.
* AppropriatedAppelation: In ancient times, "κυνικός", or "dog-like", is meant to be an insult as the word refers to dogs as scavengers. The Cynics' lifestyle is like that of a dog's, deeming virtue as the only good and deeming as worthless everything else that society prizes. The Cynics accepted the dog motif and deemed dogs as the most virtuous animal, and Diogenes in particular took it as an epithet. To name one example among many, when he met Alexander the Great, who introduced himself by saying: "I am Alexander, the Great King", Diogenes replied in kind with: "And I am Diogenes, the Dog". He explained that he got this epithet by saying "I fawn on those who give me something, bark at those who don't, and bite the wicked." Artistic depictions of him often show him accompanied by dogs.

-->--'''Diogenes of Sinope''', as quoted by Diogenes Laertius in ''Lives of the Eminent Philosophers''

* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Not that Diogenes would care. Anyone who saw him masturbating in public would get the reply: "If only one could relieve hunger by rubbing one's belly."

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: His meeting with Alexander the Great, recorded by Plutarch. A fan of his work, Alexander sought him out to find him soaking up rays in the Corinthian marketplace. When Alexander asked if there was anything Diogenes wished of him, Diogenes simply said, "Yes. I would have you stand from between me and the sun." Alexander took Diogenes' dismissiveness very well and recognized that he would compromise his integrity if he showed any respect to Alexander, so much that when he returned, he told his followers that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes.

Diogenes never wrote anything down himself and took very little seriously, so much of his life story is up for debate. Most of what is known about his life comes from ''Lives of the Eminent Philosophers'', a work by the 3rd-century biographer Diogenes Laertius. From what we know, Diogenes was the son of the Treasurer of Sinope, a Greek colony in what is now Turkey. His father was caught up in a currency-debasing scandal, and his family was forced to leave their home city. Disgraced, bankrupted, and exiled, Diogenes eventually made his way to Athens, where he became a harsh critic of modern Athenian life and Plato's school of philosophy. Instead, he became a follower of Antisthenes, building upon his work and bringing Cynic philosophy to a more fully-realized form.

And by "fully realized," we mean Diogenes took it to its logical extreme.

* AnimalMotifs: The Cynics thought the dog was the most virtuous animal. In fact, the Greek word ''Kynikos'', from which the English word "Cynic" is derived, means "dog-like." To be a Cynic is to aspire to be like a dog: loyal, content, and unbothered by life's uncertainties. Diogenes shared this opinion, going so far as to call himself a dog. When he met Alexander the Great, who introduced himself by saying: "I am Alexander, the Great King", Diogenes replied in kind with: "And I am Diogenes, the Dog". He explained that he got this epithet by saying "I fawn on those who give me something, bark at those who don't, and bite the wicked." Artistic depictions of him often show him accompanied by dogs, though it's improbable Diogenes kept any kind of pet.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: His meeting with Alexander the Great, recorded by Plutarch. A fan of his work, Alexander sought him out to find him soaking up rays in the Corinthian marketplace. When Alexander asked if there was anything Diogenes wished of him, Diogenes simply said, "Yes. I would have you stand from between me and the sun." Alexander, struck by this answer, took Diogenes' dismissiveness very well, so much that when he returned, he told his followers that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes.

** carrying around a lit lamp during the day, claiming to be seeking "a man", by which he meant a being capable of reason and morality. It is sometimes translated as "looking for an honest man."
** mocking Plato's definition of a human (a featherless biped) by going out of his way to acquire a chicken that had been plucked of its feathers and presenting it to Plato with the statement: "Behold, a man!" Plato then corrected himself by adding "with broad flat nails."
** responding to the arguments of Zeno of Elea, who argued that motion is impossible, by silently standing up and walking.
** urinating, defecating, and masturbating in public.
* TheHeckler: He would show up to Plato's lectures exclusively to disrupt, jeer, eat loudly, and occasionally fart.

* {{Troll}}: To pretty much all of respectable Athenian society. There was nothing that was not fair game to him.

* Diogenes was a popular figure in Renaissance and Enlightment-era painting. An image of him can be seen in Raphael's [[https://www.raphaelpaintings.org/the-school-of-athens.jsp "School of Athens"]] Appropriately, he's the one lounging on the steps.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"I am looking for a human being."'']]

->''"I am not mad. My head is just different than yours."''
-->--'''Diogenes of Sinope'''

Cynic, iconoclast, and patron saint of Trolls, Diogenes of Sinope was a philosopher who lived between 412 and 323 BCE. A contemporary (and [[PlatoIsAMoron extremely vocal critic]]) of Creator/{{Plato}}, Diogenes disagreed with the esoteric bent that Greek philosophy took under Plato's stewardship and favored a return to basics and common sense, co-founding the Cynic school of thought.

Diogenes never wrote anything down himself, and took very little seriously, so much of his life story is up for debate. Most of what is known about his life comes from the work of the 3rd-Century biographer Diogenes Laertius (no relation), who ''also'' wasn't that reliable of a source. From what we know, Diogenes was the son of the Treasurer of Sinope, a Greek colony in what is now Turkey. His father was caught up in a currency-debasing scandal, and his family was forced to leave their home city. Disgraced, bankrupted, and exiled, Diogenes eventually made his way to Athens, where he became a harsh critic of both modern Athenian life and Plato's school of philosophy. Instead he became a follower of Antisthenes, building upon his work and bringing Cynic philosophy to a more fully-realized form.

And by "fully-realized," we mean Diogenes took it to its logical extreme.

Diogenes rejected Athenian societal norms and owned almost nothing. He begged for food in the marketplace and slept in an empty wine cistern outside the local temple. He became notorious for his provocative stunts, like heckling Plato at his lectures, and famously carrying around a lit lantern in broad daylight, claiming to be searching for "an honest man." All his stunts were apparently meant to challenge the mores of a society that he felt had lost touch with the fundamentals of life and virtuous living. His life was a conscious attempt to live out the primary tenets of Cynicism: a simple life with only the bare necessities for survival, a tough and stoic outlook toward hardship, and willful indifference to societal custom and convention. Rather than evangelize to the people about Cynicism in the traditional way, it would seem Diogenes elected to simply ''live'' the Cynic life in public view, and let the people make their own judgements.

At some point Diogenes was kidnapped by slavers, and was sold to a wealthy Corinthian family as a tutor for their children. He lived out the rest of his life in Corinth - where he allegedly had a memorable encounter with UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat - dying either of infection or food poisoning (or, depending on the source you read, simply because he decided to die) at the age of 89.

Modern popular culture frequently associates both Diogenes and Cynicism with misanthropy and antisocial behavior. There's even a mental health disorder known as [[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314595 Diogenes Syndrome]], associated with hoarding and self-neglect. Ironically, Diogenes himself didn't hold with any of this behavior. For all his eccentricities he was actually quite sociable, and wasn't any more or less misanthropic than the average Cynic. And he was the polar opposite of a hoarder; he even got rid of his single drinking vessel when he realized he could just cup liquid in his hands. Nowadays we might see his preferred method of dealing with occasional hardships by just enduring them stoically as a form of self-harm, but to Diogenes it was just another case of taking a main tenet of Cynicism to a logical extreme. In a sense Diogenes was a Performance Artist, living out Cynic philosophy in its purest form for all to see. For better or for worse.

* AnimalMotifs: The Cynics were of the opinion that the dog is the most virtuous animal. In fact, the Greek word ''Kynikos'', from which the English word "Cynic" is derived, means "dog-like." To be a Cynic is to aspire to be like a dog: loyal, content, and unbothered by life's uncertainties. Diogenes shared this opinion, going so far as to literally call himself a dog, "I fawn upon the kind, I bark at the indifferent, and I bite the cruel." Artistic depictions of him often show him accompanied by dogs, though it's extremely unlikely Diogenes kept any kind of pet.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The apocryphal story of his meeting with Alexander the Great. A fan of his work, Alexander sought him out, to find him soaking up rays in the Corinthian marketplace. When Alexander asked if there was anything Diogenes wished of him, Diogenes simply said, "Yes, move. You're blocking my sun."

** carrying around a lit lamp during the day, claiming to be seeking "a human being." By which he meant a being capable of reason and morality, hence it sometimes being translated as "looking for an honest man."
** mocking Plato's definition of a human (a featherless biped), by going out of his way to acquire a chicken that had been plucked of it's feathers and presenting it to Plato with the statement: "Behold, a man!"
** responding to a discussion of Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox, which states that it's technically impossible to leave a room, by standing up and leaving the room.
** urinating, defecating, and masturbating in public. There's even a story that he scared off a potential attacker by pissing on them.
* TheHeckler: He would show up to Plato's lectures exclusively to disrupt, jeering, eating loudly, and occasionally farting.

** mocking Plato's definition of a human (a featherless biped), by going out of his way to acquire a chicken that had been plucked of it's feathers and presenting it to Plato with statement: "Behold, a man!"

** making a point of eating in the marketplace in defiance to Athenian custom of the time. After all, hunger is natural. Customs aren't.

* The Diogenes Club is an institution within the Literature/SherlockHolmes universe, a private gentlemen's club for well-to-do English misanthropes. It's depicted as a place where men sit quietly by themselves and don't engage with each other; in fact any kind of social interaction outside of the designated "Stranger's Room" will get you thrown out. Sherlock's brother Mycroft is a founding member, and can be found there pretty much any time he's not working or sleeping.

Cynic, iconoclast, and patron saint of Trolls, Diogenes of Sinope was a philosopher who lived between 412 and 323 BCE. A contemporary (and extremely vocal critic) of Creator/{{Plato}}, Diogenes disagreed with the esoteric bent that Greek philosophy took under Plato's stewardship and favored a return to basics and common sense, co-founding the Cynic school of thought.

** responding to a discussion of Zeno's Dichtomoy Paradox, which states that it's technically impossible to leave a room, by standing up and leaving the room.