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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $17.95

Format:
Paperback
304 pp.
129 mm x 196 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199589241

Publication date:
April 2012

Imprint: OUP UK


Sayings and Anecdotes

with Other Popular Moralists

Diogenes the Cynic
Translated by Robin Hard

Series : Oxford World's Classics

"many men compete in digging and kicking but no one at all in the pursuit of human excellence."

Diogenes the Cynic is best remembered today for having lived in a storage-jar, and walking the streets with a lamp in daylight, looking for an honest man. Such stories formed part of a rich tradition of sayings and anecdotes; his biting wit and eccentric behaviour were legendary, and it was by means of these oft-repeated and embellished aphorisms that his moral teachings were transmitted. He scorned the conventions of civilized life, and his ascetic lifestyle and caustic opinions gave expression to the Cynic philosophy that in turn influenced Stoicism.

This unique edition also covers Diogenes' immediate successors, such as Crates, his wife Hipparchia, and the witty moral preacher Bion. The contrasting teachings of the Cyrenaic school, founded by Aristippos, a pleasure-loving friend of Socrates, complete the volume, together with a selection of apocryphal letters. An ideal compendium of Socratic moral philosophy, this entertaining volume opens a window on to some surprisingly modern attitudes.

Readership : Readers and students of ancient philosophy, sayings and anecdotes, students of Hellenistic philosophy, Stoicism and the Cynics, literature, history of philosophy.

Diogenes and the Early Cynics
A Humorous Portrait of Diogenes and Aristippos
Diogenes' Conversion to the Ascetic Life
The Sage as Beggar
Self-Characterization
A Short-cut to Philosophy
The World of Illusion
Religion and Superstition
Politicians and Rulers
The Sale and Enslavement of Diogenes
Moralistic and Traditional
Diogenes as Wit
Old Age and Death
Immediate Followers of Diogenes
Sayings and Anecdotes of Crates
The Followers of Crates
Postscript: Borysthenes of Bion
Antisthenes as Forerunner of Cynicism
Aristippos and the Cyrenaics
Aristippos of Cyrene
The Cyrenaic School under the Younger Aristippos
The Other Cyrenaics
Apocryphal Letters
Selections from the Cynic Letters
Correspondence of Aristippos

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Robin Hard has translated Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations for Oxford World's Classics. He is the author of the Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology.

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Special Features

  • The only selection of the sayings and anecdotes of Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher whose biting wit and bizarre behaviour has passed down to the present day in European literature and art.
  • Offers a comprehensive survey of Diogenes' moral philosophy in the form of pithy maxims and entertaining stories, together with his immediate followers, including Crates, and other early philosophers in the Cynic, Stoic, and Cyrenaic schools, and a lively selection from the apocryphal correspondence of the Cynics and Socratics.
  • The first source-book in English for Diogenes and the early Cynics, bringing together material from a variety of different original sources.
  • Attractive, colloquial translation emphasizes the accessible nature of the material.
  • Introduction explains the significance of the anecdotal material in relation to the moral teaching of each school, and looks at the stories that have come down to us about Diogenes' famously ascetic life, such as living in a storage-jar. Explanatory Notes identify people and places, and explain literary and cultural allusions.
  • Includes indexes of names and themes.