![]() ![]() In the second part (20-26), Diogenes explains the best strategy for meeting a second opponent: "pleasure" ( Ancient Greek: ἡδονή, romanized: hēdonē). This is illustrated by a number of similes - facing hardship is like scaring off a fierce dog, fighting a boxing match, putting out a flame with one's tongue, or fighting the pancratium (17-19). If one accepts hardships with disdain and approaches them enthusiastically, they are entirely powerless against him, but if he holds back and gives way to them, they seem entirely too big and fierce for him. Diogenes explains that the only way to defeat hardships is by fighting them constantly, fearlessly, and totally: He explains how this competition is superior to the athletic competitions of the games and how he is superior to the athletes who compete only from time-to-time at games festivals and for useless prizes, while he is competing always and for "happiness and virtue" (13-16). His "rivals" are not athletes but "hardships" ( Ancient Greek: πόνοι, romanized: ponoi), such hunger, thirst, cold, exile, and disreputable things. In the first part (11-19), Diogenes explains that he has come to the games "not to watch but to compete" (11). At the games, sightseers flock to see sophists and spectacles, among which Diogenes draws large crowds, who mostly find his presentation too challenging (9-10)ĭiogenes' speech (11-35) contains three parts. Dio then recounts how Diogenes moved to Corinth after Antisthenes' death and made a habit of attending the Isthmian Games held there, with an extended metaphor of the philosopher as a doctor for spiritual illness (5-8). The introduction explains how Diogenes came to Athens and met Antisthenes, the founder of Cynicism and contrasts Antisthenes' mastery of virtuous doctrine with Diogenes' mastery of a virtuous lifestyle (1-4). The speech consists of an introduction (sections 1-10), a speech supposedly delivered by Diogenes at the Isthmian Games (11-35), and a brief conclusion (36). Dio Chrysostom was exiled by the Emperor Domitian in AD 82 and, according to his 13th oration, On his Banishment, he then adopted the guise of a Cynic philosopher and travelled Greece and the Black Sea, delivering orations like this one. He was famous for his very ascetic lifestyle, living outdoors and going without shoes or clothes. The fourth-century BC philosopher Diogenes founded the Cynic school of philosophy after being exiled from his hometown of Sinope. The oration forms a pair with the Isthmian Oration, which continues the story of Diogenes' visit to the Isthmian Games with many of the same themes.īackground Statue of an unknown Cynic philosopher from the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It presents the superiority of a Cynic lifestyle, through a comparison with the professional athlete and a revisionist account of the life of Heracles. Diogenes or On Virtue ( Ancient Greek: Διογένης ἢ περὶ ἀρετῆς, romanized: Diogenēs e peri aretēs, Oration 8 in modern corpora) is a speech delivered by Dio Chrysostom between AD 82 and 96, which is presented as a speech delivered by the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope at the Isthmian Games. ![]()
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