https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes
At the approach of so many people, Diogenes sat up a little and fixed his eyes on Alexander. When the king greeted him and asked if there was anything he wanted, Diogenes replied, “Yes, that you should stand a little out of my sun”.
Alexander mused “if I were not Alexander I would like to be Diogenes”, to which Diogenes allegedly replied “if I were not Diogenes I too would like to be Diogenes”.
Impressive shitposting game
Dude must have been an insufferable ass, though.
Most everyone we hear about from that period would have been. They were by and large the leisure class, and we have precious little patience for the billionaires now…
I mean, Diogenes was a raving, unwashed, often naked, homeless man that lived in a big jar in the market eating scraps and drinking from puddles. Not really in the same class of people as the other philosophers.
His whole deal was that luxury was unnecessary for a fulfilling life and chose to abandon it all to prove it.
He was born rich though, weirdly enough
Tech bros being tech bros even in ancient greece
Wasn’t his wife bringing him food and drink regularly and occasionally go “you know you can come home anytime, right?”.
Maybe I’m hallucinating. It’s been a long time since I studied Greek history…
He was in exile in Athens, and did not have much money if any while in exile. I don’t remember him ever marrying, but he was definitely not rich when he lived in the jar.
Was curious about this jar because I was imagining a glass jar lol. I looked it up and a few portrayals show him hanging with dogs too
One of his nicknames was “the dog” which was supposed to be derogatory, but he took it as a compliment because he thought dogs basically had it figured out - they spend all their time socializing or napping, eat whatever they can scrounge up, and generally seem pretty chill with it all.
That makes much more sense than the “ship in a bottle” situation I was imagining
It ain’t easy being based
Diogenes took the art of trolling and turned it into a philosophical thought.
The original 4chan troll.
“3 Shocking Things you can do Publicly With Your Penis”
