marcus wrote: Perhaps this information comes from Pausanias' Guide to Greece? It's the sort of thing that he would say ... ("Below the Acrocorinth in the tomb of Diogenes, which has a marble dog ... blah blah").
You're right about Pausanias (2.4 on Corinth) but he gives no details of the tomb.
There are memorials along the road up to Corinth; Diogenes of Sinope, whom Greeks call 'the Dog' is buried by the gate.
I wonder if the
Neo-Attic sculpture stood on Diogenes' actual tomb given that it would have been made much later? Perhaps it was discovered during excavations in the 19th century because a Google search brought up several references in books of that period. One by Percy Gardner in 1896 – Sculptured tombs of Hellas – has this to say:
An epitaph, which may have been written beneath the sculptured dog, on the tomb of Diogenes the Cynic , runs thus: "Lies he here, who dwelt in an earthen cask? Aye truly; but now that he is dead, he has the stars for his home."
Gardner's use of the word "may" is interesting. Maybe they found a sculptured dog and an epitaph inscription in separate locations?
Theseus, there are quite a few entertaining quotes of Diogenes to be found, although one always wonders how many of them are apocryphal – the translator of my Pausanias notes that Diogenes became "legendary" immediately upon his death. Here are some of my favorites from Diogenes Laertius chapter on t'other Diogenes.
6.2.44 Alexander having on one occasion sent a letter to Antipater at Athens by a certain Athlios, Diogenes, who was present, said:
Graceless son of graceless sire to graceless wight by graceless squire.
Perdiccas having threatened to put him to death unless he came to him, "That's nothing wonderful," quoth he, "for a beetle or a tarantula would do the same." Instead of that he would have expected the threat to be that Perdiccas would be quite happy to do without his company.
6.2.45 When someone was extolling the good fortune of Callisthenes and saying what splendour he shared in the suite of Alexander, "Not so," said Diogenes, "but rather ill fortune; for he breakfasts and dines when Alexander thinks fit."
6.2.57 When Craterus wanted to come and visit him, "No," he replied, "I would rather live on a few grains of salt at Athens than enjoy sumptuous fare at Craterus's table."
6.2.60 Alexander once came and stood opposite him and said, "I am Alexander the great king." "And I," said he, "am Diogenes the Cynic." Being asked what he had done to be called a hound, he said, "I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals."
6.2.63 The mistress of kings he designated queens; for, said he, they make the kings do their bidding. When the Athenians gave Alexander the title of Dionysus, he said, "Me too you might make Sarapis."
6.2.66 Being reproached with accepting a cloak from Antipater, he replied:
The gods choice gifts are nowise to be spurned.
6.2.68 Being asked whether death was an evil thing, he replied, "How can it be evil, when in its presence we are not afraid of it?" When Alexander stood opposite him and asked, "Are you not afraid of me?" "Why, what are you?" said he, "a good thing or a bad?" Upon Alexander replying "A good thing," "Who then," said Diogenes, "is afraid of the good?"
6.2.79 Demetrius in his work On Men of the Same Name asserts that on the same day on which Alexander died in Babylon Diogenes died in Corinth. He was an old man in the 113th Olympiad.
And here's another one of my favorites from Lucian:
Lucian. Volume VI. How to Write History. Chapter 3. As I saw and heard all this, friend, I was reminded of the story of the man of Sinope. When Philip was said to be already on the march, all the Corinthians were astir and busy, preparing weapons, bringing up stones, underpinning the wall, shoring up a battlement and doing various other useful jobs. Diogenes saw this, and as he had nothing to do – nobody made any use of him – he belted up his philosopher's cloak and very busily by himself rolled the crock in which, as it happens, he was living up and down Cornel Hill. When one of his friends asked: "Why are you doing that, Diogenes?" he replied: "I’m rolling the crock so as not to be thought the one idle man in the midst of all these workers."
There's lots more to be found various sources (including Athenaeus' Deipnosophists and Plutarch's Moralia) but I've only ever transcribed anything that references Alexander or his period. Although I'm tempted, I have a feeling that if I started a file on everything to be found about Diogenes I might be kept busy for quite a while.
Oh, and by the way, despite his lifestyle, Diogenes had a mistress – the courtesan Lais of Hyccara who was also the mistress of Aristippus and of Demosthenes!
Best regards,
