Chapter 9. MENEDEMUS
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Menedemus was a pupil of
Colotes of Lampsacus. According to Hippobotus he had attained such
a
degree of audacity in wonder-working that he
went about in the guise of a Fury, saying that he had come from
Hades to take cognisance of sins committed, and was going to
return and report them to the powers down below. This was his attire
: a grey tunic reaching to the feet, about it a crimson girdle ; an
Arcadian hat on his head with the twelve signs of the zodiac
inwrought in it ; buskins of tragedy ; and he wore a very long beard
and carried an ashen staff in his hand.
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Such are the lives of
the several Cynics. But we will go on to append the doctrines which
they held in common--if, that is, we decide that Cynicism is really
a philosophy, and not, as some maintain, just a way of life. They
are content then, like Ariston of Chios, to do away with the
subjects of Logic and Physics and to devote their whole attention to
Ethics. And what some assert of Socrates, Diocles records of
Diogenes, representing him as saying : "We must inquire into
Whate'er of good or ill within our halls is
wrought."Hom. Od. iv.
392.
They also dispense with the ordinary
subjects of instruction. At least Antisthenes used to say that
those who had attained discretion had better not study literature,
lest they should be perverted by alien influences.
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So they get rid
of geometry and music and all such studies. Anyhow, when somebody
showed Diogenes a clock, he pronounced it a serviceable instrument
to save one from being late for dinner. Again, to a man who gave a
musical recital before him he said
2 :
By men's minds states are ordered well, and
households,
Not by the lyre's twanged strings or flute's
trilled notes.
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They hold further that "Life
according to Virtue" is the End to be sought, as Antisthenes says in
his
Heracles : exactly like the Stoics. For
indeed there is a certain close relationship between the two
schools. Hence it has been said that Cynicism is a short cut to
virtue ; and after the same pattern did Zeno of Citium live his
life.
They also hold that we should live frugally, eating
food for nourishment only and wearing a single garment. Wealth and
fame and high birth they despise. Some at all events are vegetarians
and drink cold water only and are content with any kind of shelter
or tubs, like Diogenes, who used to say that it was the privilege of
the gods to need nothing and of god-like men to want but little.
They hold, further, that virtue can be taught, as Antisthenes
maintains in his
Heracles, and when once
acquired cannot be lost ; and that the wise man is worthy to be
loved, impeccable, and a friend to his like ; and that we should
entrust nothing to fortune. Whatever is intermediate between Virtue
and Vice they, in agreement with Ariston of Chios, account
indifferent.
So much, then, for the Cynics. We must now pass
on to the Stoics, whose founder was Zeno, a disciple of
Crates.
