Antisthenes

Antisthenes (ænˈtɪsθᵻniːz; Ἀντισθένης; 446 - 366 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the ethical side of Socrates' teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived in accordance with virtue. Later writers regarded him as the founder of Cynic philosophy. Antisthenes was born 446 BCE, the son of Antisthenes, an Athenian. His mother was thought to have been a Thracian, though some say a Phrygian, an opinion probably derived from his sarcastic reply to a man who reviled him as not being a genuine Athenian citizen, that the mother of the gods was a Phrygian (referring to Cybele, the Anatolian counterpart of the Greek goddess Rhea). In his youth he fought at Tanagra (426 BCE), and was a disciple first of Gorgias, and then of Socrates; so eager was he to hear the words of Socrates that he used to walk daily from the port of Peiraeus to Athens (about 9 kilometres), and persuaded his friends to accompany him. Eventually he was present at Socrates' death. He never forgave his master's persecutors, and is said to have been instrumental in procuring their punishment. He survived the Battle of Leuctra (371 BCE), as he is reported to have compared the victory of the Thebans to a set of schoolboys beating their master. Although Eudokia Makrembolitissa supposedly tells us that he died at the age of 70, he was apparently still alive in 366 BCE, and he must have been nearer to 80 years old when he died at Athens, 365 BCE. He is said to have lectured at the Cynosarges, a gymnasium for the use of Athenians born of foreign mothers, near the temple of Heracles. Filled with enthusiasm for the Socratic idea of virtue, he founded a school of his own in the Cynosarges, where he attracted the poorer classes by the simplicity of his life and teaching. He wore a cloak and carried a staff and a wallet, and this costume became the uniform of his followers. Diogenes Laërtius says that his works filled ten volumes, but of these, only fragments remain.