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When many people talk about the ancient Greek Cynics, these peculiar philosophers, most are thinking of Diogenes of Sinope—the eccentric man who chose to live in a clay jar, and told Alexander the Great to step out of his sunlight.
Undoubtedly, he was a fascinating figure, but focusing solely on Diogenes bears the risk of making us miss the broader, perhaps even more radical, philosophical movement that he spawned.
The Cynics were more than Diogenes and what he represented as a personality; they were sharp critics of ancient societies. They were unmistakably rejecting their norms, or nomos as they are called in Greek, in favor of a completely different life. They chose a life lived with nature, or physis, at its core, something that came to be seen as a profound challenge to the very foundations of ancient Athens.
Let’s get our terms straight. Nomos in ancient Greece didn’t just mean “law.” It embodied customs, traditions, values, and the social norms that held society together. Everything from fashion and manners to concepts of wealth and status.
Physis, on the other hand, represented nature, the essential, the stripped-down reality of human needs and instincts, the very foundations of one’s existence.
The Cynics looked at the society of Athens of their day—a city often obsessed with reputation, political maneuvering and material possessions. This is one of the fundamental reasons why they saw nomos not as a civilizing force, but as a source of evil, corruption, vanity, and ultimately, unhappiness.
Their solution? Quite radical: Ditch it. Live simply, honestly and in accordance with nature, free from the artificial constraints and anxieties imposed by human-made conventions. This philosophy became manifest in a mixture of odd personalities opting out of the common goal, embodying an active, living critique aimed straight at the hypocrisy and superficiality they saw all around them. We can clearly see similar element in our own societies. Think of it less as ancient minimalist tendencies and more as philosophical guerrilla warfare against the status quo.
There is no doubt that Diogenes was the one who laid the foundations of the cynic movement. However, his disciple Crates of Thebes, along with his remarkable wife Hipparchia of Maroneia, truly embraced this philosophy, adopting the radical life to the greatest possible extent. Crates wasn’t born into poverty; he came from a wealthy family in the city of Thebes, north of Athens. Yet, inspired by the Cynic ideal, he reportedly gave away his considerable fortune, believing it was a burden that hindered true freedom and happiness. Imagine the stir that caused!
But the real shock came from another, especially for the patriarchal society of ancient Greece: Hipparchia. From a good family herself, she fell deeply in love not just with Crates, but with the Cynic way of life. Rejecting suitors her family approved of, she threatened suicide unless she was allowed to marry the penniless, unconventional Crates. Hold onto your chitons, fans of ancient Greece—this was truly scandalous! After marrying him, she adopted the Cynic lifestyle completely, wearing simple cloaks, abandoning her home and engaging in philosophical discussions publicly alongside her husband.
They practiced anaideia—Greek for shamelessness, or acting without regard for conventional modesty—viewing biological necessities as natural and not something to be hidden. Their life together, sometimes referred to as a ‘dog-marriage’ (kynogamia) because of the Cynic nickname (‘kynikos’ meaning dog-like), was a clear way of living their philosophy, a constant, public rejection of norms surrounding wealth, gender roles and propriety. Can you imagine the gossip columns in ancient Athens for this couple?
What truly set the Greek Cynics, including Crates and Hipparchia, apart was the fact that they embraced their philosophy in their everyday life. They weren’t interested in writing lengthy, abstract treatises locked away in some academy. Their philosophy was lived, performed and demonstrated in the bustling agora, the ancient equivalent of the city square. Their simple dress, their lack of possessions, their willingness to beg, their pointed and often witty remarks directed at passersby, even their defiance of basic etiquette—it was all part of the argument. They used their very lives as philosophical texts, forcing onlookers to confront uncomfortable questions about their own values and assumptions.
This ‘performance philosophy’ was designed to provoke, to shock people out of their complacent acceptance of nomos. It wasn’t just Crates and Hipparchia who behaved like this; this was the Cynic way as a whole. Their shamelessness (anaideia) wasn’t gratuitous; it was a tool to expose the arbitrary nature of many social customs. This radical, lived philosophy, though often jarring, had a profound impact, notably influencing Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, who himself was a student of Crates. The Cynic emphasis on virtue, living according to nature, and indifference to external circumstances, echoes powerfully within Stoic thought, albeit in a less abrasive form.
So, the next time you hear about the Greek Cynics, try to look beyond the caricature of Diogenes and his barrel. Think of Crates renouncing his fortune and especially of Hipparchia, defying every expectation placed upon a woman of her time to live a life of philosophical integrity on her own terms. Their rejection of nomos was a deliberate, challenging critique of societal structures, urging a return to physis as the path to true happiness and virtue.
