Single Idea 5968

[catalogued under 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 2. Anarchism]

Full Idea

Chrysippus praises Diogenes for saying to bystanders as he masturbated in public, "Would that I could thus rub the hunger too out of my belly".

Gist of Idea

Diogenes masturbated in public, wishing he could get rid of hunger so easily

Source

report of Diogenes (Sin) (reports [c.360 BCE]) by Plutarch - 70: Stoic Self-contradictions 1044b

Book Reference

Plutarch: 'Moralia - vol 13 part 2', ed/tr. Cherniss,Harold [Harvard Loeb 1993], p.501


A Reaction

So it is not quite true that people only need corn and water. Diogenes' remark doesn't explain why he did it in public. Was it to defy local convention (as befits a citizen of the world), or was it to teach?