 I. CRATES was a Theban by birth, and the
son of Ascondus. He also was one of the eminent
disciples of the Cynic. But Hippobotus asserts
that he was not a pupil of Diogenes, but
of Bryson the Achaean. [250]
II. here are the following sportive lines
of his quoted
The waves surround vain Peres’ fruitful
soil, And fertile acres crown the sea-born
isle; Land which no parasite e’er dares invade,
Or lewd seducer of a hapless maid; It bears
figs, bread, thyme, garlic’s savoury charms,
Gifts which ne’er tempt men to detested arms,
hey’d rather fight for gold than glory’s
dreams,
There is also an account-book of his much
spoken of, which is drawn up in such terms
as these:—
Put down the cook for minas half a score,
Put down the doctor for a drachma more: Five
talents to the flatterer; some smoke o the
adviser, an obol and a cloak For the philosopher;
for the willing nymph, A talent
He was also nicknamed Door-opener, because
he used to enter every house and give the
inmates advice. hese lines, too, are his
All this I learnt and pondered in my mind,
Drawing deep wisdom from the Muses kind,
But all the rest is vanity.
here is a line, too, which tells us that
he gained from philosophy
A peck of lupins, and to care for nobody.
his, too, is attributed to him:— Hunger checks
love; and should it not, time does. If both
should fail you, then a halter choose.
He flourished about the hundred and thirteenth
olympiad.
Antisthenes, in his Successions, says that
he, having once, in a certain tragedy, seen
elephus holding a date basket, and in a miserable
plight in other respects, betook himself
to the Cynic philosophy; and having turned
his patrimony into money (for he was of illustrious
extraction), he collected three hundred talents
by that means, and divided them among the
citizens. And after that he devoted himself
to philosophy with such eagerness, that even
Philemon the comic poet mentions him. Accordingly
he says:— [251]
And in the summer he’d a shaggy gown, o
inure himself to hardship: in the winter
He wore mere rags.
But Diodes says that it was Diogenes who
persuaded him to discard all his estate and
his flocks, and to throw his money into the
sea; and he says further, that the house
of Crates was destroyed by Alexander, and
that of Hipparchia under Philip. And he would
very frequently drive away with his staff
those of his relations who came after him,
and endeavoured to dissuade him from his
design; and he remained immoveable.
V. Demetrius, the Magnesian, relates that
he deposited his money with a banker, making
an agreement with him, that if his sons tuned
out ordinary ignorant people, he was then
to restore it to them; but if they became
philosophers, then he was to divide it among
the people, for that they, if they were philosophers,
would have no need of anything. And Eratosthenes
tells us that he had by Hipparchia, whom
we shall mention hereafter, a son whose name
was Pasicles, and that when he grew up, he
took him to a brothel kept by a female slave,
and told him that that was all the marriage
that his father designed for him; but that
marriages which resulted in adultery were
themes for tragedians; and had exile and
bloodshed for their prizes; and the marriages
of those who lived with courtesans were subjects
for the comic poets, and often produced madness
as the result of debauchery and drunkenness.
VI. He had also a brother named Pasicles,
a pupil of Euclides.
VII. Phavorinus, in the second book of his
Commentaries, relates a witty saying of his;
for he says, that once, when he was begging
a favour of the master of a gymnasium, on
the behalf of some acquaintance, he touched
his thighs; and as he expressed his indignation
at this, he said, "Why, do they not
belong to you as well as your knees?"
He used to say that it was impossible to
find a man who had never done wrong, in the
same way as there was always some worthless
seed in a pomegranate. On one occasion he
provoked Nicodromus, the harp-player. and
received a black eye from him ; so he put
a plaster on his forehead and wrote upon
it, "Nicodromus did this." He used
to abuse prostitutes designedly, for the
purpose of practising himself in enduring
reproaches. When [252] Demetrius Phalereus
sent him some loaves and wine, he attacked
him for his present, saying, "I wish
that the fountains bore loaves;" and
it is notorious that he was a water drinker.
He was once reproved by the aediles of the
Athenians, for wearing fine linen, and so
he replied, "I will show you heophrastus
also clad in fine linen." And as they
did not believe him, he took them to a barber’s
shop, and showed him to them as he was being
shaved. At hebes he was once scourged by
the master of the Gymnasium,
(though some say it was by Euthycrates,
at Corinth), and dragged out by the feet;
but he did not care, and quoted the line
I feel, O mighty chief, your matchless might,
Dragged, foot first, downward from th’ ethereal
height.[Cf., Homer, ILIAD i 591]
But Diocles says that it was by Menedemus,
of Eretria, that he was dragged in this manner,
for that as he was a handsome man, and supposed
to be very obsequious to Asclepiades, the
Phliasian, Crates touched his thighs and
said, "Is Asclepiacles within?"
And Menedemus was very much offended, and
dragged him out, as has been already, said;
and then Crates quoted the above-cited line.
VIII. Zeno, the Cittiaean, in his Apophthegms,
says, that he once sewed up a sheep’s fleece
in his cloak, without thinking of it; and
he was a very ugly man, and one who excited
laughter when he was taking exercise. And
he used to say, when he put up his hands,
"Courage, Crates, as far as your eyes
and the rest of your body is concerned;—
IX. "For you shall see those who now
ridicule you, convulsed with disease, and
envying your happiness, and accusing themselves
of slothfulness." One of his sayings
was, "hat a man ought to study philosophy,
up to the point of looking on generals and
donkey-drivers in the same light." Another
was, that those who live with flatterers,
are as desolate as calves when in the company
of wolves; for that neither the one nor the
other are with those whom they ought to be,
or their own kindred, but only with those
who are plotting against them.
X. When he felt that he was dying, he made
verses on himself, saying :— [253]
You’re going, noble hunchback, you are going
o Pluto’s realms, bent double by old age.
For he was humpbacked from age.
XI. When Alexander asked him whether he
wished to see the restoration of his country,
he said, "What would be the use of it?
for perhaps some other Alexander would come
at some future time and destroy it again.
"But poverty and dear obscurity, Are
what a prudent man should think his country
For these e’en fortune can’t deprive him
of."
He also said that he was :—
A fellow countryman of wise Diogenes, Whom
even envy never had attacked.
Menander, in his win-sister, mentions him
thus :—
For you will walk with me wrapped in your
cloak, As his wife used to with the Cynic
Crates.
XII He gave his daughter to his pupils,
as he himself used to say:—
To have and keep on trial for a month.
A female philosopher Hipparchia fell in
love with both Crates' discourses and his
way of life. She paid no attention to any
of her suitors, their money, their high birth,
or their good looks. To her Crates was everything.
And in fact she threatened her parents that
she would kill herself, if they didn't let
her marry him. Her parents begged Crates
to dissuade her. He did everything he could,
but finally when he couldn't persuade her,
he stood up and took off his clothes in front
of her and said: 'This is your bridegroom;
these are his possessions; plan accordingly!'
He didn't think she would be able to be his
partner unless she could share in the same
pursuits.
But the girl chose him. She adopted the
same dress and went about with him; she made
love to him in public; she went to dinner
parties with him.[2] Once, when she went
to a dinner party at Lysimachus' house, she
put down Theodorus called the Atheist by
using the following trick of logic: if an
action could not be called wrong when done
by Theodorus it could not be called wrong
when done by Hipparchia. Therefore, if Theodorus
does nothing wrong when he hits himself,
Hipparchia does nothing wrong if she hits
Theodorus. He had no defence against her
logic, and started to pull off her cloak.[3]
But Hipparchia did not get upset or excited
as other women would. Then when he said to
her: 'Here I am, Agave, who left behind my
shuttles beside my loom'.[4] 'Indeed it is
I,' said Hipparchia; 'Theodorus-you don't
think that I have arranged my life so badly,
do you, if I have used the time I would have
wasted on weaving for my education?' These
and many other stories are told about the
woman philosopher.
Notes:
1. Her brother Metrocles was also a philosopher.
Cf. Magnilla (no. 221).
2. Two of Plato's women disciples were said
to have worn men's clothing; see no. 216.
Usually the only women at men's dinner parties
were courtesans, e. g. Neaera,
3. Cf. how the prefect sentences the scholarly
Irene to a brothel, no. 446.
4. Agave's boast to her father in Euripides,
Bacchae 1236, when she returns from the hunt,
thinking she has caught a lion; but the head
she is carrying turns out to be her son's.
LIFE OF HIPPARCHIA.
I. Hipparchia, the sister of Metrocles,
was charmed among others, by the doctrines
of this school.
II. Both she and Metrocles were natives
of Maronea. She fell in love with both the
doctrines and manners of Crates, and could
not be diverted from her regard for him,
by either the wealth, or high birth, or personal
beauty, of any of her suitors, but Crates
was everything to her; and she threatened
her parents to make away with herself, if
she were not given in marriage to him. Crates
accordingly, being entreated by. her parents
to dissuade her from this resolution, did
all he [225] could; and at last, as he could
not persuade her, he rose up, and placing
all his furniture before her, he said, "This
is the bridegroom whom you are choosing,
and this is the whole of his property; consider
these facts, for it will not be possible
for you to become his partner, if you do
not also apply yourself to the same studies,
and conform to the same habits that he does."
But the girl chose him; and assuming the
same dress that he wore, went about with
him as her husband, and appeared with him
in public everywhere, and went to all entertainments
in his company.
III. And once when she went to sup with
Lysimachus, she attacked Theodorus, who was
surnamed the Atheist; proposing to him the
following sophism; "What Theodorus could
not be called wrong for doing, that same
thing Hipparchia ought not to be called wrong
for doing. But Theodorus does no wrong when
he beats himself; therefore Hipparchia does
no wrong when she beats Theodorus."
He made no reply to what she said, but only
pulled her clothes about; but Hipparchia
was neither offended nor ashamed, as many
a woman would have been; but when he said
to her :—
"Who is the woman who has left the
shuttle
So near the warp? [This line is from the
Bacchae of Euripedes, v. 1228]
"I, Theodorus, am that person,"
she replied; "but do I appear to you
to have come to a wrong decision, if I devote
that time to philosophy, which I otherwise
should have spent at the loom?" And
these and many other sayings are reported
of this female philosopher.
IV. There is also a volume of letters of
Crates extant [From this last paragraph it
is inferred by some critics, that originally
the preceding memoirs of Crates, Metrocles,
and Hipparchia. formed only one chapter or
book.], in which he philosophizes most excellently;
and in style is very little inferior to Plato.
He also wrote some tragedies, which are imbued
with a very sublime spirit of philosophy,
of which the following lines are a specimen
‘Tis not one town, nor one poor single house,
That is my country; but in every land Each
city and each dwelling seems to me,
A place for my reception ready made. And
he died at a great age, and was buried in
Boeotia.
|
Evans Experientialism 
