LIFE OF CRATES - Diogenes Laërtius - : The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers - Athenaeum Library of Philosophy

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   LIFE OF CRATES

Diogenes Laërtius:
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers


Crates of Thebes flourished 4th century BC. Cynic philosopher, a pupil of Diogenes. He gave up his fortune and made it his mission to castigate vice and pretense. Hipparchia, daughter of a wealthy Thracian family and sister of the philosopher Metrocles, forced her parents to allow her to join him in his ascetic and missionary life. He had a gift for amusing parody of serious poetry, by which he mocked other philosophers and praised the Cynic way of living. He was reputed to be the author of philosophic dramas and philosophic letters: the letters extant under his name are spurious. His historical importance lies in the influence that he exerted on Zeno the Stoic, who greatly admired him. Plutarch's biography of him is no longer

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.



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