Crates: the Handsome Cynic
Table of Contents
1 Crates was:
- a Theban
- the son of Ascondus
- one of the eminent disciples of the Cynics
Hippobotus asserts that he was not a pupil of Diogenes, but of Bryson the Achæan.
2 He wrote:
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, They’d rather fight for gold than glory’s dreams.
His account-book wrote:
Put down the cook for minas half a score, Put down the doctor for a drachma more: Five talents to the flatterer; some smoke To 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 advice:
All this I learnt and pondered in my mind, Drawing deep wisdom from the Muses kind, But all the rest is vanity.
There is a line, too, which tells us that he gained from philosophy:
A peck of lupins, and to care for nobody.
This, too, is attributed to him:
Hunger checks love; and should it not, time does. If both should fail you, then choose a halter
3 He flourished about the 113th olympiad.
4 Antisthenes, in his Successions, says that he saw Telephus holding a date basket and in a miserable plight switched to the Cynic philosophy.
He turned his patrimony into money for he was from a rich famiy. He collected 300 talents by that means, and divided them among the citizens.
After that, he devoted himself to philosophy with such eagerness, that even Philemon the comic poet mentions him:
And in the summer he’d a shaggy gown, To inure himself to hardship: in the winter He wore mere rags.
But Diocles says that it was Diogenes who persuaded him to discard all his estate and his flocks, and to throw his money into the sea.
The house of:
- Crates was destroyed by Alexander
- Hipparchia under Philip
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;
He remained immoveable.
5 Demetrius, the Magnesian, relates that Crates deposited his money with a banker contracting that if his sons turned out ordinary and ignorant, the banker would restore it to them.
But if they became philosophers, then he was to divide it among the people since they as philosophers would have no need of anything.
Eratosthenes tells us that he had by Hipparchia a son named Pasicles.
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;
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.
6 He had also a brother named Pasicles, a pupil of Euclides.
7 Phavorinus in book 2 of his Commentaries relates a witty saying of his.
He was begging a favour of the master of a gymnasium so he touched his thighs.
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.
He provoked Nicodromus, the harp-player, and received a black eye from him.
So he put a plaster on his forehead and wrote on it, “Nicodromus did this.”
He used to abuse prostitutes designedly, for the purpose of practising himself in enduring reproaches.
When 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 ædiles of the Athenians, for wearing fine linen. So he replied:
“I will show you Theophrastus 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 Thebes 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:
I feel, O mighty chief, your matchless might, Dragged, foot first, downward from th’ ethereal height.
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 Asclepiades within?”
Menedemus was very much offended, and dragged him out and then Crates quoted the above-cited line.
8 Zeno, the Cittiæan, in his Apophthegms, says that he once sewed up a sheep’s fleece in his cloak, without thinking of it.
Zeno was a very ugly man, and one who excited laughter when he was taking exercise.
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:
9 “For you shall see those who now ridicule you, convulsed with disease, and envying your happiness, and accusing themselves of slothfulness.”
A man should study philosophy, up to the point of looking on generals and donkey-drivers in the same light.
Those who live with flatterers, are as desolate as calves when in the company of wolves. 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.
10 When he felt that he was dying, he made verses on himself, saying:
You’re going, noble hunchback, you are going To Pluto’s realms, bent double by old age.
For he was humpbacked from age.
11 Alexander the Great 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 even 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 Twin-sister, mentions him thus:— For you will walk with me wrapped in your cloak, As his wife used to with the Cynic Crates.
11 He gave his daughter to his pupils, as he himself used to say:
To have and keep on trial for a month.