Antisthenes

Antisthenes, founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, was the son of an Athenian father and a Thracian mother. He fought in his youth at Tanagra (426 B.C.), was first a disciple of Gorgias, afterwards a friend and follower of Socrates, and died at Athens at the age of 70. After the death of Socrates, he taught moral and practical philosophy in the Athenian gymnasium Cynosarges, from which it is said his school derived its title. Antisthenes held that virtue mainly consists in voluntary abstinence from pleasure, and in a stern contempt of riches, honours, and even learning. He showed his contempt for all the luxuries and comforts of life by eating the hardest fare and wearing ragged garments—an eccentricity which Socrates reprovved with the words, 'I see your pride through the holes in your cloak.' Antisthenes attracted many imitators, among them Diogenes; and from his school possibly the Stoics sprung. His writings have mostly perished. See CYNICS, SOCRATES and books there cited, and STOICISM.