Diogenes and Alexander

[2] Although this account is dubious (since neither man's date of death can be conclusively verified), the anecdote, and the relationship between the two people, has been the subject of many literary and artistic works over the centuries, from the writings of Diogenes Laërtius to David Pinski's 1930 dramatic reconstruction of the encounter, Aleḳsander un Dyogenes; including writings from the Middle Ages, several works of Henry Fielding, and possibly even Shakespeare's King Lear along the way.

[5] Arrian referred to the episode when recording the similar encounters of Indian philosophers with Alexander occurred during Alexander's campaigns in his book The Campaigns of Alexander.When also in the Isthmus he met Diogenes of Sinope, lying in the sun, standing near him with his shield-bearing guards and foot Companions, he asked if he wanted anything.

One of Diogenes' pupils, Onesicritus, later joined Alexander and will have been the original source of this story, embellished in the retelling, which appears in Ptolemy (14.2),[clarification needed] Arrian, (Anabasis Alexandri, 7.2.1) and "Plutarch" Moralia, 331.

[12][13] The other major accounts of the tale are Cicero Tusculanae Disputationes 5.32.92; Valerius Maximus Dictorum factorumque memorabilium 4.3. ext.

[14] The historicity of the accounts by Plutarch and others has been questioned, not least by G. E. Lynch in his article on Diogenes in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

"[C]onsidering what rich materials so peculiar a person as Diogenes must have afforded for amusing stories," he continues, "we need not wonder if a few have come down to us of somewhat doubtful genuineness.

"[3][15] A. M. Pizzagalli suggests that the account has its origins in the meeting between Alexander and the Gymnosophists in India, and was handed down in Buddhist circles.

He states that "It demonstrates in one stroke what antiquity understands by philosophical wisdom – not so much a theoretical knowledge but rather an unerring sovereign spirit [...] The wise man [...] turns his back on the subjective principle of power, ambition, and the urge to be recognized.

Valerius Maximus comments "Alexander Diogenem gradu suo diuitiis pellere temptat, celerius Darium armis" (transl.

"), and adds "Alexander Macedonum rex gloriari solebat a nullo se beneficiis uictum."

[4][22] Diogenes' answer circulated as an aphorism in western Britain in the early Middle Ages, but it does not seem to have been understood or else had become completely divorced from the story.

In the 9th-century dialogue De raris fabulis, "don't stand between me and the light" is the response of friend who is refusing a request for help because "other work engages me".

In a later dialogue by Ælfric Bata, the aphorism is used to mean "stand a little further off", the advice to a younger monk of an elder using the latrine.

Socrates is as good as Diogenes for this purpose, although Alexander is favoured as the king simply because by the Middle Ages he had already become the archetypical conqueror, and was considered the most famous one in history.

[3][24] Henry Fielding retells the anecdote as A Dialogue between Alexander the Great, and Diogenes the Cynic, printed in his Miscellanies in 1743.

I saw Diogenes there strut it out most pompously, and in great magnificence, with a rich purple gown on him, and a golden sceptre in his right hand.

And, which is more, he would now and then make Alexander the Great mad, so enormously would he abuse him when he had not well patched his breeches; for he used to pay his skin with sound bastinadoes."

Flemish-German Renaissance painter Marten Van Valckenborg represented the anecdotic allegory from 330BC of Alexander, approaching the celebrated Cynic philosopher Diogenes.

Ref Oil painting on wood, Alexander the Great visiting Diogenes, circa 1585, Private collection.

Alexander the Great visiting Diogenes by Marten Van Valckenborg, 1585, in [Private collection] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marten_Van_Valckenborg.jpg

[30] Daniel Cady Eaton, art historian and professor of the History and Criticism of Art at Yale University, observed that the work is not in keeping with the anecdote, with Diogenes portrayed as a pitiable old man extending his arms and Alexander portrayed as mounted on a horse with a hand to his breast in mockery.

He forgot that in the mass of men, weapons, horses, and even edifices, he could not introduce the most essential actor; that is the sun's ray intercepted by Alexander; without which the composition has no sense.

[32] Others, such as Gonse, praised Puget: I do not hesitate to proclaim the bas-relief of Alexandre de Diogène one of the most striking creations of modern sculpture.

Everything that is most rare and most difficult in the art of sculpture are there united as by a miracle: concentrated plastic effect, play of lights and shadows, selections of plans, ease of modelling; nervous, fine, lively, and iridescent execution.

[33] Alexander is a white bulldog with a military collar who looks down haughtily upon Diogenes, represented as a scruffy farrier's dog in a barrel.

[37] Charles Darwin and Briton Rivière agreed with each other that the hair of the Alexander dog was inaccurately represented.