Timon finds fault with him for writing so much and calls him a prolific trifler.
He died of disease just as Diogenes, who had come in, inquired of him, "Have you need of a friend?"
Once too Diogenes, when he came to him, brought a dagger.
And when Antisthenes cried out, "Who will release me from these pains?" Diogenes replied, "This," showing him the dagger.
"I said," answered the other, "from my pains, not from life!"
It was thought that he showed some weakness in bearing his malady through love of life. And here are my verses upon him:
Such was your nature, Antisthenes,
that in your lifetime you were a very bulldog
to rend the heart with words, if not with teeth.
Yet you died of consumption.
Maybe some one will say, What of that?
We must anyhow have some guide to the world below.
—Diogenes Laërtius, 6.18-19
IMAGE: Giulio Bonasone, Diogenes and Antisthenes (1555)
caede sivis nihil tam durum quome summove as dum aliquid dixeris
"Strike if you want, nothing is so tough to drive me away, as long as you have something to say."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment