Comments on: Diogenes by Guy Davenport

By: Jonathan Scheuer

Jonathan Scheuer — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:46:26 +0000

Thanks, Jim. I’ll take a look at the story. Davenport’s gloss on this fragment seems plausible, but it I think it misses the dark undertone of the thought. If the philosopher’s function is to distinguish true from false values, he is like an honest assayer, supporting the integrity of the currency by assuring its purity. Is Diogenes implying that, on the contrary, all philosophical effort is futile? Or is he specifically critiquing the currency system? In either case, I think it is best taken as a provocation to question one’s assumptions. Interestingly, Ezra Pound was also the son of an assayer, from whom he absorbed some very cranky ideas about money and value.

By: Jim Gourley

Jim Gourley — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:51:39 +0000

Jonathan: I am not sure if you will be back to read this, but I’ll post it anyway, from Davenport’s introduction to 7 Greeks [16]:
“Diogene was born in 404 BC in Sinope on the Black Sea, the modern Sinop in Turkey. His father, an official at the mint, was convicted of debasing the coinage, and the family was disgraced and exiled. Diogenes made his way to Athens, where he took up the jibe of being an outcast’s son by saying that he, too, was a debaser of the coinage: meaning that, as a philosopher, his business was to assay custom and convention and sort the counterfeit from the solid currency.”

By: jg

jg — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:48:03 +0000

If you have a chance, have a look at Davenport’s short story “Mesoroposthonippidon” from Ecologues. It might help clarify #1.

By: Jonathan Scheuer

Jonathan Scheuer — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:48:12 +0000

I found this page because I was looking for item #1, a very mystifying statement. It’s probably apocryphal, yet seems to conform to our image of Diogenes as the consummate contrarian. One can see why Guy Davenport, whose elegant prose reveals a genial yet skeptical character, was fascinated by these fragments and the legend that accompanies them.