The Cynic

Pseudo-Lucian

Translated by Henry Watson Fowler

1 chapter · about 12 min

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The opening

THE CYNIC

Lycinus Give an account of yourself, my man. You wear a beard and let your hair grow; you eschew shirts; you exhibit your skin; your feet are bare; you choose a wandering, outcast, beastly life; unlike other people, you make your own body the object of your severities; you go from place to place sleeping on the hard ground where chance finds you, with the result that your old cloak, neither light nor soft nor gay to begin with, has a plentiful load of filth to carry about with it. Why 4s it all?

Cynic It meets my needs. It was easy to come by, and it gives its owner no trouble. It is the cloak for me.

Pray tell me, do you not call extravagance a vice?

Lycinus Oh, yes.

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About this edition

The words
Henry Watson Fowler's English translation, copied word for word.
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Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University); CC BY-SA 4.0 — this edition may be reused under the same share-alike terms. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0