THE CYNICS’ PARRHESIA: THE EXAMPLE OF ANTISTHENES OF ATHENS
THE CYNICS’ PARRHESIA: THE EXAMPLE OF ANTISTHENES OF ATHENS

Summary/Abstract: This article re-examines the Cynic concept of parrhesia – fearless and truth-tellingspeech – through the largely overlooked figure of Antisthenes of Athens. In contrast to the prevail-ing scholarly view, which identifies Diogenes of Sinope as the central exemplar of Cynic candor,this study argues that Antisthenes established both the theoretical and practical foundations of thistradition by integrating Socratic elenchos with a new, publicly oriented rhetoric. After outliningthe semantic evolution of parrhesia – from Homeric custom to the democratic ideology of the fifthcentury BCE – the article offers a close analysis of the extant fragments by Antisthenes, as well asrelevant testimonies from Diogenes Laertius, Xenophon, and later doxographers. It advances threecentral claims: (1) Antisthenes reconceived philosophy as a lived mission of moral provocationaimed at exposing conventional values; (2) his bios kynikos—marked by voluntary poverty, a life“according to nature”, and the unity of word and deed – functioned as a performative vehicle forparrhesia; and (3) his model significantly shaped subsequent Cynic and Stoic takes on candidspeech as an ethical and political practice. By analyzing Antisthenes’ aphorisms, his criticism ofpower and his self-creation as a public person, the article fills a significant historiographical gapand demonstrates how Cynic parrhesia evolved from Socratic dialectic into an embodied rhetoricof ethical confrontation.

• Details
• Contents