In about the year 400 B.C., there was a banker, a minter of coins, by the name of Hicesias. And Hicesias and his wife were without child, and Hicesiases wife prayed to god for a son, and god was angry with Hicesias, because he lied to his brother, about the flow of energy of life being the flow of energy of debt, so god decided he would teach Hicesiasa lesson, and he granted his wifes request, and to Hicesias a son was born, and Hicesias named the son Diogenes, for he was a gift from god. (dio means "god" and genes means "man/(genetics) of).
As the child grew he learned to mint coins, like his father, as was the tradition back then. But one day Diogenes wen't to the oracle at Delphi, and he asked the Oracle what the best way was to make the greatest name for himself, and they told him "to deface the currency". At a later time, his father decided to take leave and he left Diogenes in charge over the mint, and Diogenes defaced the currency literally.
when the crime was detected, they exiled Hicesias and of course Diogenes being the reason he was exiled took to Exile with him. and this is how Diogenes ended up in Athens.
When he first arrived in Athens he had a slave with him, a man by the name of Manes who abandoned him shortly thereafter. With characteristic humor, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?" Manes was later found ate by wild dogs.
While he wandered Athens he ran into a man named Antisthenes, and he enjoyed what he heard from him, Antisthenes was a student of Socrates, kind of like the flip side of Plato. So Diogenes decided he would travel behind Antisthenes and learn all he could from him, but Antisthenes didn't wan't a student, and he picked up a large stick and threatened Diogenes with the stick, but Diogenes just said "Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say." With that Diogenes became the student of Antisthenes.
With all of his understanding he used to go speak in the public forums, alongside Plato and Aristotle and all the rest, which is where
of what we know of him comes from.
One day while listening to Plato discourse on "What is man" he heard Plato say that man was a upright creature walking on two feet with scant or no hair and nails". So Diogenes went home and pondered these words, and he went outside and picked up a chicken, and plucked out all of its feathers, and stuck him in a burlap sack and tied the top with twine, and carried the burlap sack into the forum the next day, where he announced he had found Platos man and released the plucked chicken, and the definition of man had to be change to include "possesses broad nails".
Please don't comment unless it is a question, I'll add more to this later.
This IS a seriius topic, and there IS a reason behind it.