2 - Renunciation of custom

Summary

The most obvious activity of the ancient Cynics was their renunciation of traditional proprieties, and since antiquity observers have been alternately inspired and disgusted by their brazen protests. The Cynics' rejection of custom is an interesting cultural phenomenon in its own right, and to understand it in detail would take one through the whole gamut of Greek social usages. First, then, what are customs? Customs are the practices and expectations that guide the life of an individual and community. Generally they are habitual, and sometimes so engrained in routine that they are hardly noticed. One takes customs for granted, forgets their origins, as if they had always existed, and rarely questions them. The classical Sophists did question their societies' mores, however, as did many ancient philosophers after them. Most radical of all in their scepticism were the Cynics. From Diogenes until the last “dogs” of the ancient world, the Cynics defined themselves first by “snarling” at the institutions, rituals, beliefs and assumptions by which their contemporaries lived. To list their different acts of critique would be to compose a long priamel: “Not this, not that, and definitely not that”, says the Cynic in his scorn for all things merely conventional. In his seemingly universal nay-saying, the Cynic avoids traditional clothes, jewellery and bodily adornments for his own “uniform”; he restricts his diet; does not live in a house; derides bathing, sports, the Games; scoffs at festivals, sacrifice, prayer and religious life generally; does not marry, dodges work and steers clear of the courts, assembly, army and other arenas of political participation.