Book 6
2.63
On being asked what he had gained from philosophy, he replied, This at least, if nothing else—to be prepared for every fortune. Asked where he came from, he said, I am a citizen of the world.If this answer is authentic, it apparently shows that the famous term cosmopolitan originated with Diogenes. Certain parents were sacrificing to the gods, that a son might be born to them. But, said he, do you not sacrifice to ensure what manner of man he shall turn out to be? When asked for a subscription towards a club, he said to the president: Despoil the rest; off Hector keep thy hands.There is no such line in our mss. of Homer; it is unknown to the Scholiasts and to Eustathius. Joshua Barnes, in his edition of the Iliad, introduced it as xvi. 82a. Pope rendered it, about 1718, as follows (Il. xvi. 86): Rage uncontrolled through all the hostile crew, But touch not Hector, Hector is my due. In Clarke’s edition of 1740 it is expelled from the text and relegated to a footnote. J. H. Voss, however, making a German translation of the Iliad, probably between 1781 and 1793, still regarded it as Homeric, but found a fresh place for it, after xvi. 90.
