An Apophthegm of Diogenes the Cynic Boegehold, Alan L Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1968; 9, 1; ProQuest pg. 59

An Apophthegm of Diogenes the Cynic 

Alan L. Boegehold 

A I • '..J.. \ I ..J.. .'" , A' , - ..J.. 
LJwy€V7]~ 0 KVVLKO~ 'f'LI\OCT0'f'0~ WWV yvvaLKa V1TO 1ToTap.ov 'f'€PO-

I 'I' "..J....J.. I 0 (.)' ,., -p.€V7]v €L1T€V' a'f'€~ 'f'€P€CTCT aL SIC TO KaKrJV V1TO KaKOV. 

THE TEXT of this graffito from Herculaneum has been published 
and discussed by M. della Corte,! A. Maiuri,2 K. Schubring3 
and G. Strohmaier.4 KaKOU is the original writer's supralinear 

correction of KaKw~.5 But even with the correction, the last four words 
present a problem in interpretation to which neither della Corte nor 
Maiuri allude. Schubring emends acp€~ cpEpwOaL V1T(~ KaKOU KeXKL6v n, 

Strohmaier acp€~ cpEpwOa£ T6 KaK6v ~6 KaKOU. None of the four scholars 
notes earlier Greek proverbial usage that might be relevant. 

Writers of the fifth century B.C. sometimes deprecated rash, dan­
gerous or dishonorable solutions with a proverb, viZ' p.~ KU.K6v KaKo/ 

laaOa£,6 and the usage persisted into later antiquity.' Some Athenian 
comic playwrights amused themselves by playing on the notion, e.g. 
7fA€fJ T6V 7jAOV, 1TaTTeXA€fJ TOV 1TeXTTaAov,8 and it may be that Diogenes was 
evoking the prohibition, "Don't cure bad by means of bad," with a 
twist. If one prints acp€~ cpEp€aOa£' T6 KaK~v V1TO KaKOU, the sense be­
comes: "Let her go. It is a case of, 'Bad to get rid of bad ... woman'."9 

1 "Le iscrizioni di Ercolano," RendNap NS 33 (1958) 262, no. 264, with a facsimile on Plate 
II. He tra~slates the apophthegm: "Lascia che un malanno sia portaro via da un (alcro) 
malanno. 

Z Ercolano, I nuovi Scavi, 1927-1958 (Rome 1958) 435 with fig. 379. 
8 "Epigraphisches aus Kampanischen Stadten," Hermes 90 (1962) 240f. 
'''TO KAKON YIIO KAKOY: Zu einem weiberfeindlichen Diogenes-spruch aus Her­

culaneum," Hermes 95 (1967) 253ff. 
5 Maiuri has n in his facsimile but prints (TO). His use of angular brackets is not clear; 

he uses them also to bracket <KtV~). 
6 Aesch. fr.695 (Mette); Soph. Ajax 362, fr.77, 589; Hdt. 3.53.4; Thuc. 5.65.2. 
7 Dion.Hal. 11.14; Pluto Vit.Alc. 25; Ad. NA 3.47; Ael.Aristid. I p.377, II p.274; Polyaenus 

5.11, Photo Bib!. II p.483 (Bekker). 
8 FrAttCom Adesp. 494; cf Antiphanes, fro 300; Adesp. 453. 
9 The article serves as quotation marks. Whether the phrase as a whole should be 

regarded as standing in apposition to the foregoing phrase (see Kuhner/Gerth 1.285, 311 
n.7; E. Schwyzer 2.617) or as the object of some verb ro be understood, e.g. Myw, is not clear. 

59 



60 AN APOPHTHEGM OF DIOGENES THE CYNIC 

What I have rendered in English as 'to get rid of, a Greek would have 
supplied from the proverb and from various sorts of play on the 
proverb. Diogenes in that case has substituted the particular KaK~v 
for a general KaKov, while turning an admonition into a recommenda­
tion. Given the misogynous cast of the anecdote, one might exempli 
gratia reconstruct a response that found utterance in the elliptical 
allusion. It would go somewhat as follows: The woman, a bad thing, 
is being carried off by the river, which while not essentially bad is 
certainly bad for her. We often hear, "Don't cure bad by means of 
bad," but here the combination seems to work. 

BROWN UNIVERSITY 

December, 1967