Spanish: El filósofo-perro frente al sabio Platón (Los Pequeños Platones), trans. Irene Antón Centenera, Madrid: Errata Naturae Editores, 2012, 64 pp.

Turkish: Diyojen: Köpek Adam, trans. Necmiye Alpay, İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2012, 64 pp.

Brazilian Portuguese: Diógenes, o Homem Cão, trans. Andre Telles, São Paulo: Martins Fontes – selo Martins, 2014, 64 pp.

German: Diogenes oder der Mensch als Hund, trans. Heinz Jatho, Zurich-Berlin: Diaphanes Verlag, 2014, s. 64.

English: Diogenes the Dog-Man (Plato & Co.), trans. Anna Street, Zurich-Berlin: Diaphanes Verlag, 2017, 64 pp. 

Russian: Диоген. Человек-собака [Diogen. Chelovek-sobaka], trans. Aleksandra Sokolinskaya, Moskva: Ad Marginem, 2017, 64 pp.

Albanian: Diogjeni Njeriu Qen, trans. Benet Koleka, Tiranë: Papirus, 2017, 64 pp.

Latin-French bilingual edition: Diogenes, homo et canis: Diogène l'homme chien, trans. Delphine Meunier, Paris: Les Petits Platons, 2021, 80 pp.

The plot is based on an anecdote from Diogenes’ life, briefly told by Diogenes Laertius in Lives of Eminent Philosophers (VI.2.75–76). 

Young Androsthène, the son of a wealthy Aegina citizen, is sent to Athens to complete his formation by educating his soul. His father chooses Plato as the mentor in philosophy. The young man, reluctantly, and for a long time, studies Euclidean geometry to enter the Academy. The city captivates him with its luxury. The encounter with Diogenes is a surprise: the “pauvre fou” [poor madman] (p. 9), who – carrying a lantern in broad daylight – searches the crowded agora for a real human being. Joining Plato’s students, Androsthène is bored with his classes but becomes increasingly interested in the antics of Diogenes, who, for instance, brings a living example of his definition of a human being to a Socrates’ disciple, i.e., the famous featherless rooster. As a result of that and several other meetings, the young man decides to follow the philosopher and become a Cynic (in ancient Greek κυνικός means dog-like, the reason why Cynics were called dogs). After him, his brother Philoscos joins Diogenes, and so does their father, Onésecrite. On the way to Aegina, they are all captured by pirates, and their journey ends in Corinth. They become slaves and are bought by Xéniade. The philosopher made Xéniade’s house so famous that Alexander the Great became aware of it. The story ends with Diogenes dying after eating an octopus. A description of his tomb follows a discussion about his burial; there is a marble dog on top of the tomb. The citizens put the statue there in honour of the philosopher, who was neither an animal nor a human nor a deity.

The title of this children’s book presents a paradox: how can Diogenes have a dual nature, human and canine? Ironically, a Dog, a cynic, becomes more human than an ordinary man due to his freedom, self-sufficiency, and brutal sincerity.

Like in another of Marchand’s books, La Révolte d’Épictète, the protagonist is a young man searching for a mentor to help him improve his soul, a situation to which teenage readers can relate. The example of Androsthène shows that even Plato’s glorious Academy cannot teach what Diogenes achieves with his antics – how to become free. The Cynic challenges common opinions through his appearance and lifestyle. He serves as a personification of some key concepts of his doctrine because his clothes and his eating habits illustrate self-sufficiency (autarkeia), his discourse is a courageous declaration of truth (parrhesia), while his actions may be explained by freedom without shame (anaideia). In the book, his teachings help to reassess values, replace fame, wealth and power with freedom, the highest value for any human being.

Diogenes calls nature his only mistress. There is no mention of Antisthenes, his predecessor, which suggests that he is a precursor of the philosophical school. At the same time, the fact that he is self-taught and his origin is mysterious (the characters believe that philosophy, φιλοσοφία, gave birth to such a monstrous creature as a dog in human body) transforms Diogenes from a historical character to an almost fabulous one.

The issue of ancient sources is problematic. Since the teachings of the Cynics, Diogenes of Sinope in particular, have survived in fragments and are often coloured by subjective perspectives of people who present them, it is difficult to establish with any certainty the hypotexts for Marchand's book. 

Nevertheless, chapter 2 of book IV of Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius is a major source for Marchand, as elements of the plot and discourse were borrowed from there. They include, for example, many anecdotes: about his searching for a human being (VI.2.41) and loudly calling people to join him (VI.2.32), embracing statues covered with snow (VI.2.23), exercising both body and soul (VI.2.70), about Plato’s featherless biped (VI.2.40) and the speech “ruined-by-a-fish” of the rhetorician Anaximenes (VI.2.57), the tablet with the names of insulters (VI.2.33), a child drinking out of his hands (VI.2.37 cf. Cynic Epistle 6 to Crates), the encounter with Demosthenes in the tavern (VI.2.34 cf. Ael. VH ІX.19) and with Alexander the Great (VI.2.60, 68), living with Xeniades (VI.2.30–31; 36; 74) and the fatal octopus (VI.2.76). As mentioned in the summary, the short story is based on an anecdote about Androsthenes, his brother Philiscus and his father Onesicritus, who joined the Cynic (VI.2.75–76) one after the other. Some of these fragments are adapted for young readers, making Cynic teaching more accessible. For example, when Diogenes sabotages Anaximenes’ speech using salted fish, he concludes with a rhetorical question, who was more powerful in dealing with the crowds, Anaximenes or the herring (p. 17)? When the focus is put on rich garments of the listeners afraid to get dirty (cf. D. L. VI.2.57), it emphasises the contrast between a Dog (the Cynic) and the society: both in clothing and values. 

Less clear are allusions from other significant texts, but possibly, the so-called Сynic Epistles. More specifically, epistle 19 from Diogenes to Anaxilaus, epistles 7 and 30 to his father Hicetas, which tell us about the philosopher’s “regal” attributes – the walking stick as a sceptre, the cloak (tribon) as a king's mantle and the leather pouch (pera) as a shield. Epistle 16 to Apolexis mentions his pythos in the Athenian Metroon, where he lived (cf. D. L. VI.2.38). There is also epistle 34 to Olympias (whom he calls mother), which sets out the Cynic moral values in connection with freedom.

A fragment of Seneca’s On Benefits is cited on the front flap of the book jacket, English translation by Aubrey Stewart, 2009 (Gutenberg Project):  “I must be worsted in a contest of benefits (…) with Diogenes, who walked naked through the treasures of Macedonia, treading the king's wealth under his feet. (…) He was far more powerful, far richer even than Alexander, who then possessed everything; for there was more that Diogenes could refuse to receive than that Alexander was able to give.” (Sen. Ben. V, 4, 3–4)

Although this quotation is incomplete, it serves to establish the cross-textual and cross-cultural references (between Greek and Roman traditions, as well as between Diogenes, a Cynic, and Seneca, a Stoic). Moreover, it functions as a prolepsis for the episode with Diogenes and Alexander the Great, during which Alexander blocks out the sun for him, concluding that if he were not who he is, he would want to be like the Cynic. 

The Discourses of Dio Chrysostom and Emperor Julian’s (in particular Oration 6) may also have served as sources to the book. However, both these and some other writings, not quoted here, have had rather indirect effects on the children's story.

As for the illustrations, although schematic, they reflect ancient Greek culture quite accurately. For example, Plato’s disciples are holding tablets, Demosthenes is drinking wine from a kylix, and Diogenes is resting beside statues very similar to those of Venus of Milos and Diana of Versailles. Moreover, the details concerning the philosopher himself are depicted per the sources: his abode is not a barrel, but a pythos (pp. 36–37), he wears a cloak and has short hair (often almost merging with his beard, but still of a specific length, pp. 27, 47, 60).

The book has been also re-issued in a bilingual version in 2021 within the same series. It includes a Latin translation by Delphine Meunier (pp. 1–63) followed by the text of the first French edition (pp. 64–79). Some vocabulary is given in footnotes, at the bottom of each page, presenting idioms and words in dictionary form with a context-appropriate meaning. The publication is intended not only as an introduction to Cynic philosophy, but also as an encouragement for the study of Latin language. On the jacket, there is relevant information about the translator, who holds an aggregation in Classics from École normale supérieure, and teaches Latin at the level of preparatory literary class.

Chrysostom, Dio, Discourses 1–11, trans. J. W. Cohoon, Loeb Classical Library 257, London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam's, 1932.

Foucault, Michel, The Courage of the Truth. The Government of Self and Others II. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984, Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Laertius, Diogenes, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, R.D. Hicks, ed., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. Available online at the Perseus Digital Library website (accessed: October 19, 2021).

Malherbe, Abraham J., ed., The Cynic Epistles: A Study Edition, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1977.

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, On Benefits, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 

Sloterdijk, Peter, Critique of Cynical Reason, Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 1988.

This book was re-issued as a bilingual Latin-French version: Yan Marchand, Diogenes, homo et canis: Diogène l'homme chien, trans. Delphine Meunier, Paris: Les Petits Platons, 2021, 80 pp.

This short story, issued by the French publishing house “Les Petits Platons” [The Tiny Platos], is part of the series adapting philosophical texts and ideas of all time for children and teenagers. Written in French, these books now are actively spreading worldwide, translated already into eleven languages. Along with Diogène l'homme chien, the series presents various other books retelling classic philosophical texts or referring to ancient philosophy in another way. 

Official website of the publishing house (Accessed: October 19, 2021).