How Did Greek Philosophers Support Themselves?

A lot of people have wondered how on Earth Greek philosophers made their living. It is hard for a person to earn a livable wage as a professional “philosopher” in the modern age and it would have been even more difficult in classical Greece, since there were no universities as we would think of them at that time that could hire philosophers.

As it turns out, though, most ancient Greek philosophers did not make their money from philosophy. Many of them were from wealthy families and therefore didn’t need to work. Many of them also had wealthy patrons who paid for their expenses. Other philosophers found other ways to survive, which included working day jobs, starting cults, and even literally living off the streets through begging.

Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos sometime around 570 BC. Pythagoras’s father Mnesarchos was probably either a gem-carver or a wealthy merchant. Little is known for certain about Pythagoras’s early life, but, at some point around 530 BC or thereabouts, he came to the city of Kroton in southern Italy where he founded the religion of Pythagoreanism.

Today, we normally think of Pythagoras as a philosopher or mathematician, but, as I discuss in this article I wrote in March 2018, the earliest ancient Greek sources on his life actually portray him as more of a mystic sage or spiritual guru and not at all as what we today normally think of when we hear the words “philosopher” or “mathematician.”

Sources on Pythagoras’s life are often highly unreliable, but all the accounts unanimously agree that he was extremely charismatic and quickly won over many of the city’s inhabitants to become an extremely powerful and influential figure. Pythagoreanism, the religious school Pythagoras founded, would look very much to modern audiences like a cult.

Pythagoras himself was venerated as a sort of semi-divine figure. As I discuss in this article from January 2019, he was said to have performed all sorts of bizarre miracles, which make him sound a bit like the ancient Greek version of Chuck Norris. For instance, according to a fragment from Aristotle, Pythagoras was once bitten by a venomous snake; he bit it back and it died. According to another story, he was given a magic arrow by a priest of Apollon that he used to fly around and perform ritual purifications.

In any case, according to many accounts, Pythagoras eventually became so influential in Kroton that a group of supporters of democracy led a revolt to drive him and his followers out of the city. The revolt was reportedly led by two men named Kylon and Ninon. Ancient accounts disagree whether Pythagoras himself was killed during this revolt or he managed to escape to Metaponton, where he lived out the rest of his life.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble bust of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras on display in the Capitoline Museum. The representation here is fictional; no one knows what Pythagoras really looked like.

Socrates

Socrates is said to have worked as a stonemason, at least in his younger years. The Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtios, who lived in around the third century AD, quotes a passage from the earlier Pyrrhonist philosopher Timon of Phlios (lived c. 320 – c. 235 BC) in his “Life of Socrates,” describing Socrates as a stoneworker, “a prater about laws, the enchanter of Greece, inventor of subtle arguments, the sneerer who mocked at fine speeches, half-Attic in his mock humility.”

The Greek travel writer Pausanias (lived c. 110 – c. 180 AD) states in his book The Guide to Greece 1.22.8 that Socrates was actually a sculptor and that he sculpted a famous statue of the Charites that still stood on the Athenian Akropolis in Pausanias’s own time.

Diogenes Laërtios cites a passage from the historian Douris of Samos (lived c. 350 – after c. 281 BC) in which Douris also claimed that Socrates had created a statue of the Charites that stood on the Akropolis. Douris and Pausanias, however, seem to have gotten the philosopher Socrates mixed up with a famous Theban sculptor by the same name.

In any case, unlike many other philosophers, Socrates does seem to have actually had a day job. Conversing with people about philosophy seems to have been something he did in his spare time—in the same way that writing articles on the internet is something I do in my spare time.

Socrates also had a large number of extremely wealthy aristocratic friends who certainly could have supported him if he ever needed money. By the time Plato and Xenophon (who, as I discuss in this article I wrote back in March 2019, are our most important sources of information about Socrates’s life) knew him, Socrates seems to have been retired and living as a full-time philosopher—or at least that’s the impression one gets from reading their works.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble bust of the Greek philosopher Socrates, based on an earlier Greek original

Plato

Plato was born in Athens in the 420s BC. He was a member of an extremely wealthy and influential aristocratic family. Both his father and mother were of blue-blooded descent. His father Ariston claimed to trace his lineage all the way back to King Kodros, the last of the mythological kings of Athens.

Plato’s mother Periktione was reportedly a descendant of the great Athenian lawgiver Solon (lived c.  630 – c.  560 BC). She was also the sister of the politician Charmides and the first cousin of the politician Kritias, who was the leader of the Thirty Tyrants, a brutal oligarchic regime installed in Athens by the Spartans in 404 BC that ruled for eight months until it was deposed and democracy was restored.

Because Plato was born into extreme wealth, he never really had to work and he was basically free to do whatever he wanted with his spare time. Thus, he had plenty of time to spend writing and lecturing about philosophy. Plato did teach students at the Akademia, the school he founded in Athens, but, according to the biographer Diogenes Laërtios, he did not charge tuition fees because he regarded charging tuition fees as greedy and associated it with sophistry.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble portrait head of Plato, based on an earlier Greek original

Aristotle of Stageira

Aristotle was born in the city of Stageira in 384 BC. His family was probably quite wealthy, meaning he probably had a fair bit of money starting out. In around 367 BC, he moved to Athens as a metoikos, or resident foreigner, to study at Plato’s Akademia. Later, he moved around a bit and, in around the mid 340s BC, he married Pythias, the adoptive daughter of Hermias of Atarneus, who was a wealthy patron of philosophers.

In 343 BC, Aristotle was invited by King Philippos II of Makedonia to come live at the Makedonian royal palace at Pella and serve as a personal tutor to his son, Alexandros III (better known to us as “Alexander the Great”). King Philippos II was extremely wealthy and powerful and he certainly must have furnished Aristotle with a very fine set of arrangements.

Aristotle remained in Makedonia for about eight years before returning to Athens in around 335 BC or thereabouts, shortly after the death of King Philippos II. After returning to Athens, Aristotle founded his own school known as the Lykeion. Aristotle eventually left Athens in 322 BC after he was accused of impiety. He went to live on his family estate on the island of Euboia that he’d inherited from his mother. He died later that year. By the time of his death, he was probably a very wealthy man.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble bust of Aristotle, based on an earlier Greek original

Diogenes of Sinope

The philosopher Diogenes of Sinope was born sometime around 412 BC or thereabouts in the city of Sinope, an Ionian colony in what is now northern Turkey. His father was a man named Hikesias, who was a professional minter of coins. Hikesias’s name has been found on a number of coins from the city of Sinope dated to the late fifth century BC.

According to Diogenes himself in his now-lost treatise Pordalos, he knowingly vandalized the coinage of the city and was banished from the city forever as a result. Diogenes’s treatise has been lost, but it is cited by the biographer Diogenes Laërtios in his “Life of Diogenes of Sinope,” which is included as part of his book The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. This part of the story is further corroborated by archaeological evidence; large numbers of deliberately mutilated coins from Sinope dated to the early fourth century BC have been found by archaeologists.

After his banishment, Diogenes fled to mainland Greece. He ended up living most of his adult life as a voluntary ascetic, living under a tub in the street in Athens. He didn’t have a job and he was known for pulling all sorts of crazy antics, which reportedly included urinating on people who insulted him, masturbating in public, standing under fountains to make people feel sorry for him, begging money from statues and telling people he was practicing for rejection, carrying around a lamp in broad daylight and telling people he was “looking for an honest man,” and so forth.

Of course, Diogenes is recorded to have done other things aside from just doing crazy stunts. He is also recorded to have written multiple treatises, but none of his writings have survived to the present day. He is also recorded to have instructed many students in the ascetic lifestyle. Later Stoic writers held him up as an example of moral virtue.

ABOVE: Diogenes Sitting in His Tub, painted in 1860 by the French Academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme

Krates of Thebes and Hipparchia of Maroneia

It is worth noting that Diogenes of Sinope was not the only philosopher who lived off the streets. Many later Cynic philosophers followed his example. According to Diogenes Laërtios in his “Life of Krates of Thebes,” Krates of Thebes, who was born in Thebes in around 365 BC or thereabouts, was the heir to a massive fortune, but he renounced it all to become a pupil of Diogenes of Sinope.

According to one account, Krates gave all his wealth away to his fellow citizens of Thebes and became an ascetic. According to Diogenes Laërtios’s “Life of Hipparchia of Maroneia,” a young woman named Hipparchia, who came from an extremely wealthy family from the city of Maroneia, fell in love with Krates on account of his teachings and desperately wanted to marry him.

Hipparchia’s wealthy parents strongly disapproved of their daughter’s love for Krates, since he had no possessions and they believed he would make an unworthy husband. They told Krates to convince their daughter that he was unfit to marry her. Krates responded by stripping naked in front of Hipparchia and telling her, “This is the bridegroom. These are his possessions. Make your choice accordingly.” She chose to marry him.

Thus, Hipparchia abandoned her wealth and became an ascetic as well. She and Krates reportedly went everywhere together and they were considered equals, which was seen as shocking and unusual. Krates and Hipparchia taught many students, including Zenon of Kition (lived c. 334 – c. 262 BC), the founder of Stoicism, whom I wrote about in this article from a little over a week ago. They both wrote many treatises, although no writings by either of them have survived to the present day.

ABOVE: Ancient Roman fresco from the Villa Farnesina of Krates of Thebes and Hipparchia of Maroneia