Today we compare cynics and capitalist dogs.

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The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary contains the following contemporary definition for a cynic:

• one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest;
• a person who expects nothing but the worst of human conduct and motives.

Someone who is motivated only by self interest might fall into the “capitalist dog” category but it turns out that etymologically it is the cynics that are the dogs.

The word cynic arose in Ancient Greek and means “dog-like.”

There have been etymological speculations over the century that the reason for this is that people who are cynical sneer at others in the same way that a dog rolls its lips back when it growls. But the dictionaries now lean toward a sect of Greek philosophy as the source of the word, and in particular the place where it was taught.

One of Socrates pupils was a guy named Antisthenes.

When Antisthenes started his own school he did so at a place called Kynosarges.

I’ve seen Kynosarges translated as “grey dog,” “white dog” and “swift dog.”

The legend is that another even more ancient Greek by the name of Didymos was making a sacrifice to the gods when a dog grabbed the sacrificial offering.

Remember that these would have been times when burning sheep and goats and the like was seen as just the thing to stroke the ego of the divine. A hungry passing dog could be excused for thinking the meat might go to better use.

Fortunately for the dog Didymos had a vision and instead of thrashing the mangy hound the Oracle told Didymos to build a temple to Heracles where the dog dropped the offering.

So that’s why this place was called Kynosarges.

Later Socrates’ pupil Antisthenes set up his school there and the students it produced were called Cynics.

Their philosophy rejected worldly goods. As with many philosophies that reject worldly goods some of the adherents took things to extremes and began living like dogs in the street with no consideration as to how this might further confuse future etymologists.