Diogenes contra Abrenuncio de Sa Pereira Cao

Two persons from the 4th century B.C. have startled and impressed me: one of them Indian, the other Greek. Both of them were banished from their own land, both of them were scholarly, extremely honest, astute people, and were totally averse to material comforts or greed. The path of each of them crossed with that of Alexander. Both of them rejected Alexander: the aim of life for one of them was to kick the Greeks out of India, while the other, on being asked by Alexander, "I'm Alexander; what can I do for you?" replied, "Please stand aside; you're blocking the sun." One them was extremely cunning, strategic and revengeful; the other was totaly detached to his surroundings. Both were selfless.

They were Vishnugupta (Chanakya) and Diogenes respectively.

Diogenes was an interesting character. He probably initiated the trend of philosophy known as cynicism, the word cynic derived from canine (dog). He insisted on living like a dog on leftovers, wearing rags and carrying the pursuit of knowledge and truth. He was a man about whom Alexander said, "If I were not alexander, I would have been Diogenes." There is even a myth that both of them died on the exact same day: one 33, the other 90! Another legend says that Socrates died on Diogenes' birthday, though some say that Diogenes was born in 412 B.C. and not in 399 B.C., the year in which Socrates died.

In contrast to the other citizens of Athens, Diogenes renounced all earthly pleasures to express his disdain for the folly, pretence, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct. He used to stroll carrying a torch during broad daylight, claiming that he was looking for an honest man. According to another account, Alexander found him rummaging through a pile of human bones, an act he explained as, "I am searching for the bones of your father, but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave."

Abrenuncio de Sa Pereira Cao, on the other hand, is a character from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Of Love and Other Demons. The word, Cao, in Spanish, means dog. As explained below:

"He spurns as well the counsel of the freethinking Portuguese Jewish physician, Abrenuncio de Sa Pereira Cao (some dog there, too), who reads books prohibited by the Holy Office, plays the harp to sedate his patients and warns Ygnacio that liverwort, cinnabar, musk, silver mercury, even anagallis flore purpureo will be unavailing: "No medicine cures what happiness cannot"."

Anyone who has read the above book, will notice that Abrenuncio is the only sane character in the entire book. While unlike Diogenes he is not averse to material comforts, he is nevertheless stoic about his physical desires, as is evident when he says, “Sex is a talent, and I do not have it.” It's interesting to note that he's a very good doctor and he knows his job, and the Church actually believes that he can bring people back from death and, thus considers him to be anti-Christ. He's a wise man. He reads voraciously and yet says: "Books are worthless. Life has helped me to cure diseases that other doctors cause with their medicines."

I don't know why, but every time I think of Abrenuncio, I'm reminded of Diogenes, or vice versa.
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Source: http://www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v260i0023_14.htm
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/051107crbo_books1
http://www.benbest.com/philo/diogenes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-demons.html
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/garcia.marquez12284-des-.html