Chilon of Sparta was a Lacedaemonian and one of the Seven Sages of Greece

Seven Sages of Greece

The Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men was the title given by ancient Greek tradition to seven early 6th century BC philosophers, statesmen and law-givers who were renowned in the following centuries for their wisdom.-The Seven Sages:Traditionally, each of the seven sages represents an aspect of worldly...

.

Early life

Chilon was the son of Damagetus, and lived towards the beginning of the 6th century BC.

Standing and influence

Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

 speaks of him as contemporary with Hippocrates, the father of Peisistratus

Peisistratus

Peisistratos or Peisistratus or Pisistratus may refer to:*Peisistratos of Athens, tyrant at various times between 561 and 528 BC*Pisistratus the younger, r...

, and Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

 states that he was an old man in the 52nd Olympiad

Olympiad

An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch....

 (572 BC), and that he was elected an ephor

Ephor

An ephor was the leader of ancient Sparta and shared power with the Spartan king...

 in Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

 in the 56th Olympiad (556/5 BC). Alcidamas

Alcidamas

Alcidamas, of Elaea, in Aeolis, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the 4th century BC.He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, whose rival and opponent he was...

 stated that he was a member of the Spartan assembly. Diogenes Laertius even goes so far as to claim that Chilon was also the first person who introduced the custom of joining the ephors to the kings as their counselors.

Chilon is said to have helped to overthrow the tyranny at Sicyon

Sicyon

Sikyon was an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day prefecture of Corinthia...

, which became a Spartan ally. He is also credited with the change in Spartan policy leading to the development of the Peloponnesian League

Peloponnesian League

The Peloponnesian League was an alliance in the Peloponnesus from the 6th to the 4th centuries BC.- Early history:By the end of the 6th century, Sparta had become the most powerful state in the Peloponnese, and was the political and military hegemon over Argos, the next most powerful state...

 in the sixth century BC.

Sayings

Diogenes Laertius describes him as a writer of Elegiac poems

Elegy

In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...

, and attributes many sayings to him:

• "Do not speak evil of the dead."
• "Honor old age."
• "Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life."
• "Do not laugh at a person in misfortune."
• "If one is strong be also merciful, so that one's neighbors may respect one rather than fear one."
• "Learn how to regulate one's own house well."
• "Do not let one's tongue outrun one's sense."
• "Restrain anger."
• "Do not dislike divination."
• "Do not desire what is impossible."
• "Do not make too much haste on one's road."
• "Obey the laws."

Death

Another legend claims that he died of joy when his son gained the prize for boxing at the Olympic games, and that his funeral was attended by all the Greeks assembled at the festival.

Further reading

• Franz Kiechle: Chilon. In: Der Kleine Pauly
  Pauly-Wissowa
  The Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly–Wissowa or simply RE, is a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. With its supplements it comprises over eighty volumes....
  
  , Bd. 1 (1964), Sp. 1146.
• G.L. Huxley. Early Sparta, 1962
• The Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius
  Diogenes Laertius
  Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...
  
  
• Pliny
  Pliny the Elder
  Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
  
  , 7, c. 33.