Seven Sages of Greece
Encyclopedia
The Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men (Greek
: οἱ ἑπτὰ σοφοί, hoi hepta sophoi; c. 620 BC–550 BC) 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.
's Protagoras
, where Socrates
says:
The passage in which the above occurs has been described as "elaborately ironical", making it unclear which of its aspects may be taken seriously, although Diogenes Laertius
later confirms that there were indeed seven such individuals who were held in high esteem for their wisdom well before Plato's time. According to Demetrius Phalereus
, it was during the archonship
of Damasias (582/1 BCE) that the seven first become known as "the wise men", Thales being the first so acknowledged.
Diogenes points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven. Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchange Periander
or Anacharsis
for Myson. On Diogenes' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words "These men are acknowledged wise," Periander
appears instead of Myson; the same substitution appears in The Masque of the Seven Sages by Ausonius
. Both Ephorus
and Plutarch
(in his Banquet of the Seven Sages) substituted Anacharsis for Myson. Diogenes Laertius further states that Dicaearchus
gave ten possible names, Hippobotus
suggested twelve names, and Hermippus
enumerated seventeen possible sages from which different people made different selections of seven. Leslie Kurke contends that "Aesop
was a popular contender for inclusion in the group"; an epigram of the 6th century CE poet Agathias
(Palatine Anthology 16.332) refers to a statue of the Seven Sages, with Aesop standing before them.
Later tradition ascribed to each sage a pithy saying of his own, but ancient as well as modern scholars have doubted the legitimacy of such ascriptions. A compilation of 147 maxims, inscribed at Delphi, was preserved by the fifth century CE scholar Stobaeus
as "Sayings of the Seven Sages," but "the actual authorship of the...maxims set up on the Delphian temple may be left uncertain. Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages."
In addition to being credited for pithy sayings, the wise men were also apparently famed for practical inventions; in Plato's Republic (600a), it is said that it "befits a wise man" to have "many inventions and useful devices in the crafts or sciences" attributed to him, citing Thales and Anacharsis
the Scythian as examples.
According to a number of moralistic stories, there was a golden tripod (or, in some versions of the story, a bowl or cup) which was to be given to the wisest. Allegedly, it passed in turn from one of the seven sages to another, beginning with Thales, until one of them (either Thales or Solon, depending on the story) finally dedicated it to Apollo
who was held to be wisest of all.
According to Diogenes, Dicaearchus
claimed that the seven "were neither wise men nor philosophers, but merely shrewd men, who had studied legislation." And according to at least one modern scholar, the claim is correct: "With the exception of Thales, no one whose life is contained in [Diogenes'] Book I [i.e. none of the above] has any claim to be styled a philosopher."
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: οἱ ἑπτὰ σοφοί, hoi hepta sophoi; c. 620 BC–550 BC) was the title given by ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
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 wisdom which is summarized an aphorism. Although the list of sages sometimes varies, the ones usually included are the following:- Cleobulus of LindosCleobulusCleobulus was a Greek poet and a native of Lindos, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece.-Life:Cleobulus was the son of Evagoras and a citizen of Lindus in Rhodes Clement of Alexandria calls Cleobulus king of the Lindians, and Plutarch speaks of him as the tyrant...
: "Moderation is the best thing." He governed as tyrant of LindosLindosLindos is an archaeological site, a town and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies on the east coast of the island...
, in the Greek island of RhodesRhodesRhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, circa 600 BC.
- Solon of AthensSolonSolon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
: "Keep everything with moderation." Solon (640-559 BC) was a famous legislator and reformer from AthensAthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, framing the laws shaped the Athenian democracy.
- Chilon of SpartaChilon of SpartaChilon of Sparta was a Lacedaemonian and one of the Seven Sages of Greece.-Early life:Chilon was the son of Damagetus, and lived towards the beginning of the 6th century BC.-Standing and influence:...
: "You should not desire the impossible." Chilon was a Spartan politician from the 6th century BC, to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed .
- Bias of PrieneBias of PrieneBias , the son of Teutamus and a citizen of Priene was a Greek philosopher. Satyrus puts him as the wisest of all the Seven Sages of Greece. He was renowned for his goodness....
: "Most men are bad." Bias was a politician and legislator in the 6th century BC.
- Thales of MiletusThalesThales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition...
: Thales is the first well-known philosopher and mathematician. His advice, "Know thyselfKnow thyselfThe Ancient Greek aphorism "Know thyself", Greek: ', English phonetics pronunciation: , was inscribed in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic writer Pausanias .The maxim, or aphorism, "Know Thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in...
," was engraved on the front façade of the Oracle of Apollo in DelphiDelphiDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
.
- Pittacus of MytilenePittacus of MytilenePittacus was the son of Hyrradius and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He was a native of Mytilene and the Mytilenaean general who, with his army, was victorious in the battle against the Athenians and their commander Phrynon. In consequence of this victory the Mytilenaeans held Pittacus in the...
(c. 650 BC), governed Mytilene (Lesbos) along with Myrsilus. He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the popular classes, whom he favoured. He famously said "You should know which opportunities to choose."
- Periander of CorinthPerianderPeriander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC. He died in 585 BC....
: he was the tyrant of Corinth in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Under his rule, Corinth knew a golden age of unprecedented stability. He was known saying "Be farsighted with everything."
Sources and legends
The oldest explicit mention on record of a standard list of seven sages is in PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Protagoras
Protagoras (dialogue)
Protagoras is a dialogue of Plato. The traditional subtitle is "or the Sophists, probative". The main argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated sophist, and Socrates...
, where Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
says:
The passage in which the above occurs has been described as "elaborately ironical", making it unclear which of its aspects may be taken seriously, although 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...
later confirms that there were indeed seven such individuals who were held in high esteem for their wisdom well before Plato's time. According to Demetrius Phalereus
Demetrius Phalereus
Demetrius of Phalerum was an Athenian orator originally from Phalerum, a student of Theophrastus and one of the first Peripatetics...
, it was during the archonship
Archon of Athens
This is a list of the eponymous archons of Athens.-Background:The archon was the chief magistrate in many Greek cities, but in Athens there was a council of archons which comprised a form of executive government...
of Damasias (582/1 BCE) that the seven first become known as "the wise men", Thales being the first so acknowledged.
Diogenes points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven. Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchange Periander
Periander
Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC. He died in 585 BC....
or Anacharsis
Anacharsis
Anacharsis was a Scythian philosopher who travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea to Athens in the early 6th century BCE and made a great impression as a forthright, outspoken "barbarian", apparently a forerunner of the Cynics, though none of his works have...
for Myson. On Diogenes' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words "These men are acknowledged wise," Periander
Periander
Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC. He died in 585 BC....
appears instead of Myson; the same substitution appears in The Masque of the Seven Sages by Ausonius
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
. Both Ephorus
Ephorus
Ephorus or Ephoros , of Cyme in Aeolia, in Asia Minor, was an ancient Greek historian. Information on his biography is limited; he was the father of Demophilus, who followed in his footsteps as a historian, and to Plutarch's claim that Ephorus declined Alexander the Great's offer to join him on his...
and Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
(in his Banquet of the Seven Sages) substituted Anacharsis for Myson. Diogenes Laertius further states that Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus of Messana was a Greek philosopher, cartographer, geographer, mathematician and author. Dicaearchus was Aristotle's student in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extant. He wrote on the history and geography of Greece, of which his most important work was his Life of Greece...
gave ten possible names, Hippobotus
Hippobotus
Hippobotus was a Greek historian of philosophers and philosophical schools. His writings are frequently quoted by Diogenes Laërtius. He wrote On the Sects and a Register of Philosophers . He treated philosophers as early as the Seven Sages and Pythagoras, and as late as Crates, Menedemus, and...
suggested twelve names, and Hermippus
Hermippus of Smyrna
Hermippus of Smyrna, a Peripatetic philosopher, surnamed by the ancient writers the Callimachian , from which it may be inferred that he was a disciple of Callimachus about the middle of the 3rd century BC, while the fact of his having written the life of Chrysippus proves that he lived to about...
enumerated seventeen possible sages from which different people made different selections of seven. Leslie Kurke contends that "Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
was a popular contender for inclusion in the group"; an epigram of the 6th century CE poet Agathias
Agathias
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus , of Myrina , an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor , was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558....
(Palatine Anthology 16.332) refers to a statue of the Seven Sages, with Aesop standing before them.
Later tradition ascribed to each sage a pithy saying of his own, but ancient as well as modern scholars have doubted the legitimacy of such ascriptions. A compilation of 147 maxims, inscribed at Delphi, was preserved by the fifth century CE scholar Stobaeus
Stobaeus
Joannes Stobaeus , from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each...
as "Sayings of the Seven Sages," but "the actual authorship of the...maxims set up on the Delphian temple may be left uncertain. Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages."
In addition to being credited for pithy sayings, the wise men were also apparently famed for practical inventions; in Plato's Republic (600a), it is said that it "befits a wise man" to have "many inventions and useful devices in the crafts or sciences" attributed to him, citing Thales and Anacharsis
Anacharsis
Anacharsis was a Scythian philosopher who travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea to Athens in the early 6th century BCE and made a great impression as a forthright, outspoken "barbarian", apparently a forerunner of the Cynics, though none of his works have...
the Scythian as examples.
According to a number of moralistic stories, there was a golden tripod (or, in some versions of the story, a bowl or cup) which was to be given to the wisest. Allegedly, it passed in turn from one of the seven sages to another, beginning with Thales, until one of them (either Thales or Solon, depending on the story) finally dedicated it to Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
who was held to be wisest of all.
According to Diogenes, Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus of Messana was a Greek philosopher, cartographer, geographer, mathematician and author. Dicaearchus was Aristotle's student in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extant. He wrote on the history and geography of Greece, of which his most important work was his Life of Greece...
claimed that the seven "were neither wise men nor philosophers, but merely shrewd men, who had studied legislation." And according to at least one modern scholar, the claim is correct: "With the exception of Thales, no one whose life is contained in [Diogenes'] Book I [i.e. none of the above] has any claim to be styled a philosopher."
External links
- Plutarch's The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men, in the Loeb Classical Library.
- Seven Sages of Greece with illustrations and further links.
- Jona Lendering's article Seven Sages includes a chart of various canonical lists.