The Seven Sages (of Greece) or Seven Wise Men (
Greek: ''hoi hepta sophoi'') was the title given by
classical Greek tradition to seven
philosophers, statesmen, and law-givers of the 7–6th century BC who were renowned for their
wisdom.
The Seven Sages
Typically the list of the seven sages includes:
*
Thales of Miletus () is the first well-known Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. His advice, "
Know thyself
The Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself" (Greek: , transliterated: '; also ' with the ε contracted) is the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek writer Pausania ...
", was engraved on the front
facade of the
Temple of Apollo in
Delphi.
*
Pittacus of Mytilene () governed
Mytilene
Mytilene (; el, Μυτιλήνη, Mytilíni ; tr, Midilli) is the capital of the Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of ...
(
Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the na ...
). He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the
demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* plural for Demo (computer programming ...
, whom he favoured.
*
Bias of Priene
Bias (; Greek: Βίας ὁ Πριηνεύς; fl. 6th century BC) of Priene was a Greek sage. He is widely accepted as one of the Seven Sages of Greece and was renowned for his probity.
Life
Bias was born at Priene (modern-day Güllübahçe, T ...
() was a politician and legislator of the 6th century BC.
*
Solon of Athens
Solon ( grc-gre, Σόλων; BC) was an Athenian statesman, constitutional lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic Athens.Aristotle ''Politics'' ...
() was a famous legislator and reformer from
Athens, framing the laws that shaped the
Athenian democracy.
* The fifth and sixth sage are variously given as two of:
Cleobulus, tyrant of
Lindos
Lindos (; grc-gre, Λίνδος) is an archaeological site, a fishing village 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 ...
(), reported as either the grandfather or father-in-law of Thales;
Periander of Corinth (b. before 634 BC, d. );
Myson of Chenae
Myson of Chenae (; grc-gre, Μύσων ὁ Χηνεύς; fl. 6th-century BC), also called "of Chen", was, according to Plato, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He is not to be confused with the Myson of 5th-century Athens who ran a pottery and ins ...
(6th century BC);
Anacharsis the Scythian (6th century BC).
*
Chilon of Sparta () was a
Spartan politician to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed.
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sourc ...
points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven.
[Diogenes Laërtius, i. 41] Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchange
Periander or
Anacharsis
Anacharsis (; grc, Ἀνάχαρσις) was a Scythian philosopher; he travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea, to Ancient Athens, in the early 6th century BC, and made a great impression as a forthright and outspoken ...
for Myson. On Diogenes' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words "These men are acknowledged wise",
Periander appears instead of
Myson
Myson of Chenae (; grc-gre, Μύσων ὁ Χηνεύς; fl. 6th-century BC), also called "of Chen", was, according to Plato, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He is not to be confused with the Myson of 5th-century Athens who ran a pottery and ins ...
;
[Diogenes Laërtius, i. 13] the same substitution appears in ''The Masque of the Seven Sages'' by
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. ...
. Both
Ephorus and
Plutarch (in his ''Banquet of the Seven Sages'') substituted Anacharsis for Myson. Diogenes Laërtius further states that
Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus of Messana (; grc-gre, Δικαίαρχος ''Dikaiarkhos''; ), also written Dikaiarchos (), was a Greek philosopher, geographer and author. Dicaearchus was a student of Aristotle in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extan ...
gave ten possible names,
Hippobotus Hippobotus (; grc, Ἱππόβοτος; 200 BC) was a Greek historian of philosophers and philosophical schools. His writings are frequently quoted by Diogenes Laërtius. He wrote ''On the Sects'' ( el, Περὶ Αἱρέσεων) and a ''Regist ...
suggested twelve names,
[Diogenes Laërtius, i. 42] and
Hermippus
Hermippus ( grc-gre, Ἕρμιππος; fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyed Athenian writer of the Old Comedy, who flourished during the Peloponnesian War. Life
He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger t ...
enumerated seventeen possible sages from which different people made different selections of seven.
Leslie Kurke contends that "
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cr ...
was a popular contender for inclusion in the group"; an epigram of the 6th century AD poet
Agathias
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός; Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 23–25582/594), of Myrina (Mysia), an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor (Turkey), was a Greek poet and the principal his ...
(''Palatine Anthology'' 16.332) refers to a statue of the Seven Sages, with Aesop standing before them.
Interpretations
In
Plato's
''Protagoras'',
Socrates says:
The section of the Protagoras in which appears this passage is "elaborately ironical", making it unclear which of its parts may be taken seriously,
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sourc ...
writes in his account of the life of
Pyrrho, the founder of
Pyrrhonism, that the Seven Sages of Greece were considered to be precursors of Pyrrho's
philosophical skepticism because the Delphic Maxims were skeptical. "The maxims of the Seven Wise Men, too, they call skeptical; for instance, 'Observe the Golden Mean', and 'A pledge is a curse at one's elbow', meaning that whoever plights his troth steadfastly and trustfully brings a curse on his own head."
Sources and legends
The oldest explicit mention on record of a standard list of seven sages is in
Plato's
''Protagoras'', quoted above.
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sourc ...
reported that there were seven individuals who were held in high esteem for their wisdom well before Plato's time. According to
Demetrius Phalereus, it was during the
archonship
''Archon'' ( gr, ἄρχων, árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, mean ...
of Damasias (582/81 BC) that the seven first become known as "the wise men", Thales being the first so acknowledged.
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 AD 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
Anacharsis (; grc, Ἀνάχαρσις) was a Scythian philosopher; he travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea, to Ancient Athens, in the early 6th century BC, and made a great impression as a forthright and outspoken ...
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, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
who was held to be wisest of all.
According to Diogenes,
Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus of Messana (; grc-gre, Δικαίαρχος ''Dikaiarkhos''; ), also written Dikaiarchos (), was a Greek philosopher, geographer and author. Dicaearchus was a student of Aristotle in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extan ...
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
iogenes'Book I
.e. none of the abovehas any claim to be styled a philosopher."
[p. 42 note a, R. Hicks, ''Diogenes Laërtius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers'', vol. 1, Harvard University Press, 1925.]
See also
*
Sage (sophos)
A sage ( grc, σοφός, ''sophos''), in classical philosophy, is someone who has attained wisdom. The term has also been used interchangeably with a 'good person' ( grc, ἀγαθός, ''agathos''), and a 'virtuous person' ( grc, σπουδα� ...
*
Saptarishi
References
External links
*
* Plutarch'
''The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men'' in the Loeb Classical Library.
with illustrations and further links.
* Jona Lendering's articl
Seven Sagesincludes a chart of various canonical lists.
Fragment of a poemin which the Seven Wise Men were mentioned together, from
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, moder ...
{{Authority control
Ancient Greek philosophers
Ancient Greek titles
Articles about multiple people in ancient Greece
Septets