TheSeven SagesorSeven Wise Menwas the title given to sevenphilosophers,statesmen, and law-givers of the 7th–6th centuries BC who were renowned for theirwisdom.
The Seven Sages
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The list of the seven sages given inPlato'sProtagorascomprises:[1]
- Thales of Miletus(c. 624 BC– c. 546 BC) is the first well-known Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. He was said to be of Phoenician descent. The ancient biographerDiogenes Laertiusattributes the aphorism, "Know thyself",engraved on the frontfacadeof theTemple of ApolloinDelphi,to Thales,[2]although there was no ancient consensus on this attribution.
- Pittacus of Mytilene(c. 640 BC– c. 568 BC) governedMytilene(Lesbos). He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the common people, whom he favoured.
- Bias of Priene(fl. 6th century BC) was a politician and legislator of the 6th century BC.
- Solon of Athens(c. 638 BC– c. 558 BC) was a famous legislator and reformer fromAthens,framing the laws that shaped theAthenian democracy.
- Cleobulus,tyrant ofLindos(fl. c. 600 BC), reported as either the grandfather or father-in-law of Thales;
- Myson of Chenae(6th century BC); and
- Chilon of Sparta(fl. 555 BC) was aSpartanpolitician to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed.
Diogenes Laërtiuspoints out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven.[3]Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchangePeriander of CorinthorAnacharsis the Scythianfor Myson. On Diogenes' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words "These men are acknowledged wise",Perianderappears instead ofMyson;[4]the same substitution appears inThe Masque of the Seven SagesbyAusonius.[5]BothEphorus[3]andPlutarch(in hisBanquet of the Seven Sages) substituted Anacharsis for Myson. Diogenes Laërtius further states thatDicaearchusgave ten possible names,[3]Hippobotussuggested twelve names,[6]andHermippusenumerated seventeen possible sages from which different people made different selections of seven.[6]Leslie Kurke contends that "Aesopwas a popular contender for inclusion in the group "; an epigram of the 6th century AD poetAgathias(Palatine Anthology16.332) refers to a statue of the Seven Sages, with Aesop standing before them.[7]
Interpretations
editInPlato'sProtagoras,Socratessays:
There some, both at present and of old, who recognized thatSpartanizingis much more a love of wisdom than a love of physical exercise, knowing that the ability to utter such [brief and terse] remarks belongs to a perfectly educated man. Among these wereThales of Miletus,andPittacus of Mytilene,andBias of Priene,and our ownSolon,andCleobulusof Lindus, andMyson of Chenae,and the seventh of them was said to beChilon of Sparta.They all emulated and admired and were students of Spartan education, could tell their wisdom was of this sort by the brief but memorable remarks they each uttered when they met and jointly the first fruits of their wisdom to Apollo in his shrine atDelphi,writing what is on every man's lips:Know thyself,andNothing too much.Why do I say this? Because this was the manner of philosophy among the ancients, a kind oflaconicbrevity.[1]
The section of theProtagorasin which this passage appears is "elaborately ironical", making it unclear which of its parts may be taken seriously.[8]
Diogenes Laërtiuswrites in his account of the life ofPyrrho,the founder ofPyrrhonism,that the Seven Sages of Greece were considered to be precursors of Pyrrho'sphilosophical skepticismbecause 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."[9]
Sources and legends
editThe oldest[10]explicit mention on record of a standard list of seven sages is inPlato'sProtagoras,quoted above.
Diogenes Laërtiusreported that there were seven individuals who were held in high esteem for their wisdom well before Plato's time. According toDemetrius Phalereus,it was during thearchonshipof Damasias (582/81 BCE) that the seven first become known as "the wise men", Thales being the first so acknowledged.[11]
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.[12]A compilation of 147 maxims, inscribed at Delphi, was preserved by the fifth century AD scholarStobaeusas "Sayings of the Seven Sages",[13]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."[14]
In addition to being credited for pithy sayings, the wise men were also apparently famed for practical inventions; in Plato'sRepublic(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 andAnacharsistheScythianas 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 toApollowho was held to be wisest of all.[15]
According to Diogenes,Dicaearchusclaimed that the seven "were neither wise men nor philosophers, but merely shrewd men, who had studied legislation."[16]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."[17]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abProtagoras342e–343b, trans. R.E. Allen.
- ^Diogenes Laërtius, i. 40
- ^abcDiogenes Laërtius, i. 41
- ^Diogenes Laërtius, i. 13
- ^Ausonius,The Masque of the Seven Sages
- ^abDiogenes Laërtius, i. 42
- ^Leslie Kurke,Aesopic Conversations: Popular Tradition, Cultural Dialogue, and the Invention of Greek Prose,Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 131–32, 135.
- ^p. 156,James Adam,Platonis Protagoras,Cambridge University Press, 1893; p. 83, C.C.W. Taylor,Plato: Protagoras,Oxford University Press, 2002. The words "elaborately ironical" are Adam's.
- ^Diogenes Laërtius,Lives of the Eminent PhilosophersBook IX, Chapter 11, Section 71
- ^A. Griffiths, "Seven Sages", inOxford Classical Dictionary(3rd ed.). All the sources are collected in Bruno Snell,Leben und Meinungen der Sieben Weisen. Griechische und lateinische Quellen erläutert und übertragen.Munich, 1971.
- ^Kirk,Raven, & Schofield,The Presocratic Philosophers(Cambridge, 1983, 2nd edition), p. 76, citing Diogenes Laërtius, i. 22.
- ^H. Parke and D. Wormell,The Delphic Oracle,(Basil Blackwell, 1956), vol. 1, pp. 387–389.
- ^Kurke, p. 109.
- ^Parke & Wormell, p. 389.
- ^Diogenes Laërtius i. 27ff.; R. Martin, "Seven Sages",Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy(ed. D. Zeyl, 1997), p. 487; Parke & Wormell, pp. 387–388
- ^Diogenes Laërtius, i. 40.
- ^p. 42 note a, R. Hicks,Diogenes Laërtius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers,vol. 1, Harvard University Press, 1925.
External links
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Laërtius, Diogenes(1925)..Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.Vol. 1:1. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.- Plutarch'sThe Dinner of the Seven Wise Men,in the Loeb Classical Library.
- Seven Sages of Greecewith illustrations and further links.
- Jona Lendering's articleSeven Sagesincludes a chart of various canonical lists.
- Sentences of the Seven Sages
- Fragment of a poemin which the Seven Wise Men were mentioned together, fromOxyrhynchus Papyri