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The first Greek writer to refer to the concept of Seven Sages was Plato, who mentioned seven names of wise people: “Such were Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mitylene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus the Lindian, and Myson the Chenian; and seventh in the catalogue of wise men was the Spartan Chilon”, who “were lovers and emulators and disciples of the culture of the Spartans” (Plato, Protagoras 343a). These people had lived in the seventh and sixth centuries and were later believed to have founded Greek philosophy. The names of these sages differ in the Greek sources, as they differ also in Mesopotamian texts. The historian Ephorus replaced Myson with Anacharsis, a legendary Scythian sage mentioned in the Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus. A generation after Plato, Demetrius of Phalerum, a pupil of Aristotle, was not too happy with Myson either, so he replaced him with Periander, the tyrant of Corinth. Four names became canonical (Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Solon), but there were many candidates for the remaining three positions. Diogenes Laërtius mentions several writers who had included lists of seven sages in their books on the history of Greek philosophy, like Dicaearchus of Messene (late fourth century), Maeandrius of Miletus (early third century), and three authors whose names are not mentioned. These lists of sages include sixteen names in all. Other lists are known to have included Pherecydes, Lasus, Aristoxenus, and Anaxagoras; still others included religious innovators like Orpheus, Linus, and Epicharmus. The grand total is twenty-three, of which the four names were canonical, and - to a lesser extent - Pythagoras also was more or less universally recognized. Most of these people are just names and in most cases, we can not reconstruct their ideas. he nature of these sages had to be sufficiently vague to remain convincing. It comes as no surprise that the philosophy of the seven sages was handed over in the form of brief maxims (gnomai) like “know thyself” and “nothing too much”.
Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Plato, Protagoras 343a
Amar Annus
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