Online Encyclopedia

ANACHARSIS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 905 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANACHARSIS  , a Scythian philosopher, who lived about 600 B.C . He was the son of Gnurus,

chief of a nomadic tribe of the Euxine shores, and a Greek woman . Instructed in the Greek language by his
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mother, he prevailed upon the king to entrust him with an
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embassy to Athens about 589 B.C . He became acquainted with Solon, from whom he rapidly acquired a know-ledge of the wisdom and learning of
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Greece, and by whose influence he was introduced to the
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principal persons in Athens . He was the first stranger who received the privileges of citizenship . He was reckoned one of the Seven Sages, and it is said that he was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries . After he had resided several years at Athens, he travelled through different countries in quest of knowledge, and returned home filled with the
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desire of instructing his countrymen in the
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laws and the religion of the Greeks . According to Herodotus he was killed by his
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brother Saulius while he was performing sacrifice to the goddess Cybele . It was he who compared laws to
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spiders' webs, which catch small flies and allow bigger ones to escape . His
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simple and forcible mode of expressing himself gave birth to the proverbial expression " Scythian eloquence," but his epigrams are as unauthentic as the letters which are often attributed to him . According to Strabo he was the first to invent an anchor with two flukes . Barthelemy borrows his name as the title for his Anacharsis. en Grece .

Herodotus iv . 76;

Lucian, Scytha;
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Cicero, Tusc . Disp. v . 32; Diog . Laert. i .

End of Article: ANACHARSIS
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ANABOLISM (Gr. Iva, up, f3oXil, a throw)
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