THE SEVEN

WISE MEN OF

See also:

• GREECE

GREECE  , a collective name for certain sages who flourished c . 620-550 B.C . The generally accepted list is Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, Periander, Pittacus, Solon, Thales (see separate articles), although ancient authorities differ as to names and number . They obtained great influence in their respective cities as legislators and advisers, and a reputation throughout the Greek world . Their rules of life were embodied in poems and short sayings in common use . See O . Bernhardt, Die sieben Weisen Griechenlands (1864) ; F . Bohren, De septem sapientibus (1867) ; " Septem sapientium carmina et apophthegmata," with short biographies in F . Mullach, Fragmenta philosophorum Graecorum, i . 086o); H . Wulf in Dissertationes philologicae Halenses, xiii . (1896) .