THE SEVEN SAGES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 11 August 1928, Page 11

THE SEVEN SAGES

W'VERYONE has heard of the Seven Wise Men, but few people nowadays know even their names, and still fewer know anything- of -their lives and deeds. Yet these men were the fathers of Greek thought, and, to some extent, the founders of our modern civilisation. All flourished in the sixth cen-tury-B.C. —three or four hundred years after .fhe descendants of Homer’s heroes fled before the advancing Dorian hordes, and about a -century before the Persian wars. Their names were Thales of Miletus, Solon -of Athens Pittncus of Mitvlene, Pcriander of Corinth, Bias of Pricne, Chilon of Lacedaemon, and Cleobulus of Lindus Of the last three even the historians cal! tell us Tittle beyond the interesting legend that Chi-l-on died of joy when his son won a boxing contest at the Olympic games, but of the first four we know much. Thales, of Miletus, must have been a man of remarkable attainments. Be fore his time the Greeks had attempted to solve the riddle of the universe, but Thales was the first of them to look at the facts from a purely scientific standpoint. He is thus the earliest of the glorious line of -.Greek philosophers culminating with Plato and Aristotle. He is said to have originatthe study of the theory of mathematics, ho had far-sighted political, views, and he knew" enough of as-

DESCENDANTS OF HEROES

tronomv to predict, the eclipse of the sun which, in 555 8.C., struck such terror into the opposing armies of Persia and Lydia that peace was- immediately concluded. Solon is justly described toy the historian Bury as “the ideal of intelleelual and moral excellence of the early Greeks and the greatest of their wise men.” He appeared on the scene when the oppression -of the rich anil the discontent of the - poor were threatening to plunge Athens into anarchy. Ho saved the State bv remodellinjp- the Constitution, reforming the Courts of Justice, and publishing a new code of laws. The career of Pi-ttacus (says “John ic London’s Weekly”) is in some respects strikingly like that of Solon. What So'Ton did for Athens Pittacus did for Mitylene on the island of Lesbos, and, like Solon, lie sought no personal glory or reward. After -ten years ? rule, during which lie restored happiness and prosperity' t,o the city, he relinquished his -office and lived the rest of his days in retirement. It is rather strange to hear that Periandor was a tyrant, but it must be remembered that to the Greeks the word “tyrant” had not . the same significance as it has to-day; it had more the moaning of “usurper.” He seems to have been a wise and beneficent ruler.