THE SEVEN WISE MEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 73

THE SEVEN WISE MEN.

Everyone has heard of the Seven Wise Men, but few people nowadays know even their names;' still fewer know anything of their lives and deeds (says a writer in an exchange). And yet these men were the fathers of Greek thought, and, to some extent, the founders of our modern civilisation. All of them flourished in the sixth century B.C.—that is to say, three or four hundred years after the descendants of Homer’s heroes fled before the advancing Dorian hordes and about 100 years before the Persian wars. Their names were Thales of Miletus Solon of Athens, Pittacus of Mitylene, Periander of Corinth, Bias of Priene, Chilon of Lacedsemdn, and Cleobulus of Lindus. Of the last three of these even the historians can tell- us little beyond the interesting legend that Chilon died of joy when his son won the boxing contest Olympic games, but of the first four we know a good deal.

Thales of Aliletus must have been a man of remarkable attainments. Before his time the Greeks had certainly made attempts to solve the riddle of the universe, but ,Thales was the first of them to look at- the facts from a purely scientific standpoint, and he is thus the earliest of the glorious line of Greek philosophers -which culminated wfith Plato and Aristotle.

He is said to have originated the study of the theory of mathematics, he had far-sighted political views, and he knew enough of astronomy to predict the eclipse of the sun w’hich, in 585 b.c., struck such terror into the opposing armies of Persia and Lydia that peace was immediately concluded. Solon is justly described by the historian Bury as “ the ideal of intellectual and moral excellence of the early Greeks and the greatest of their wise men.” He came on the scene when the oppression of the rich and the discontent of the poor were threatening to plunge Athens into anarchy.;* . • .j;" He saved; the State by re-modeiling ; : the Constitulion, reforming the Cptirts of Justice, and publishing a new code of laws. ' ’ '’**'• » • • nA;.-.,-.-,.. The career, of, Pittacus is in some re* spects strikingly like that of Solon. -What

Solon did for Athens, Pittacus did for Mitylene on the island or Lesbos, and, like Solon, he sought no j ersonal glory or reward. After 10 years rule, during which he restored happiness and prosperity to the city, he relinquished his office, and lived the rest of his days in retirement.

It is rather strange to hear that Periander 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 mean, ing of “ usurper.” The father of Periander had made himself master of Corinth by unconstitutional means, and Periander succeeded him—hence ‘ tyrant ” in the Greek sense. He seems, however, to have been a wise and beneficent ruler, and, besides laying the foudnations of Corinth’s mercantile greatness, he did much for the advancement of art and letters.