The Sages
A lot of cultures in the world have had “Seven Wise Men” who supposedly taught the early people, there, basic lessons upon which they built civilizations. The Greeks were no different and, as with many members of the other cultures, they argued about whose names should appear on the list.
Of the all the different suggestions made, four names seem pretty universal, so I’ll stick with them. Plus, I’ll add Pythagoras of Samos, just because of his contributions to geometry – as well as some problematic impacts he had on some later thinkers.
Most of the Greeks in the Classical era name Thales of Miletus, Pittacus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene and Solon of Athens, as the four most prominent “Pre-Socratic” philosophers. A lot of lessons and aphorisms woven into the Western view of the world date back to these men, and while many of us may not know the exact words, the concepts weave throughout the culture of Europe and its children – including the United States.
Thales I’ve already discussed, and the old Greeks place his name at the top of every list, almost without exception.
Pittacus of Mytilene
Pittacus usually appears second, especially on lists by the Athenians, as he led an army that defeated them at some point. After the battle, the people of Mytilene made him their dictator (not a bad word, in Classical Greece) and asked him to rule the city.
Pittacus proceeded to do so, and for the duration of his reign he provided a nearly perfect example of how to use power wisely, to create (as best he could) a superb quality of life for his people. He noted that “Power makes the man,” as the ability to impose one’s will on the world at large meant power reflected the mind of the man who wielded it. Basically, to use power with restraint was not only best for the nation, but also reflected well on the leader.
Pittacus apparently said that to live as a good man was one of the hardest things in the world, already, and to remain one became even more difficult, still, when one exercised authority of life and death over others. According to the few records that exist, he exercised considerable mercy and restraint, advocated hard work and thrift, and avoided bragging lest it come back and bite him.
He also noted that the sort of hubris that caused some people to “lord” over others almost always invited trouble: “Do not reproach a man for his misfortunes, fearing lest Nemesis may overtake you.”
Bias of Priene
According to Diogenes Laertius, Bias of Priene was cut from a similar cloth. Something of a clever bastard, he bluffed his city’s enemies a couple of times and drew them to the negotiating table, but did his best to serve his own people well. An eloquent speaker, he spoke for the judges of Priene only on behalf of decent causes, and advised that everyone work for the betterment of the community as a whole, as a form of enlightened self-interest. He gave advice in the form of verses, translations of which survived:
“Seek to please all the citizens, even though your house may be in an ungracious city. For such a course will favor win from all, but haughty manners oft produce destruction.” (In other words, treat others well, at all times, and don’t act like an ass.)
“Great strength of body is the gift of nature; but to be able to advise whatever is most expedient for one’s country’s good, is the peculiar work of sense and wisdom.” (Brain is better than brawn, especially if one devotes most of one’s thoughts to the well-being of others.)
“Great riches come to many men by chance.”
I’ve always considered that last one a wry comment meant to puncture the egos of the sorts of wealthy SOBs who think good fortune somehow makes them “better” than others. That’s a very “Bias” way to think, and the guy had a reputation as something of a smart-ass.
According to Diogenes, Bias found himself on a ship, once, with a group of men whom he considered impious. However, their tone changed when a storm came up (given the state of naval technology at the time, that would scare anybody) and they began to call upon the gods for help.
Annoyed by the hypocrisy, Bias reportedly told them to shut up, lest the gods find out they were on the ship and smite it, on general principles. Also a bit cynical (although not a Cynic – that meant something completely different, in Classical Greece), Bias noted that most men were wicked, and felt the greatest pleasure when acquiring gain.
In all, Bias of Priene seems to have had a solid understanding not only of the flaws and foibles of individuals, but also that a healthy and prosperous society helped everyone indirectly. As such, he advocated social behavior based on enlightened self-interest, while at the same time the exercise of healthy caution about the motives of others, especially the wealthy and powerful.
Solon of Athens
Finally, we reach the man with the name that has become a byword for good governance. According to the historian, Plutarch, Solon lived about the same time as Thales of Miletus and the two men knew each other. That meant Solon was born a few hundred years before Socrates, during a time when Athenian citizens who had gained wealth through trade started to challenge the supremacy of traditional landed aristocrats, while disregarding the needs of poorer farmers. However, rather than allow the situation to degenerate into a nasty political fight based on economic interests, the citizens decided to ask the wisest guy they knew to restructure the government of the city-state.
They selected Solon, the son of a moderately wealthy family, but one that counted itself as a member of one of Athens’ foremost clans. Solon apparently put in some effort into making enough money to achieve a measure of prosperity, but as with many other Greeks of a philosophical bent, devoted his attention to learning as much as he could and writing poetry, rather than piling on the drachmae.
He also earned renown during a dispute with another city-state, Megara, on the island of Salamis, when he had a bunch of young Athenian soldiers dress like women and run their ship aground. This caused all the Megarians to come out to capture them, which resulted in an ambush that gave Athens a significant advantage in the war.
After several other examples of thoughtful action and careful negotiation, Solon had earned the respect of his fellow Athenians and a fair quantity of political clout. However, after the wars – and social changes triggered, in part, because of them – the Athenians returned to the quarrel about the nature of the city’s governance.
As noted, they elected Solon as Archon, and with their support issued a number of decrees that altered Athenian law. According to Plutarch, Solon said no Athenian could ever be sold into slavery by a creditor as a means to recover a debt, and cancelled some particularly onerous mortgages on Athenian farms.
However, Solon didn’t permit massive land reform, as the peasants wanted, and clarified the property qualifications for political offices so that while only the wealthy could hold them, the wealth required actually decreased. That opened up offices to more citizens. He also reformed government offices to make them more rational, with clearly-defined responsibilities.
He also implemented a jury system, in which qualified citizens sat, en masse, to hear disputes and judge accusations made against their fellow Athenians. This required a lot more Athenians to learn the laws – particularly since he also permitted citizens to join lawsuits to protect those who had been wronged and speak on their behalf – in short, to act as legal representatives. Solon justified this as a way to allow those not personally wronged to assist those who were, and help punish law-breakers as a way to maintain peace and safety within the city walls.
Other laws provided at least some protections for women, reformed the economy a bit to make the city more self-sufficient, and reformed the immigration rules so the city attracted mostly those with needed skills.
As a consequence of the massive (but necessary) legal reforms, Solon had managed to equally upset just about every faction of Athenian society– which told him he’d done the job about as fairly as anybody could. At that point, rather than use the new laws to make himself even more unpopular as a tyrant, he went on an extended sabbatical to Egypt and other points abroad, so no one could accuse him of rigging things to increase his own power (and, presumably, to get away from the haters).
Upon his return to Athens, Solon (now an elderly gentleman) learned that his old lover, Peisistratus was well on his way to becoming the sole leader (tyrant) of the city-state. However, the two men still considered one another good friends and, rather than feel threatened by Solon’s return, Peisistratus welcomed him and moderated some of his own behavior based on what he perceived as constructive criticism.
For his part, Solon became the chief negotiator of disputes between the factions and, because everyone respected him and Peisistratus listened to his advice, Athens successfully avoided any political violence at a time of considerable economic and social upheaval. The city also retained intact most of his legal reforms, all the way through to the time of Socrates.
Pythagoras of Samos
Pittacus, Bias and Solon earned places on the list of the greatest sages due to their pragmatic and effective efforts on behalf of civil society, Pythagoras and Thales shared a fascination with the study of the natural world. However, unlike Thales, Pythagoras travelled extensively in Egypt, Persia and the lands of the Phoenicians, and apparently gained a fascination for Oriental mysticism never accepted by the skeptical thinker from Miletus.
It’s pretty hard to tell exactly what Pythagoras believed, as he never wrote anything down and neither did any of the students he personally taught at his southern Italian academy in Croton. However, it’s pretty clear he (or one of his students) discovered the theorem about how to determine the hypotenuse of a right-triangle that everybody still learns, today, in basic geometry class. Additionally, he apparently discovered the mathematics of music — the octave, fifth and fourth correspond to the whole number ratios 2:1, 3:2 and 4:3 respectively – and may have discovered or defined three of geometric forms known to table-top role-playing gamers (the cube, the tetrahedron and the 12-sided dodecahedron) that would eventually become known as the “platonic solids.”
Pythagoras also established a moral code and way of life based on what he learned during his trips abroad, and that caused him to try to apply a mystical element to the practicality of mathematics. He said the regular patterns of the planets corresponded to music, and therefore produced ‘celestial harmonies” (this eventually became the foundation for the concept of the “music of the spheres”) and had moral significance.
Pythagoras also taught that souls had immortality, that after death souls were reincarnated into animals, that time functioned in a circular way, and that all living things belonged to the same general family of being.
(The reimagined Battlestar Galactica may have borrowed the concept of circular time from Pythagorean thought, as the sacred scrolls in that series forthrightly dictated that “all this has happened before, all of this will happen again.” The series also used as a model the definition of gods as moral authorities found in Classical Greece, rather than the more fickle, violent versions found in the Iliad and the Odyssey.)
Oddly, while the Pythagoreans appeared to have developed quite a body of mystical thought, they appeared to have had zero interest in the establishment of a formal religion. The academy in Croton seems to have resulted in the creation of an informal association that more closely resembled a combination mystery cult and political club. A lot of its members grew to prominent positions in the Greek city-states of southern Italy, because of the group’s emphasis on self-discipline and quiet study.
I suppose the Greeks found Pythagorean mysticism at least somewhat attractive, for very good reasons. The descriptions of the afterlife found in the Iliad and the Odyssey gave a pretty bleak picture. Souls wandered as ghosts without purpose, those who behaved badly in life or offended the gods suffered plenty of punishment, but Hades provided nothing in the way of rewards for moral behavior.
By comparison, an afterlife that consisted of reincarnation on the much more pleasant Earth, as some sort of animal or perhaps another human, seemed reasonably desirable. On top of that, Pythagoreans believed in a special connection between the human soul and a larger universe of mathematical harmony notably absent of fickle deities.
However, those who wrote about the Pythagoreans indicated the group had little interest in spreading their beliefs to others, and may have maintained an obsessive level of secrecy. They restricted the spread of mathematical knowledge to members only, for a very long time, and it “leaked” only slowly.
This concept that only “insiders” should have exposure to knowledge, combined with an Asian mysticism that (while understandably attractive) was, nonetheless, unsupported by any evidence, marks a pretty serious departure from Thales’ hard-nosed practicality. It also violates Thales’ admonishment to keep separate the natural world and supernatural concepts. On top of that, many other thinkers in later centuries followed the Pythagorean pattern of restricting knowledge only to the “worthy,” and who knows how badly that slowed human progress?
The Medieval alchemists took their secrecy very seriously, indeed, and European culture didn’t shake the obsessive need to restrict access to knowledge for nearly 2000 years. Those who finally did so lived in the opposite corner of Europe from Greece, and wound up rulers of the most extensive empire the human race has ever created.
All that aside, we can see some common patterns that run throughout the lives of the four main sages, as well as the dozen or so other candidates for the remaining three positions. In each case, the best rulers and finest men were not the greatest conquerors or the most powerful leaders, but those who exercised power in moderation, guided by ethics and focused on improvement in the quality of life to everyone in their respective communities.
Even Pythagoras, as problematic as his mysticism would eventually prove, was in no way a religious zealot who sought to convert by fire and sword, but rather to teach a new way of thinking about the cosmos and the afterlife.
The Greeks chose as their “Seven Sages,” (regardless of the exact membership on the list) thoughtful individuals who advocated and practiced prudence, moderation, thrift and highly-developed social consciousness focused on the betterment of life for everyone. As such, they laid a foundation for philosophical thought that would, ironically, reach its height during one of Athens’ darkest hours.
The links:
http://www.livius.org/articles/people/seven-sages/
http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlbias.htm
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Solon*.html