thumb|upright=1.4|Mosaic of the Seven Sages, [[Baalbeck, Lebanon, 3rd century CE, National Museum of Beirut. Calliope at center and Socrates at the top, with the Seven Sages clockwise from the top: Chilon, Pittacus, Periander, Cleobulus (damaged section), Bias, Thales, and Solon.]]

The Seven Sages or, alternatively, the Seven Wise Men were the honorary title(s) given to seven philosophers, statesmen, and law-givers of the 7th–6th centuries BCE who were especially renowned for their wisdom.

The Seven Sages

right|thumb|The Seven Sages (), depicted in the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]]

The list of the seven sages given in Plato's Protagoras comprises:

  • Thales of Miletus () is the first well-known Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius attributes the aphorism, "Know thyself", engraved on the front facade of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, to Thales, although there was no ancient consensus on this attribution.
  • Pittacus of Mytilene () governed Mytilene (Lesbos). He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the common people, whom he favoured.
  • Bias of Priene () was a politician and legislator of the 6th century BCE.
  • Solon of Athens () was a famous legislator and reformer from Athens, framing the laws that shaped the Athenian democracy.
  • Cleobulus, tyrant of Lindos (), reported as either the grandfather or father-in-law of Thales;
  • Myson of Chenae (6th century BCE); and
  • Chilon of Sparta () was a Spartan politician to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed.

Diogenes Laërtius points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven. Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchange Periander of Corinth or Anacharsis the Scythian for Myson. On Diogenes' first list of seven, which he introduces with the words "These men are acknowledged wise", Periander appears instead of Myson; the same substitution appears in The Masque of the Seven Sages by Ausonius. Both Ephorus Diogenes Laërtius further states that Dicaearchus gave ten possible names, and Hermippus enumerated seventeen possible sages from which different people made different selections of seven.

Interpretations

In Plato's Protagoras, Socrates says: