Seven Sages of Greece

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

The list of the seven sages given in Plato's Protagoras comprises: [1] Diogenes Laërtius points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven.

Among these were Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mytilene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus of Lindus, and Myson of Chenae, and the seventh of them was said to be Chilon of Sparta.

[11] Later tradition ascribed to each sage a pithy saying of his own, but ancient as well as modern scholars have doubted the legitimacy of such ascriptions.

"[14] In addition to being credited for pithy sayings, the wise men were also apparently famed for practical inventions; in Plato's Republic (600a), it is said that it "befits a wise man" to have "many inventions and useful devices in the crafts or sciences" attributed to him, citing Thales and Anacharsis the Scythian as examples.

Mosaic of the Seven Sages, Baalbeck , Lebanon , century CE, National Museum of Beirut , Lebanon . Calliope at the center, and clockwise from top: Socrates , Chilon , Pittacus , Periander , Cleobulus (damaged section), Bias , Thales , and Solon .
The Seven Sages ( Latin : Septem Sapientes ), depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle