Solon

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. I. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914.

Some say, too, that he attempted to reduce his laws to heroic verse before he published them, and they give us this introduction to them:—

  1. First let us offer prayers to Zeus, the royal son of Cronus,
  2. That he may give these laws of ours success and fame.
Solon, Fragm. 31 (Bergk) In philosophy, he cultivated chiefly the domain of political ethics, like most of the wise men of the time; and in physics, he is very simple and antiquated, as is clear from the following verses:—

  1. From clouds come sweeping snow and hail,
  2. And thunder follows on the lightning’s flash.
  3. By winds the sea is lashed to storm, but if it be
  4. Unvexed, it is of all things most amenable.
[*](Fragment 9. 1-2; and Fragment 12 (Bergk).) And in general, it would seem that Thales was the only wise man of the time who carried his speculations beyond the realm of the practical; the rest[*](The names usually given in the list of the Seven Wise Men are: Bias of Priene, Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindus, Periander of Corinth, Pittacus of Mytilene, Solon of Athens, and Thales of Miletus. See Plut. Sol. 12.4.) got the name of wisdom from their excellence as statesmen.

They are all said to have met together at Delphi, and again in Corinth, where Periander arranged something like a joint conference for them, and a banquet. But what contributed still more to their honor and fame was the circuit which the tripod made among them, its passing round through all their hands, and their mutual declination of it, with generous expressions of good will.