Sayings of Anacharsis

The last candidate for membership in the Seven Sages is Anacharsis the Scythian (6th century BC), a man from beyond the Greek sphere who nevertheless left his mark on Greek thought. 

A legend grew about him as an ideal example of the "noble barbarian", a reminder that the calling to wisdom is universal. As an outsider, his observations about the Greeks are priceless. 

As with Myson, the sources are scarce, so it is even more difficult than usual to separate the man from the myth. This drives the modern scholar mad, but I am perfectly at peace with the convergence of the literal and the symbolic. 

Anacharsis was the brother of the Scythian king, Sauilius, and he may have had a Greek mother, which would explain how he learned the language. 

He travelled to Athens, where he is said to have befriended Solon by boldly inviting himself to dinner. The Greek phrase "to talk like a Scythian" apparently referred to his forward style. 

Anacharsis became fond of Greek ideas and customs, and upon his return to Scythia this may have led to conflict with his brother. Sauilius killed Anacharsis during a hunting trip, and the sage uttered his last words: 

My reputation carried me safe through Greece, but the envy it excited at home has been my ruin! 

Diogenes Laërtius wrote this epitaph for him: 

Back from his travels Anacharsis came,
To hellenize the Scythians all aglow;
Ere half his sermon could their minds inflame,
A wingèd arrow laid the preacher low. 

The Cynics were especially fond of Anacharsis, and they thought highly of a collection of his letters, now sadly lost. 

Some sayings of Anacharsis include: 

Written laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. 

The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the next of intoxication, and the third of disgust. 

The inscription on his statues is: "Bridle speech, gluttony, and sensuality." 

He wondered why in Greece experts contend in the games and non-experts award the prizes. 

He expressed surprise that the Greek lawgivers should impose penalties on wanton outrage, while they honor athletes for bruising one another.

Being asked how one could avoid becoming a toper, he answered, "By keeping before your eyes the disgraceful exhibition made by the drunkard." 

After ascertaining that the ship's side was four fingers' breadth in thickness, he remarked that the passengers were just so far from death. 

Oil he called a drug which produced madness, because the athletes when they anoint themselves with it are maddened against each other.

"How is it," he asked, "that the Greeks prohibit falsehood and yet obviously tell falsehoods in retail trade?"

He could not understand why at the beginning of their feasts the Greeks drink from small goblets and when they are "full" from large ones. 

Being asked if there were flutes in Scythia, he replied, "No, nor yet vines." 

To the question what vessels were the safest his reply was, "Those which have been hauled ashore." 

When someone inquired which were more in number, the living or the dead, he rejoined, "In which category, then, do you place those who are on the seas?" 

When some Athenian reproached him with being a Scythian, he replied, "Well, granted that my country is a disgrace to me, you are a disgrace to your country." 

To the question, "What among men is both good and bad?" his answer was "The tongue." 

He said it was better to have one friend of great worth than many friends worth nothing at all. 

He defined the market as a place set apart where men may deceive and overreach one another. 

When insulted by a boy over the wine he said, "If you cannot carry your liquor when you are young, boy, you will be a water carrier when you are old."