THE DINNER OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN (SEPTEM SAPIENTIUM CONVIVIUM)
INTRODUCTION
Plutarch's account of the dinner of the seven wise men is a literary tour de
force. Both Plato and Xenophon had composed similar accounts of such
gatherings in their own time, and Plutarch himself has recorded in detail in
his Symposiacs (or TableTalks) much of the conversation which was heard at
such gatherings in his day. This is comparatively an easy task, but in the
account of the dinner of the seven wise men Plutarch, who lived several
centuries after Plato and Xenophon, deliberately set himself to compose an
account of a meeting of people who lived a couple of centuries before Plato
and Xenophon—at the dawn, almost, of authentic Greek history.
There was a tradition, recorded by Plato in the Protagoras (p. 343 a) and by
other writers, that the seven wise men had met at Delphi in connexion with
the dedication of the two famous inscriptions on the temple of Apollo there,
and there was an added tradition that they had later been entertained by
Periander at Corinth. Besides this, many sayings of the wise men were
traditionally current. With this material at hand, Plutarch composed his
imaginative account of the dinner, adding other characters such as
Neiloxenus and Aesop, and giving it a more intimate touch by introducing the
feminine element in the persons of Melissa and
[p. 347] Eumetis
; and at the end, for good measure, he added an elaboration of the familiar
story of Arion's rescue by dolphins, already well known from the account of
Herodotus (i. 24) and of other writers ; and this is capped by a few more
dolphins.
The title (
Συμπόσιον τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν)
stands as No. 110 in the catalogue of Lamprias, and the essay is
occasionally quoted or referred to by later Greek writers.
Plutarch names, as the seven wise men, Thales, Bias, Pittacus, Solon, Chilon,
Cleobulus, and Anacharsis. Plato (Protagoras, 343 a) puts Myson in place of
Anacharsis, and in other lists Periander is found in his stead. Pherecydes,
Epimenides, and Peisistratus are the other candidates for a place in the
list.