Anacharsis

:''"He marvelled that among the Greeks, those who were skillful in a thing vie in competition; those who have ''no'' skill, judge"'' —[[Diogenes Laertius]], of Anacharsis.

'''Anacharsis''' was a [[Scythian]] philosopher who travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the [[Black Sea]] to Athens in the early [[6th century BCE]] and made a great impression as a forthright, outspoken "[[barbarian]]," apparently a forerunner of the [[Skepticism|Skeptics]] and [[Cynics]], though none of his authentic works have survived.

Anacharsis was half Greek and the son of a Scythian chief, from a mixed Hellenistic culture, apparently in the region of the [[Cimmerian Bosporus]]. He cultivated the outsider's knack of seeing the illogic in familiar things. His conversation was droll and frank, and Solon and the Athenians took to him as a natural philosopher, not unlike the way the French took to [[Benjamin Franklin]]. His rough and free discourse became proverbial among Athenians as 'Scythian discourse'.

Arriving in Athens about 589 BCE, he came to the house of [[Solon]], philosopher and lawgiver, and said, "I have traveled here from afar to make you my friend." Solon replied, "It's better to make friends at home." Thereupon the Scythian replied, "Then it is necessary for you, being at home, to make friends with me." Solon laughed and accepted him as his friend.

Anacharsis was the first foreigner (metic) who received the privileges of Athenian citizenship. He was reckoned by some ancient authors as one of the [[Seven Sages of Athens]], and it is said that he was initiated into the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]] of the Great Goddess, a privilege denied to those who did not speak fluent Greek.

His book paralleling the laws of the Scythians with the laws of the Greeks has been lost. It was he who compared laws to spiders' webs, which catch small flies, but allow wasps and hornets to escape.

He exhorted moderation in everything, saying that the vine bears three clusters of grapes: the first wine, pleasure; the second, drunkenness, the third, disgust. So he became a kind of [[emblem]] to the Athenians, who inscribed on his statues: 'Restrain your tongues, your appetites, your passions.' (Compare the philosophy of [[Epicurus]].)

His famous ''Letter to [[Croesus]]'', the proverbially rich king of [[Lydia]], is apocryphal, but typical of his quality:

:"Anacharsis to Croesus: O king of the Lydians, I am come to the country of the Greeks, in order to become acquainted with their customs and institutions; but I have no need of gold, and shall be quite contented if I return to Scythia a better man than I left it. However I will come to Sardis, as I think it very desirable to become a friend of yours."

When Anacharsis returned to the Scythians he was killed by his own brother for his Greek ways and especially for the impious attempt to sacrifice to the Mother Goddess [[Cybele]], whose role was unwelcome among the patriarchal Scythians. (Herodotus, iv, 76)

[[Strabo]] makes him the (probably legendary) inventor of the [[anchor]] with two flukes.

==The revival of Anacharsis in the 18th century==
In [[1788]] [[Jean Jacques Barthelemy]] (1716-95), a highly esteemed classical scholar and Jesuit, published ''The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece,'' a learned imaginary travel journal, one of the first [[historical novel]]s, which a modern scholar has called "the encyclopedia of the new cult of the antique" in the late 18th Century; it had a high impact on the growth of [[philhellenism]] in France at the time. The book went through many editions, was reprinted in the United States and translated into German and other languages. It later inspired European sympathy for the [[Greek War of Independence|Greek struggle for independence]] and spawned sequels and imitations through the [[19th century]].

==External links==
*[http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlanacharsis.htm Diogenes Laertius, ''Lives of the Philosophers'' i, 101: brief entry gives many pithy but apocryphal remarks.]
*[http://www.whoosh.org/issue56/rich1.html A witty comparison of the Anacharsis cult with the modern cult of Xena, "Warrior Princess".] (See [[Xena: Warrior Princess|Xena]].)

==Classical references==
*Herodotus iv. 76; Lucian, ''Scytha''; Cicero, ''Tusc. Disp.'' v. 32; Diogenes Laertius i. 101.

[[Category:Greek murder victims]]
[[Category:Presocratic philosophers]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:Scythians]]

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