Anacarsis Scythian. Son of Gnuro and brother of Caduida, king of Scythia , was born of Greek mother; for which reason he knew both languages. He wrote on the laws of the Scythians, and on what was conducive to frugality in the life of the Greeks. He also wrote about the war up to about eight hundred verses. His freedom of speech gave rise to the proverb of Scythian speaking. Sosícrates says that Anacarsis came to Athens in the XLVII Olympiad, being Archon Eucrates; and Hermippus adds that he went to Solon’s houseand he ordered one of his relatives to tell his master that Anacarsis was there, in case he wanted to enjoy his sight and lodging. That the servant gave the message to Solon, who replied that “guests are those who are in their homeland.” With this, Anacarsis entered, saying that he was then in his homeland, and therefore it belonged to him to make guests for others. Solon admired for his promptness, he received him and made him his great friend.
Summary
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- 1 Ideas
- 2 Some of his phrases
- 3 Description of his death
- 4 External links
- 5 Sources
Ideas
- He said that “the vine bears three clusters: the first for taste, the second for intoxication and the third for disgust.” It was much admired that among the Greeks artists challenged each other and judged works by those who were not artisans. Asked how one would become abstemious or watered down, he replied: “Looking at the clumsy gestures of drunkards.” He also said that he marveled at “how the Greeks, who make laws against those who insult others, honor athletes who hurt each other.” Knowing that the thickness of the ships is not more than four fingers, he said: “Those who sail are so far from death.” He called the oil “medicine of frenzy, because anointed with it the athletes became more enraged against each other.” He said: “How is it that those who forbid lying openly lie in taverns?” He was also admired that “the Greeks at the beginning of the meal drink from small glasses, and after they are satisfied from large glasses” In their portraits there is this inscription: “The tongue, the belly and the flesh must be restrained.”
- Asked if there were flutes in Scythia, he replied: “Nor vines.” To one who asked which ships were safer, he replied: “Those in the port.” He said he had seen something in Greece that he admired, namely: that they left the smoke in the mountains and brought the firewood home Asked one if there were more living than the dead, he replied: “In what class of those two do you put the navigators?” To an Athenian who objected to being a Scythian, he replied: “My country dishonors me; but you are the dishonor of yours ». Asked what was good and bad in men, he replied: “The tongue.” He said that “it is better to have an illustrious friend than many ordinary ones.” He called the forum “a place destined for mutual deception and fraud.” A young man having verbally abused him at a banquet, he said: «Mancebo, if now that you are young you cannot suffer from wine, when you grow old you will suffer from water ». According to some, he invented for the use of human life the anchors and the pottery wheel.
Some of his phrases
The language is the best and the worst that men have.
Laws are often like cobwebs: small insects get caught in them; the big ones break them.
The law is a cobweb that stops the flies and lets the birds through.
The drunkard’s sight is the best lesson in sobriety.
The first drink gives health, the second pleasure, the third shame, and the fourth madness.
Wise men discuss problems, and fools decide them.
It is a great evil not to be able to suffer any evil; it is necessary to suffer to suffer less.
Description of his death
Apparently, when he returned to his homeland convinced of the goodness of Solon’s laws, he wanted to introduce them in his homeland and his brother murdered him on that pretext during a hunting party with a crush, going unpunished, as he would succeed, with what which showed that Anacarsis’s original opinion on the weakness of Solon’s laws also had its reason for being. Anacarsis also became famous as a literary character. Luciano de Samosata already used it as such in his Scythian dialogue. The novel Voyage of the Young Anacarsis to Greece in the middle of the fourth century BC was written in the year 1790 by Jean-Jacques Barthelemy, who died on April 30, 1795. In the fourth century BC. A., Anacarsis became a species of model of life for the cynical philosophers.