1. Aesop: The life of Aesop is obscure to say the least. Scholars are still unsure if Aesop was a real person. Even if he was a real person, we do not know where he was from, where he traveled, and if he even wrote fables himself. However, if such a person did exist, scholars estimate he would have lived in Greece in the 6th century B.C.E. He is mentioned throughout the centuries by Greek and Roman writers alike. There are no surviving "original" manuscripts, and fables from around the world have been added to the original fables attributed to Aesop.
2. Seven Sages of Greece: From there I arrived at the Seven Sages of Greece because Plutarch wrote that he met with them, and that Aesop is apparently often included with this group. It is not agreed how many sages there truly are and who should be included in the group. However, each many was a leader of his city-state/community. They are known for the clever sayings and each have different morals and pieces of wisdom for us to learn.
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| Periander of Corinth. Photo of bust by Jastrow. Source: Wikipedia |
3. Periander of Corinth: Reading the summary of who Periander was in the "Seven Sages of Greece" article made the man seem like a walking contradiction. The man was a sage who was also a tyrant. Some accounts describe him as a harsh ruler, while others praise his efforts to redistribute the wealth of Corinth. Reading his life story and then comparing it to his patronage of art and literature doesn't clear things up much. He was a man who either killed his wife, or defiled her corpse. His son ran away from him, and when the son was killed, Periander died from the grief. Yet, he is a sage of Greece and supported the writings of philosophy. What a fascinating historical figure!
4. Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers: This is the text in which the story of Periander killing his wife appears in. Written by Diogenes Laertius in the 3rd century C.E. (almost 1,000 years after the events of Periander took place), it is a collection of ten books which recount the stories of philosophers since the birth of Greek civilization. While Laertius is a great source for us, the main reason is because the primary sources have been lost and Laertius doesn't cite his sources. We are left to trust hiim without much corroborating evidence. Therefore, stories told in this collection must be taken carefully, not at face value.
This is an interesting Wikipedia Trail, I learned quite a bit of things. I wonder if for a lot of Greek writers’ existence are unknown, like with Homer and Aesop. It seems like quite a bit of Greek/Roman history is still a mystery that has yet to be solved. Periander is definitely an interesting fellow and there are variations of his story told, so it leaves us with unanswered questions.
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