A collective name for certain sages who flourished c. 620-550 B.C. The generally accepted list is Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, Periander, Pittacus, Solon, Thales (see separate articles), although ancient authorities differ as to names and number. They obtained great influence in their respective cities as legislators and advisers, and a reputation throughout the Greek world. Their rules of life were embodied in poems and short sayings in common use.
See O. Bernhardt, Die sieben Weisen Griechenlands (1864); F. Bohren, De septem sapientibus (1867); "Septem sapientium carmina et apophthegmata," with short biographies in F. Mullach, Fragmenta philosophorum Graecorum, i. (1860); H. Wulf in Dissertationes philologicae Halenses, xiii. (1896).