Delphic Maxims, Pearls of Wisdom from the Seven Sages

The Delphic maxims are a collection of 147 axioms inscribed at Delphi. Originally said to have been given by Greek God Apollon to his Oracle at Delphi.

Stobaeus, a scholar of the 5th century, attributes them to the Seven Sages of Greece who are usually identified ( by Plato and others) as:

• Solon of Athens (c. 638 – 558 BCE) a famous legislator and reformer from Athens, framing the laws that shaped the Athenian democracy.
• Chilon of Sparta (fl. 6th century BCE) a Spartan politician to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed.
• Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – c. 546 BCE) is the first well-known philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. His maxim, “Know thyself,” was engraved on the front facade of the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi.
• Bias of Priene (fl. 6th century BCE) was a politician and legislator known for being an advocate.
• Cleobulus of Lindos (fl. 6th century BCE) governed as tyrant of Lindos, in the Greek island of Rhodes.
• Pittacus of Mitylene (c. 640 – 568 BCE) governed Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the popular classes, whom he favored.
• Periander of Corinth (fl. 627 BCE) was the tyrant of Corinth in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. Corinth saw a golden age of unprecedented stability during his rule.

All of these men were 6th Century BC contemporaries and as the written papyrus states, they were summoned by the Oracles to Delphi to convene over these axioms.

While some modern scholars argue that their original authorship is uncertain and that “most likely they were popular proverbs that were later ascribed to particular sages”, there is no evidence of that. There has been nothing written to suggest that these maxims were somehow a collection of ancient proverbs and sayings passed down through some oral tradition over thousands or even hundreds of years.

We have to notice that the Greek word that translated as “Maxims” is “Παραγγέλματα”(paragelmata) which literally means “messages”. So, the Maxims are not to be taken as commandments. We have to consider them more as guidelines and advice which leads to the ideal goal of all Greek philosophy, the achievement of Eudemonia.

Despite the disagreement about the origin, everyone agrees the Delphic Maxims are real pearls of wisdom.

Source: The Commandments of the Seven (the copy of Sosiades preserved by Stobaeus).
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Chris A. Parker

Since 1998, researcher and blogger in practical occultism and Mind-science, who believes that the best way to predict the future is to create it…