Solon of Athens, c. 630 – c. 560 BC, was an Athenian statesman and poet.
Chosen as chief magistrate in 594 on account of his wisdom, Solon was tasked with pacifying the class warfare plaguing Athens. After passing constitutional and economic reforms which have been interpreted as laying the foundation of Athenian democracy, Solon defended his controversial reforms in lyric poetry. Unfortunately these poems survive only in a very fragmentary form.
The legacy of Solon is rich— he is numbered among the legendary Seven Sages— and he casts a long shadow even in antiquity. Herodotus features him prominently in Book I of the Histories, where he refutes the wealthy Croesus’ pretensions to supreme happiness with the maxim that no living human should be called happy. This is an apocryphal story, but it illustrates how Solon comes to be seen as a quintessentially Greek figure, associated with wisdom and awareness of mortality, in the face of the excess proper to barbarians.
Joshua Anthony
Student at University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Justice and the City | Solon Fragment 4
Contributed by Joshua Anthony
Herodotus 1.30-32 | Solon at the Court of Croesus 1 – the story of Tellos
Contributed by Joshua Anthony
Herodotus 1.30-32 | Solon at the Court of Croesus 2 – Cleobis and Biton
Contributed by Joshua Anthony