ANACHARSIS, a Scythian philosopher, who lived about 600
B.C. He was the son of Gnurus, chief of a nomadic tribe
of the Euxine shores, and a Greek woman. Instructed in the
Greek language by his mother, he prevailed upon the king to
entrust him with an embassy to
Athens about 589 B.C. He
became acquainted with Solon, from whom he rapidly acquired
a knowledge of the wisdom and learning of Greece, and by
whose influence he was introduced to the principal persons in
Athens. He was the first stranger who received the privileges
of citizenship. He was reckoned one of the Seven Sages,
and it is said that he was initiated into the Eleusinian
mysteries. After he had resided several years at Athens,
he travelled through different countries in quest of
knowledge, and returned home filled with the desire of
instructing his countrymen in the laws and the religion of the
Greeks. According to Herodotus he was killed by his brother
Saulius while he was performing sacrifice to the goddess
Cybele. It was he who compared laws to spiders' webs, which
catch small flies and allow bigger ones to escape. His
simple and forcible mode of expressing himself gave birth
to the proverbial expression "Scythian eloquence," but his
epigrams are as unauthentic as the letters which are often
attributed to him. According to Strabo he was the first
to invent an anchor with two flukes. Barthelemy borrows
his name as the title for his Anacharsis en Grece.
Herodotus iv. 76; Lucian, Scytha; Cicero,
Tusc. Disp. v. 32; Diog. Laert. i. 101.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
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