When we think of ancient “Greek” philosophy today, Athens is usually the first place that springs to mind. We might picture Socrates debating in the Agora, Plato walking among the groves of the Academy, or Aristotle lecturing in the Lyceum. The ancient Greek world extended far beyond Athens, and even beyond the boundaries of what today we call Greece.

Greek cities and settlements were scattered around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, including along the latter’s northern shores, at the edge of the vast Pontic Steppe. Here Greek colonists encountered many different peoples, most famously the Scythians — nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes whom the Greeks classed among the barbaroi, so-called ‘barbarians’, although the Greek word primarily meant those speaking a foreign tongue. Much of this ancient frontier lies within what is now southern Ukraine.

The earliest of the famous sages and philosophers associated with this region was not Greek at all but Scythian: Anacharsis, a member of the Scythian royal family who probably lived during the sixth century BCE. He travelled through the known world and acquired such a reputation for wisdom among the Greeks that later authors numbered him among the legendary Seven Sages.

Unfortunately, much of what we are told about Anacharsis comes from the grey area between ancient history and legend. Herodotus is our earliest surviving source, although most of the colourful anecdotes and sayings attributed to him come from authors writing centuries later such as Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch.

The Life of Anacharsis

Herodotus, the Greek historian, praised the Scythian nation for its exceptional resilience and resistance to invasion. Being mounted nomads without walled cities, they could tactically retreat across the steppe in the face of a stronger enemy. If the Scythians did not wish to be found, Herodotus says, they could not be caught. However, he wrote that the people around the Black Sea were generally lacking in wisdom, with one notable exception: Anacharsis.

Anacharsis was a member of the tribe known as the Royal Scythians. He was the brother of King Saulius, according to Herodotus. Later traditions added that his mother was Greek, and he was fluent in both languages. He left Scythia to explore the Mediterranean world and especially to study the customs of the Greeks.

Anacharsis arrived in Athens around 590 BCE, according to a later tradition, where he sought out Solon, the ancient lawmaker of Athens, and one of the Seven Sages. The two became good friends. Indeed, Anacharsis was known for saying that it is better to have one friend of great worth than many who are worth nothing.

He composed a lost work comparing the laws of the Scythians to those of the Greeks, which also contrasted their militaries and advocated for a simple way of life. He became known among the Greeks for his outspokenness and plain speech (parrhesia), which led to the proverbial expression “to speak like a Scythian.” Parrhesia later became a virtue especially associated with the Cynic philosophers, and to some extent the Stoics.

The Scythians were known for their horsemanship not seafaring. Despite journeying far from home, and sailing through the Hellespont, Anacharsis obviously distrusted ships. When he found that the hull of a Greek vessel was four finger-breadths thick, he started saying that those sailing in one were exactly four fingers away from death. When asked what ships were the safest, he said “The ones hauled up on the land.” When asked whether the living or dead were more numerous he replied: “In which group do you place those who are sailing?” It was a familiar complaint in the ancient world that life at sea was like a kind of living death.

When he eventually returned to Scythia, after many years travelling, he taught his countrymen Greek customs. He was murdered by his brother, King Saulius, for carrying out a Greek religious ceremony.

Self-Mastery

Anacharsis seems to have advocated moderation in the consumption of alcohol. He said that the vine bears three clusters of grapes. The first brings pleasure, the second intoxication, and the third displeasure — meaning regret. When someone asked how they could avoid becoming a drunkard, he said that they should keep before their eyes the behaviour of those who are drunk. When he was insulted by a young man during a drinking party, he said, “Boy, if you cannot bear your wine when you are young, you will be bearing water when you are old.” Water-carrying was a byword for the menial work of slaves in the ancient world. Anacharsis meant that if we don’t learn to control our desires, eventually we’ll be enslaved by them.

Asked what part of a human is both good and bad, he replied, “The tongue.” In other words, he seems to have believed that speech is bad when we don’t master our tongues, and lie, but becomes good when we learn to speak honestly and with integrity. He was famous for advocating temperance and self-mastery. Statues of him were inscribed with the words: “Master your tongue, your belly, and your genitals.” Again, that could easily be a slogan of Cynic philosophy.

Cynicism

As an outsider, from a more rural country, observing Greek civilization, Anacharsis was at times quite cynical (in the modern sense of the word). Diogenes Laertius says that Anacharsis was perplexed by the fact that among the Greeks experts competed while non-experts judged them. Plutarch gives the joke a political form: in Athens, wise men gave speeches but fools made the decisions. He meant that in the Athenian democracy, advisors were regularly called upon to speak before the Athenian Assembly but their suggestions were then put to vote among all of the male citizens present. With regard to public policy on matters such as health, construction, military campaigns, etc., the ignorant therefore judged whether or not to follow the advice of experts. Anacharsis also found it odd that the Greeks passed laws against assault but honoured athletes who fought each other in sports such as wrestling, boxing, and the pankration.

He described the agora, the Greek marketplace and civic centre, as a place designated for deceiving and cheating one another. One of his most famous sayings, quoted by Plutarch, came in response to observing Solon working on Athenian legislation. Anacharsis quipped:

Written laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but they will be torn to shreds by the rich and powerful.

A remark that could still be made of many laws today.

Plutarch also claims that when asked to define the best form of political state, Anacharsis replied:

That republic is perfect in which, while all other things are considered equal, virtue is honored the most and vice is hated the most.

And when he was asked to name the worst enemy of human beings, he replied darkly: “They themselves.”

Anacharsis gradually evolved into a semi-legendary figure and became increasingly associated with the Cynic tradition of Greek philosophy. Cynicism emerged roughly two centuries after his lifetime, primarily through Diogenes of Sinope, who was himself a native of the Black Sea, from Sinope on its southern coast.

Around the time Bion of Borysthenes arrived in Athens in the late fourth century BCE, Anacharsis was perhaps already being appropriated by the Cynic tradition as a legendary precursor. Bion came from Olbia, a Greek city on the Scythian frontier in the same broad region from which Anacharsis emerged. Bion himself was particularly drawn to Cynicism, although he retained an eclectic view of philosophy. Though they lived centuries apart, one was Scythian and the other a Greek from the frontier with Scythia, the parallels between Anacharsis and Bion are quite striking. In both cases, resilience begins with simplicity and independence from convention: the capacity to master one’s appetites, speak frankly, and judge a civilization’s values from the outside.