Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.8
Anacharsis matters because the Greeks did not only imagine Scythians as archers, nomads, and ritual others. They also remembered a Scythian philosopher: royal, bilingual, sharp-tongued, at home with Solon, and dangerous when he returned home too Greek.
The tradition is literary and moralized, but it is not disposable. It preserves the Greek recognition that the Scythian frontier could produce wisdom, critique, and political speech capable of judging Greece from outside.
The translation below is from the Greek text of Diogenes Laertius.
Translation
Anacharsis the Scythian was the son of Gnurus and brother of Caduidas, king of the Scythians. His mother was Greek; therefore he was bilingual. He composed eight hundred verses on the customs of the Scythians and the Greeks, on simplicity of life, and on the matters of war. Because he spoke with frankness, he gave occasion to the proverb called the Scythian saying.
Sosicrates says that he came to Athens in the forty-seventh Olympiad, when Eucrates was archon. Hermippus says that when he arrived at Solon's house he ordered one of the servants to announce that Anacharsis had come, wished to see him, and, if possible, wished to become his guest-friend. The servant reported this and was ordered by Solon to tell him that men make guest-friends in their own countries. Anacharsis seized on the answer and said that Solon was now in his own country and therefore ought to make guest-friends. Solon, struck by his readiness, brought him in and made him his closest friend.
After some time Anacharsis returned to Scythia. Because he seemed to be dissolving the customs of his fatherland, being much given to Greek ways, he was shot by his brother while hunting and died. He said that through reason he had been saved from Greece, but through envy he was destroyed in his own land. Some say that he was killed while performing Greek rites.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the source text printed below. The English is an independent rendering from the source-language transliteration or Greek text, with existing public translations used only as controls for damaged or conventional passages.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.8
Ancient Greek source text from Perseus. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
Anacharsis ho Skythes Gnorou men en huios, adelphos de Kadouida tou Skython basileos, metros de Hellenidos; dio kai diglottos en. houtos epoiese ton te para tois Skythais nomimon kai ton para tois Hellesin eis euteleian biou kai ta kata ton polemon epe oktakosia. paresche de kai aphormen paroimias dia to parresiastes einai, ten apo Skython rhesin.
Legei de auton Sosikrates elthein eis Athenas kata ten tessarakosten hebdomen Olympiada epi archontos Eukratous. Hermippos de pros ten Solonos oikian aphikomenon ton theraponton tini keleusai menusai hoti pareie pros auton Anacharsis kai bouloito auton theasasthai, xenos te ei hoion te genesthai.
Meta chronon de paragenomenos eis ten Skythian kai dokon ta nomima paralyein tes patridos, polys on en to hellenizein, tox eutheis en kynegesio pros tou adelphou teleuta, eipon dia men ton logon ek tes Hellados sothenai, dia de ton phthonon en te oikeia apolesthai. enioi de teletas Hellenikas epitelounta diachresthenai.
Source Colophon
Greek source inspected from Perseus, Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.8, chapter Anacharsis. The Perseus page gives the Greek text with R.D. Hicks' public-domain Loeb English as a control. The English rendering above is newly prepared from the Greek.
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