Solon
Book i Elegies
Salamis
“1Having waged a long and grievous war against Megara for the possession of the isle of Salamis, the Athenians of the city at last made an end of it and passed a law that none should prefer Athens' claim to Salamis in either speech or writing on pain of death. Scarcely able to bear the shame of this decision, and observing that many of the younger generation were desirous of a pretext2 for renewing the war but durst not take the first step themselves because of the new law, Solon feigned that he had lost his wits, word was put about from his house that he was beside himself, and after he had secretly written some elegiac verses and conned them till he could say them without book, he went quickly and suddenly out into the marketplace with a little cap upon his head.3 A great crowd swarming about him, he now mounted the herald's stone and recited4 the Elegy which begins:
This poem is entitled Salamis and contains a hundred lines; it is a very fine piece of work. When it ended, Solon's friends began to praise him, and not least Peisistratus, who pressed his fellow-countrymen so urgently to take the speaker's advice, that they repealed the law and renewed the struggle, putting Solon in command.”A herald am I from lovely Salamis, and have made me instead of a speech5 a song that is an ornament of words.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.1Plutarch Life of Solon
“... Solon feigned madness and rushed garlanded into the marketplace, where he had a herald read the bracing elegiac verses on Salamis, and so roused them that they renewed the war against Megara, and thanks to Solon were victorious. The lines which particularly inflamed the Athenians were these:6
And again:8Then may I change my country and be a man of Pholegandros or Sicinus7 instead of an Athenian, for full soon would this be the report among men: This is an Athenian of the tribe of Salaminaphetae or Letters-go of Salamis.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.2”Let us to Salamis, to fight for a lovely isle and put away from us dishonour hard to bear.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.3Diogenes Laertius Life of Solon
Other
“9Now take and recite, pray, these elegiac lines of Solon, that the jury may know that Solon, like us, hated such men as the defendant. The point is, Aeschines, not that you should keep your hand in your cloak when you play the orator, but that you should do so when you play the ambassador; instead of which you held it out and opened it wide in Macedonia and brought your colleagues to disgrace; and now you hold forth here, and you just con and mouth some miserable rigmaroles, and then think, I suppose, that you will escape the penalty of a long list of heinous crimes if you merely don a little cap10 and walk abroad and abuse me. Now, Sir, recite.
” Demosthenes On the EmbassyBut Athens, albeit she will never perish by the destiny of Zeus or the will of the happy Gods immortal —for of such power is the great-hearted Guardian, Daughter of a Mighty Sire, that holdeth Her hands over us —, Her own people, for lucre's sake, are fain to make ruin of this great city by their folly. Unrighteous is the mind of the leaders of the commons, and their pride goeth before a fall; for they know not how to hold them from excess nor to direct in peace the jollity of their present feasting ... but grow rich through the suasion of unrighteous deeds ...11 and steal right and left with no respect for possessions sacred or profane, nor have heed of the awful foundations of Justice, who is so well aware in her silence of what is and what hath been, and soon or late cometh alway to avenge. This is a wound that cometh inevitable and forthwith to every city, and she falleth quickly into an evil servitude, which arouseth discord and waketh slumbering War that destroyeth the lovely prime of so many men. For in gatherings12 dear to the unrighteous a delightful city is quickly brought low at the hands of them that are her enemies. Such are the evils which then are rife among the common folk, and many of the poor go slaves into a foreign land, bound with unseemly fetters, there to bear perforce the evil works of servitude.13 So cometh the common evil into every house, and the street-doors will no longer keep it out; it leapeth the high hedge and surely findeth a man, for all he may go hide himself in his chamber. This it is that my heart biddeth me tell the Athenians, and how that even as ill-government giveth a city much trouble, so good rule maketh all things orderly and perfect, and often putteth fetters upon the unrighteous; aye, she maketh the rough smooth, checketh excess, confuseth outrage; she withereth the springing weeds of ruin, she straighteneth crooked judgments, she mollifieth proud deeds; she stoppeth the works of faction, she stilleth the wrath of baneful strife; and of her all is made wise and perfect in the world of men.
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“14To support what I say there is not only the unanimous testimony of all other authorities, but Solon's own mention of this in these lines:
And again he sets forth how the commons should be treated:15For I gave the common folk such privilege as is sufficient for them, neither adding nor taking away; and such as had power and were admired for their riches, I provided that they too should not suffer undue wrong. Nay, I stood with a strong shield thrown before the both sorts, and would have neither to prevail unrighteously over the other.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.5”So best will the people follow their leaders, neither too little restrained nor yet perforce; for excess breedeth outrage when much prosperity followeth those whose mind is not perfect.16
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.6Aristotle Constitution of Athens
“Wishing to escape the ill-feeling and fault-finding of his fellow-citizens, for, as he says himself,
he obtained ten years' leave-of-absence of his fellow-countrymen and went abroad.”In great matters it is hard to please all,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.7Plutarch Life of Solon
“For the land knows how to bear all the offspring of the seasons for its inhabitants, being all of it sloping or low-lying and in Solon's phrase
and the sea, etc.—”a shining nurse of youth,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.8Choricius Declamations
“17Solon is said to have warned his fellow-countrymen of the coming despotism in elegiac verse:
Later, when Peisistratus' despotism was established, he said:The strength of snow and of hail is from a cloud, and thunder cometh of the bright lightning; a city is destroyed of great men, and the common folk fall into bondage unto a despot because of ignorance. For him that putteth out too far from land 'tis not easy to make haven afterward; all such things as these should be thought of ere it be too late.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.9”If ye suffer bitterly through your own fault, blame ye not the Gods for it; for yourselves have ye exalted these men by giving them guards,18 and therefore it is that ye enjoy foul servitude. Each one of you walketh with the steps of a fox, the mind of all of you is vain; for ye look to a man's tongue and shifty speech, and never to the deed he doeth.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.10Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library
“19Thereafter the people gave him their ears, and would gladly have suffered him even to rule them; but he would not have it, nay, according to Sosicrates, when he got wind of the designs of his kinsman Peisistratus he did all he could to hinder them. For he rushed one day into the assembly armed with spear and shield, warned them of Peisistratus' coming attempt, and even declared his willingness to aid them against him, saying: ‘Men of Athens, I am wiser than some of you, and braver than others; wiser than those who are fooled by Peisistratus, and braver than those who are not fooled yet hold their tongues because they are afraid.’ And the Council, who were Peisistratids, said he was mad; which made him say:
” Diogenes Laertius Life of SolonThe truth will out, and a little time will show my fellow-citizens, sure enough, whether I be mad or no.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.11
“In physical philosophy he is very naive and old-fashioned; compare ‘The strength of snow,’ etc. （fr. 9. ll. 1-2） <and this>:
” Plutarch Life of SolonThe sea is stirred by the winds; it if be not stirred 'tis the quietest20 of all things.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.12
“21Solon: —
” Stobaeus Anthology [on righteousness]Splendid children of Memory and Olympian Zeus, give ear, Pierian Muses, unto my prayer. Grant me prosperity at the hands of the Blessed Gods, and good fame ever at the hands of men; make me, I pray You, sweet to my friends and sour unto my foes, to these a man reverend to behold, to those a man terrible. Wealth I desire to possess, but would not have it unrighteously;22 retribution cometh alway afterward; the riches that be given of the Gods come to a man for to last, from the bottom even to the top, whereas they which be sought by wanton violence come not orderly, but persuaded against their will by unrighteous works —and quickly is Ruin mingled with them; whose beginning is with a little thing as of fire, slight at the first, but in the end a mischief; for the works of man's wanton violence endure not for long, but Zeus surveyeth the end of every matter, and suddenly, even as the clouds in Spring are quickly scattered by a wind that stirreth the depths of the billowy unharvested sea, layeth waste the fair fields o'er the wheat-bearing land, and reaching even to the high heaven where the Gods sit, maketh the sky clear again to view, till the strength of the Sun shineth fair over the fat land, and no cloud is to be seen any more, —even such is the vengeance of Zeus; He is not quick to wrath, like us, over each and every thing, yet of him that hath a wicked heart is He aware alway unceasing, and such an one surely cometh out plain at the last. Aye, one payeth to-day, another to-morrow; and those who themselves flee and escape the pursuing destiny of Heaven, to them vengeance cometh alway again, for the price of their deeds is paid by their innocent children or else by their seed after them.
We mortal men, alike good and bad, are minded thus: —each of us keepeth the opinion he hath ever had23 till he suffer ill, and then forthwith he grieveth; albeit ere that, we rejoice open-mouthed in vain expectations, and whosoever be oppressed with sore disease bethinketh himself he will be whole; another that is a coward thinketh he be a brave man; or he that hath no comeliness seemeth to himself goodly to look upon; and if one be needy, and constrained by the works of Penury, he reckoneth alway to win much wealth. Each hath his own quest; one, for to bring home gain, rangeth the fishy deep a-shipboard, tossed by grievous winds, sparing his life no whit, another serveth them whose business lieth with the curvad ploughshare, ploughing the well-planted land for them throughout the year24; one getteth his living by the skill of his hands in the works of Athena and the master of many crafts, Hephaestus, another through his learning in the gifts of the Olympian Muses, cunning in the measure of lovely art; others again as physicians, having the task of the Master of Medicines, the Healer —for these men too there's no end of their labours, for often cometh great pain of little and a man cannot assuage it by soothing medicines, albeit at other times him that is confounded by evil and grievous maladies maketh he quickly whole by the laying on of hands; another again the Far-Shooting Lord Apollo maketh a seer, and the mischief that cometh on a man from afar is known to him that hath the Gods with him, for no augury nor offering will ever ward off what is destined to be. Aye, surely Fate it is that bringeth mankind both good and ill, and the gifts immortal Gods offer must needs be accepted; surely too there's danger in every sort of business25; nor know we at the beginning of a matter how it is to end26; nay, sometimes he that striveth to do a good thing falleth unawares into ruin great and sore, whereas God giveth good hap in all things to one that doeth ill, to be his deliverance from folly. And as for wealth, there's no end set clearly down27; for such as have to-day the greatest riches among us, these have twice the eagerness that others have, and who can satisfy all?28 'Tis sure the Gods give us men possessions, yet a ruin is revealed thereout, which one man hath now and another then, whensoever Zeus sendeth it in retribution.CURFRAG.tlg-0263.13
“Solon: —
” Stobaeus Anthology [that life is short, of little account, and full of cares]Nor is any mortal happy, but all men are unfortunate that the Sun can see.29
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.14
“30That he reckoned himself among the poor rather than the rich, is shown by these lines:
” Plutarch Life of SolonMany bad men are rich, many good men poor; but we, we will not exchange virtue for these men's wealth; for the one endureth whereas the other belongeth now to this man and now to that.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.15
“31Now Solon has well said of God:
” Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies'Tis very hard to tell the unseen measure of sound judgment, which yet alone hath the ends of all things.32
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.16
“33Well may Solon the Athenian say, after Hesiod, in his Elegies:
” Clement of Alexandria MiscellaniesThe mind of the Immortals is all unseen to man.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.17
“34Compare Solon: —
” [Plato] LoversBut as I grow old I learn many things.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.18
To Philocyprus
“35... the king of the Solians, Aristocyprus the son of Philocyprus. This is the Philocyprus whom Solon the Athenian on his visit to Cyprus praised in verse above all other despots.
” Herodotus Histories “Then （after visiting Egypt） he went to Cyprus, where he made great friends with a king of those parts called Philocyprus... So Solon persuaded him, by changing its site to a fair plain that lay beneath it, to make the city greater and more pleasant to live in. And he stayed there and took charge of the gathering of the people into the city, and helped him to arrange it in the best way for the convenience and safety of its inhabitants, insomuch that settlers flocked to him, and the other kings came to envy him. For this he paid Solon the honour of changing the city's name from Aepeia to Soli, after him. Solon himself mentions the gathering together of the people, addressing Philocyprus in his Elegies thus:” Plutarch Life of SolonBut as it is, I pray that you and yours may long dwell in this city as lords of the Solians, that I may be sped unharmed a-shipboard from this famous isle by Cypris of the Violet Crown, and that the same may grant me favour and good fame after this sojourn, and safe return unto my native land.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.19
To Mimnermus
“36It is said that when Mimnermus wrote （Mimn. fr. 11） that he hoped he might die at the age of sixty, he found fault with him, saying:
” Diogenes Laertius Life of SolonBut if thou with listen to me so late in the day, blot this out, Ligyastades, and bearing me no ill-will because I give thee better counsel, change thy song, and sing that thou art fain the fate of Death might overtake thee at fourscore.
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“Furthermore, by the envoy of the answer he made Mimnermus about length of days,
he argues Publicola a happy man. For his death filled, not only his friends and kinsfolk, but a whole city of tens of thousands, with tears and regret and downcast looks.”Nor may death come to me without a tear; rather would I have my decease make sorrow and lamentation for my friends,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.21Plutarch Lives of Solon and Publicola
To Critias
“37Critias: —Now he was connected with my family and a great friend of Dropides my great-grandfather, as he often says in his poetry.
” Plato Timaeus [on Solon] “The history of Solon's descendants and Plato's connexion with him is this: Solon and Dropides were the sons of Execestides, and Dropides was the father of Critias, who is mentioned by Solon in his poetry thus :” Proclus on the passageTell flaxen-haired Critias to listen to his father; for if so, he will have a guide of no erring judgment.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.22
“38People then are not lovers of horses, it would seem, unless their horses love them in return, nor in like manner of quails nor yet of dogs, nor of wine, nor of gymnastics, nor of wisdom, unless wisdom loves them in return; or does each sort love each of these without the object of their friendship being their friend, thus proving the poet wrong who says:
” Plato LysisHappy he who hath dear children,39 whole-hooved40 steeds, hunting hounds, and a friend in foreign parts.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.23
“41He had no admiration for wealth; indeed he declares :
” Plutarch Life of SolonSurely equal is the wealth of him that hath much silver and gold and fields of wheatland and horses and mules, to that of him that hath but this —comfort in belly and sides and feet.42 This is abundance unto men, seeing that no man taketh with him the many things he hath above this when he goeth below, nor shall he for a price escape death nor yet sore disease nor the evil approach of Age.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.24
“Protegenes was willing and eager to say still more, but Daphnaeus stopped him, exclaiming ‘I am very glad you mentioned Solon; he shall be our criterion of the “erotic” man’43:
And that surely is why Solon wrote what I have just quoted when he was full of youth and vigour, as Plato says, and when he was old the following lines:till in the flower of youth he love a lad with the desire of things and sweet lips;
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.25as though after the storm and stress of less worthy loves he had found haven for his life in a calm of marriage and philosophy.44”Dear to me now are the works of the Cyprus-born and of Dionysus and of the Muses, works which make good cheer for man,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.26Plutarch Amatorius
“45These Ages of Life are given by Solon the Athenian lawgiver in the following elegiac lines:
” Philo Creation of the WorldIn seven years the half-grown boy casteth the first teeth he cut as a child; when God hath accomplished him seven years more he showeth signs that his youthful prime is nigh; in the third seven, when his limbs are still a-waxing, his chin groweth downy with the bloom of changing skin; in the fourth every man is at his best in the strength which men bear for a token of virtue and valour46; in the fifth 'tis time for a man to bethink him of marriage and to seek offspring to come after him; in the sixth a man's mind is trained in all things, and he wisheth not so much now for what may not be done; in seven sevens and in eight he is at his best in mind and tongue, to wit fourteen years of both; in the ninth age he is still an able man, but his tongue and his lore have less might unto great virtue47; and if a man come to the full measure of the tenth, he will not meet the fate of Death untimely.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.27
“When such was the condition of the body politic and the many were slaves of the few, the commons rose against the men of note. The struggle was bitter and the mutual opposition long, but finally they agreed upon an arbitrator and ruler in the person of Solon, putting the reins of government into his hands on his composing the Elegy which begins:
In this poem he champions either party alternately and then exhorts both together to make up their quarrel. Now Solon belonged to the highest rank in character and reputation, and to the middle sort in estate and business, as is agreed on other grounds and as he himself attests in these lines, wherein he exhorts the rich not to be covetous:I know, and pain lieth in my heart as I see it, that the oldest land of Ionia is being slain.48
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.28and speaking generally he ascribes the discord to the rich; and that is why at the beginning of the same Elegy he says that he fearsBut do ye who have had more than your fill of many good things, calm the strong heart that is in your breast, and be moderate in your aspirations49; and so neither shall we be needy50 nor ye possess what ye now have without decrease;
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.29considering those to be the cause of the enmity.”both pride and the love of pelf,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.30Aristotle Constitution of Athens
“Well says the proverb:51
” [Plato] On Justice “... used of those who say what is not true for profit or to entertain their hearers ... This saying occurs ... in Solon's Elegies .” Scholiast on the passagePoets tell many lies.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.31
“He first visited Egypt, and spent some time, as he says himself,
and for a while shared the studies of the most erudite of the priests, Psenopis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, from whom it was, as Plato tells us, that he learnt the history of Atlantis, which he began to make known to the Greeks by means of a poem he did not finish.”at Nile's outpourings nigh the Canopic strand,
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.32Plutarch Life of Solon
Epic Poems
“Some writers declare that he also made a beginning of putting his laws into Epic verse and thus publishing them to the world, and they record the opening lines as follows:
” Plutarch Life of SolonFirst let us pray to King Zeus Son of Cronus, that he bestow good fortune and honour upon these ordinances.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.33
Book 2 Tetrameters
To Phocus
“He is said to have observed to his friends that despotism is a fine position from which there's no way of retreat,52 and in his poems, he writes to Phocus:
From which it is quite clear that he stood in high repute even before his legislation. And with regard to the ridicule heaped upon him for shirking supreme power, he writes as follows:If I have spared my country and not put my hand forth unto despotism and relentless violence, befouling and disgracing my good name, I am not ashamed of it; for thus methinks I shall the rather surpass the world.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.34Thus he makes the baser sort speak of him. All the same, though he refused the supreme power, he did not govern in the mildest possible way, nor show in his legislation any lack of courage or any bending to the powerful or pandering to his electors, but rather where it was tolerable to leave things alone he applied no remedy and made no change, lest heSolon is no wiseacre nor sage, for he hath of his own free will refused good hap when Heaven offered it. Though he hath his quarry in the trammels he is too amazed to draw the great net to, as one that hath lost both will and wit. Now had I the power, I had been only too glad to be flayed for a wineskin and my posterity wiped out, if only I might first have wealth abundant and rule Athens for a single day.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.35with what is best.”throw the city into so utter confusion as to be too weak afterwards to re-establish her and make her at unity53
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.36Plutarch Life of Solon
“And in another place, too, he says of the persons who wished to re-distribute the land:
” Aristotle Constitution of Athens [on Solon]But they that came for plunder had rich hopes, reckoning every man that he would find himself great prosperity, and that for all my smooth words I should show a hard heart. Vain were their imaginings then, and now they are angered with me and all eye me askance as if I were an enemy —wrongly, for with the Gods' help I have done what I said, and what I said not, that did I not do without due thought, nor did it please me to do aught by force of the supreme power,54 nor yet that the bad should have equal share of their fat fatherland with the good.55
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.37
“And it is proved that he lied ... and you who know Solon are not unaware whom you should blame instead of us.
” Libanius LettersYou are not unaware of whom you should blame instead of us.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.38
Book 3 Iambi
“56And again Solon speaks of the cancelling of debt, and of the citizens that were set free from slavery by the ‘Disburdening’:
And again he upbraids both sides for the complaints they made afterwards:But as for me, why did I stay me ere I had won that for which I gathered the commons?57 Right good witness shall I have in the court of Time,58 to wit the Great Mother of the Olympian Gods, dark Earth,59 whose so many fixed landmarks60 I once removed, and have made her free that was once a slave. Aye, many brought I back to their God-built birthplace,61 many that had been sold, some justly, some unjustly, and others that had been exiled through urgent penury, men that no longer spake the Attic speech because they had wandered so far and wide; and those that suffered shameful servitude at home, trembling before the whims of their owners, these made I free men. By fitting close together right and might62 I made these things prevail, and accomplished them even as I said I would. And ordinances I wrote, that made straight justice for each man, good and bad63 alike. Had another than I taken the goad in hand, a foolish man and a covetous, he had not restrained the people; for had I been willing to do now what pleased this party and now what pleased the other, this city had been bereft of many men. Wherefore mingling myself strength from all quarters I turned at bay like a wolf among many hounds.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.39”As for the commons, if 'tis right to upbraid them openly, I say that what they have now they never would have dreamt of ... And the greater men and stronger might well praise me and be friends with me; for had another than I won such honour,64 he had not restrained nor checked the commons till his churning were done and the richness taken from the milk,65 whereas I, I stood as a mark in the midway betwixt the two hosts of them.66
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.40Aristotle Constitution of Athens
“He made the upper council overseering-general and guardian of the law, believing, etc.
” Plutarch Life of Solon[And I believed] that anchored to two councils the city67 could the better ride out a storm and keep her people in the greater quiet.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.41
“That γοῦρος was a kind of cake is shown by Solon, who says in his Iambi:
” Athenaeus Doctors at DinnerThey drink, and some of them eat the while sesame-cakes and others bread, and yet others guri mingled with lentils. There, too, wants not any sort of pastry, and whatsoever the dark earth brings forth for man, they have it all in profusion.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.42
“Solon calls the mortar ἴγδις in his Iambi, where he says:
” Pollux OnomasticonAnd some fetch a mortar and others silphium and others again vinegar.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.43
“And ordinary people are right in calling the pomegranate-seed κόκκων to this day; for Solon uses the word thus in his poems:
” Phrynichus Introduction to LearningOne brought pomegranate-seeds, and another sesame.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.44
“From the Elegiacs of Solon; hortatory:
” Diogenian ProverbsObey the lawful authorities, whether thou deem them right or no.
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.45
Three Unclassifiable Fragments
“
the seasoning; Solon.”sumach
CURFRAG.tlg-0263.46Photius Lexicon
“Solon believed that boxers and runners and other athletes contribute nothing worth speaking of to the preservation of a state, but only men conspicuous for wit and virtue can keep their country safe in time of danger.68” Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library
“It were better therefore, since we know that the prime of youth is like the Spring flowers and its pleasures transitory, to approve the words of the Lesbian dame, ‘He that is fair, is fair to outward show; He that is good will soon be fair also’; and to agree with Solon when he gives the same counsel.69” Galen Exhortation to Learning
