Anacharsis: la sagesse atypique de l’étranger avisé

Abstract

The Scythian Anacharsis is one of the figures that constituted the most stable nucleus of the group of the Seven Sages. The inclusion of this “barbarian” not only constitutes, as early as Herodotus, a significant mark of impartiality in the treatment of personalities outside Greek space, but it also makes it possible to criticize certain aspects of Greek culture through the eyes of a foreigner who was not yet contaminated by certain vices of civilization. This study proposes to analyze the way Plutarch uses the image of this representative of an “alternative” sophia, which he mentions about twenty times in his work, but with a particular intensity in the Septem sapientium convivium and in the biography of Solon.