7th century BC
7th century BC: the first philosophers and the first lyric poetry
What happened — and why
Thales: the beginning of philosophy
Thales of Miletus asks: what is the world made of? His answer (water) hardly matters - what matters is the question itself. For the first time, the world is explained without gods.
The philosophical cause
Thales — The Greek cities of Asia Minor trade with Egypt and Babylon. The meeting of cultures gives rise to a critical distance: "what if everything is arranged differently?"
Anaximander (Thales's pupil) goes further: the origin of the world is the "apeiron," the boundless. The first abstraction in the history of philosophy.
Sappho: a woman's voice
On the island of Lesbos, Sappho writes poems about love, jealousy, and beauty. The only female voice of antiquity to reach us.
The philosophical cause
Sappho — Greek lyric poetry of the 7th and 6th centuries is a revolution: instead of epic about the gods - the personal experience of a particular human being.
Plato will call her "the tenth Muse." European poetry still uses her metrical forms today.
