Anacharsis

The fictitious character of Anarcharsis is said to have been a Scythian prince who traveled in Greece, in order to reveal his peculiar nomadic wisdom as well as to collect typical cultural assets. He found his way into the circle of the so‐called Seven Sages, an assemblage of outstanding statesmen and philosophers of the seventh and sixth centuries bce , invented by ancient literary tradition. With the discovery of America and the renewed discussions about “the other,” the complementary myths of the “noble” and the “bad” savage were given new life, similar to the pattern already known from antiquity. J.‐J. Barthélemy in his Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis en Grèce (1788), J.‐B. Cloots in the time of the French Revolution, and the famous German artist Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) referred to this tradition.

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