The magic seven fascinated the old Greeks

18. Apr 2025 at 13:54

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When they say « ancient wonders of the world » or « seven wonders of the ancient world » today, most readers think of talking about Egyptian pyramids, semiramid’s gardens, a lighthouse on the island of Faros, a statue of a family helium, a tomb of King Mauzol in Percamon, Artmidin’s Church in Ephesia and Studio. Seven wonders of the world in this form was probably put in the fifth century Filón from Byzantia, which is part of today’s Istanbul. Who was this philon? Why and for whom did he compiled a list of ancient sights? Did he also have predecessors?

At a time when Vojtech Zamarovský wrote his now legendary book for seven wonders of the world, he himself (as well as several other authors) assumed that the author of the seven wonders of the world was a Greek scholar and discoverer of the philon of Byzantium who lived at the turn of the third and second century BC also from Byzantia but from a complete different period: from the fifth century nl

A mysterious list

We have almost no news about the philonic, the author of our list. He was probably a speaker and a grammar, apparently also taught and wrote. His work of seven wonders in the world has been preserved almost whole, only the description of the mausoleum in Halikarnasse, but otherwise it contains a list as we know it today. However, the philon did not end the list himself, he just wrote it once again, as several intellectuals before him.

The Greeks were interested in the remarkableness of the Mediterranean and the Frontyhr from the earliest times of their history and probably from the beginning of the Helenist period (323-30 BC) they formed them on the list of seven works because they considered the seven magical. Moreover, the lists of seven had in Greece Already an older tradition, let us remember the famous list of seven Greek sages that existed in various forms at least since the end of the fifth century BC

The oldest preserved list of wonders comes from the Greek poet Antipatra from Sidon from the turn of the second and first century BC Antipatros has written a list in the form of an epigram, where he writes: My eyes have been on the walls of the rich Babylon, on which cars can drive. And on the statue of the DIA next to the Alfios River, on the extended gardens, the colossus personifying the sun, the hard -to -exposed pyramids and the extensive tomb of Mauzol. But when I saw Artemida’s temple that tied to the clouds, all the other miracles lost part of my brightness …

Antipatros mentions six of the seven traditional wonders of the world. Only instead of a lighthouse on the island of Faros in Alexandria, it names the Babylonian walls. It can be seen that the philon was based on a traditional list that changed only slowly and in detail. The discovery of similar lists is at the beginning of the Helenist period is related to the expedition of Alexander the Great, who introduced his Macedonians and Greeks to India.

In the Greek world, moreover, after Alexander’s death, the Great Helenist Empire formed and the Greeks no longer had to admire only foreign buildings, but also their own, which were created by the rulers in Egypt Whether in Asia Minor (today’s Turkey). Up to the Egyptian pyramids and extended Gardens Therefore, the list only mentions buildings that arose after Alexander’s death (however, all buildings belong to the areas of Greek-Macedonian influence and government during the period of helenism).

The Egyptian pyramids have been admired by the Greeks since the earliest times and was written in Greek literature long before the first similar lists were discovered. Rather, the extended gardens were only one of the legends associated with Babylon, which was discussed in Greece, but few saw them.