sop was probably a real person; although it is impossible to be sure which of the surviving stories were really his. The date given him by Herodotus is about 570 b.c., and there is nothing to make this date improbable. Other ancient sources include Aristotle and Plutarch, who has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece and sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis. The earliest known writings appear from the first century a.d. Later,...