Solon & Philo: Ten ages of man

Philo of Alexandria, in his treatise On the Creation of the World (§104; I quote §§103–105), as part of a broader point on the perfection of the number seven (of the days of creation), preserves a poetic fragment of Solon:

And besides what has been already said, the growth of men from infancy to old age, when measured by the number seven, displays in a most evident manner its perfecting power; for in the first period of seven years, the putting forth of the teeth takes place. And at the end of the second period of the same length, he arrives at the age of puberty: at the end of the third period, the growth of the beard takes place. The fourth period sees him arrive at the fullness of his manly strength. The fifth seven years is the season for marriage. In the sixth period he arrives at the maturity of his understanding. The seventh period is that of the most rapid improvement and growth of both his intellectual and reasoning powers. The eighth is the sum of the perfection of both. In the ninth, his passions assume a mildness and gentleness, from being to a great degree tamed. In the tenth, the desirable end of life comes upon him, while his limbs and organic senses are still unimpaired: for excessive old age is apt to weaken and enfeeble them all. And Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, described these different ages in the following elegiac verses:

In seven years from th’ earliest breath,
The child puts forth his hedge of teeth;
When strengthened by a similar span,
He first displays some signs of man.
As in a third, his limbs increase,
A beard buds o’er his changing face.
When he has passed a fourth such time,
His strength and vigour’s in its prime.
When five times seven years o’er his head
Have passed, the man should think to wed;
At forty two, the wisdom’s clear
To shun vile deed of folly or fear:
While seven times seven years to sense
Add ready wit and eloquence.
And seven years further skill admit
To raise them to their perfect height.
When nine such periods have passed,
His powers, though milder grown, still last;
When God has granted ten times seven,
The aged man prepares for heaven.

Solon therefore thus computes the life of man by the aforesaid ten periods of seven years. But Hippocrates the physician says that there are Seven ages of man, infancy, childhood, boyhood, youth, manhood, middle age, old age; and that these too, are measured by periods of seven, though not in the same order. And he speaks thus; “In the nature of man there are seven seasons, which men call ages; infancy, childhood, boyhood, and the rest. He is an infant till he reaches his seventh year, the age of the shedding of his teeth. He is a child till he arrives at the age of puberty, which takes place in fourteen years. He is a boy till his beard begins to grow, and that time is the end of a third period of seven years. He is a youth till the completion of the growth of his whole body, which coincides with the fourth seven years. Then he is a man till he reaches his forty-ninth year, or seven times seven periods. He is a middle aged man till he is fifty-six, or eight times seven years old; and after that he is an old man.”

Ivan Linforth gives a different translation of the poem in his book Solon the Athenian:

A boy, before he cometh to man’s estate, and while he is still a child, getteth and loseth his rampart of teeth within the first seven years. When God bringeth the second seven to a close, the signs of budding manhood begin to show. In the third period, a downy beard appeareth, though the limbs have not reached their full growth, and the boyish bloom of the complexion fadeth. In the fourth period of seven years, every man is at the prime of his physical strength.... The fifth period is the season for a man to bethink him of marriage and seek offspring against the future. In the sixth, experience of every sort carrieth his mind on to perfection, and he feeleth no longer the same inclination to the wild pranks of youth. In the seventh seven, he is at his prime in mind and tongue, and also in the eighth, the two together making fourteen years. In the ninth period, though he still retaineth some force, he is feebler both in wisdom and in speech and faileth of great achievement. If a man attaineth to the full measure of the tenth period, the fate of death, if it come upon him, cometh not untimely.

So, just to be clear:

Period #	Age	What he is	What happens
1	0–7	infant	he gets and loses his first set of teeth
2	7–14	child	this period itself is unremarkable, but at the end of it he reaches puberty
3	14–21	boy	he grows a beard
4	21–28	youth	he reaches the prime of his physical strength
5	28–35	man	in this season, he should think of marriage
6	35–42	man	he reaches the maturity of his understanding; he no longer feels the same inclination to the wild pranks of youth
7	42–49	man	he reaches the prime of his wit and eloquence, that is, his prime in mind and tongue
8	49–56	middle-aged	same as the previous period, or maybe the previous two periods; he is at his best in understanding, reasoning, speaking
9	56–63	old man	his intellectual passions/powers grow milder and gentler; he is feebler both in wisdom and in speech, and does not reach great achievement
10	63–70	old man	Philo thinks that this is a good time for him to die, since his limbs and senses are still unimpaired
11+	70+	old man / dead	Solon thinks that death is not untimely from this point on

That’s all.

...or so I thought. Seeing how terribly the table above seemed to render on my computer and phone, and having no hope of making it better in a durable way through styling on this blog, I have rendered it in Microsoft Excel and made an image of it:

On the topic of dividing life into seven-year periods, see also this SMBC comic; on the topic of there being seven ages, see also Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7.