Homer (mid to late 8th century B.C.) : founder of western humanism Solon (630-560 B.C.) : poet, lawgiver, statesman Thales (early 6th century) : father of western science Sappho (612-580 B.C.) : poet on fire Pythagoras (mid-500s-496 B.C.) : mystic mathematician Parmenides (born c. 515 B.C.) : father of metaphysics and logic Themistocles (524-459 B.C.) : savior of the western world Phidias (490-430 B.C.) : lord of western aesthetics Gorgias (483-376 B.C.) : master of the word Socrates (469-399 B.C.) : iconoclast and moral revolutionary Thucydides (460-399 B.C.) : true father of history Plato (427-347 B.C.) : fountainhead of western philosophy Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) : polymathic genius Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) : disseminator of Greek culture Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) : physicist and ethician Zeno (335-263 B.C.) : stoic sage Galen (A.D. 129-199) : physician, scientist, philosopher
