Dios (philosopher)

Dios was an ancient Greek philosopher of uncertain date. Certain Pythagorean writings on aesthetics are ascribed to him.[1] Two fragments found in Stobaeus under the title On Beauty (Περὶ καλλονῆς) are written in an artificial Doric Greek (pseudo-Doric), which was popular among pseudonymous Pythagorean authors.[2][3] Dios's style is perhaps the most archaizing in the Pythagorean corpus. The fragments in Stobaeus come to some thirty lines of prose. They concern "the physical beauty of young men as a source of [eudaimonia]". Philosophically, the excerpt is not noticeably Pythagorean.[3]

Given the artificiality of its language, the fragments attributed to Dios are "obviously ... unreliable".[3] Possibly, the pseudonym Dios was intended to evoke the father of Hesiod, who lived in the 7th century BC.[1][2][3] The writings, however, are much later, perhaps as late as the Hellenistic period.[1][3] According to Hellanikos of Lesbos, Dios the father of Hesiod was descended from Orpheus.[2] Dios (also called Endios or Odios) is among the Pythagoreans mentioned in Iamblichus' Vita Pythagorica (who probably derived his information from Aristoxenus).[4]

A wise saying in a Coptic collection is attributed to a certain Dios, described as a student of the legendary Linos of Thrace.[5][6] He should probably be identified with the obscure Pythagorean.[5] The saying is found in the Vienna parchment fragment K944, copied at the White Monastery in the 10th or 11th century AD.[7] It states simply, "Diligence (μελετή) is everything."[6]

  1. ^ a b c Trevor Curnow, The Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A–Z Guide (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2006), p. 109.
  2. ^ a b c Bruno Centrone, "Dios", in Richard Goulet (ed.), Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques, Vol. II (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1989), p. 878.
  3. ^ a b c d e Holger Thesleff [de], An Introduction to the Pythagorean Writings of the Hellenistic Period, Acta Academiae Aboensis Humaniora XXIV.3 (Turku: Åbo Akademi, 1961), pp. 13, 75, 89–90, 92, 110–111.
  4. ^ Bruno Centrone, "Authority and Doctrine in the Pseudo-Pythagorean Writings", in Michael Erler, Jan Erik Heßler and Federico M. Petrucci (eds.), Authority and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), p. 123.
  5. ^ a b Christian H. Bull, "Plato in Upper Egypt: Greek Philosophy and Monastic Origenism in the Coptic Excerpt from Plato's Republic (NHC VI, 5)", in Hugo Lundhaug and Christian H. Bull (eds.), The Nag Hammadi Codices as Monastic Books (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023), p. 341.
  6. ^ a b Anthony Alcock, "Greek Philosophy in Coptic", Academia.edu. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  7. ^ Dylan M. Burns, "More Greek Philosophers Among the Copts: The Notes of Some Philosophers (MONB.BE) and the 'Wisdom from Outside' in Pseudo-Evodius of Rome's Homily on the Passion and Resurrection", in Ivan Miroshnikov (ed.), Parabiblica Coptica (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023), p. 34.