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]