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 ". 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]