A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Βοηθός).

1. A Stoic philosopher who perhaps lived even before the time of Chrysippus, and was the author of several works. One of them was entitled περὶφυσεως, from which Diogenes Laertius (7.148) quotes his opinion about the essence of God; another was called περὶεἱμαρμένης, of which the same writer (7.149) mentions the eleventh book. This latter work is, in all probability the one to which Cicero refers in his treatise on Divination (1.8, 2.21). Philo (de Mund. incorrupt. ii. p. 497, ed. Mangey) mentions him together with Posidonius, and it is not improbable that this Boethus is the one mentioned by Plutarch. (De Placit. Philos. 3.2.)