Boethus of Sidon (Stoic)

Boethus (; ) was a Stoic philosopher from Sidon, and a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon.

Philosophy He is said to have denied, contrary to the standard Stoic view, that the cosmos is an animate being,Diogenes Laërtius, vii. 143 and he suggested that it was not the whole world which was divine, but only the ether or sphere of the fixed stars.Diogenes Laërtius, vii. 148 He argued that the world was eternal,Philo, De aeternitate mundi 76–77 in particular, he rejected the Stoic conflagration (ekpyrosis) because god or the World-Soul would be inactive during it, whereas it exercises Divine Providence in the actual world.

Among his works was one On Nature, and one On Fate.Diogenes Laërtius, vii. 149 He wrote a commentary on the works of Aratus in at least four volumes.Geminus, xvii 48

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