Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.136 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.136
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
In the beginning he was by himself; he transformed the whole of substance through air into water, and just as in animal generation the seed has a moist vehicle, so in cosmic moisture God, who is the seminal reason of the universe, remains behind in the moisture as such an agent, adapting matter to himself with a view to the next stage of creation. Thereupon he created first of all the four elements, fire, water, air, earth. They are discussed by Zeno in his treatise On the Whole, by Chrysippus in the first book of his Physics, and by Archedemus in a work On Elements. An element is defined as that from which particular things first come to be at their birth and into which they are finally resolved.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.136 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.136
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesCreation story: God alone at first changed all substance into water, remaining in it as the seed-like reason that shapes matter, and then made the four elements of fire, water, air and earth. An element is whatever things first come from and finally return to.
Older wording
- “seminal reason”
- — the creative principle containing the seeds of all things
- “substance”
- — the basic stuff the world is made of
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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