Words · Meanings · Passages
Lexicon
Terms from the books in the Diotimos library, with definitions, translation notes, and links to their passages.
4,297 entries across 21 collectionsTerms beginning with B
1–36 of 128
Babbling and self-deprecation
Ληρεῖν is to talk nonsense, and λῆρος is nonsense or trash; φαῦλος is ordinary, and so poor, and a ζητητής is one who seeks.
Charmides
Babel
Babel evokes the biblical association of human building with confusion.
Centuries of Meditations
Bacchus and the Muses
The paired names identify knowing and life-giving powers within cosmic souls.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Bacon and bait
Bacon on the trap is Khunrath's surprisingly frank explanation of why philosophers speak so much about transmutation.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Bad taste
Bad taste becomes attractive when it can be willed as a breach of expected approval.
Intimate Journals
Balance and proportion
A balance weighs; proportion expresses a fitting relation between quantities, powers, or ends.
Centuries of Meditations
Balgus
Balgus is the named speaker credited with a saying in the Turba: understanding the regimen exceeds reason unless divine inspiration gives it.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Baptism
Baptism here is approached through the scriptural verb for baptizing with fire.
Centuries of Meditations
Barbarinus and Barbarus
This is the named interlocutor in Bernard's reported account of knowing the Art before personally completing the work.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Barley-meal and water
B34 preserves a participial phrase about gluing barley-meal with water.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Basile
Basile was a local Athenian goddess, worshipped together with two figures of Athens' royal legend, King Codrus and Neleus; her name is a rare word for "queen".
Charmides
Basket bearing and the sister
Κανηφορία is basket-bearing, the ceremonial carrying of a basket in a procession.
Hipparchus
Battle-Din
Kydoimos is battle-noise or warlike tumult, personified in the list at B128.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Baubo
Βαυβώ is the word indexed under B153.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Beam in the sky
Dokis is a beam, here a name for an elongated luminous appearance.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Beans
Kyamos is a bean; the printed plural genitive belongs to the command to keep one's hands away.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Beatific vision
Beatific means making blessed or happy.
Centuries of Meditations
Beauty
Καλός is beautiful of a body and fine of an act, work or thing; κάλλος is beauty, καλῶς "finely" or "well", and the opposite, αἰσχρός, "ugly" and "shameful".
Charmides · Alcibiades I+9 books
Because of
Dia means through; with the accusative, because of or on account of.
Lysis
Becoming
Gignomai means become; come to be; turn out in a certain condition.
Lysis
Becoming better
The comparative βέλτιον and its inflections express being or making better; βέλτιστος is best.
Alcibiades I · The Lovers+1 book
Becoming dear
Prosphilēs means welcome, dear, favorably received; a person made an object of affection.
Lysis
Becoming hateful
Apechthanomai means become hateful or objectionable to someone.
Lysis
Bed and Waking
Eunaiē is rendered “She-of-the-Bed,” while Egersis is awakening or rising.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Bee, honey, and wax
The bee’s products distinguish work, sweetness, and poetic substance.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Beelzebub
Beelzebub's name organizes the insect imagery of hostile slander.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Before and after in nature
Prius and posterius can indicate temporal succession or explanatory order.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Begetting and bearing witness
Khunrath's vocabulary of zeugen can concern generation or testimony.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Beginning and authority
Archē means rule or authority; a beginning or explanatory starting point.
Lysis
Beginning and ceasing
Incipere is to begin, desinere to cease, nasci to arise or be born, and resolvi to be dissolved or resolved into constituents.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Beholding
To behold is to direct and sustain one's regard toward something.
Centuries of Meditations
Being
To on is the neuter participle of “be” with the article: what is, what exists, or what is the case.
Minos · The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II+3 books
Being and substance
Οὐσία is a thing's being, what it is; the perfect πεφυκέναι, "to have grown", from φύω, "make grow", is to be by nature; τὰ ὄντα are "the things that are".
Charmides · Stobaeus, Volume I
Belief and opinion
Δόξα, from δοκεῖν, "to seem", is what seems so to someone, his opinion; δοξάζειν is to have an opinion, and οἴεσθαι to think or suppose.
Charmides · Alcibiades I+4 books
Bell and fleshy sprig
The two memorable expressions in B99 are a bell and a fleshy sprig or shoot.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Bells, liturgy, and shared time
Bells transmit religious and communal time across space; liturgy gives prayer an ordered, repeatable form.
René
Books in the Lexicon
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades I Lexicon
Alcibiades I · Plato
176 entries · 701 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades II Lexicon
Alcibiades II · Plato
94 entries · 290 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Traherne Lexicon
Centuries of Meditations · Thomas Traherne
471 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Charmides Lexicon
Charmides · Plato
173 entries · 777 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Empedocles Lexicon
Empedocles, Volumes I–II · Empedocles of Acragas
490 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Epinomis Lexicon
Epinomis · Plato
77 entries · 1,061 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Flatland Literary Lexicon
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions · Edwin A. Abbott
85 entries · 476 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Khunrath Lexicon
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Heinrich Khunrath
326 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Hipparchus Lexicon
Hipparchus · Plato
90 entries · 291 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Baudelaire Literary Lexicon
Intimate Journals · Charles Baudelaire
80 entries · 323 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lysis Lexicon
Lysis · Plato
239 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino
231 entries · 1,313 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Marsilio Ficino
148 entries · 1,398 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Minos Lexicon
Minos · Plato
54 entries · 506 subsidiary terms
October 2026
René Literary Lexicon
René · François-René de Chateaubriand
81 entries · 275 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Stobaeus Lexicon
Stobaeus, Volume I · John Stobaeus
610 entries · 85 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy Lexicon
The Anatomy of Melancholy · Robert Burton
103 entries · 3,864 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Guérin Lexicon
The Green Notebook · Maurice de Guérin
165 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lovers Lexicon
The Lovers · Plato
83 entries · 361 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Joubert Lexicon
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Joseph Joubert
459 entries · 110 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Theages Lexicon
Theages · Plato
62 entries · 510 subsidiary terms