κόσμος
kosmos

Greek noun

Last edited: 2025-03-24
Primary meaning cosmos
Literal translation order
Variants
κόσμος kosmos
Edited by
cosmos cosmological concept, spatial concept

Φασὶ δ᾽ οἱ σοφοί, ὦ Καλλίκλεις, καὶ οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν καὶ θεοὺς καὶ ἀνθρώπους τὴν κοινωνίαν συνέχειν καὶ φιλίαν καὶ κοσμιότητα καὶ σωφροσύνην καὶ δικαιότητα, καὶ τὸ ὅλον τοῦτο διὰ ταῦτα κόσμον καλοῦσιν, ὦ ἑταῖρε, οὐκ ἀκοσμίαν οὐδὲ ἀκολασίαν.

‘And the wise men say, o Callicles, that sky and earth and gods and men are kept together by communion and friendship and propriety and temperance and justice, and the whole of this for this reason they call order ("cosmos"), my friend, not disorder nor dissoluteness.’

— Plato, Gorgias 507e-508a

Genre: philosophy
Provenance: Athens
Date: 4th century BCE

Plato. 1903. Plato. Platonis Opera, ed. J. Burnet. Oxford University Press.

Τοῦ δὲ κόσμου σφαιροειδοῦς ὑπάρχοντος ἄξων καλεῖται ἡ διάμετρος τοῦ κόσμου, περὶ ἣν στρέφεται ὁ κόσμος. Τὰ δὲ πέρατα τοῦ ἄξονος πόλοι λέγονται τοῦ κόσμου.

‘Since the cosmos is spherical, the diameter of the cosmos around which the cosmos turns, is called “axis”. The extremities of the axis are called “poles of the cosmos”.’

— Geminus 4.1

Genre: astronomy
Date: 1st century BCE

Geminus. 1975. Géminos, Introduction aux Phénomènes, ed. G. Aujac. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 21

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Peeters, T. (2025). κόσμος (Lemma #2251). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Peeters, T. (2025). κόσμος (Lemma #2251). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/
MLA (9th)
Peeters, T. (2025). κόσμος (Lemma #2251). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/
Harvard
Peeters, T. (2025) κόσμος (Lemma #2251), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/ (Accessed: February 2, 2026).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac2251,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-02-02]},
	author = {Peeters, Thomas},
	year = {2025},
	title = {κόσμος ({Lemma} #2251)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/2251/},
}