[978] πρόνοια Bentley on Phalaris （xvii, Dyce ii. 115） quotes Favorinus in Diog. Laert. Plat. 24 as saying that Plato πρῶτος ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ ... ὠνόμασε ... θεοῦ πρόνοιαν. Bentley takes this to mean that Plato was the first to use πρόνοια of divine providence （not merely of human forethought）, and cites it in proof that Phalaris Ep. 3 （= 40 Lennep） ἕως ἂν ἡ διοικοῦσα πρόνοια τὴν αὐτὴν ἁρμονίαν τοῦ-κόσμου φυλάττῃ is later than Plato. Lennep, in his edition of Phalaris （p. 158）, puts the case more exactly. The Stoics, not Plato, first used πρόνοια, without further qualification, of a divine providence. When Plato says τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ... πρόνοιαν （Plat. Tim. 30c）, προνοίας θεῶν （Plat. Tim. 44c）, the phrase is no more than Herodotus had used before him, Hdt. 3.108 “τοῦ θείου ἡ προνοίη.” The meaning of Favorinus was that Plato first established in philosophy the conception of a divine providence, though popular language had known such a phrase before. Note that in Soph. OC 1180 “πρόνοια τοῦ θεοῦ” = ”reverence for the god “: in Eur. Phoen. 637 a man acts θείᾳ προνοίᾳ = ”with inspired foresight “: in Xen. Mem. 1.4.6 “προνοητικῶς” = not, “providentially,” but simply, ”with forethought. “
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