Opening Life of Plato — Olympiodorus in Plato Scroll…
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Olympiodorus · Michael Griffin
Aristotle begins his own Theology with the statement that ‘all human beings naturally reach out for knowledge; and a sign of this is their love of the senses’. [1,5] But in beginning Plato’s philosophy, I would go a step further and say that all human beings reach out for Plato’s philosophy, because all people wish to draw benefit from it; they are eager to be enchanted by its fountain, and to quench their thirst with Plato’s inspirations. There are four of these in [Plato], in four of his dialogues. One, in the Timaeus, he delivers with inspiration after he has become divinely possessed, and portrays the Demiurge addressing the heavenly [bodies], whom he calls the ‘young gods’, about the administration of affairs here [on Earth]. (That is also why Iamblichus entitled his commentary on this dialogue On the Speech of Zeus.) The second inspiration occurs in the Republic, where he became …
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