ΤΙΜΑΙΟΣ
Greek text
Plato · Greek text
The Timaeus is Plato's great dialogue on the origin and structure of the cosmos, and for many centuries it was the most influential of all his works — for long stretches of the Middle Ages, through a partial Latin version, almost the only one known in the West. In it the Pythagorean astronomer Timaeus delivers a long, sustained speech, what he modestly calls a 'likely story', describing how the visible world came to be.
A divine craftsman, the Demiurge, good and free of envy, brings order out of a primordial disorder by looking to the eternal Forms as his model. He fashions the World Soul from a blend of sameness and difference, dividing it by harmonic ratios, and sets the heavens turning; he makes time as 'a moving image of eternity'; he forms the four elements from elementary triangles, in a kind of mathematical chemistry; and he delegates to lesser gods the making of mortal bodies. The cosmos that results is a single, living, intelligent being, as good as a thing of becoming can be.
The Timaeus fixed the framework within which the tradition thought about nature, creation, the soul, and the divine, and its puzzles — above all whether the 'making' is an event in time or an eternal dependence — drove debate from Plutarch to Proclus, whose enormous commentary survives in part.
In the library: the complete Timaeus, with the cosmology of the Demiurge and World Soul.
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Σωκράτης: εἶς, δύο, τρεῖς: ὁ δὲ δὴ τέταρτος ἡμῖν, ὦ φίλε Τίμαιε, ποῦ τῶν χθὲς μὲν δαιτυμόνων, τὰ νῦν δὲ ἑστιατόρων;
Τίμαιος: ἀσθένειὰ τις αὐτῷ συνέπεσεν, ὧ Σώκρατες: οὐ γὰρ ἄ ἑκὼν τῆσδε ἀπελείπετο τῆς συνουσίας.
Σωκράτης: οὐκοῦν σὸν τῶνδέ τε ἓργον καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀπόντος ἀναπληροῦν μέρος;
Τίμαιος: πάνυ μὲν οὖν, καὶ κατὰ δύναμιν γε οὐδὲν ἐλλείψομεν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν εἴη δίκαιον, χθὲς ὑπὸ σοῦ ξενισθέντας οἶς ἦν πρέπον ξενίοις, μὴ οὐ προθύμως σὲ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἡμῶν ἀνταφεστιᾶν.
Σωκράτης: ἆρ’ οὖν μέμνησθε ὅσα ὑμῖν καὶ περὶ ὧν ἐπέταξα εἰπεῖν;
Τίμαιος: τὰ μὲν μεμνήμεθα, ὅσα δὲ μή, σὺ παρὼν ὑπομνήσεις: μᾶλλον δε, εἰ μη τι σοι χαλεπόν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς διὰ βραχέων πάλιν ἐπάνελθε αὐτά, ἵναβεβαιωθῆ μᾶλλον παρ’ ἡμῖν.
Σωκράτης: ταῦτ’ ἔσται. χθές που τῶν ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ ῥηθέντων λόγων περὶ πολιτείας ἦν τὸ κεφάλαιον οἵα τε καὶ ἐξ οἵων ἀνδρῶν ἀρίστη κατεφαίνετ’ ἄν μοι γενέσθαι.
Τίμαιος: καὶ μάλα γε ἡμῖν, ὦ Σώκρατες, ῥηθεῖσα πᾶσιν κατὰ νοῦν.
Σωκράτης: ἆρ’ οὖν οὐ τὸ τῶν γεωργῶν ὅσαι τε ἄλλαι τέχναι πρῶτον ἐν αὐτῆ χωρὶς διειλόμεθα ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους τοῦ τῶν προπολεμησόντων;
Τίμαιος: Ναι.
Σωκράτης: καὶ κατὰ φύσιν δὴ δόντες ταὸ καθ’ αὑτὸν ἑκάστῳ
Σωκράτης: πρόσφορον ἓν μόνον ἐπιτήδευμα, μὶαν ἑκάστῳ τέχνην, τούτους οὕς πρὸ πάντων ἔδει πολεμεῖν, εἴπομεν ὡς ἄρ’ αὐτοὺς δέοι φύλακας εἶναι μόνον τῆς πόλεως, εἴτε τις ἔξωθεν ἢ καὶ τῶν ἔνδοθεν ἴοι κακουργήσων, δικάζοντας μὲν πρᾴως τοῖς
Σωκράτης: ἀρχομένοις ὑπ’ αὐτῶν καὶ φύσει φίλοις οὖσιν, χαλεποὺς δὲ ἐν ταῖς μάχαις τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν τῶν ἐχθρῶν γιγνομένους.
Τίμαιος: Παντάπασι μὲν οὖν.
Σωκράτης: φύσιν γὰρ οἶμαί τινα τῶν φυλάκων τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλέγομεν ἅμα μέν θυμοειδῆ, ἅμα μὲν θυμοειδῆ, ἅμα δὲ φιλόσοφον δεῖν εἶναι διαφερόντως, ἵνα πρὸς ἑκατέρους δύναιντο ὀρθῶς πρᾷοι καὶ χαλεποὶ γίγνεσθαι.
Τίμαιος: ναί.
Σωκράτης: τί δὲ τροφήν; ἆρ’ ου’ γυμναστικῆ καὶ μουσικῆ μαθήμασίν τε ὅσα προσήκει τούτοις, ἐν ἅπασι τεθράφθαι;
Τίμαιος: πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
Σωκράτης: τοὺς δέ γε οὕτω τραφέντας ἐλέχθη που μήτε χρυςὸν μήτε ἄργυρον μήτε ἄλλο ποτὲ μηδὲν κτῆμα ἐαυτῶν ἴδιον νομίζειν δεῖν, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐπικούρους μισθὸν λαμβάνοντας τῆς φυλακῆς παρὰ τῶν σῳζομένων ὑπ’ αὐτῶν, ὅσος σώφροσιν μέτριος, ἀναλίσκειν τε δὴ κοινῆ καὶ συνδιαιτωμένους μετὰ ἀλλήλων ζῆν, ἐπιμέλειαν ἔχοντας ἀρετῆς διὰ παντός, τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιτηδευμάτων ἄγοντας σχολήν.
Τίμαιος: ἐλέχθη καὶ ταῦτα ταύτη.
Σωκράτης: καὶ μὲν δὴ καὶ περὶ γυναικῶν ἐπεμνήσθημεν, ὡς τὰς φύσεις τοῖς ἀνδράσιν παραπλησίας εἴη συναρμοστέον, καὶ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα πάντα κοινά κατά τε πόλεμον καὶ κατὰ ταὴν άλλην δίαιταν± δοτέον πάσαις.
Τίμαιος: ταύτη καὶ ταῦτα ἐλέγετο.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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