The Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato — trans. Thomas Taylor
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For the one has the order of father, hut the other of mother. Jlnth the intelligible and intel¬ lectual causes of them likewise are united to each other, ami are unfolded into light from one cause. For the same Goddess produced -— the nudity Sun, and splendid Moon fas Orpheus says]. Pi rhaps likewise the [Chalda an] Oracles teach us this, since they every where arrange the Moon after the Sun, and the air after the Moon, both when they deliver the order of them from above, and when from lieneath. For they say, "Tin* a-therial course, the immense impulse of the Moon, ami the aerial streams." And again, “ O a-ther, Sun, spirit of the Moon, and ye leaders of the air." And elsewhere, “ Of the solar circles, 1 the lunar ratllings, and the aerial bosoms." And afterwards, “ The portion of'.ether, of the Sun, of the rivers of the Moon, and of the air In another place likewise they say, “The broad air, the lunar course, and the jieipetual pole of the Sun " Perhaps therefore, as I have said, it is possible to be |>ersuadeil from the Oracles, that the Sun is immedi¬ ately prior to the Moon, as the Moon is prior to the air, all heaven having the order of fire; which also was the opinion of Plato,* who after the celestial arranges the a’therial idea, in what he shortly after says about the four ideas [in animal itself]. Unless therefore, it is not necessary that the Sun should lie imme¬ diately above the Moon, on account of the analogy to a-ther: for neither is anther immediately above the Sun. So that again, this analogy will not suffer the Sun to he arranged immediately above the Moon. ^Nevertheless ancient rumor gives this cmh r to the Sun. For Aristotle was of this opinion, and likewise Fudoxus and Ins followers. If however, some adopting the hypotheses of mathe¬ maticians, should think tit to arrange the Sun in the middle of the seven planets, who collects and binds the triads on each side of him, it must be observed* that there is not any stability in w hat they say from the mathematics. For to say, that Venus and Mercury would l>e obscured, if they were after the Sun, in the same manner as the Moon is sometimes by the Sun, is confuted by showing that when they are in conjunction with the Sun according to longitude, they entirely
1 In.trail of tov yap ijXiof rarrti per* atXrjvrjv in this place, it is obviously necessary to read, ti)v ynp or\rjvrjr rarrtt ptra rj\toy.
1 For ijXicuou re here, it is ncrevâary to read rjXtarw rc ihXm*.
* Instead of o rm FlXarwe two in this place, read o rat IlAarwvi torn.
* For nrocar here, it is requisite to read nrrwear.
Tim. Plat. Vo l. II. 2 F
p. 226
PROCLUS ON THE
[book IV.
1 For ijXicuou re here, it is ncrevâary to read rjXtarw rc ihXm*.
* Instead of o rm FlXarwe two in this place, read o rat IlAarwvi torn.
* For nrocar here, it is requisite to read nrrwear.
Tim. Plat. Vo l. II. 2 F
p. 226
PROCLUS ON THE
[book IV.
differ according to latitude. And this is the cause of their not being obscured. As it does not, however, necessarily follow that the Sun has a middle position among tlie planets, mathematicians cannot procure that credibility through demonstrations that it has, which they are accustomed to obtain about most things.
Ptolemy therefore says, in his Synto.iis,' that it is tit in conformity to good and probable reasoning, to place the Sun in the middle of the seven planets, in order that of the five planets prior to him, there may In* those that are perfectly sepa¬ rated from him ; and alter him, those that are m conjunction w ilh him, and precede, or att-nd him like satellites, lint in his 11y potlieses, 1 he does not very much contend for the truth ot this, nor infer it from the int. r\als of the planets, neither in that work, nor in his Si/ntmis. Much alt* ntion theretorc, is not to be paid to mathematicians, when tin s reason tnun probability. Put the tln uigist tlcaily t>a\s, * l that the Deiuiurgus sus|»en»leil six zones, and for the seventh hurled into the middle the fire of the Sun f and it is not lawful to disbelieve in what he bays. Plato however, looking to the abundant communion, and coiinascent profession of the Sun and .Moon from tin: same cause, and also their ingress into" the world, delivers them to us as conjoined. IS'or was he the author of this hypothesis of the Moon subsisting immediately after the Nun, but Anax¬ agoras, .is Kiuleiuus relates, was the first th.it vvasot this opinion.
Again, tins also is a subject ol inquiry, on what account the Sun, Venus and Mercury, revolve w'ilh equal celerity. Ami some indeed, say from tin* mathe¬ matics, that the epicycles of these three -l trs are conjoined, and that thencentres are in one right line. As therefore, there is one apocatastasis of the motion of one right line, thus also the epicycles oi these planets make the same apocatastasis; and of the epicycles themselves, the extremes are less, but the middle epicycle is greater; so that both the equable and anomalous motions of them, are in the same ratio. But the interpreters of Plato, Por¬ phyry and Thedorus, who investigate tin-cause of this, refer the principle of the equality and inequality of the course of these planets to their lives. 1 ur accord¬ ing to them, the inequality or < quality of their swiftness, is either from their intel¬ lects tending directly through many media to essence, and ending in the same of Astronomy ft> the \r.iluans, it was tailed I he /Umagtit e. Iu his wuik ell titled YWtrvu fwf I lVu.w^o^i, or The Hypothesis of the I’lanlts.
* The whole title ol this work is, MeyuXr, r-)» Aorpoio/uru, or Til K hRl AT CONSTRU CTION
* i. e. Iu his wuik ell titled YWtrvu fwf I lVu.w^o^i, or The Hypothesis of the I’lanlts.
This work illustrated by Jo. Hainbridgr, with a Latm version, and mathematical figures. Loud.
1 G .’ 0 . Uo.
1 i. r The C baldtan Julian.
BOOK I \ .]
TIMiEIJS OF PLATO.
p. 227
tiling, though through different media ; or from tlie tendency of tliem to another and another thing. For the sun Irving essence, proceeds to intellect through life; Venus, being intellect, proceeds through life to an intellect [different froniitself]; and .Mercury being life, proceeds also to intellect; though the intellect in which the three terminate, is in the first essential, hut in the second intellectual, and in the third Utah Hence also they are moved with equal celerity, and though they appear to leave, and precede each other, yet they end in the same thing. .Saturn, however, Jupiter, and Mars, may he considered as differing indignity, and on this account, not of equal celerity ; though their not moving with the same celerity may also arise from not revolving through equal media. Thus for instance, if Saturn being essence, should immediately proceed to essence, but Jupiter should proceed to it through intellect alone, and Mars through both intellect and life; the first indeed will proceed without a medium to essence, hut the second through one equality, and the third through two. And thus, they will not move with equal celerity. For of the planets, the first triad is elevated to essence; but the second, to intellect; and the Moon, to life, which comprehends in itself all gene¬ ration, and proceeds as far as to the last recesses of the earth. These thing# therefore, arc said by Porphyry and Theodoras, in conformity to their ow n hypo¬ theses; asserting that all these are every where, vi/.. essence, life, and intellect, and that each of the Gods partic ipale of these three, but that a different peculia¬ rity predominates in difii rent, divinities, and also that the energy is different of different Gods, and that the elevation is through different media. 1
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