The Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato — trans. Thomas Taylor

And this indeed, he elfects m one way in the heavens, and in another in the sublunary region; in one way in the inerratic sphere, and in another among the planets. And m a similar manner Jupiter and lkirclms. 7 hcsc things therefore arc clearly asserted by the ancients.

It however, we are right in these assertions, these divinitios have every where an analogous subsistence ; and he who wishes to survey the progressions of them into the heavens, or the sublunary region, should look to the first and principal causes of th< ir kingdoms. For from thence, and according to tin m, their genera¬ tion is derived. It is requisite therefore, that we uNo should look to these. Some therefore say that I'lato omits to investigate the (»ods who are analogous to the two kings in the heavens, I mean Phams and Niglif, For it is necessary to pi ice them m a superior order, anil not among tin* mundane (iods; la-cause prior to the world, they are the leaders of the intellectual (iods, being eternally established in the adytum, as Orpheus savs of Flumes, who In/ the iron / aiUftum signifies their iccull and immanifest order. Whether therefore we refer tiie circulation of same and diflerent [mentioned by Plato in this dialogue] to the analogy of these, as male and female, or paternal and generative, we shall not wander from the truth. Or whether we refer the sun and moon, as opposed to each other among the planets, to the same analogy, we shall not err. [ For the sun indeed through his light preserves a similitude to Plumes, but the moon to Night. Jupiter, or the I)e- Tniurgus, in the intellectual, is analogous to Plumes in the intelligible order. And the vivilie crater Juno is analogous to Night, who produces all life in conjunction with Plumes from uuapparent causes ; just as Juno is parturient with, and emits into light, all the soul contained in the world. 1 ] For it is better to conceive both these as prior to the world, and to arrange the Deiniurgus himself as analogous to Phanes; since he is said to be assimilated to him according to the production of wholes; but to arrange the power conjoined with Jupiter, (i. e. Juno) and which is generative of wholes, analogous to Night, who produces all things invisi-

1 1 lie greater part of wh.it is here contained within the brackets is mi so mutilated a state in 1 lie nrigioai. as to he illegible. The sense however, i have endeavoured as much as possible to restore in (be translation.

Tim. Plat.

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Vol. II.

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bly from the father Plianes. After these however, we must consider t!ie remaining as analogous to the intellectual kingdoms 2as to he illegible. The sense however, i have endeavoured as much as possible to restore in (be translation.

Tim. Plat.

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Vol. II.

[(OOt T.

bly from the father Plianes. After these however, we must consider t!ie remaining as analogous to the intellectual kingdoms

It likewise, it should he asked why Plato dors not mention tin* kingdoms of Plianes and Night, to whom we have said Jupib r and Juno are analogous f It may Iw* readily answered, that the tradition ot Orpheus contains these ; on which account Plato celebrates the kingdom ol Heaven and Lai th as the first, the Oreck* being more accustomed to this than to the Orphic traditions; as lie himself says in the Cralylus, where lie partu iil.ii 1 y mentions th< theogony ot Ilesiod, and n-curs as far as to this kingdom, according to that poet. lli-ginning therefore, from this thcogouv as more known, and assuming ll. aien and Earth as the first kingdoms above tin- world, lie produces the visible Heaven and Earth aualo-’ous to those in the inta ili a tied order, and ceh lirates the latter as the most am lent of the (joils within the loriucr. I rom these also, he begins the theogonv ot the sublunary (bids. 'I’liese things however, if div inify ph ases, will be manliest from what follows. At pr«s t m shall only add, that it is lupiisite to siirvev all these names divinely or d emoniacally, ami according to the allotments of these divi¬ nities in the tour elements. 1'or this eiiiicud is m el In r ami water, hi earth and in air, all-v a non sly, according to the divine, and also according to the da inoniacal peculiarity. And again, these liana s are to be surveved arjuaticallv and a< riallv, and likewise in the earth terrestrially, in order that all these powers max he every¬ where, according to an all various mode of subsistence. For there are manv modes ot providence divine and (hemoiiiaeal, and many allotments according to the divisioii ot the elements ; lest all things not 1 Ireiug everywhere, the number of the same and the similar should he destroyed. Vnd thus much concerning these partunlais. Put let us now return to the text ot Pluto, and explore its meaning to the utmost ot our ability.

“That Ocean and Tethys were the progeny of Heaven and Earth.”

As this whole world is ample and various, as adumbrating the intellectual order of forms, it contains these two extremities in itself. Earth and Heaven ; the latter having the relation of a father, hut the former of a mother. On this account Plato calls Earth the most ancient of the (bids within the heavens, in order that conformably to this he might say, that Earth is the mother of all that Heaven is the father ; at the same time « vim ,ug that partial causes are not only subordinate to their progeny, as Poverty* [in the li ui.piet of Plato] to Love, hut are likewise

* Mi) is omit it ,1 in tin original,

* For irpcn ia lure, it is uci'i-sury to read Ilotu.