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

* \0amrwf is omitted in the original.

1 For aurora here, it is necessary to read avro*mjra.

BOOK V.]

TIM XUS OF PLATO.

p. 361

are prior to them. Since however there was a divine will, and a divine power in the Pemiurgus, he unfolds his will to the mundane God* through {earning ; and through this peili-cts their demiurgic will. But he unfolds his power to them through tins imitation , according to which he ordt rs them to imitate the power of the one Pemiurgus, conformably to which they were generated by him. For by saving that which he wills, he imparts to them will; and by saving that which he I* able to elfect, ho supplies them with power. And m the last place, he demon¬ strates them to lie secondary fabricators, imitators of their father. Whether there¬ fore there is a mundane power, or an efficacious energy of daemons, or a fortitude and supernatural strength of heroes, to all this the Pemiurgus gives subsistence, and imparts it to those that give completion to the whole of the second fabrica¬ tion. For the first power is m him, and the monad of demiurgic powers. Since however, lie is also intellect and father, all things will be in him, viz. father, the power of the father, and the paternal intellect. Hence Plato was not ignorant of this division ; and on this account the I)< miurgus as being father, calls power his power. 'I his also he manifests by adding, “ u/iich I employed in ynur generation." For the lather is the cause of this in conjunction with power; just as father here, m conjunction with the female, is the cause of the propagation of the human species. [For power is of a feminine characteristic.]

“ And so far indeed, as among such of these ns are always w illing to billow justice and you, it is lit there should lie that which is homonymous to the immortals , 1 which is called divine, and w hich has dominion in these, —of this I will deliver the seed and beginning.”

The fabrication of all animals, i» divided into the generation of divine and mortal animals ; and again, the generation «»F the latter is complicated from tin* immortal, and a certain mortal nature, v«t not the whole of the latter, but that p irt of it which po^*es*es a rational form of life, whether there be something of ibis hind in aerial, or pedestrial animals, or in those that have an intermediate subsistence. For plants being animals according to Plato, 1 are mortal, not having a rational animating soul, a* lie clearly says. The father of wholes also, constitutes by himself all the fabrication of div ine animals, and the rational form of the life of mortals, which is surveyed in each of the three genera, 'i hat which remains likewise, the Pemiurgus constitutes indeed, but lie delivers the generation

* In the lexl of Pioclus, aOatnrot is erroneously |»rinle t for adam ircxt.

* For at-ra here, rc.nl airror.

p. 302

PROCLUS ON THE

[book V.

* For at-ra here, rc.nl airror.

p. 302

PROCLUS ON THE

[book V.

of it to the junior Gods, nnd evinces them to he the lords of all the mortal nature. He also receiving every tiling visible which was moved in a disorderly manner, and which had a prior existence from another cause, brought it into order from disorder. Thus therefore, he delivers tin* ends of the production of the universe to other powers, viz. to tin* junior Gods. Hence, in consequence of receiving and delivering, he is a medium betwe* n the intelligible God, who sub¬ sists according to annual itself, and the many Deiniurgi. N\ hat then, does he not ih liver to the mundane f Jods the g< in ration of that in us, \\ hich is homony¬ mous to the immortals, if they also are certain fathers of the immortals themselves, as we may learn from the Thcogony 1 < )r is he not represented by I’lato thus speaking, in order that we may know, that the one Deiniurgiis is the cause of all things, since lie produced the first of immortals, and those beings that are homo¬ nymous to the immortals } Fur if he had committed the generation of the latter to the junior Gods, he might appear to be the [immediate] cause of the « elestials alone, producing sublunary natures from these, but souls from all these. He has however contrived, through the production of the extremes, to exhibit the •generation of all the natures that are immortal, whatsoever they may be, from the one Deiniurgiis. '1'liis also he afterwards shows when he says, that the Demiurgus is tin father of immortals, but that he committed toother Gods the generation of mortals. And thus much concerning the whole design ot these w ords.

'1'liis also he afterwards shows when he says, that the Demiurgus is tin father of immortals, but that he committed toother Gods the generation of mortals. And thus much concerning the whole design ot these w ords.

From these things however, we are imp* lied to speak fieely against those I'latonis(s, who assi rt that our soul is of equal dignity with tin* (Jods, ami is of the same essence w ith div ine souls ; and also against those who sav that it becomes ini* licet itself, tin' intelligible its* If, and the une its* If, leaving e\» ry soul behind it, and being established according to union. For Plain is v« iy far from asserting a thing of this kind concerning it, sine* he calls it hoinouv iiiously immortal with div ii,e souls. .Nor does it, according to him, sustain this from generation, but is allotted this order from the Deiniurgiis, and is called divine, but is not simply divine. lor tin divine pertains to mid* tiled souls, ami which are always intellective; and the immortal, to those souls that are established remote hum mortal natures. Itut that which fills into gem-ration, has an essence of this kind, and is capable ot being mingled with mortal natures; is neither simply div in**, nor immortal. \ud again, you see other media and an order of other things. For .some beings are primarily immortal; others, are immortal indeed, but second¬ arily ; others are Iiomonyinously immortal; and others are mortal. For the nature o! I* -mgs extends as far as to these ; and beyond these, is that which in no respect whatever is. It must neither therefore lie said,that our soul is simply div ine, nor that it is simply immortal, though it is frequently demonstrated to be immortal. Hut it neither has immortality primarily, nor the immortality which has a secondary sub-

BOOK V,]

TIMvT'US OF PLATO.

p. 363