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

hook v

TIM^l S OF PLATO.

p. 403

afterwards to that which is subordinate in this species. For Plato knew that tin? male is more adapted than the female to the demiurgic intellect and the most divine of principles, and is more allied to immntahle and undeliled souls. Hence he lends soul-in their first descent into men. Thus also in the Plia-dnis, he leads the soul that knows most, into the generation of a man, and there likewise the second and third, and as far as to the soul of the ninth rank. What then, shall we sav, it is impossible for souls that have recently arrived at perfection, to pass into women? , Or I- it necessary that the soul that lives apocatastatically, should pass into the life of a man ; or shall we say, that it may al-o lead a life of this kind, when it comes into the nature of a woman? But if we admit tin* former, and not the latter, how can we any longer say, that the virtues of men and women are com¬ mon ’ l’or if the latter ne\er live cathartically, but the former frequently make apocatastatic lives, the virtues will he no longer common to them. To which may he added, the absurdity that Socrates having learned the mysteries of love from Diotima, should l>e elevated through her* to the beautiful itself; hut that Diotima herself, who elevated him, and who surpassed in wisdom, should not obtain the same form of life, because she was invested with the body of a woman. But if wo admit that women may live apocatastatically, it is absurd that souls should ascend from this nature, but by no means descend in¬ to it from the intelligible. I'or when they sutler a defluxion of their w ings, they are nearer to a less excellent nature, than when they are winged, and the accent is through the same things as the descent. This therefore, is also evident from history. I'or the Sibyll, when she proceeded into light, knew her own order, and manifested that she came from the (juris, by saving, between the t*od« anil men, a mean am I.

Such therefore, are the necessary consequences from the things themselves.

But Plato delivering the progression and diminution of life according to nature, first leads the soul into the generation of man, afterwards, into the generation of woman, and in the third place, into the brutal nature. I'or the soul descends from thu iindefiled and pure form of life, into that form which is robust, and retains intellect, but is material. Prom this it descends into that form of life which is material, and at the same time imbecile, but is receptive of an in¬ tellectual life. And from this form into that which is perfectly destitute of in¬ tellect. Thus also in the Republic, delivering the diminutions of life, he pro¬ duces the timocratic from the aristocratic form of life; from this, the oligarchic; from the oligarchic, the democratic ; but from this the tyrannic. And it may be said that it is possible for the tyrannic to be generated from the timocratic, and a

And it may be said that it is possible for the tyrannic to be generated from the timocratic, and a

1 For bt avrwv here, it is obviously necessary to read it’ ■«mjr.

p. 404

PItOCLUS ON THE

[book V.

democracy from an aristocracy ; lmt Plato describes, a gradually subsiding mu¬ tation of political concerns, and conformably to this he here leads souls descend¬ ing from the intelligible, into men. For lie makes from them ail animal, which would afterw ards lx* called avr,p, man, man in" its appellation Jram grandeur and vigoroj nature; according to which also, it is more adapted to souls that are now descending. And thus much may Mitlice, in answer to the betore-meiitioned doubt concerning the first descent ot souls.

From these things tin refore, we m ty collect as a corollary, that fabrication and this universe had not a temporal Is giiiuiiig. For if the universe was generated from a certain liegmmng, it is also in < t 'sirv that the descent ot souls >• loiild have taken place from a certain beginning, and that there should have been a first soul that deso mb d. But the 1)« miurgus h ails the first deset lit ot each soul into the generation of man Hence it is necessary that the descent winch maki < man, should liot have be. n clli-cted through ..an, nor proceed into generation through this, the female not yet existing. Neither likewise, does the descent which makes man, impart a generation to woman, suue in this case it icon hi he pnssibh for the female to be generated, not from the male anil ft untie, but from a certain mate atone. It therefore, tin se things are impossible, it i> impossible that the male and the female [should have had a temporal beginning.j" But souls always di scern! into the male genera, prior to the female, the former not h< mg gem-rated from the latti r., And the speech of the I )ciiiiurgus is addressed to beings which are always gene¬ rated in the universe, and not to such as once received a temporal beginning. What then, it max he said, shall we assert of the male and the female! Aie they' not also hi souls tlienis. Ives, so that til these some are of a virile, hut otlieis ot «m effeminate nature 1 And how can it he said, that this is not necessary * l or it tin ■>e are in the tiods primarily, ami in setisihles ultimately, it is also necessary that they should exist m the media. I'or whence is the progr. ssion ot them as tar as to a sen-ihle nature derived, except through the middle essence ! 1 .other still,

I'or whence is the progr. ssion ot them as tar as to a sen-ihle nature derived, except through the middle essence ! 1 .other still, if the Demiurgus l*y connecting each soul with a vehicle, produces a certain ani¬ mal, 1 it is entirely necessary that tin* difference of male and 1.male m the soul should at the same time he apparent. For this is the division of animal. .Must we not therefore admit til it these are in souls 1 And how is il possilile we should not, since they are assimilated to their leading (»ods * For as they derive every other form from them, so likewise, they receive from them the peculiarity of the is iireessarv.

* In tlie original, lllere is nothin" more than u^iuror tern to 0rj\», tut to upotv, unit min. thing is evidently wauling. It a|'|H-ar» to me therefore, that the addition of the words nje yjwtuctjv apx’l*'

* Mi) is omitted heie, m ill. nngmal.

1 Instead ol n £*r/y here, it is obviously necessary to read ti ivor.

COOK V.]

TIM/EUS OF PLATO.

p. 405

malr ami llie female. In their generation also, virile ami effeminate souls are (1 | v iiii»il nrronliu^ to the genera of tin* animals which an here. Hut as they change the species' uflife, so liken ise they change these powers, some of them hein- rendered more elli-minale, Imt others descending; into a more robust and vigorous form of life. For that which has the tonn of hound in this sensible re-ion. is more infinite than the infinite wlueh is there [i. e. in souls prior to their deseentl; so that the lapse will he entirely into that which is less excel!, nt. The lapse, howeier, to that whieh is less ex* client, is at one time, to that which is nearer to tin-more excellent, and at another, to that which is more n mot* from it, lint is analogous to what is there arranged. Thus also it is said, that a Lunar soul deseended into the nature of man, in becoming the soul of M'lsa-us, and that an Apolloniaeal soul became the soul of the .Sibyl, llielahleof Aristophanes likewise, in the Ilan.piet, manifests that souls are divided an orthn- to the male and female, and that which is common from tin so [or that which is ol the common Render]. It is also evident, that mas.•ulme souls do not entirely proceed into the generation of men. imr feminineinto the Generation of "omen, by Turnons saym- t that every soul makes its first descent into men; and that this is natural to it, n heeause in females, the cause is comprehended, as we have before observed, of the male in animals.

“ And as souls arc from necessity implanted in bodies, and one thing accedes to, but another departs lroin, these bodies.

S„„|, ,vhih- <h. v al.id.. Inal. "ill' H..- fallit-r. and am lill.-d "id. ini. Hi-..,. .-, from intull.Tlual nalm.-s, an- n..l al all in want nf tin- nlurtal-fnrna-il lift-. I nr tla-y „.r inl.nnl.Tial. |.nn-. and starry-lhr... nraans. n-v-.lv. Inn.-tln-r «.III .la-(.ods. and emorn in ,-uni.nn-linn ... tin- ..In world. Hnt nln-n ll.ny dn.. ,-nd ...to