Timaeus — Plato
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34 of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking ; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence ; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own hmits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations.
And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies.
And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it ; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god.
Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order ; for having brought them together he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the younger ; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion of chance.
Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress, of whom the body was to be the subject.
And he made her out of the 35 following elements and on thiswise: Out of the indivisible and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same ^ and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material.
He took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence, and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into
Timaeus. TiMAEUS.
In the centre was placed the soul, which pervaded the whole, and even surrounded it.
Though posterior to the body in the order of our exposition, in the order of creation it is prior to it.
It was created thus. First out of the indivisible (i. e. the Same) and the divisible (i. c. the Other) CJod made Kssence. He then mingled
^ Omitting av Trkpt
p. 454
^ From harmony y from heavenly harmony.^
Tivtaeus. TiMAEUS. these three elements and divided the whole mixture into parts, accordmg to the proportions of the Pythagorean Tetractys and of the Diatonic scale.
The compound was cut into two strips, which were crossed and then bent round into an outer circle, revolving to the right (i. e. the circle of the Same), and an inner, revolving diagonally the same.
When he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one, he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the essence^ And he proceeded to divide after this manner : — First of all, he took away one part of the whole [i], and then he separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first [27].
After this he filled up the double intervals [ i. e. between i, 2, 4, 8] and 36 the triple [i.e. between i, 3, 9, 27], cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts -of its extremes [as for example i, -|, 2, in which the mean \ is one-third of I more than i, and one-third of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number ^ Where there were intervals of f and of f and of f, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of |- with the interval of f, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243"^.
And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by him.
This entire compound he divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point ; and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle.
Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, le. g. I, 4, |, 2, f, 8, 4, y-, 6, 8; and I, i 2, 3, |, 6, 9, y-, 18, 27. ^e. g. 243 : 256 : : tl: t : : f|i : 2 : : t| : f : : W ^ 4 = : f i : ¥ = = V/ = »• (Martin.)
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