Timaeus — Plato

The appearances of the heavens. 457 Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same nmaeus. instant in order that, having been created together, if ever Timaeus. there was to be a dissoUition of them, they might be dissolved together.

It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as was possible ; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time.

The sun and moon and five other stars, which are The seven called the planets, were created by him in order to dis- fntTndertr tinguish and preserve the numbers of time ; and when he preserve the had made their several bodies, he placed them in the orbits [)|JJ^ ^^^ in which the circle of the other was revolving (cp. 36 D), — in seven orbits seven stars.

First, there was the moon in the orbit nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the second orbit above the earth ; then came the morning star and the star sacred to Hermes, moving in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite direction ; and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer overtake and are overtaken by each other.

To enumerate the places which he assigned to the other stars, and to give all the reasons why he assigned them, although a secondary matter, would give more trouble than the primary. These things at some future time, when we are at leisure, may have the consideration which they deserve, but not at present.

Now, when all the stars which were necessary to the The circle of creation of time had attained a motion suitable to them, and '^^s^["« ' controls the had become living creatures having bodies fastened by vital circle of the chains, and learnt their appointed task, moving in the motion ^^•^^'■' ^^^'^ ' ^'^ JO moves diago- 39 of the diverse, which is diagonal, and passes through and is naiiy to it. governed by the motion of the same, they revolved, some in lanets,^^ a larger and some in a lesser orbit, — those which had the their rcvoiulesser orbit revolving faster, and those which had the larger spi"ai-^and ^ more slowly.

Now by reason of the motion of the same, the slowest those which revolved fastest appeared to be overtaken by ^^Tthe"^" those which moved slower although they really overtook fastest, them ; for the motion of the .same made them all turn in a spiral, and, because some went one way and some another, that which receded most .slowly from the .sphere of the same, which was the swiftest, appeared to follow it mo.st nearly.

p. 458

Four classes of animals ideal and also created.

Timaeus. TiMAEUS. The sun was created to afford a visible measure of the swiftness of the planets. Night and day. The month and year.

The cyclic year.

After the creation of lime God fashions in the created animal four species like those which exist in the ideal: e. g. the gods of heaven (i. e. fixed stars and planets), birds, sea and land animals.

That there might be some visible measure of their relative swiftness and slowness as they proceeded in their eight courses, God lighted a fire, which we now call the sun, in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it might give light to the whole of heaven, and that the animals, as many as nature intended, might participate in number, learning arithmetic from the revolution of the same and the like.

Thus, then, and for this reason the night and the day were created, being the period of the one most intelligent revolution. And the month is accompHshed w^hen the moon has completed her orbit and overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has completed his own orbit.

Mankiftd, with hardly an exception, have not remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them, and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time.

And yet there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving.

After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars as in their heavenly progress received reversals of motion, to the end that the created heaven might imitate the eternal nature, and be as like as possible to the perfect and intelligible animal.

Thus far and until the birth of time the created universe was made in the likeness of the original, but inasmuch as all animals were not yet comprehended therein, it was still unlike. What remained, the creator then proceeded to fashion after the nature of the pattern.

Now as in the ideal animal the mind perceives ideas or species of a certain nature and number, he thought that this created animal ought to have species of a like nature and number. There are four such ; one of them is the heavenly race of the gods ; 40 another, the race of birds whose way is in the air ; the third, the watery species ; and the fourth, the pedestrian and land creatures. Of the heavenly and divine, he created the greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of