Timaeus — Plato

all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the hkeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over.

And he gave to each of them two movements : the first, a movement on the same spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things ; the second, a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and the like ; but by the other five motions they were unaffected (cp. 43 B), in order that each of them might attain the highest perfection.

And for this reason the fixed stars were created, to be divine and eternal animals, ever-abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same spot ; and the other stars which reverse their motion and are subject to deviations of this kind, were created in the manner already described.

The earth, which is our nurse, clinging ^ around the pole which is extended through the universe, he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and day, first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven.

Vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them circling as in dance, and their juxtapositions, and the return of them in their revolutions upon themselves, and their approximations, and to say which of these deities in their conjunctions meet, and which of them are in opposition, and in what order they get behind and before one another, and when they are severally ecHpsed to our sight and again reappear, sending terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot calculate their movements — to attempt to tell of all this without a visible representation of the heavenly system 2 would be labour in vain.

Enough on this head ; and now let what we have said about the nature of the created and visible gods have an end. To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us, and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods — that

Timaeus. TiMAEUS.

The fixed stars revolve on their axes and are carried round in the sphere of the Same.

The motions of the planets have been already (38 ff) described.

The earth is the immovable(?) centre of the universe.

As for the Gods of mythology, we must

' Or ' circling.'

' Reading rolq ov dvi>. and tovtcjv avruv.

p. 460

Address of the Creator to his ministers.

Thnaeus. TiMAEUS. accept the statements of their children about them.

The creator of the universe bids the created gods fashion the mortal bodies of man and of the lower animals : he himself will furnish the immortal principle of the soul.

is what they say — and they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we dou^t the word of the children of the gods? Although they give^anrobable or certain proofs, still, as they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family, we must conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then, according to them, the genealogy ^of these gods is to be received and set forth.

Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation ; and from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are said to be their brethren, and others who were the children of these.

Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe addressed them in these words : ' Gods, children of gods, who are my works, and of whom I am the artificer and father, my creations are indi.ssoluble, if so I will.

All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy. Wherefore, since ye are but creatures, ye are not altogether immortal and indissoluble, but ye shall certainly not be dissolved, nor be liable to the fate of death, having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with which ye were bound at the time of your birth.

And now listen to my instructions : — Three tribes of mortal beings remain to be created — without them the universe will be incomplete, for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me and receiv^ed hfe at my hands, they would be on an equality with the gods.

In order then that they may be mortal, and that this universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating the power which was shown by me in creating you.

The part of them worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and you — of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having made a beginning, 1 will hand the work over to you. And