Timaeus
earth was himself burnt up by a thunderbolt. For there occurs at
long intervals a derangement of the heavenly bodies, and then the
earth is destroyed by fire. At such times, and when fire is the
agent, those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore are safer
than those who dwell upon high and dry places, who in their turn
are safer when the danger is from water. Now the Nile is our
saviour from fire, and as there is little rain in Egypt, we are
not harmed by water; whereas in other countries, when a deluge
comes, the inhabitants are swept by the rivers into the sea. The
memorials which your own and other nations have once had of the
famous actions of mankind perish in the waters at certain
periods; and the rude survivors in the mountains begin again,
knowing nothing of the world before the flood. But in Egypt the
traditions of our own and other lands are by us registered for
ever in our temples. The genealogies which you have recited to us
out of your own annals, Solon, are a mere children’s story. For
in the first place, you remember one deluge only, and there were
many of them, and you know nothing of that fairest and noblest
race of which you are a seed or remnant. The memory of them was
lost, because there was no written voice among you. For in the
times before the great flood Athens was the greatest and best of
cities and did the noblest deeds and had the best constitution of
any under the face of heaven.’ Solon marvelled, and desired to be
informed of the particulars. ‘You are welcome to hear them,’ said
the priest, ‘both for your own sake and for that of the city, and
above all for the sake of the goddess who is the common foundress
of both our cities. Nine thousand years have elapsed since she
founded yours, and eight thousand since she founded ours, as our
annals record. Many laws exist among us which are the counterpart
of yours as they were in the olden time. I will briefly describe
them to you, and you shall read the account of them at your
leisure in the sacred registers. In the first place, there was a
caste of priests among the ancient Athenians, and another of
artisans; also castes of shepherds, hunters, and husbandmen, and
lastly of warriors, who, like the warriors of Egypt, were
separated from the rest, and carried shields and spears, a custom
which the goddess first taught you, and then the Asiatics, and we
among Asiatics first received from her. Observe again, what care
the law took in the pursuit of wisdom, searching out the deep
things of the world, and applying them to the use of man. The
spot of earth which the goddess chose had the best of climates,
and produced the wisest men; in no other was she herself, the
philosopher and warrior goddess, so likely to have votaries. And
there you dwelt as became the children of the gods, excelling all
men in virtue, and many famous actions are recorded of you. The
most famous of them all was the overthrow of the island of
Atlantis. This great island lay over against the Pillars of
Heracles, in extent greater than Libya and Asia put together, and
was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which
the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour; and within the
Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and
in Libya to Egypt. This mighty power was arrayed against Egypt
and Hellas and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.
Then your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth.
For at the peril of her own existence, and when the other
Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her
own accord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A
little while afterwards there were great earthquakes and floods,
and your warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great
island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea. This is the
explanation of the shallows which are found in that part of the
Atlantic ocean.’
Such was the tale, Socrates, which Critias heard from Solon; and
I noticed when listening to you yesterday, how close the
resemblance was between your city and citizens and the ancient
Athenian State. But I would not speak at the time, because I
wanted to refresh my memory. I had heard the old man when I was a
child, and though I could not remember the whole of our
yesterday’s discourse, I was able to recall every word of this,
which is branded into my mind; and I am prepared, Socrates, to
rehearse to you the entire narrative. The imaginary State which
you were describing may be identified with the reality of Solon,
and our antediluvian ancestors may be your citizens. ‘That is
excellent, Critias, and very appropriate to a Panathenaic
festival; the truth of the story is a great advantage.’ Then now
let me explain to you the order of our entertainment; first,
Timaeus, who is a natural philosopher, will speak of the origin
of the world, going down to the creation of man, and then I shall
receive the men whom he has created, and some of whom will have
been educated by you, and introduce them to you as the lost
Athenian citizens of whom the Egyptian record spoke. As the law
of Solon prescribes, we will bring them into court and
acknowledge their claims to citizenship. ‘I see,’ replied
Socrates, ‘that I shall be well entertained; and do you, Timaeus,
offer up a prayer and begin.’
TIMAEUS: All men who have any right feeling, at the beginning of
any enterprise, call upon the Gods; and he who is about to speak
of the origin of the universe has a special need of their aid.
May my words be acceptable to them, and may I speak in the manner
which will be most intelligible to you and will best express my
own meaning!
First, I must distinguish between that which always is and never
becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and
that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by
opinion with the help of sense. All that becomes and is created
is the work of a cause, and that is fair which the artificer
makes after an eternal pattern, but whatever is fashioned after a
created pattern is not fair. Is the world created or
uncreated?—that is the first question. Created, I reply, being
visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible;
and if sensible, then created; and if created, made by a cause,
and the cause is the ineffable father of all things, who had
before him an eternal archetype. For to imagine that the
archetype was created would be blasphemy, seeing that the world
is the noblest of creations, and God is the best of causes. And
the world being thus created according to the eternal pattern is
the copy of something; and we may assume that words are akin to
the matter of which they speak. What is spoken of the unchanging
or intelligible must be certain and true; but what is spoken of
the created image can only be probable; being is to becoming what
truth is to belief. And amid the variety of opinions which have
arisen about God and the nature of the world we must be content
to take probability for our rule, considering that I, who am the
speaker, and you, who are the judges, are only men; to
probability we may attain but no further.
SOCRATES: Excellent, Timaeus, I like your manner of approaching
the subject—proceed.
TIMAEUS: Why did the Creator make the world?...He was good, and
therefore not jealous, and being free from jealousy he desired
that all things should be like himself. Wherefore he set in order
the visible world, which he found in disorder. Now he who is the
best could only create the fairest; and reflecting that of
visible things the intelligent is superior to the unintelligent,
he put intelligence in soul and soul in body, and framed the
universe to be the best and fairest work in the order of nature,
and the world became a living soul through the providence of God.
In the likeness of what animal was the world made?—that is the
third question...The form of the perfect animal was a whole, and
contained all intelligible beings, and the visible animal, made
after the pattern of this, included all visible creatures.
Are there many worlds or one only?—that is the fourth
question...One only. For if in the original there had been more
than one they would have been the parts of a third, which would
have been the true pattern of the world; and therefore there is,
and will ever be, but one created world. Now that which is
created is of necessity corporeal and visible and
tangible,—visible and therefore made of fire,—tangible and
therefore solid and made of earth. But two terms must be united
by a third, which is a mean between them; and had the earth been
a surface only, one mean would have sufficed, but two means are
required to unite solid bodies. And as the world was composed of
solids, between the elements of fire and earth God placed two
other elements of air and water, and arranged them in a
continuous proportion—
fire:air::air:water, and air:water::water:earth,
and so put together a visible and palpable heaven, having harmony
and friendship in the union of the four elements; and being at
unity with itself it was indissoluble except by the hand of the
framer. Each of the elements was taken into the universe whole
and entire; for he considered that the animal should be perfect
and one, leaving no remnants out of which another animal could be
created, and should also be free from old age and disease, which
are produced by the action of external forces. And as he was to
contain all things, he was made in the all-containing form of a
sphere, round as from a lathe and every way equidistant from the
centre, as was natural and suitable to him. He was finished and
smooth, having neither eyes nor ears, for there was nothing
without him which he could see or hear; and he had no need to
carry food to his mouth, nor was there air for him to breathe;
and he did not require hands, for there was nothing of which he
could take hold, nor feet, with which to walk. All that he did
was done rationally in and by himself, and he moved in a circle
turning within himself, which is the most intellectual of
motions; but the other six motions were wanting to him; wherefore
the universe had no feet or legs.
And so the thought of God made a God in the image of a perfect
body, having intercourse with himself and needing no other, but
in every part harmonious and self-contained and truly blessed.
The soul was first made by him—the elder to rule the younger; not
in the order in which our wayward fancy has led us to describe
them, but the soul first and afterwards the body. God took of the
unchangeable and indivisible and also of the divisible and
corporeal, and out of the two he made a third nature, essence,
which was in a mean between them, and partook of the same and the