TIMAEU [12]
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; 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 all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned
them after the likeness 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, 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 eclipsed 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 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 is what they say-and
they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt
the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable
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 indissoluble,
if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil
being would wish
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; 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 all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned
them after the likeness 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, 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 eclipsed 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 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 is what they say-and
they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt
the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable
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 indissoluble,
if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil
being would wish