Timaeus (Focus Philosophical Library) by Plato

Author:Plato
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 2012-09-01T06:00:00+00:00

1 Socrates has in fact given a highly incomplete summary of the best city in the Republic. He leaves out the concern for the proper ordering of the individual soul; the need for philosopher kings; the mathematical education that paves the way for dialectic; and the eventual degeneration of the just city. He also leaves out the whole problem of defining justice and determining whether the possession of justice makes us happy.

2 See Laws 638B. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, Epizepherian or western Locri, a city in the toe of Italy, “possessed Europe’s earliest written legal code (attributed to Zaleucus)” (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd Edition, p. 616). The legislation of Zaleucus was known for its severity. Pindar refers to Locri as “the city where dwells Unswerving Strictness [Atrekeia]” (Olympian 10. 13).

3 Socrates uses a form of the verb kosmein (related to the noun kosmos) to convey the fact that he is dressed up. It is the first appearance of a cosmos-word in the dialogue. See Glossary under cosmos. The only other dialogue in which Socrates is uncharacteristically dressed up is the Symposium—he is wearing shoes (174A).

4 The feast to which Critias refers is probably the Greater Panathenaea, the celebration of Athena’s birthday, which took place every four years. The main event was the adorning of the goddess’s statue in the Acropolis with a colorful and elaborately woven peplos or robe. The robe depicted the Battle of the Gods and Giants and was conveyed to the Acropolis draped on the mast of a ship mounted on wheels. For more on the Panathenaea and Athenian festivals generally, see H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977.

5 The Apaturia was held in October and came to be associated with the god Dionysus. The Cureotis took place on the third day of the festival, at which time the youths or kouroi were initiated into their clan. The word Apaturia derives from phratria or brotherhood but also suggests the Greek word for deception, apatê. See Parke, ibid. pp. 88-92.

6 “Noblest” here is eleutheriôtaton, literally, most free.

7 The word for district is nomos, which also means law, custom or song. See Glossary under law.

8 Herodotus tells us that “Amasis was a great lover of the Greeks” (Inquiries 2.172 ff.).

9 The word for lover of wisdom here is philosophos, philosopher.

10 The strait of Gibraltar.

11 A trophy (tropaion) consisted of pieces of armor that were taken from the enemy and hung on trees or displayed on upright posts. See Hermocrates’ reference to a trophy at Critias 108C.

12 “Divine” here is daimoniôs, demonically. See 40D and note. It is highly interesting that Critias juxtaposes, and apparently identifies, the work of the divine and chance.

13 The encaustic or “burned in” markings refer to a popular Greek method of painting that probably originated in Egypt: “it seems that coloured waxes were applied with a kind of palette-knife and fixed by heating with a metal rod. It may have been originally used for securing the colour

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