Page:The Myths of Plato (Stewart, 1905).djvu/278

THE TIMAEUS

Context

The subject of the Timaeus is the Creation of the Universe (soul and body) and of Man (soul and body). The speaker in whose mouth the whole Discourse, or Myth, treating of this subject is put is Timaeus, the great Pythagorean Philosopher of Locri in Italy.

The Discourse, or Myth, is part of the general scheme which is worked out in the Trilogy consisting of the Republic, Timaeus, and Critias.

The assumed chronological order of the pieces is Republic, Timaeus, Critias : i.e. the Conversation at the house of Cephalus is repeated next day by Socrates to Timaeus, Critias, Hermocrates, and another—this is the Republic ; the day after that again, Socrates, Timaeus, Critias, and Hermocrates meet, and the Conversation and Discourse which constitute the Timaeus are held, followed by the Myth related by Critias in the unfinished piece which bears his name. Thus we have first an account of Man's education ; then an account of his creation ; and lastly the story of the Great War for which his education fits him.

But, of course, the logical order is Timaeus, Republic, Critias :—God, because he is good, makes, in his own image, the Universe of which Man is part—not, however, a mere part, but a part which, after a fashion, is equivalent to the whole, in so far as it adequately represents the whole—a microcosm in the macrocosm. Man, as microcosm, is an image of God as adequate as the great Cosmos itself is ; and, like God whose image he is, is a creator—makes in turn a Cosmos, the State. We have thus the analogy :—God : Cosmos : : Man : State. Upon God's creation of the Cosmos, in the Timaeus, there follows, in order, Man's creation of the State, in the Republic ; while the Critias comes last with the representation of the State performing the work for which it was created.

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