And these Forms are four,—one the heavenly kind of gods Footnote 1i.e., the stars. ; another the winged kind which traverses the air;
thirdly, the class which inhabits the waters; and fourthly, that which goes on
foot on dry land. The form of the divine class Footnote 2i.e., the fixed stars, and their sphere which moves with
the daily rotation of the spherical Cosmos (the motion proper to intelligence,
Cf. 36 C,Cratyl. 411
D). He wrought for the most part out of fire, that this kind might be
as bright as possible to behold and as fair; and likening it to the All He made
it truly spherical; and He placed it in the intelligence Footnote 3i.e., the intelligent
outermost sphere of the same
(cf. the derivation of
φρόνησιςfrom φοράin Cratyl. 411 D).
of the Supreme to follow therewith, distributing it round about over all the
Heaven, to be unto it a veritable adornment Footnote 4There is a play here on the word κόσμος, as meaning (1)
adornment, (2) universe. cunningly
traced over the whole. And each member of this class He endowed with two
motions, Footnote 5i.e. (1) the
rotation of the star on its own axis; (2) the diurnal revolution of the
sphere of fixed stars. whereof the one is uniform motion in the same
spot, whereby it conceives always identical thoughts about the same objects,
and the other is a
forward motion due to its being dominated by the revolution of the Same and
Similar; but in respect of the other five motions Footnote 6Cf. 34 A, 43 B. they are at rest and
move not, so that each of them may attain the greatest possible perfection.
From this cause, then, came into existence all those unwandering stars which
are living creatures divine and eternal and abide for ever revolving uniformly
in the same spot; and those which keep swerving and wandering have been
generated in the fashion previously described. And Earth, our nurse, which is
globed around Footnote 7The Word
εἴλλεσθαι (or ἴλλεσθαι) is taken by some to imply
oscillation or rotation (Cf.
Aristot.De caeloii. 293 b 30); but it seems best to
suppose that Plato is here regarding the Earth as stationary. Her potential
motion (we may assume) is equal and opposite to that of the Universe, of
which she is the center, and by thus neutralizing it she remains at
rest. the pole that stretches through all, He framed to be the wardress and fashioner of
night and day, she being the first and eldest of all the gods which have come
into existence within the Heaven. But the choric dances of these same stars and
their crossings one of another, and the relative reversals and progressions of
their orbits, and which of the gods meet in their conjunctions, and how many
are in opposition, and behind which and at what times they severally pass
before one another and are hidden from our view, and again re-appearing
send upon men unable to
calculate alarming portents of the things which shall come to pass
hereafter,—to describe all this without an inspection of models Footnote 8i.e.such instruments as a
celestial globe or planetarium. of these movements would be labor in
vain. Wherefore, let this account suffice us, and let our discourse concerning
the nature of the visible and generated gods have an end. Concerning the other divinities, to discover and declare their
origin is too great a task for us, and we must trust to those who have declared
it aforetime, they being, as they affirmed, descendants of gods and knowing
well, no doubt, their own forefathers. Footnote 9This is, obviously, ironical; Cf. Cratyl.
402 B,Phileb. 66 C.
It is, as I say,
impossible to disbelieve the children of gods, even though their statements
lack either probable or necessary demonstration; and inasmuch as they profess
to speak of family matters, we must follow custom and believe them.