Plato: Timaeus · 11 of 50 · tr. Benjamin Jowett
Section 1k
Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies.
And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance.
Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god.
Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion of chance.
Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress, of whom the body was to be the subject.
And he made her out of the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material.
He took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence, and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same.
When he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one, he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the essence.
And he proceeded to divide after this manner:-First of all, he took away one part of the whole [1], and then he separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first [27].
After this he filled up the double intervals [i.e.
between 1, 2, 4, 8] and the triple [i.e.
between 1, 3, 9, 27] cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts of its extremes [as for example 1, 4/3, 2, in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and one-third of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number.
Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243.
And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by him.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The text describes God as a 'god that was to be' who 'created the world a blessed god' and attributes human-like roles to divine entities.
All passages →Correspondencecosmology
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage establishes a proportional relationship between the divine creation and the material universe through mathematical ratios.
All passages →Cosmic Consciousnessanthropology
A state of awareness transcending ordinary human consciousness, often involving unity with the universe or higher dimensions.
The universe is described as moving in a circle and being able to 'converse with itself', indicating an inherent cosmic awareness.
All passages →Divine Providencetheology
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage explicitly describes God's 'whole plan' for creating the universe with specific purposes and ordering principles.
All passages →Emanation Hierarchycosmology
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The text outlines a structured hierarchy where the soul is older than the body and the universe is ordered by divine proportions. [quarantine-w3: emanation_hierarchy x platonism — see rellm data/quarantine/dossiers.jsonl]
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is depicted as an active creator who brought the soul and body together with specific purposes in view.
All passages →Logoscosmology
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The divine ordering principle mediates between the transcendent God and the material world through structured proportions. [quarantine-w4: logos x platonism — see rellm data/quarantine/dossiers.jsonl]
All passages →Numerical Mysticismtheology
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage details a specific mathematical structure for the universe using ratios like 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3 to define cosmic proportions.
All passages →Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The universe is described as a 'one and solitary' entity moving in a circle that converses with itself.
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