Plato: Critias

This paper approaches the Critias straightforwardly as a work of political philosophy but gives greater attention to Athens’ opponent, Atlantis, whose founding, political organization, and eventual decline each offer important lessons about the aims of legislation and political life. I begin by comparing the foundation of the two cities as presented in Critias’ myth, with a special focus on the role of divine persuasion (I). I then describe the political organization of Athens and Atlantis, showing how they reflect the different (...) ways in which their founding gods exercised divine persuasion (II). Next, I focus on the decline of Atlantis and the causes behind it (III). Finally (IV), I discuss the lessons that I think can be gathered from the foregoing sections and show how the themes that emerge from the comparison of the two cities anticipate their more extensive exploration in the Laws. (shrink)

This paper analyses in-depth Proclus’ testimonium to Crantor on Plato’s Atlantis (fr. 8 Mette). The expression ἱστορία ψιλή we read in the evidence should be interpreted in light of Proclus’ effort to classify the various readings of the Atlantis story (and of Platonic myths in general). From the elements at our disposal, we may tentatively infer that Crantor upheld a metaphorical (i. e. didactic) reading not only of the creation account of the Timaeus, but of the Atlantis myth as well. (...) This metaphorical reading did not deny the ‘truth’ of the fiction (in some way confirmed by the phrase λόγος ἀληθής in the Platonic lemma commented by Proclus), but we may guess it surely ruled out any plausibility of the ‘historicity’ of the Atlantis story. (shrink)

In this article, we present a proposal for a synthetic theoretical approach of the myth of Atlantis, firstly presented by Plato in his Timaeus, and, subsequently, systematically approached by Proclus. Τhis is first and foremost a literary subject which in Proclus’ texts, involves many disciplines and causes general interest for research. The main question to deal with since Plato’s era is whether this is a myth or a true story. In our view, Proclus’ comments on the Timaeus appear to be (...) quite important, for they constitute the most detailed and extended original source, which provides a number of interdisciplinary and interpretative approaches. In every case, four are the pillars according to Proclus for any research on the Atlantis hypothesis. Specifically, for Proclus one should approach the story from a historical, natural-scientific/geophysical, epistemological and philosophical point of view. That is to say, Syrianus’ student perspective is as synthetic as possible. Methodologically, he combines the scientific-analytical with the philosophical-synthetic and the theological-hermeneutical aspect, in order to give answers to particular questions. In this way, he aims to avoid simplistic readings and scientific dogmatism and to show a new spirit with decisive axiological judgments. In our general approach which follows we mostly attempt to show how in his commentary Proclus brings together natural sciences with ethics and politics in a frame in which the natural world appears as an authentic reflection of the metaphysical level. (shrink)

The present study is an analysis of Plato’s _Timaeus-Critias_ composition process, from the point of view of discourse modeling. It intends to show that the dialogue is distinguished by an insightful articulation of composition techniques, which combine the pictorial and dramatic aspects of poetic _mimesis_. Establishing the Panateneias as an implicit reference, the work presents the performance of a sequence of narratives, produced as true discursive images. Platonic originality is revealed in _Timaeus-Critias_, therefore, as the accomplishment of a formal construction (...) that is both dramatic and representational, through a singular mimetic agency of discursive forms. (shrink)

In this essay, I argue that the ordering of the speeches in Plato’s Timaeus indicates two things. First, each speech represents one of the three genera or principles Timaeus discusses. Socrates’ summary represents the forms, Critias’ Atlantis story embodies Becoming, and Timaeus’ cosmology serves as χώρα. Second, Timaeus responds to the other speakers in the order in which they were presented before beginning again with χώρα. Once Timaeus introduces χώρα, one of his tasks is laying the groundwork for Critias’ war (...) story. My reading would prioritize the moral and political underpinnings of Timaeus’ cosmology over the more scientific or metaphysical interpretations of the text. (shrink)

This paper explores the prevailing readings of the Atlantis story. The purpose of this paper is to show how interpretative judgements on the narrator’s intentions, the objectives of the characters, and the genre and the development of the story prepares the grounds for the political understanding of Athens and Atlantis. In this way, I will show how the dramatic framework influences the expression of political thought. I argue that the most important dramatic feature of the story is Critias’ interaction with (...) Socrates and Timaeus, which explains why Critias composes two speeches that are essentially dedicated to the question of political origins. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This book aims to bring together all the evidence relevant for understanding Plato's Atlantis Story, providing the Greek text of the relevant Platonic texts (the start of Plato's Timaeus and the incomplete Critias), together with a commentary on language and content, and a full vocabulary of Greek words. This essential work also offers a new translation of these texts and a full introduction. The book has two special objectives. The introduction offers a full-scale interpretative reading of the Atlantis story, focused (...) on the philosophical meaning of the story and the significance of Plato's presentation, and responding to recent scholarly discussion of these questions. In conjunction with the new translation, this introduction provides a point of entry to a fascinating story for a wide range of readers. The introduction also discusses the question whether the story had a factual basis, and assesses possible links with Minoan Crete. Secondly, the Greek text (the Oxford Classical text) and commentary are juxtaposed and presented in "bite-size" chunks making it easy to use and helpful especially for students using the book to improve their Greek. The notes provide full grammatical and linguistic help as well as pointers on the philosophical content and presentation, supported by the translation and complete vocabulary of Greek terms. The book is a second edition of one published in 1980. This edition has a new translation, a much fuller introduction, revised and updated notes and a new commentary format. (shrink)

In The Textual Tradition of Plato's Timaeus and Critias, Gijsbert Jonkers presents a new examination of the medieval manuscripts of both Platonic dialogues, an overview of the ancient tradition and a vast collection of ancient testimonia.

In this paper, we highlight a number of difficulties concerning the relationship between the Critias and theT imaeus, notably a contradiction between Timaeus 27a-b and Critias 108a-c. On this basis we argue that the Critias must be considered spurious.

There has been much scholarly disagreement concerning Plato’s participation in the mid-fourth century debates over Athens’s ancestral constitution ( patrios politeia). This disunity stems from contrasting views about the relationship between philosophy and Athenian politics in Plato’s writings. Recently, several political theorists have reoriented our general understanding about Plato’s complex involvement with Athenian politics. However, these discussions do not discuss Plato’s specific relationship with patrios politeia. In order to bridge this gap, I turn to two dialogues within the later Platonic (...) corpus: Timaeus and Critias. By examining the Atlantis myth that spans both dialogues, I discuss how Plato uses the story both to comment on and critique the democratic Athenian constitution. At the same time, however, Plato also advances a unique veneration of democracy by asserting that it is the politeia of the gods. In this way, I argue that Timaeus-Critias contributes a valuable new perspective in the ongoing debate regarding the relationship between Plato’s philosophy and democracy. (shrink)

This paper aims to explain the very sharp contrast between the portraits of Critias found in Plato and Xenophon. While depicted as a monster in Xenophon's Hellenica, Critias is described with at most mild criticism in Plato's writings. Each of these portraits is eccentric in its own way, and these eccentricities can be explained by considering the apologetic and polemic aims each author pursued. In doing so, I hope to shed light not only on the relations between these portraits and (...) the works that contain them, but also on the personal relations between Plato and Xenophon and their manner of expressing them in literary productions. (shrink)

Recent Plato scholarship has grown increasingly comfortable with the notion that Plato’s art of writing brings his readers into the dialogue, challenging them to respond to deliberate errors or lacunae in the text. Drawing inspiration from Stanley Fish’s seminal reading of Satan’s speeches in Paradise Lost, this paper considers the narrative of Timaeus as deliberately unreliable, and argues that the actively critical reader is “the missing fourth” with which the dialogue famously begins. By continuing Timaeus with Critias—a dialogue that ends (...) with a missing speech—Plato points to the kind of reader he expects: one who can answer Critias’ question : ὡς μὲν γὰρ οὐκ εὖ τὰ παρὰ σοῦ λεχθέντα εἴρηται, τίς ἂν ἐπιχειρήσειεν ἔμφρων λέγειν. (shrink)

A partir de un análisis del tratamiento que hace Heródoto del problema de laprosperidad y la caída en su historia de Creso, este trabajo traza algunaslíneas de contacto entre este relato y el relato platónico sobre el ascenso ycaída de la Atlántida, fábula ejemplar acerca de la decadencia de la comunidadpolítica, para intentar mostrar en qué medida la causa de la caída de lapoderosa isla desaparecida es el alejamiento de sus habitantes de la phrónesis.Al hacerlo, habremos contribuido también –como un (...) objetivo complementario—a subrayar, con nuevas hipótesis, una cierta interpretación acercadel lugar que tiene el mito de la Atlántida en la unidad y coherencia delconjunto que forman los diálogos Timeo y Critias. En lo que sigue, se analizaprimero (acápite 2) la diferencia central entre la concepción de la prosperidadde Heródoto respecto la de que es manifiesta en los poetas araicos. Ensegundo lugar (acápite 3), se analizan las influencias más superficiales ymás profundas de la concepción de Heródoto en la construcción platónicadel mito de la Atlántida; allí se buscará mostrar la presencia estratégica quetienen, en el Timeo y el Critias, las alusiones a la phrónesis. Se buscaráluego (acápite 4) una confirmación ulterior de la influencia de Heródoto enPlatón observando la construcción narrativa de las figuras de Solón y sobretodo de Creso. Finalmente (acápite 5) se ofrecen algunas hipótesis provisionalessobre las razones que llevan a Platón a finalizar su mito hundiendo nosólo a la decadente Atlántida sino también a la “victoriosa” Atenas. (shrink)

This article presents evidence over which we stumbled while investigating a completely different part of the Platonic Corpus. While examining the ordinary working vocabulary of the doubtful dialogues and of those undisputed dialogues most readily compared with them, it seemed essential to have a representative sample of Plato's allegedly 'middle' and 'late' dialogues also. The real surprise came when the Critias was included, showing some frequencies not previously observed in Platonic dialogues. This prompted treatment of the Timaeus also, some of (...) which showed comparable peculiarities. The most distinctive feature was the increase in the rate of the definite article from around 8% of total vocabulary in dialogues assumed to be early, or around 10% in Laws, to some 14% in sizeable parts of the Timaeus-Critias, where Plato seemed no less interested in the literary credentials of his creations than elsewhere. Tests intended for application to our original set of problems were yielding results that appeared to bear on a number of problems central to the interpretation of the Timaeus-Critias. (shrink)

Plato’s Timaeus is usually taken to be a sequel to the Republic which shows the cosmological basis of Plato’s politics. In this article I challenge the traditional understanding by arguing that neither Critias’s nor Timaeus’s speech performs the assigned function. The contrast between Timaeus’s monologue and the silently listening Socrates dramatizes the philosophical differences between investigations of “the human things,” like those conducted by Socrates, and attempts to demonstrate the intelligible, mathematically calculable order of the sensible natural world, like that (...) of Timaeus. (shrink)

A celebration of John Michel's insights and far-reaching influence, revealing his pivotal role in alternative culture over the last five decades.

Plato's Timaeus is traditionally read as a work dedicated to the sole purpose of describing the origin and nature of the cosmos, as a straightforward attempt by Plato to produce a peri phuseos treatise. In accord with this reading, the body of Timaeus' monologue is then seen as nothing more than an attempt by Plato to convey his own cosmological doctrines. I propose an alternative to the view that the Timaeus is nothing more than a textbook of Platonic physics. The (...) Timaeus is rather squarely focused on the human being, in her moral and political dimensions, and on her relation to the natural world as a whole. Ultimately, this account of the human being is intended to provide part of the answer to the question of how society can produce good citizens and leaders, and thus serves to provide a theoretical basis for the practices of paideia. When viewed in this light many of the curious features of the Timaeus appear less strange. The various parts of the dialogue: the dramatic introduction, Critias' tale of the Ancient Athenians, and Timaeus' monologue can be seen as each contributing to an investigation of a single topic. It further allows us to understand why Plato chooses to employ Timaeus the Locrian as the principle speaker of the dialogue rather than Socrates. Finally, when read in this way, the Timaeus no longer appears as an outlier in the Platonic corpus, as a work devoted to a radically different subject matter than the rest of his writings. It can be seen as dedicated to the same issues which preoccupied Plato throughout his entire life, as about the determination of the best life and providing the tools with which to realize it. (shrink)

'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.'Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times (...) intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials.The unfinished companion piece, Critias, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams. (shrink)

Se justifican tres tesis. Primera, el sentido mítico-religioso tradicional de la justicia como castigo de la [palabra en griego] quedó desacreditado durante la Guerra del Peloponeso, como bien lo muestra Tucídides. Segunda, en tiempos de Aristóteles, tal sentido ya habría desaparecido en favor de un nuevo paradigma basado en el concepto de [palabra en griego]. Tercera, la obra de Platón constituye uno de los últimos intentosde recuperar ese sentido mítico-religioso tradicional tratando de interpretar la Guerra del Peloponeso a través del (...) mecanismo del castigo de la [palabra en griego] . --- “The notion of ‘hybris’ in Plato’s Critias”. The following theses are basically justified: (1) the traditional mythical-religious sense of justice as punishment of the [greek word] was discredited during the Peloponnesian War, as Thucydide shows. (2) In times of Aristotle such a sense had already disappeared in favour of a new paradigm based on the concept of [greek word]. (3) Plato’s work constitutes one of the last attempts to recover the traditional mythical-religious sense trying to interpret the Peloponnesian War through the mechanism of punishment of the [greek word]. (shrink)

Plato’s Timaeus–Critias juxtaposes a long description of our universe in the making with a discourse on human nature. The latter, confined to Critias, flanks Timaeus’ full-blown cosmogony without clearly articulating how, if at all, do the apparently so different stories fit together. By contrast to many precedent efforts at articulating their relation, the article tries to take seriously Timaeus’ distinction between the two kinds of divinities, whereby he opposes celestial bodies together with the ensouled physical universe to the traditional gods. (...) It seems possible that the two kinds of gods correspond to the duality of human nature itself, and thus to its peculiar position at the juncture of the immortal and mortal parts of the universe. Plato’s recourse to gods distinct from the celestial objects of intellectual assimilation then has nothing to do with theology in some doctrinal sense, but serves to indicate a link between divine and human capacities of deliberation and practical action. Reread in this light, the story told by Critias and several passages from the speech of Timaeus indicate the limits of theoretical knowledge and point towards the problematic ontology of the deliberating mind and the puzzling status of artefacts including man and the universe. In this context, the article re-examines the issue of human civilization and war, and also the question of great cataclysms. Presented by Critias, these issues are revelatory of the Platonic conception of human city not as an expression of man’s natural gregariousness but as a carefully composed artefact. The article concludes that, under the overlays of pseudo-history and cosmology, Socratic colours may well be more prominent than we usually assume. (shrink)

In this paper I show that the story of Atlantis, first sketched in Plato's Timaeus and Critias, has been artificially shrouded in mystery since antiquity. While it has been thought from Proclus to the close of the twentieth century that Plato's immediate followers were divided on the issue of whether the story was meant to be historically true, this results from a simple misunderstanding of what historia had meant when the early Academic Crantor was first being cited as an exponent (...) of a literal rather than an allegorical interpretation. The term was then applied to straightforward stories that were told as if they were true. Iamblichus argued for a deeper meaning that did not exclude the truth, and Proclus’ belief in an inspired Plato leads him to assume that a Platonic historia must be true. Hence he misreads Crantor as having been committed to historical truth and opposes him to allegorical interpreters. Scholars have continued to see Crantor as a proponent of the historical Atlantis without adequate examination of the evidence, an indication of our own need to preserve the tantalizing uncertainties of such powerful stories. (shrink)

The author asks two questions. The first, is war really the best action of a polis how the introductory conversation of the Timaeus suggests. The second, has been the Sokrates’ desire to see his ideal polis in action fulfilled in the Timaeus-Critias sequence. The approach to the problems seems to be found in the Laws, where these two questions are turned to this one: might war be the pattern for a lawgiver.

Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented (...) upon are Plato's concepts of 'necessity' and 'teleology', the nature of the 'receptacle', the relationship between the soul and the body, the use of perception in cosmology, and the work's peculiar monologue form. The unifying theme is teleology: Plato's attempt to show the cosmos to be organised for the good. A central lesson which emerges is that the Timaeus is closer to Aristotle's physics than previously thought. (shrink)

Plato's legend of Atlantis has become notorious among scholars as the absurdest lie in literature. Atlantis Destroyed explores the possibility that the account given by Plato is historically true. Rodney Castleden first considers the location of Atlantis re-examining two suggestions put forward in the early twentieth century; Minoan Crete and Minoan Thera. He outlines the latest research findings on Knossos and Bronze Age Thera, discussing the material culture, trade empire and agricultural system, writing and wall paintings, art, religion and society (...) of the Minoan civilization. Castleden demonstrates the many parallels between Plato's narrative and the Minoan Civilization in the Aegean. Fired by the imagination a new vision of Atlantis has arisen over the last one hundred and fifty years as a lost utopia. Rodney Castleden discusses why this picture arose and xplains how it has become confused with Plato's genuine account. (shrink)

"Creation and Procreation in Plato's Cosmology: A Reading of the Timaeus," shows that the maternal feminine principle is at once systematically excluded and yet logically necessary, that it is demeaned as female and then positively and metaphorically appropriated as male, thus giving the maternal feminine an uncanny presence in Plato's philosophy. This strategic maneuver is exposed in Plato's work at three levels: cosmic, human, and mythic; the cosmic sets the standard which the human strives to imitate and which the mythic (...) approximates but only as a pretense. At the cosmic level, the creation of the universe is not an erotic affair, but an artistic act performed by the male artisan god acting as rational intelligence persuading errant necessity to bring most of the disorderly and recalcitrant materials to the best end. Although this creative act of the father effectively effaces the maternity of the cosmic mother, Chora , it also transcends the violent incorporation of the mother in Hesiod's Theogony. At the human level, man can't suspend Eros in procreation and so a woman's maternity remains intact; however, as is consistent with ancient Greek culture, the male imitates the cosmos by controlling the female with such institutions as marriage and motherhood. In addition, man can imitate the cosmos by using his reason to control his emotions , ideally acting like Socrates who sublimates his Eros and pursues philosophy, thus giving birth to ideas; while women, on the other hand, remain tied to the body, and thus unable to pursue philosophy. At the mythic level, referring to the Republic and the Critias as a prelude in the Timaeus, the human mother is denied in favor of an abstract earth mother , Eros is drained from the guardians' life, and maternity is made easy for the guardian women who are more masculine than feminine. Moreover, their affiliation with Athena, the virgin warrior goddess, and her tenuous ties to maternity, further denies maternity to women. Finally, we know that this mythic ideal that eliminates Eros and denies maternity to women is only a pretense. (shrink)

“One, two, three—but where’s the fourth?” When Socrates counts to open the paired dialogues Timaeus-Critias he points to the three who are present, but he points most emphatically to a fourth who is absent—“sick,” Timaeus reports. Who are one, two, and three? But especially who, is the fourth, that ostentatiously absent fourth?