The doctrines he [Plato] approved are these. He held that the soul is immortal, that by transmigration it puts on many bodies,[1] and that it has a numerical first principle, whereas the first principle of the body is geometrical;[2] and he defined soul as the idea of vital breath diffused in all directions. He held that it [soul] is self-moved and tripartite, the rational part of it having its seat in the head, the passionate part about the heart, while the appetitive is placed in the region of the navel and the liver.[3]
And from the centre outwards it encloses the body on all sides in a circle, and is compounded of elements, and, being divided at harmonic intervals, it forms two circles which touch one another twice; and the interior circle, being slit six times over, makes seven circles in all. And this interior circle moves by way of the diagonal to the left and the other by way of the side to the right. Hence also the one is supreme, being a single circle, for the interior circle was divided; the former is the circle of the Same, the latter that of the Other, whereby he means that the motion of the soul is the motion of the universe together with the revolutions of the planets.[4]
And the division from the centre to the circumference which is adjusted in harmony with the soul being thus determined, the soul knows that which is, and adjusts it proportionately because she has the elements proportionally disposed in herself. And when the circle of the Other revolves alright, the result is opinion; but the regular motion of the circle of the Same comes knowledge. He set forth two universal principles, God and matter, and he calls God mind and cause...[5]
The Pythagoreans, whose feelings Plato often adopted, also define music as the perfect union of contrary things, union within multiplicity, even accord within discord. For music does not only coordinate rhythm and modulation, it puts order into the whole system; its end is to unite and to coordinate, and God also is the arranger of discordant things, and his greatest work is to reconcile with one another things which were enemies, by means of the laws of music and medicine. It is also through music that the harmony of things and the government of the universe is maintained, for that which is harmony in the world, good legislation is in the state, and temperance in the family. It has indeed the power to bring order and union to the multitude. Now the efficacy and use of this science, says Plato, is seen in four of the elements belonging to humanity; mind, body, family, and the State. Indeed, these four things have need of being well ordered and constituted.
We can again compare philosophy to the initiation into things truly holy, and to the revelation of the authentic mysteries. There are five parts in initiation; the first is the preliminary purification, because participation in the mysteries must not be indiscriminately given to all those who desire it, but there are some aspirants whom the harbinger of the path separates out, such as those of impure hands, or whose speech lacks prudence; but even those who are not rejected must be subjected to certain purifications. After this purification comes the tradition of sacred things (which is initiation proper). In the third place comes the ceremony called the full vision (the highest degree of the initiation). The fourth stage, which is the end [telos] and the goal of the full vision, is the binding of the head and the placement of the crowns, in order that he who has received the sacred things, becomes capable in his turn of transmitting the tradition to others, either through the ‘dadouchos’ (the torch-bearing ceremonies), or through ‘hierophantism’ (interpretation of sacred things), or by some other priestly work. Finally the fifth stage, which is the crowning of all that has preceded it, is to be a ‘Friend of the Deity’, and to enjoy the felicity which consists of Living in a familiar commerce with Him.
It is in absolutely the same manner that the tradition of Platonic reason follows. Indeed one begins from childhood with a certain consistent purification in the study of appropriate mathematical theories. According to Empedocles, “it is necessary that he who wishes to submerge himself in the pure wave of the five fountains begins by purifying himself of his defilements.”
And Plato also said one must seek purification in the five mathematical sciences which are arithmetic, geometry, stereometry, music and astronomy. The tradition of philosophical, logical, political and natural principles correspond to initiation. He calls full vision the occupation of the spirit with intelligible things, with true existence and with ideas. Finally, he says that the binding and the crowning of the head must be understood as the faculty which is given to the adept by those who have taught him, to lead others to the same contemplation. The fifth stage is that consummate felicity which they begin to enjoy, and which, according to Plato, “identifies them with the Deity, in so far as that is possible.”[6]
The entire world is a sphere and the earth, which is itself a spheroid, is placed in the middle. That the earth is in the center of the universe and that it is but a point in relationship to the size of the universe; this is what must be established before anything else. A precise exposition of this doctrine would require such lengthy consideration of so many writings that it would instead be sufficient to summarise here what we have to say, by recalling the summary notions transmitted to us by Adrastus.
And first of all, the earth is spherical from east to west, the rising and setting of the same stars certainly prove this.
It is again evident that the earth is spherical from north to south; in fact for those going southward, for the measure that they advance, many stars, which are always visible for us in their movement around the pole, have a rising and setting.
...on the contrary, when one goes from south towards the north, many of the stars which are seen rising and setting in the south disappear entirely,... Since the earth appears convex from all parts it must be spherical.
The earth is spherical and placed at the center of the world. If it were removed from this position it would not have half the sky above it and half below... That the volume of the earth has no perceptible relationship with the expanse of the universe, that it occupies but a point in this universe, is shown by the points of the sundials in every inhabited place on earth. They can in fact be taken for the center of the solar orbit, for in changing place, one cannot observe any perceptible parallax... It is evident then, that the whole earth is only a point with respect to the entire sphere of the sun and even more so with respect to the sphere of the stars. It is for this reason that half the world, or nearly so, is always apparent to our eyes. [7]
What I am trying to say, I know is startling, and might be thought unbecoming in a man of our years, but the plain truth is that a man who knows of a study which he believes sublime, true, beneficial to society, and perfectly acceptable to God, simply cannot refrain from calling attention to it.
Why, my friends, at this moment, all our Hellenic world, as I may fairly say, habitually charges high gods, sun and moon, falsely.
We say that they, and certain heavenly bodies associated with them, never keep to the same path, which is why we call them planets.
Well then Megillus and Clinas, that is just the reason why I am now insisting that our citizens and their young people must learn enough of all the facts about the divinities of the sky to prevent blasphemy of them...
I will do my best. The fact is, my friends, that the belief that the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies are ‘wandering stars’ of any sort is not true. The very reverse is the truth - each of these bodies always revolves in the same orbit and in one orbit, not many, for all that it looks to be moving in several, and again the actually swiftest of them is wrongly believed to be the slowest and the slowest the swiftest. Well now, suppose these are the real facts, but we hold a discrepant view about them... But when we actually make the same mistake today about our deities is now, when transferred to this context, no laughing matter, and no godly opinion either...[8]
Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible... If the universal frame had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other terms, but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are always compacted not by one mean but two, God placed water and air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the same proportion so far as was possible - as fire is to air so air is to water; and as air is to water so is water is to earth - and thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. And for these reasons, and out of such - elements which are in number four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonized by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship, and having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand of any other than the framer.
Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four elements, for the creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside. His intention was, in the first place, that the animal should be as far as possible a perfect whole and of perfect parts. Secondly, that it should be one, leaving no remnants out of which another such world might be created, and also that it should be free from old age and unaffected by disease. Considering that if heat and cold and other powerful forces surround composite bodies and attack them from without, they decompose them before their time, and by bringing diseases and old age upon them make them waste away for this cause and on these grounds he made the world one whole, having every part entire and being therefore perfect and not liable to old age and disease.
And he gave to the world the figure which was suitable and also natural. Now to the animal which was to comprehend all animals, that figure would be suitable which comprehends within itself all other figures. Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the center, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures, for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike. This he finished off, making the surface smooth all around for many reasons in the first place, because the living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen, nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard, and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed, nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him, for there was nothing besides him. Of design he was created thus his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against anyone the creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands, nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking. But the movement suited to his spherical form: was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence, and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.
Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be; he made it smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the center a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the center 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 when he put 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. From the being which is indivisible and unchangeable, and from that kind of being which is distributed among bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of being. He did likewise with the same and the different, blending together the indivisible kind of each with that which is portioned out in bodies. Then, taking the three new elements, he mingled them all into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the different into the same. When he had mingled them with the intermediate kind of being and out of three made one, be again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the different, and being.
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 [that is, between 1, 2, 4, 8], and the triple [that is, 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 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 interval, 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. This entire compound he divided lengthwise into two parts which it joined to one another at the center like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting point, and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and the moon of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he carried round by the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to the left. And he gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided, but the inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another. And three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion.
Now when the creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together and united them center to center. The soul, interfused everywhere from the center to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible and partakes of reason and harmony, and, being made by the best of intellectual and everlasting natures, is the best of things created. And because she is composed of the same and of the different and of being these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching anything which has being, whether dispersed in parts or undivided, is stirred through all her powers to declare the sameness or difference of that thing and some other, and to what individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way and how and when, both in the world of generation and the world of immutable being.
And when reason, which works with equal truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same - in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved - when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly imparts the intimations of sense to the whole soul, then arise opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is concerned with the rational and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily achieved. And if anyone affirms that in which these two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very opposite of the truth.
When the father and creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original, and as this was an eternal living being, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fullness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity, and this image we call time. For there were no days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he constructed the heaven he created them also. They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to eternal being, for we say that it ‘was,’ or ‘is,’ or ‘will be,’ but the truth is that ‘is’ alone is properly attributed to it, and that ‘was’ and ‘will be’ are only to be spoken of becoming in time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same forever cannot become older or younger by time, nor can it be said that it came into being in the past, or has come into being now, or will come into being in the future, nor is it subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which generation is the cause. These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of number. Moreover when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the nonexistent is nonexistent - all these are inaccurate modes of expression. But perhaps this whole subject will be more suitably discussed on some other occasion.[9]
Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created togethe,; if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature that it might resemble this as far as was possible, for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been and is and will be in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time. The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of` time, and when he had made their several bodies, he placed them in the orbits in which the circle of the other was revolving - in seven orbits seven stars. First, there was the moon in the orbit nearest the earth, and the next the sun, in the second orbit above the earth; then came the morning star and the star said to be sacred to Hermes, moving in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite direction, and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer regularly overtake and are overtaken by each other...[10]
That there might be some visible measure of their relative swiftness and slowness as they proceeded on their eight courses, God lighted a fire which we call the sun, in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it might give light to the whole of heaven, and that the animals, as many as nature intended, might participate in number, learning arithmetic from the revolution of the same and the like....[11]
And yet there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving. After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars as in their heavenly progress received reversals of motion, to the end that the created heaven might be as like as possible to the prefect and intelligible animal, by imitation of its eternal nature.[12]
ATHENIAN: We maintain first that there are two sorts of being, the soul being one and body the other;... that soul is more excellent than body. The first we shall, of course, take to be intelligent, the second unintelligent; the first sovereign, the second subject; the first the universal cause, the second a cause of no effect whatsoever. Hence to say that all we behold in the heavens is due to some other source, and not produced in the fashion we describe by soul and body, is pure folly and unreason. And thus, if our account of the whole matter is to be victorious, and all these creatures to be convincingly proved divine, one or other of two things must be said of them. Either it must be right to hymn them as very gods, or we must believe them to be likenesses of gods - images, as it were, fashioned by the gods themselves. They are the work of no foolish or trivial authors. As we have said, one of these two views must be adopted and the images thus set up must be worshiped with higher honours than all others. For none can ever be found fairer and more accessible to all mankind, or set in a more excellent region and more eminent in purity, majesty, and fullness of life than has been shown in the fashioning of them all. As concerns gods then at present we will attempt no more than this. Now that we have discovered two kinds of creature, both visible, the one, so we say, immortal, the other that made of earth-mortal, we shall try to give the most faithful account warranted by reasonable conjecture of the three intermediate sorts out of the five which lie between these extremes. Next to fire we will place aether assuming that soul fashions from it creatures which, as with the other kinds, have in the main the character of its own substance, though with lesser portions of the other kinds as bonds of union; and that after aether soul fashions another sort of creature out of air, and a third from water. By the fabrication of them all, we may suppose, soul has filled the universe throughout with living things, making all possible use of all the kinds of body, and communicating life to all; the series of creations begins with the visible divinities, and has its second, third, fourth, and fifth terms, closing in ourselves, mankind.
As for such gods as Zeus, Hera, and the rest, a man may give them any rank he pleases, so long as he conforms to this law of ours and holds fast to our principle. But, it is, of course, the stars and the bodies we can perceive existing along with them that must be named first as the visible gods, and the greatest, most worshipful, and clear-sighted of them all; after them and before others; come in order the daemons and the creatures of the air, who hold the third and midmost rank, doing the office of interpreters, and should be peculiarly honored in our prayers that they may transmit comfortable messages. Both sorts of creature, those of aether and those of air, who hold the rank next to them, we shall say, are wholly transparent however close they are to us they go undiscerned. Being, however, is of a kind that is quick to learn and of retentive memory; they read all our thoughts and regard the good and noble with signal favour, but the very evil with deep aversion. For they are not exempt from feeling pain, whereas a god who enjoys the fullness of deity is clearly above both pain and pleasure, though possessed of all-embracing wisdom and knowledge. The universe being thus full throughout of living creatures, they all, so we shall say, act as interpreters, and interpreters of all things, to one another and to the highest gods, seeing that the middle ranks of creatures can flit so lightly over the earth and the whole universe. As for the fifth and last of our substances, water, the safest guess would be that what is formed from it is a demigod, and that it is sometimes to be seen, but anon conceals itself and becomes invisible, and thus perplexes us by its indistinct appearance. Since, then, these five sorts of creatures must surely exist, when it comes to beliefs of individuals or whole societies originating in the intercourse of some of them with us - appearances in dreams of the night, oracular and prophetic voices heard by the whole or the sick, or communications in the last hours of life - and these have been, as they will be hereafter, the sources of many a widespread cult when it comes to these, I say, no legislator of even the slenderest sense will presume to innovate, and so divert his city to a devoutness with no sure foundations. Nor yet will he prohibit obedience to the inherited usages about sacrifices, since in this matter he has no knowledge whatsoever, as, indeed, tis impossible that mankind should have any. But it follows, does it not, from the same argument that men are cravens if they have not the courage to tell us of the gods who are really visible, and make it plain that these other deities go unworshiped and miss the honours which rightly belong to them? And yet something of the kind actually happens among us. Suppose, for example, one of us had actually seen sun or moon coming into being and watching over all of us, and had never spoken of it, from some inability to tell the story, or suppose he saw them left without their due honours, and yet felt no eagerness to do his part to bring them into a position of conspicuous honour, no anxiety to cause festivals and sacrifices to be appointed for them, or to set apart a time for each of them and assign them their periods of greater, or maybe, lesser ‘years.’ If such a man were called a coward, would not the name be pronounced by himself, or by any man of understanding, to be fairly earned?
CLINIAS: Why, surely, sir, a craven and nothing else.
ATHENIAN: Well, friend Clinias, I must confess that this is plainly my case at this moment.
CLINIAS: And how so?
ATHENIAN: Let me tell you that so far as I have been able to discover my achievements are nothing wonderful, but readily attainable by anyone else - there are to be found in the whole compass of heaven eight sister powers. Three of them belong, one to the sun, one to the moon, and the third to the stars of which we have lately spoken, and there are five others. Now of all these powers, and the beings who march in them of their own motion, or if you will, make the journey in their chariots, I would have none of us fondly believe that some are gods, but others not so, or that some are true-begotten, but others what it would be blasphemy for any of us to call them. All - so we must one and all declare and affirm - are brothers; and each has a brother’s portion. When we appoint them their honours, we are not to give the year to one and the month to another, but leave the rest without a portion or a time in which each completes his circuit, and so does his part to perfect the order which law, divinest of things that are, has set before our eyes. In the happy man this order awakens first wonder, and then the passion to learn all of it that mortality may, for ‘tis thus, as he believes, he will spend his days best and with most good fortune, and after his decease reach the proper abodes of virtue. As he has been initiated into the true and real mysteries by receiving wisdom in her unity in a mind which is itself a unity, he will henceforth have face to face fruition of the most glorious of realities so far as his vision can reach. The task still left on our hands at present is to say how many and who these divinities are, for our statement will assuredly never be found false. Now I can affirm for certain no more than this. There are, as I repeat, eight powers, of which three have been named and five are still left. The fourth orbit, or circuit, as likewise the fifth, is roughly of equal speed with the sun and, on the whole account, neither slower nor faster. Of the three the leader must be that which has a mind equal to the work. We will call them the orbits of the sun, the morning star, and of a third, whose name I cannot state, as it is unknown - the reason for this being that the first man to observe these bodies was a non-Hellene. The first observers were so by the excellence of their summer climate, which in Egypt and Syria is so notable they had a full view of the stars, we may say, all the year round, as clouds and rains are perpetually banished from their quarter of the world. Their observations have been universally diffused, among ourselves as well as elsewhere and have stood the test a vast indeed incalculable, lapse of years. So we may confidently give these bodies their place in our legislation - ‘tis surely not for men of sense to honour some divinities but disregard others - and if they have received no names, the fact must be explained as we have explained it. Though they have at least been designated after certain gods - the morning star, which is also the evening star is commonly reputed to be that of Aphrodite; a most appropriate name for a Syrian legislator to choose, and that which keeps pace at once with it and with the sun, the Star of Hermes. We are further to reckon three other orbits of bodies which, like the moon and sun; revolve to the right. There is still one to be spoken of, the eighth, which may be called in a special sense the Cosmos, and this god moves in the opposite sense to all the others, carrying round the rest with him, as might be supposed by men whose knowledge in these matters is slender. But as much as we know for certain, we are bound to declare, as we are doing, for the true and genuine wisdom can be seen even by one who enjoys but a little sound and divine insight to lie along these lines. There are thus three stars left. One of them, the slowest-moving of all, is called by some that of Cronus, that which is next slowest we should call the star of Zeus, and the next slowest after him the star of Ares, and his has the ruddiest colour of them all. All this is easy enough to remark when someone has pointed it out; but, as I say, someone who has discerned it has to lead the way.
There is another thing of which any Greek should be aware. We Greeks enjoy a geographical situation which is exceptionally favourable to the attainment of excellence. Its merit should be sought in the fact that it lies midway between winter and summer; it is our deficiency in respect of summer by comparison with the peoples of the other region which; as we said, has made us later than they in discerning the order of these gods. But we may take it that whenever Greeks borrow anything from non-Greeks, they finally carry it to a higher perfection. So we should hold the same view of the subject now under discussion. Such matters are hard to discover with certainty, but there is every ground for the splendid hope that though the news of these gods and their worship has come to us from non-Greeks, the Greeks will learn to worship them all in a truly nobler and more righteous fashion than they, by the help of teaching from the oracle of Delphi and the cultus enjoined by our laws. And there is one fear no Greek should harbour the fear that ‘tis a forbidden thing for mortality to concern itself with the study of divinity. No, we should believe the clean contrary - that deity is neither unintelligent, nor ignorant of man’s nature but knows that, with itself for teacher, he will follow where he is led and learn the lessons he is taught. And deity is, of course, aware that this lesson of number and counting is the very thing: that it teaches and we learn. Deity unaware of this would be the most unintelligent of things; the proverb about not knowing one’s own identity would be true of it to the letter, if it felt wrath against the capable learner, and not rather a joy pure of all envy at seeing him growing in goodness by God’s aid. Now it is widely and reasonably held that in the old days, when men first began to have thoughts about the gods, their origin and character, and in some case... about the acts to which they first addressed themselves, tales were told which the sober minded could neither accept nor relish any more than they could the later versions in which the priority was given to fire, water and other bodies, and only a secondary place to soul and its marvels, and the mightier and more worshipful motion was said to be that into which it is native to body to put itself under the influence of heat and cold and other such causes, not that which soul imparts to body and to herself. But now that we teach the soul once implanted in body, quite naturally imparts motion and revolution to the body and to herself;....[13]
[After 12 day’s journey Er and his companions came to a place] whence they discerned, extended from above throughout the heaven and the earth, a straight light like a pillar, most resembling the rainbow, but brighter and purer... and they saw there at the middle of the light the extremities of its fastenings stretched from heaven, for this light was the girdle of the heavens... And from the extremities was stretched the spindle of Necessity, through which all orbits turned. [There were eight concentric whorls inside one another with the shaft fixed to the eighth] Now the first and outermost whorl [Fixed Stars] had the broadest circular rim, that of the sixth [Venus]was second, that of the third was the fourth [Mars], and the fourth was that of the eighth [Moon], fifth that of the seventh [Sun], sixth that of the fifth [Mercury], seventh that of the third [Jupiter], eighth that of the second [Saturn].
And that of the greatest was spangled [Fixed Stars], that of the seventh brightest [Sun], that of the eighth [Moon] took its colour from the seventh, which shone upon it. The colours of the second and fifth [Saturn, Mercury] were like one another and more yellow that the two former. The third [Jupiter] had the whitest colour, and the fourth was of a ruddy hue [Mars] the sixth [Venus] was second in whiteness.
The staff turned as a whole in a circle with the same movement, but within the whole as it revolved the seven inner circles revolved gently in the opposite direction to the whole, and of these seven the eighth [Moon] moved most swiftly, and next and together with one another the seventh, sixth, and fifth [Sun, Venus, Mercury], and third in swiftness, as it appeared to them, moved the fourth [Mars] with returns upon it self, and the third [Jupiter] and fifth the second [Saturn]. And the spindle turned on the knees of Necessity, and up above each of the rims of the circles a Siren stood, borne around in its revolution and uttering one sound, one note, and from all eight was the concord of a single harmony.[14]
Cornford, in his translation of the Republic, p. 354 notes:
1. The breadth of the rims is most simply explained as standing for the supposed distances of the orbits from each other. Thus the breadth of the outermost rim would be the distance from the Fixed Stars and Saturn. The names of the planets are given in the Epinomis, which was either Plato’s latest work or composed by an immediate pupil: Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), Ares (Mars), Zeus (Jupiter), Kronos (Saturn). It is there implied that the Greeks took these names from the Syrians, substituting for Syrian gods the Greek gods identified with them.”
2. I understand this motion to be a self-motion of the three outer planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, slowing down the ‘contrary motion’ shared by all the planets, so that these three fall farther and farther behind the Sun - Venus - Mercury group and appear to be moving more slowly in the same sense.[15]
“...and all audible musical sound is given us for sake of harmony, which has motions akin to the orbits in our soul, and which, as anyone who makes intelligent use of the arts knows, is not to be used, as is commonly thought, to give irrational pleasure, but as a Heaven-sent ally in reducing to order and harmony any disharmony in the revolutions within us.”[16]
“The parts of the body should be looked after on the same principles, following the pattern of the universe...; but if he imitates what we have called the nurse and foster-mother of the universe, if possible allow his body to remain passively at rest; but will keep it in motion and check the internal and external disturbances to which nature subjects it by compensating movements in himself. By such moderate motions he can reduce to order and system the qualities and constituents that wander through the body according to their affinities, in the same way that we have described in speaking of the universe.”[17]
Plato speaks of harmony of the Universe and the body. This harmony is the “Music of the Spheres” which consists of the regular motion of the fixed stars and the “Wandering”, irregular motion, of the Planets. It must be noted that the Greek word for “Wanderer” is “ = planes”, whence comes our word “Planet”. This identification of the unity between the Planets and our internal motions of body and mind was the basis of understanding the workings of Astrology.
That the Stars and Planets actually affect our bodily and mental well being was the common and widespread belief in the whole of the ancient world. From this belief came the “Doctrine of Affinities”, which held that certain parts of the body, (or the whole natural world for that matter), were governed by certain of the Planets. This “doctrine” survived in western culture well into the nineteenth century, and remains in some parts of the East as a current alternative view of Nature. Some people plant their crops according to the arrangement of the heavens. Even today in the West many gardeners plant “by the Moon”.
This connection between the heavens and our natural world and indeed our bodies is the basis for the identity of the “Macro-Cosmos and the Micro-Cosmos” used by the Alchemists. The practicing Magician or Alchemist carefully studies the heavens to determine the timing of their “Workings”.
[1] Plato,, Timaeus 42b> & 90e.
[2] Plato,, Timaeus 54a>
[3] Plato,, Timaeus 69c> & 89e
[4] Plato,, Timaeus 36d - 37c
[5] Diogenes Laertius, III. 67 - 69, Loeb, vol. 1, pp. 335 - 337
[6] Theon of Smyrna, p. 9
[7] Theon of Smyrna, Mathematics Useful for the Study of Plato, pp. 7-9, 81-86
[8] Plato, Laws 820e - 822 & 966>
[9] Plato, Timaeus, 33b - 39d
[10] Plato, Laws, 38d
[11] Plato, Laws, 39b
[12] Plato, Laws, 39d
[13] Plato, Epinomis 984d - 988d
[14] Plato’s Republic, Myth of Er, Planets616c - 617e
[15] Cornford, translation of the Republic, p. 354
[16] Timaeus. 47e
[17] Timaeus, 88d - e
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