priori conditions of thought, the modes in which the Understanding brings order into the manifold of sense-experience, are set forth as due to impressions received by the Soul in its speculative journey round the Heavens, when it rode on its star-chariot, and saw the eternal laws of the Universe, and learned to move in orbits of rational thought, similar to those which rule the stars.

It will be convenient to begin our study of the Creation Myths with the Protagoras Myth. It is on a small scale, and by looking at it first the eye of imagination may perhaps be prepared for the contemplation of the vast Timaeus. Although it is only a small part of the Timaeus that the limits of this work allow me to translate and comment on, I would ask the reader to regard the whole book as one great Myth in which the Ideas of Soul, Cosmos, and God are set forth in great shapes for our wonder-in which the relation of the Created Soul-World Soul and Human Soul-to the Creator, the relation of the Human Soul to the Human Body, the Origin of Evil, the Hope of Salvation, and other things which concern our peace, are made visible. The Timaeus is a Myth, not a scientific treatise, although it was its fortune from the very first to be treated as if it were the latter. No other work of Plato's was so much read and commented on in antiquity, and throughout the Middle Age, as the Timaeus; and that chiefly because it was regarded as a compendium of natural science, all the more valuable because its "natural science" was not presented as something apart by itself, but "framed in a theological setting." Aristotle, of course, treats it au pied de la lettre.1 With the Christian Platonists it took rank as a scientific and theological authority along with the Book of Genesis,2 Dante's references to Plato's actual text are, I believe, all to passages contained in the Timaeus.

1 The reader may test the justice of this statement by referring to the passages quoted in the Index Arist. s. v. "Tipalos Platonis dialogus"; and see Zeller, Plato, p. 344, Eng. Transl.

2 "Numenius the Platonist speaks out plainly concerning his master: What is Plato but Moses Atticus?" (Henry More's Conjectura Cabbalistica, Preface, p. 3; ed. 1662.) It was practically as author of the Timaeus that Plato was Moses Atticus." Jowett (Dialogues of Plato, Introd. to Timaeus) has some interesting remarks on the text-"The influence which the Timaeus has exercised upon posterity is partly due to a misunderstanding."

See Moore's Studies in Dante, first series, pp. 156 ff., and Toynbee's Dante Dictionary, arts. "Platone" and "Timeo"."

Like the Politicus Myth, the Protagoras Myth is not spoken by Socrates, and Protagoras, the speaker, like the Eleatic Stranger in the Politicus, says that a Fable will come well from himself, an older man addressing younger menSocrates and the others present.

THE PROTAGORAS MYTH

CONTEXT

THE scene of the Protagoras is the house of Callias, a wealthy Athenian gentleman, to which Socrates takes his friend Hippocrates, that he may introduce him to the celebrated teacher of Rhetoric-or the Art of getting on in Life-Protagoras, who happens to be staying with Callias. Besides Protagoras they find two other Sophists of repute there, Hippias and Prodicus, also Critias and Alcibiades. Hippocrates wishes to become a pupil of Protagoras; and Socrates, after communicating his friend's wish to the great man, asks him, " What he will make of Hippocrates?" and Protagoras answers, "A better and wiser man"—that is, he will teach him how to do the right thing always in private and public life. Socrates expresses doubt as to whether the science of right conduct, or virtue private and political—for that is what Protagoras professes to be able to teach-can really be taught. The Athenians, as a body, apparently do not think that it can be taught, for they do not demand it of their politicians; nor do the wisest and best citizens think that it can be taught, for they never attempt to impart it to their sons.

The Myth (together with the Lecture of which it is a part) is the answer which Protagoras now gives to the difficulties raised by Socrates. The object of the Myth and Lecture is to show, that virtue-or rather, the virtues, for Protagoras enumerates five: wisdom, temperance, justice, holiness, courage can be taught.

When Protagoras has finished his Myth and Lecture, conversation is resumed between him and Socrates, and results in making it plain that the five virtues must be reduced to one

viz., to knowledge, which is represented as the art of measuring values the values of the various objects which conduct sets before itself.

Thus it has been brought about that Protagoras must admit the conclusion that virtue is knowledge, unless he would contradict his own thesis that it can be taught; while Socrates, in showing that it is knowledge, confirms that thesis, which he began by disputing.

Protagoras 320 C-323 A

320 C Ην γάρ ποτε χρόνος, ὅτε θεοὶ μὲν ἦσαν, θνητὰ δὲ Ο γένη οὐκ ἦν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ τούτοις χρόνος ἦλθεν εἱμαρμένος γενέσεως, τυποῦσιν αὐτὰ θεοὶ γῆς ἔνδον ἐκ γῆς καὶ πυρὸς μίξαντες καὶ τῶν ὅσα πυρὶ καὶ γῇ κεράννυται. ἐπειδὴ δ ̓ ἄγειν αὐτὰ πρὸς φῶς ἔμελλον, προσέταξαν Προμηθεῖ καὶ Ἐπιμηθεῖ κοσμῆσαί τε καὶ νείμαι δυνάμεις ἑκάστοις ὡς πρέπει. Προμηθέα δὲ παραιτεῖται Επιμηθεὺς αὐτὸς νείμαι· Νείμαντος δ ̓ ἐμοῦ, ἔφη, ἐπίσκεψαι. καὶ οὕτω Ε πείσας νέμει. νέμων δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἰσχὺν ἄνευ τάχους προσῆπτε, τὰ δ ̓ ἀσθενέστερα τάχει ἐκόσμει· τὰ δὲ ὤπλιζε, τοῖς δ ̓ ἄοπλον διδοὺς φύσιν ἄλλην τιν ̓ αὐτοῖς ἐμηχανᾶτο δύναμιν εἰς σωτηρίαν. ἃ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν σμικρότητι ἤμπισχε, πτηνὸν φυγὴν ἢ κατάγειον οἴκησιν ἔνεμεν· ἃ δὲ ηΰξε 321 μεγέθει, τῷδε αὐτῷ αὐτὰ ἔσωζε· καὶ τἆλλα οὕτως ἐπανισῶν ἔνεμε. ταῦτα δὲ ἐμηχανᾶτο εὐλάβειαν ἔχων, μή τι γένος ἀϊστωθείη. ἐπειδὴ δὲ αὐτοῖς ἀλληλοφθοριῶν διαφυγὰς ἐπήρκεσε, πρὸς τὰς ἐκ Διὸς ὥρας ευμάρειαν ἐμηχανᾶτο ἀμφιεννὺς αὐτὰ πυκναῖς τε θριξὶ καὶ στερεοῖς δέρμασιν, ἱκανοῖς μὲν ἀμῦναι χειμῶνα, δυνατοῖς δὲ καὶ καύματα, καὶ εἰς εὐνὰς ἰοῦσιν ὅπως ὑπάρχοι τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα στρωμνὴ οἰκεία τε καὶ αὐτοφυὴς ἑκάστῳ· καὶ ὑπὸ ποδῶν τὰ μὲν Β ὁπλαῖς, τὰ δὲ θριξὶ καὶ δέρμασι στερεοῖς καὶ ἀναίμοις. τοὐντεῦθεν τροφὰς ἄλλοις ἄλλας ἐξεπόριζε, τοῖς μὲν ἐκ γῆς βοτάνην, ἄλλοις δὲ δένδρων καρπούς, τοῖς δὲ ῥίζας· ἔστι δ ̓ οἷς ἔδωκεν εἶναι τροφὴν ζώων ἄλλων βοράν. καὶ τοῖς μὲν ὀλιγογονίαν προσῆψε, τοῖς δ ̓ ἀναλισκομένοις ὑπὸ τούτων πολυγονίαν, σωτηρίαν τῷ γένει πορίζων. ἅτε δὴ