Note 45 — Chapter XXXVIII · TIMÆUS AND KRITIAS.

Plato, Timæus, pp. 40 D-E. Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων δαιμόνων εἰπεῖν καὶ γνῶναι τὴν γένεσιν μεῖζον ἢ καθ’ ἡμᾶς, πειστέον δὲ τοῖς εἰρηκόσιν ἔμπροσθεν, ἐκγόνοις μὲν θεῶν οὖσιν, σαφῶς δέ που τούς γε αὐτων προγόνους εἰδόσιν· ἀδύνατον οὖν θεῶν παισὶν ἀπιστεῖν, καίπερ ἄνευ τε εἰκότων καὶ ἀναγκαίων ἀποδείξεων λέγουσιν, ἀλλ’ ὡς οἰκεῖα φάσκουσιν ἀπαγγέλλειν, ἐπομένους τῷ νόμῳ πιστευτέον. Οὕτως οὖν κατ’ ἐκείνους ἡμῖν ἡ γένεσις περὶ τούτων τῶν θεῶν ἐχέτω καὶ λεγέσθω.

So, too, in the Platonic Epinomis, attached as an appendix to the Treatise De Legibus, we find (p. 984) Plato — after arranging his quintuple scale of elemental animals (fire, æther, air, water, earth), the highest and most divine being the stars or visible Gods, the lowest being man, and the three others intermediate between the two; after having thus laid out the scale, he leaves to others to determine, ὁπῇ τις ἐθέλει, in which place Zeus, Hêrê, and the other Gods, are to be considered as lodged. He will not contradict any one’s feeling on that point; he strongly protests (p. 985 D) against all attempts on the part of the lawgiver to innovate (καινοτομεῖν) in contravention of ancient religious tradition — this is what Aristophanes in the Nubes, and Melêtus before the Dikasts, accuse Sokrates of doing — but he denounces harshly all who will not acknowledge with worship and sacrifice the sublime divinity of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets.

The Platonic declaration given here — ἐπομένους τῷ νόμῳ πιστευτέον — is illustrated in the lines of Euripides, Bacchæ, 202 —

οὐδὲν σοφιζόμεσθα τοῖσι δαίμοσιν· πατρίους παραδοχάς, ἅς θ’ ὁμήλικας χρόνῳ κεκτήμεθ’, οὐδεὶς αὐτὰ καταβαλεῖ λόγος, οὐδ’ ἢν δι’ ἀκρῶν τὸ σοφὸν εὕρηται φρενῶν.