Plato, Timaeus 23a · 23a
Everything noble is written down in Egypt
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Critias — τοτὲ δὲ ἔλαττον ἀεὶ γένος ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπων. ὅσα δὲ ἢ παρʼ ὑμῖν ἢ τῇδε ἢ καὶ κατʼ ἄλλον τόπον ὧν ἀκοῇ ἴσμεν, εἴ πού τι καλὸν ἢ μέγα γέγονεν ἢ καί τινα διαφορὰν ἄλλην ἔχον, πάντα γεγραμμένα ἐκ παλαιοῦ τῇδʼ ἐστὶν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς καὶ σεσωσμένα· τὰ δὲ παρʼ ὑμῖν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄρτι κατεσκευασμένα ἑκάστοτε τυγχάνει γράμμασι καὶ ἅπασιν ὁπόσων πόλεις δέονται, καὶ πάλιν διʼ εἰωθότων ἐτῶν ὥσπερ νόσημα ἥκει φερόμενον αὐτοῖς ῥεῦμα οὐράνιον καὶ τοὺς ἀγραμμάτους
Critias: And at other times the race of men is always smaller. But as for everything, whether among you or here or even in another place that we know of by hearsay, if anything noble or great has happened anywhere, or anything with some other distinction, all of it has been written down here in the temples from long ago and kept safe. But what is among you and the others has each time only just been supplied with writing and everything else that cities need, and again, after the usual number of years, a stream from heaven comes rushing upon them like a disease, and the unlettered
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The setting
Critias, still quoting the Egyptian priest, says that Egypt keeps a written record of every great event, while Greek cities keep having to start their writing again.
A note on this passage
The priest sets two kinds of memory side by side with participles. In Egypt things are gegramména and sesōsména, written down and kept safe, both perfect passives that describe a state which still holds. For the Greeks he uses kateskeuasména with árti, "only just supplied," and the adverb hekástote, "each time," tells us this has happened before and will happen again.
The cause is a rheûma ouránion, a "stream from heaven," which arrives after the usual number of years like a nósēma, a disease. The sentence breaks off with the agrammátous, people without letters, because its verb arrives at the start of the next section. Critias gives all of this in the priest's voice, so we are hearing Plato's Critias report what Solon was told.
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