Plato, Timaeus 23b · 23b
Starting again after every flood
Read the full text in our reader
Critias — τε καὶ ἀμούσους ἔλιπεν ὑμῶν, ὥστε πάλιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς οἷον νέοι γίγνεσθε, οὐδὲν εἰδότες οὔτε τῶν τῇδε οὔτε τῶν παρʼ ὑμῖν, ὅσα ἦν ἐν τοῖς παλαιοῖς χρόνοις. τὰ γοῦν νυνδὴ γενεαλογηθέντα, ὦ Σόλων, περὶ τῶν παρʼ ὑμῖν ἃ διῆλθες, παίδων βραχύ τι διαφέρει μύθων, οἳ πρῶτον μὲν ἕνα γῆς κατακλυσμὸν μέμνησθε πολλῶν ἔμπροσθεν γεγονότων, ἔτι δὲ τὸ κάλλιστον καὶ ἄριστον γένος ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπους ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ παρʼ ὑμῖν οὐκ ἴστε γεγονός, ἐξ ὧν σύ τε καὶ πᾶσα ἡ
Critias: and the uncultured of you it leaves, so that again you become, as it were, young people from the beginning, knowing nothing of what happened in the old times, either here or among you. At any rate, Solon, the genealogies you just recited about your own people differ only a little from children's tales. First, you remember one flood of the earth, though many came before. And moreover you do not know that the finest and best race among men existed in your land, from whom you and the whole
Word by word
The setting
The priest finishes his sentence and turns to Solon: Greeks become young again after every disaster, and their genealogies are close to children's tales.
A note on this passage
The words hōste palin ex archēs hoion néoi gígnesthe mean "so that you become again, from the beginning, like young people." Hoîon softens the claim a little: the priest does not say the Greeks are children, only that they start over as if they were. The cause is lost writing, so they know nothing of the old times, and amoúsous, "without the Muses," pairs the lack of letters with a lack of culture.
Then he turns to Solon's own account. The genealogies Solon has just told diaphérei from paídōn mýthōn, "differ a little from children's tales." Here mýthos means a story told with no record behind it. The priest names what the Greeks do not know: they keep one kataklysmós, one flood of the earth, though many came before, and they do not know that the finest and best race of men lived in their own land.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Plato, Timaeus 23b in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Plato, Timaeus — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Plato, Timaeus 23b — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/timaeus/23b/