Plato, Timaeus 24a · 24a
Priests, craftsmen and herdsmen
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Critias — πάντων ἐφεξῆς εἰς αὖθις κατὰ σχολὴν αὐτὰ τὰ γράμματα λαβόντες διέξιμεν. τοὺς μὲν οὖν νόμους σκόπει πρὸς τοὺς τῇδε· πολλὰ γὰρ παραδείγματα τῶν τότε παρʼ ὑμῖν ὄντων ἐνθάδε νῦν ἀνευρήσεις, πρῶτον μὲν τὸ τῶν ἱερέων γένος ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων χωρὶς ἀφωρισμένον, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο τὸ τῶν δημιουργῶν, ὅτι καθʼ αὑτὸ ἕκαστον ἄλλῳ δὲ οὐκ ἐπιμειγνύμενον δημιουργεῖ, τό τε τῶν νομέων καὶ τὸ τῶν θηρευτῶν τό τε
Critias: We will go through everything in order another time, at our leisure, taking up the very writings themselves. For now, look at the laws and compare them with the laws here, for you will find here today many examples of what existed then among you. First there is the class of priests, set apart from the others. After that come the craftsmen, since each of them works at his own craft by itself and does not mix with another. Then the class of herdsmen, and that of hunters, and also
Word by word
The setting
The Egyptian priest, as Critias retells him, promises the records another day and tells Solon to compare the old Athenian laws with the laws of Egypt. He begins listing the classes into which Egypt divides its people.
A note on this passage
The priest tells Solon to compare the laws pros tous tēide, "with those here," and the word for the examples is paradeigmata, patterns or models. What he offers is a list of classes, and each class is introduced the same way, to tōn followed by a genitive plural: the priests, the craftsmen, the herdsmen, the hunters. The priests come first and are aphōrismenon, "marked off," a participle that carries the idea of a boundary line. The craftsmen are dēmiourgoi, a word built from dēmios and ergon, "one who works for the people."
The rule that holds the craftsmen together is stated in one clause: kath' hauto hekaston allōi de ouk epimeignymenon dēmiourgei, each works by itself and does not mix in with another. The priest also puts off the records themselves. eis authis kata scholēn, "another time, at leisure," is his own phrase, and the grammata, the writings, are the Egyptian temple records that the whole account depends on.
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