Plato, Timaeus 25c · 25c
Athens stands alone and wins
Read the full text in our reader
Critias — τὰ μὲν τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡγουμένη, τὰ δʼ αὐτὴ μονωθεῖσα ἐξ ἀνάγκης τῶν ἄλλων ἀποστάντων, ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐσχάτους ἀφικομένη κινδύνους, κρατήσασα μὲν τῶν ἐπιόντων τρόπαιον ἔστησεν, τοὺς δὲ μήπω δεδουλωμένους διεκώλυσεν δουλωθῆναι, τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους, ὅσοι κατοικοῦμεν ἐντὸς ὅρων Ἡρακλείων, ἀφθόνως ἅπαντας ἠλευθέρωσεν. ὑστέρῳ δὲ χρόνῳ σεισμῶν ἐξαισίων καὶ κατακλυσμῶν γενομένων, μιᾶς
Critias: Partly leading the Greeks, and partly, when the others fell away and she was left alone by necessity, coming to the extreme of danger, she defeated her attackers and set up a trophy. She prevented those not yet enslaved from being enslaved, and the rest of us, all who live inside the bounds of Heracles, she freed without grudging, every one. But at a later time, when violent earthquakes and floods took place, and one
Word by word
The setting
The priest tells how Athens led the Greeks, was left alone when the others fell away, came to the edge of ruin, and still beat the invaders and set the rest of the Greek world free. Then the earthquakes begin.
A note on this passage
The syntax gives Athens a sequence of roles through paired ta men … ta de clauses: hēgoumenē, "leading" the Greeks, and then monōtheisa, "left alone." The participle comes from monos, "single," and the phrase ex anankēs, "out of necessity," says the isolation was forced on her when the others apostantōn, stood away. She reaches tous eschatous kindynous, the furthest dangers, and the main verbs that follow are in the aorist, one after another: she set up a tropaion, a trophy, prevented slavery, and freed.
The freedom she gives is aphthonōs, literally "without envy" or without grudging. The people freed are those of Critias's own audience, since katoikoumen is "we dwell," and they live entos horōn Hērakleiōn, inside the bounds of Heracles. The Greek has no word for pillars here, only horoi, boundary markers. The section closes with a new time marker, hysterōi chronōi, "at a later time," and a genitive absolute of earthquakes and floods, ending on the numeral mias, "one," whose noun comes in the next section.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Plato, Timaeus 25c 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 25c — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/timaeus/25c/