Proclus: Commentary on Plato's Timaeus: Volume 5, Book 4

360 Pages·2013·2.006 MB·English

by  Proclus, Dirk Baltzly

PROCLUS
CommentaryonPlato’sTimaeus
Proclus’ Commentary on the dialogue Timaeus by Plato (d. 347 bc),
writteninthefifthcenturyad,isarguablythemostimportantcommen-
taryonatextofPlato,offeringunparalleledinsightsintoeightcenturies
of Platonic interpretation. It has had an enormous influence on subse-
quent Plato scholarship. This edition nevertheless offers the first new
Englishtranslationoftheworkfornearlytwocenturies,buildingonsig-
nificant recent advances in scholarship on Neoplatonic commentators.
It will provide an invaluable record of early interpretations of Plato’s
dialogue,whilealsopresentingProclus’ownviewsonthemeaningand
significance of Platonic philosophy. The present volume, the fifth in
theedition,presentsProclus’CommentaryontheTimaeus,dealingwith
Proclus’ account of static and flowing time – an aspect of Neoplatonic
metaphysicsthathasalreadyattractedsignificantscholarlyattention.In
this volume we see Proclus situating Plato’s account of the motions of
thestarsandplanetsinrelationtotheastronomicaltheoriesofhisday.
Thevolumeincludesasubstantialintroduction,aswellasnotesthatwill
shednewlightonthetext.
Dirk Baltzly is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania
andAdjunctResearchProfessoratMonashUniversity.Hisrecentpub-
lications include Reading Plato in Antiquity (co-edited with Harold
Tarrant, 2006); Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, vol. III
(Cambridge, 2006); and Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, vol. IV
(Cambridge,2009).

PROCLUS
Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus
VOLUME V
Book 4: Proclus on Time
and the Stars
translated with an
introduction and notes by
DIRK BALTZLY
UniversityofTasmaniaandMonashUniversity
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
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(cid:2)c DirkBaltzly2013
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RichardCharlesBaltzlyandLindaKnightBaltzly
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(Theognis,Eleg.1.35)

Contents
Acknowledgements pageviii
Noteonthetranslation x
IntroductiontoBook4 1
ThestructureofBook4 1
Theeighthgiftoftime:Eternityandthehighertime 3
Theninthgift:visibletimeandtheplanets 12
Platonicexegesisandcontemporaryastronomy 16
Thegreatestgiftofall:thefourkindsoflivingcreature 28
Conclusion 33
Workscited 34
OntheTimaeusofPlato:Book4,ProclusonTimeand
theStars 37
Analyticaltableofcontents 39
Translation 42
References 269
English–Greekglossary 273
Greekwordindex 294
Generalindex 342
vii
Acknowledgements
The project to translate Proclus’ Commentary on the Timaeus received
initialfinancialsupportfromtheAustralianResearchCouncilintheform
of a Discovery grant spanning the period 1999–2004. The translation
teamsupportedbythisgrantincludedHaroldTarrant(Vols.iandvi),
David Runia and Michael Share (Vol.ii)and Dirk Baltzly (Vols. iii,iv
andv).
Supportformyworkonthisvolumeinparticularhasbeenprovided
by the USA’s National Endowment for the Humanities through a fel-
lowship at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study in the northern
hemisphere academic year 2010–11. I am enormously grateful to the
NEH for this support. As for the Institute for Advanced Study, words
fail me. If there is a heaven for scholars, it looks very much like the
Institute.HeinrichvonStadenis,aseveryoneknows,thesoulofkind-
ness.MytimeatIASwasalsosharedwithStephenMenn,fromwhomI
learnedagreatdeal.MarianZelaznyandthestaffattheInstitutemade
the transition from Melbourne winter to Princeton summer and back
againadministrativelyfrictionless.
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Harold Tarrant. He read a
complete draft of this volume – as he did with Volume iv – and pro-
videdinvaluablefeedback,bothonmattersofphilosophicalimportand
also on matters of accuracy in translation. Alan Bowen has helped me
withthethornyastronomicalportionsofProclus’text.Ienjoyedtesting
outsomeofProclus’readingsofPlatowiththeGreekreadinggroupat
PrincetononPlato’sTimaeus.IthankJohnCooper,MelissaLane,Hen-
drik Lorenz, Donald Morrison, Alexander Nehamas, Christian Wild-
berg and the Princeton PhD students who participated. I think they
were not wholly persuaded that Proclus has grasped the mystagogy of
thedivinePlato.Thisvolumehasbenefitedfromtheattentionofamost
capable research assistant, John Burke, who prepared the Greek word
index and caught yet more mistakes and infelicities on my part in the
process.InadditionL.ElaineMillerandAnuradhiJayasinghebothread
the introduction and gave me some helpful comments on it. Finally,
I would like to thank Jo North who copy-edited the manuscript for
CambridgeUniversityPress.
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