Timaeus and Critias (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Book

This is how the world began according to Plato.

Out of Chaos rose the stars and planets, rose man and the four elements'fire, air, water, and earth'based on four of the five convex regular polyhedra (the Platonic solids). All was created by a Demiurge looking to an eternal, perfect model. We hear how the senses function (for example, how we see: by sending out our own fire through our eyes and having it react with the fire reflected off objects), and how the human body was purposefully designed (the head, which contains the purest part of the soul, is separated off from other, viler parts). It is worth reading Timaeus just for the creativity and historical importance of Plato's imaginative explanations.

The book is in traditional dialogic form and it is unfinished. Four characters are present: Socrates, Timaeus, Critias, and another. Socrates takes on a minor role at the beginning, questioning the group about their intended stories, but then Timaeus proceeds to give Plato's cosmogony in a virtually unbroken monologue. Critias follows up with a story of the legendary Atlantis, but only manages to get started before the text is cut off.

The introduction and editor's notes offer indispensable contextual information.