The Shelves · Philosophy

Timaeus

Τίμαιος

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

See it on the shelves ›

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjecturedvery likely class

Plato

Timaeus

Τίμαιος

Opening words

Εἷς, δύο, τρεῖς· ὁ δὲ δὴ τέταρτος ἡμῖν, ὦ φίλε Τίμαιε, ποῦ

One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is our fourth?

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Edited in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: edited, classified or commented on by the Library's scholars.

Read it today

Greek with English (Scaife Viewer) · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Monotheism, Henotheism & the Highest God, episode 21, at 32 minutes 3 secondsTranscript“Plato in in the Timeus, right? Named after the Pythagorean character” (intended: Timaeus)Known: attested
Egyptian & Babylonian Influences on Thales, episode 21, at 25 minutes 51 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
Transmission of Knowledge from Egypt to Greece, episode 21, at 1 hour 8 minutes 37 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story

+ 7 more

Pythagoras in Egypt: Initiation & Study, episode 20, at 39 minutes 32 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
Egyptian Influence on Greek Thought, episode 20, at 42 minutes 1 secondTranscriptLegend: told story
What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 44 minutes 31 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
Correction
What was said
Porphyry says Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egyptian temples.
What the sources say
The twenty-two years come from Iamblichus, not from Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.
Reference
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 4.19
Egyptian & Babylonian Influences on Thales, episode 21, at 25 minutes 51 secondsTranscript“he says that Thales actually went to Egypt and Babylonia”'Flut' is Plutarch (a Middle Platonist, not a Neoplatonist): On Isis and Osiris 10.Legend: told story
Plato: Philosophy, Truth & Misconceptions, episode 21, at 35 minutes 32 secondsTranscript“He learned from the wise men of Egypt studying the universe”Answered by the co-host's correction on Hermes at 36:14.Legend: told story
What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 45 minutes 20 secondsTranscript“it's attested that Plato went there it's attested that Thales the father of logic went there it's attested that Solon the lawgiver was initiated”Legend: told story
Correction
What was said
It is "attested" that Plato, Thales and Solon studied in Egypt.
What the sources say
Reported by later writers (Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius), not by contemporary evidence: testimony, not attestation.
Perennial traditions and Eastern influence, episode 1, at 20 minutes 17 secondsTranscript“Pythagoras spent two in 20 years in Egypt astronomizing and geometrising and was initiated in no casual or superficial way”Legend: told story
Correction
What was said
Porphyry says Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egyptian temples.
What the sources say
The twenty-two years come from Iamblichus, not from Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.
Reference
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 4.19

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references

Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus 1.76 (Crantor on Atlantis)

Modern scholarship (2)

F. M. Cornford, Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937).
D. T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato (Leiden: Brill, 1986)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

ΤΙΜΑΙΟΣ

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend

Atlantis

Plato has Critias tell, in the Timaeus, that an Egyptian priest at Sais told Solon of Atlantis, an island power beyond the Pillars of Heracles sunk nine thousand years before.

Told by Plato, c. 360 BCE, some two centuries after Solon

What the evidence supports

The story is Plato's, told inside his dialogue. No Egyptian record of it is known; Proclus reports that Crantor claimed the Egyptians could show the inscriptions.

Sources (2)

Plato, Timaeus 20d–25d
Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus 1.76

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