Cosmology and Politics in Ancient Greek Thought A review of: Dominic O’Meara. Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works.

Works. Cambridge University Press, 2017. 157 p., illustrated Eugene Afonasin1 Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS (Novosibirsk, Russia) E-mail: afonasin@gmail.com ORCID: 0000-0002-0623-0574 The political dimension of Plato’s cosmological thought has been extensively explored as such and in its relation with Greek culture, but there remains a question of methodology. Which context will be more appropriate for Plato’s works? Shall we focus on their metaphysical features (most conspicuous in Aristotle and Plato’s immediate heirs in the Old Academy), or, alternatively, place them in a dialectical context (as in the case of the Skeptical Academy of Arcesilaus and Carneades)? Or, maybe, we have to plunge them in the depth of Greek cultural life and compare with technological advances of Greek civilization? This latter approach, having done properly, would be a real innovation, capable of, as it appears, presenting a fresh look at the familiar matters. This is exactly the task of a new project launched by Dominic O’Meara in the book under review. Plato’s cosmological and political ideas are successfully discussed here in their relation with ancient crafts, arts, and various peculiarities of social life of the Greek polis. Keywords: philosophical cosmology, creationism, myth, religious festivals, western legal tradition Received: March 28, 2018; accepted: April 23, 2018 Philosophy and Cosmology, Volume 21, 2018: 153-158 DOI: 10.29202/phil-cosm/21/16 In his new book, Dominic O’Meara, one of the most famous contemporary Platonic scholars and the author of a philosophical masterpiece Platonopolis (2003), examines the order of the world in its relation to the order of a human community. It consists of seven short thematically related chapters, subdivided into two parts, concerned with the Timaeus ( addressing thefigureoftheworld-makerandtheconceptsofthestructurea the world), on the one hand, and the Statesman and the Law (dedicated to various aspects of legal and political science in Plato’s later works), on the other. However,firstofall,whyPlatonicheritagerequiresinterpretationandwhy provokeamultiplicityofinterpretations,neverdefiniteandneverfinal?“Wha writingsthatcreatestheneedtointerpretthem,andtointerpretthem © Afonasin, Eugene, 2018

(p. 2). And the answer Dominic O’Meara gives is that, predominantly, the philosophy of Plato is open to the future: the dialogues, situated in the past, provoke our on-going philosophical reasoning, the figure of Socrates, although a part of the past, drives us to th possibleandimpossibleideals,andthedoctrinesofPlatohimself,“alwaysin bestmethod…await,intheirprovisionalpast, future. amore”p. ( adequate )9 The first part of the book deals Timaeus. withThe the first chapter of this part, entit “A Feast to the Goddess,” is concerned with the great Athenian festival, de polis’ patroness, the goddess Athena (for more details, see Neils 1996). The dramatic setting of the Timaeus is this festival, which takes place each summer. Foreign guests, Timaeus and Hermogenes, came from Italy to see the Panathenaea and to meet their Athenian friends, Socrates and Critias. The meeting, according to O’Meara, took place in Athens still at the height of her political power, before or in the earlier stages of the disastrous war with Sparta, that is to say in late 430s. The setting, terminology and structure of the Timaeus strongly suggests that the meeting is staged by Plato as a banquet, a feas honor of the goddess Athena, with Socrates appointed as its symposiarch. Socrates spoke the day before, having discoursed on the question of the best political order. N TimaeusandthenCritiasandHermogenestoouertheirspeechesin ( thisorder)Thes . is not accidental and approved by the banquet master, Socrates, according t appropriateness. After his opening talk about the best state the second speaker, Timaeus, is supposed to tell a story of the making of the cosmos and human beings. These discourses will befollowedbyCritias’completestoryofancientAthensanditsvictoryove summarized in advance (26c6), and Hermogenes’ version of the same story about Atlantis with special emphasis on the military victory. The surviving writings of Plato contain a summary of Socrates’ talk, the great discourse of Timaeus and an incomplete speech of Critias (preserved as an independent dialogue). These observations are important, according to O’Meara, for understandingofthestructureofPlato’swork.Foronething, Republic itclearlyshows cannot be the first part of this sequence, although some commentators thin dramatic framework of the Republic is the feast of Bendis, which took place in the Piraeus ca. 412. (i.e. later then the dramatic date of the Timaeus). But how and in what manner our philosophersaresupposedtopraisethegoddess?Inthethirdspeechofthe praises Athena as the founder of ancient Athens, who gave to the city its best location, its institution and sciences, etc. (Timaeus 23d5, 24c4), although the events recollected are placed outside the real history. The fourth speech by Hermocrates continues the story of Critias and especially focuses on the military victory of ancient Athens over Atlantis, another legendary state,foundedbyAthena’srivaldeityPoseidon.DominicO’Mearasuggeststha of Hermocrates evokes a real person — the Syracusian leader who contributed to the victory over Athenians in Sicily in 415–413 — then his military skills makes him the most appropriate persontotellthestoryaboutthelegendarywar.ItisclearnowwhySocrates saysthathecannotpraisethecitysuvcientlyd1 91( having :) describedinhisintr amodelcityfromthephilosophicalpointofview,heisnowassigningmorespeci the speakers that are more competent in these matters. However, what about the second speech, the only one to survive as a whole, the one told by Timaeus? How this extensiv intendstopraisethegoddess?InthenextthreechaptersO’Mearaanswers “in order to explore more fully the implications of Timaeus’cosmological acc concept of an excellent state” in Chapters 5 to 7 makes use of “other texts wr probably after the Timaeus, the Statesman and the Laws, to the extent that they might ouer somethinglikeasubstitute.”p.

Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works. by Eugene Afonasin Surely the demiurge, who is explicitly named the father (Timaeus 23c3) and the savior (48d4), must be Zeus, but not quite so, because Zeus, surprisingly, is named among t traditional gods who are obviously inferior to the demiurge (41a1). Apparently the demiurge, accordingtoHeraclitus’famoussaying(fr.DK) 32 “does , notwishandwishestobecall thenameofZeus”(p.On 28) theonehand,thespeakerofthedialogueconstantlyass Athena with her mighty father, who exerts absolute supremacy, deliberates and decides, assignsspecifictaskstodiuerentgods,andcouldalso(as Timaeus) thedemiurge retire ofthe to his proper place. He emerges victorious over all sort of world’s disorde the Titans and the Giants, rules justly and wisely, etc. (pp. 32–3) On the other ha demiurge of the Timaeus is a reformed divinity, morally and metaphysically perfect, the cause of good, not evil.This definitely distances him from the traditional d Hesiod and the tragedies. The demiurge ‘makes’ the world not ‘creates’ it. He gives order, goodness and beauty to a pre-existent chaotic milieu (p. 34). Quite on the contrary, the traditional cosmogony of the poets is explicitly a divine genealogy, a sort of natural development of the ordered cosmos out of the primordial chaos to the euect that the most primitive deiti Ouranos, etc. finally manifest themselves in Zeus and other younger deities the traditional cosmogony Zeus does not ‘make’ the world. The word ‘dmiourgos’has a variety of meanings, from a craftsman and an arti a public servant like a statesman, lawgiver and the founder of the cities. (p. 35) All these functions are visible in the demiurge of the Timaeus: as an artisan, he makes the world according to a certain model, and, as a good ruler, he “deliberates about wha the best option, gives speeches to his subordinates, delegates tasks, legislates,… as if the variety of professions and trades… which had filledAthens during the grea reconstruction of temples had left their mark on Timaeus’ speech,” etc. (p. 35– explains why, in his account of the creation of the world, Plato in the Timaeus does not follow a strict chronological order. Presenting instead his version of cosmo-genesis in an axiological order,hestartswiththehighestcauses,thedemiurgeandhismodelandfin ‘necessities’ which constitute the body of the cosmos. His intention, according to O’Meara’s observation, is signaled by the fact that in the Timaeus 34b10 he especially notes that he shouldhavetoldaboutthemakingofthesoulfirst,priortoadescriptiono thebody:“Themixed‘birth’oftheworld,ouspringofanoblefather[demiurge]an mother[necessity],prefiguresthebirthoftheancientAthensfromdivinep and Athena, children of Zeus, and from the earth of Attica, as recounted by Critias in his speech,” who had omitted to be sure the most salient features of the myth a sexualrelationofHephaistoswithhissister,probablyreinterpretingt a new nobler sense: the Athenian are now born of the divine parents, the sources of all sort of wisdom and order, without sexual engendering, in imitation of the goddess Athena’s birth from the head of Zeus (p. 39). A good and beautiful model of the world is discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. Inspired by the paradigm, the philosopher-king builds the perfect state as a painter, who creates his masterpiece “in the image and likeness of the Republic divine” 50e–501b), model just, ( beautifulandmoderate.(p.43–4Or ) hedoesthisasan—architect acity-plannerwhofirst creates a model or a plan of his building project and then supervises its (p. 48 f.) In the same manner, the demiurge of the Timaeus is depicted first fixing a goal of his work, then moving to the paradigm to be used in order to achieve this goa buildingtherealworldbasedonaprefiguredmodel.Thegoalisofcoursetomak

perfect and complete (teletatos ) world. Precisely for this reason the model of this world is exceptionallydivcultto Timaeus describe 50c). The ( world must be an ensouled animal, allinclusive in a sense of inclusion of all the main animal genera, from the heavenly race of gods to all kind of terrestrial living creatures (39e7–40a2). The body of the world is made of four elementsindissolublyboundbythedemiurgebymeansofageometricalproport to air as air is to water, and air is to water as water is to earth). The elements themselves are indeterminate pre-elements (“triangles”, 48b) “structured into determinat ofavarietyofgeometricalshapesandboundtoeachotherbygeometricalpro 53) These have their origin elsewhere: they must have come from above, from the F which constitute the model of the world.The world is a unique animal, self-s and perpetual. It was first given general specifications, then drawn up in mor geometrical model; the task of building was entrusted by the architect to his craftsmen (the young gods), responsible for all minute details of the construction.Are the up by the demiurge?Are they independent of him, or subordinate to him? These traditionally puzzle the interpreters of Plato, both ancient and modern. Dominic O’Meara suggests that “if the demiurge is a part of Platonic myth, a story told by Tima of a reformed Zeus, a story designed to give expression to metaphysical and ethical/political principles which Plato wishes to defend, then there is perhaps less need to go so far as to draw the conclusion that the demiurge, like the architect and legislator, must have thought uphismodel.Perhapsitmaysuvcehere…tosaythat…aworld,acityorasoul,ifit function well, must do so according to same general functional principles (the model), which willalwaysbevalid”(p.58) Therearetwoimportantdivcultieswiththisaccount.Thefirstoneconce of pre-cosmic imitations of the model (p. 58–61). The second concerns the ‘place’ in which the world is made. (p. 61–63) Indeed, it appears that, according to Plato, a disordered chaotic milieu the demiurge uses for creating the ordered universe, has already contained imitation of the model. Especially this concerns the traces (ichn)offire,water,earthandair,mentioned in the Timaeus 53a. This “traces” however, according to O’Meara’s suggestion (p. 60), are traces of the elements themselves, not of models of the elements (as some interpreters claim). In a sense, they are raw material used by the artisans to create the building blocks to be used for future construction. Now, in order to build something worthy the artisan needs not only thematerials,butalsoaproperplaceandinstruments,awell-equippedwor The Platonic notions of a place (chra), a foundation (hedra), and especially of a ‘receptacle’ (hypodoch ) and a ‘nurse’ (tithn), have received various interpretations. O’Me however that the image of receptive matrix (ekmageion, Timaeus 50c) seems to refer to technical rather than biological production. So, as previously, it is better not to press Plato too hard on this point. Instead of looking everywhere for deep metaphysical meanings or biological associations, we may simply observe that, after all, speaking about ‘building bricks’, ‘casts’ for molding, etc. he is consistently developing his image of a divine architect. Good is, according to Plato Timaeus( 64e, 87c), ‘resides’ in beauty, which in its turn manifests itself in measure and symmetry (p. 67–68). Beauty does not itself create the good. Rather, it characterizes the world when the world achieves its goal, which is the good (p. 76). The goal is achieved and the good realized through the structuring of the universe and the world-soul according to mathematical proportions, which are beautiful themselves. The modelrealizestheworld,butthebeautyofthemodel,concludesO’Meara,isd the beauty of the world: the world is unique in its reality, and the model is world (p. 78).

Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works. by Eugene Afonasin Chapters 5–6 deal with the political philosophy of Plato’s late dialogues. The meeting described in the StatesmantookplacejustbeforethetrialofSocrates;therefore date of the dialogue is 399 BCE. As in the Timaeus, the conversation happens during the Panathenaic festival. An unnamed guest from Elea (unnamed, according to O’Meara’s suggestion, because after the generation of Zeno there probably were representatives of the Eleatics worth mentioning) discusses with Socrates’ namesake ( =young Socrates)thequestionofpolitical . The basic order metaphor employed in the speech is this of a new robe (peplos) weaved for the goddess Athena. Young girls weave a new robe for the goddess under the direction of an elderly woman. This paradeigma (Statesman 277d–278e), that is to say an illustrative example, designed to elucidate a more complex subjectmatter,isdevelopedbyanolderinstructorforhisyoungerstuden the peculiarities of political philosophy. The politician is not just a citizen. He possesses special expertise, which helps him to manage things well. The political art (tekhn ) is compared then with the skills employed by a trainer of group sports. Indeed, a trainer of this sort, unlike the one coaching individual athletes, is developing a comprehensive program aimed at some common good, which cannot however account for personal needs of specific members of the team. In the same vein, the legislator designs laws rules, applicable to all citizens, irrespective of any peculiarities and circumstances which may occur in a given situation (Statesman 294e u.) The law, which in Greece was almost exclusively associated with statutes (so that even customary behavior, practiced for many generations, was routinely attributed to an ancient and often mythical lawgiver), is therefore not a foundation of the good state. A wise political leader is concerned w needs and does this according to his expertise. In the absence of an experienced statesman, law (which guarantees social stability) must remain unchanged, as in the story about Solon, who left Athens for ten years precisely in order to prevent his fellow-citizens from changing a new political regime which he has previously established. Quite on the contrary, in a welldesigned state its ‘open-texture,’ to use a term coined in modern times by Herbert Hart (1961), undergoes constant transformation (=is weaved as a peplos for the goddess) by people skilled in the political science, working under the direction of a wise man, who decides, in Aristotle’s words poia poiois harmottei (Ethics Nicom. 10.9., 1181b7), what kinds of law are suited best to what sorts of folk. Since these skills are divcult to imitate, borrowe rarely implanted successfully in a foreign soil (Statesman 293e; 297c u.) This is however thesubjectofthegreatestofPlato’sdialogues. In his Laws the Athenian guest (maybe Solon or somebody of his status, according to O’Meara’s suggestion, p. 107) discusses the ways political science could help to establish and run a new polis, which, according to Plato’s scheme, is governed by the Guardia the law, who maintain the pre-established order, and the Nocturnal Council, which is largely responsible for whatever changes the state undergoes. Also the members of the Council travel extensively to see what is going on abroad, presumably for security reasons but also in order to exchange and accumulate ideas, vital for the political science. The most successful of them they adopt home. This is clear. Less obvious is a link O’Meara establishes between some ideas expressed in the Laws and the Athenian festival of Dionysus (p. 113–114). What kind of science is first introduced and then elaborated by the Gua must know the good on which the goal to be achieved in their political planning depends. In addition, they must have a model be imitated. The ideal state has special spatial organization: thelandmustformacirclewiththeacropolisinthemiddle.Theremustbesu and resources to support its limited population, which would make the st

(Laws 737d, etc.). The land, which remains common property, is subdivided into twelve region and distributed equally among five thousand forty households. Some inequa only in the case of mobile goods, etc.The physical organization of the polis is r the spiritual level. Religion is also determined in clear spatio-temporal terms. The center is occupied by the temples of Hestia (Hearth), Zeus and Athena, each of the twelve regions and tribes are consecrated to a god of traditional religion. These gods, as well as the paradigm state itself, are not named to account for the future regional specific. “Th the religious space, where a diuerentiated multiplicity is brought to un inwhichlandandpopulationaredistributedinthestate”(p.Time 12) isalsoma religious feasts dedicated to specific gods take place regularly through (Laws82b)The . precisereligiouscalendarisnotfixedforthemodelstate:thisal adiscretionofthefuturelawgivers.Moreover,theorganizationofthepara the order of the universe (the one described in the Timaeus). The sacred land, dedicated to the gods,isofsphericalshape,circularandself-suvcientlikethecosmos;thesta in the cosmos is designed according to geometrical proportions; the sacred territory of the state corresponds to the cosmic order with the earth (Hestia) in the center, the moon and the sun (Athena and Zeus), located next to it, and the planets and the fixed star periphery as separate villages which encircle the acropolis; and through the religious festivals the people and the gods are engaged all year round in elaborated astro-choreography (p. 123). Well,hereisthestorytoldbyDominicO’Meara.Toconclude,thebookissuperbl and well produced. Readers interested in the history of ancient philosophy, cosmology and politicalthoughtwillfinditindispensable. References Afonasina,Anna. Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works: Reflections on t O’Meara, D. Cosmology and politics in Plato’s later works. Cambridge, 2017. ( Schole). 12.2, 2018: 721–734. Hart, Herbert L. A. The Concept of Law. Oxford, 1961. O’Meara, Dominic. Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works. Cambridge University Press, 2017. O’Meara, Dominic. Platonopolis: Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity. Oxford, 2003. Worshipping Athena: Panathenaia and Parthenon. Edited by Jenifer Neils. Madison, Wis.: UniversityofWisconsinPress,196.