3ODWR

V7LPDHXVDV&XOWXUDO,FRQUHYLHZ
3HWHU/DXWQHU

Classical World, Volume 100, Number 1, Fall 2006, pp. 81-82 (Review)

3XEOLVKHGE\-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV
DOI: 10.1353/clw.2006.0091

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/clw/summary/v100/100.1lautner.html

Access provided by University of Nebraska - Lincoln (10 Dec 2015 06:50 GMT)
 R EVIEWS 81
ment in a manner that supports her thesis. Those, however, who do not
share her overview of what Plato is doing in the Meno may not find her
analyses of the text fully persuasive and may find Weiss’ occasionally abra-
sive judgments in service of her thesis to be irritating.
Fordham University DANA MILLER
Classical World 100.1 (2006)

Gretchen J. Reydams-Schils (ed.). Plato’s Timaeus as Cultural Icon. Notre

Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame, 2003. Pp. xiv, 334. $59.95 (hb.).
ISBN 0-268-03871-6; $29.95 (pb.). ISBN 0-268-03872-4.
It seems that the Timaeus is on the way to regaining the popularity and
respect it had in antiquity. In the last decade we saw a great number of
colloquia and workshops devoted to this work. The thirteen articles in this
volume are papers originally presented in 2000 at a conference at Notre
Dame. Two of them deal with some intrinsic problems of the dialogue it-
self, while the rest depict the various phases of its fortuna up to Schelling.
We learn how to set the Timaeus within the context of Plato’s later dia-
logues. The book has two layers, one for those who are not yet initiated,
another signalling a “longer way” to reach the order based on the ideas,
which relies on doctrines we find primarily in the Philebus. The notion of
χρα reflects on problems raised in the Parmenides, which, along with the
problems on the interrelations of the elements, may have been an unsuc-
cessful attempt to give a coherent picture of cosmogony. The essays on the
aftermath of the Timaeus in antiquity concentrate on the development of the
theory of the principles One and Indefinite Dyad in the Old Academy, and
discuss the Middle Platonic context of the notion of the fall of the soul in
the Chaldaean Oracles and the way Philo of Alexandria adopted a theory of
matter that was intimately tied to the acceptance or refusal of the notion of
creatio ex nihilo. We can also read a fine assessment of Cicero’s partial
translation of the dialogue, a survey of the mind-body relationship in Galen
and the critique of his position in some Neoplatonists, and an analysis of
the allegory of the soul’s ascent and descent in Martianus Capella. The
other group of papers focuses on reminiscences in the later period. There is
a good study on the manuscript tradition of Calcidius’ commentary, raising
the question of the original extent of the commentary. Another fine paper is
concerned with the adaptation of the dialogue in early Arabic philosophy,
where the Greek Neoplatonic mediation must be emphasized. The impor-
tance of Ficino’s commentary for later Renaissance science, especially in
mathematics and the interpretation of the myth of the Demiurge, is also
properly stressed. The next essay dwells on Kepler’s dealing with some
crucial doctrines in Plato’s text, such as the primacy of geometric patterns
and the creative activity of the Demiurge. Finally, we have a paper on the
way in which the young Schelling adopted the Platonic views on the limited
and unlimited, as well as on the theory of ideas. Later on, Schelling ques-
tioned the authenticity of the Timaeus, but his doubts in this matter did not
impede him from considering the dialogue an important source of inspira-
tion.
One can raise only few queries concerning the papers. There might be
some doubts whether Iamblichus’ De Communi Mathematica Scientia IV,
15.6–18.12 refers to Speusippus. It is true that Speusippus is never called
by name in that passage, but he is not mentioned anywhere else in the

100.1.pmd 81 11/13/2006, 7:40 PM

 82 C LASSICAL W ORLD
whole work either. One may also supplement the account of the mind-body
relationship in later Neoplatonists. Damascius’ commentary on the Phaedo
contains an analysis of Cebes’ idea that the soul is a harmony of bodily
ingredients (1.361–406, 2.45–54). He both refers to earlier criticisms of the
argument by Aristotle, Porphyry, and Proclus, and adds his own reconstruc-
tion of Socrates’ answer in syllogistic form.
The volume is furnished with an extensive bibliography, an index of pas-
sages cited, and a general index. This is a handsome book having only one
painful error on the back cover. It is not Aristotle who holds the Timaeus in
Raphael’s painting; it is Plato! The overall quality of the papers is far bet-
ter than average for a volume of this sort. They deserve to be read by all
advanced students in the Platonic tradition.
Eötvös University Budapest PETER LAUTNER
Classical World 100.1 (2006)

REVIEWS in This Issue

E. Csapo, Theories of Mythology (K. MacFarlane) 65.
B. Graziosi and J. Haubold, Homer: The Resonance of Epic (J. Christensen)
77.
F. L. Holt, Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions
(J. Romm) 76.
D. W. Hurley, Suetonius: Divus Claudius (R. C. Lounsbury) 79.
S. Ihm, Eros und Distanz: Untersuchungen zu Asklepiades in seinem Kreis
(A. Sens) 71.
W. A. Johnson, Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (E. Stigka) 67.
S. I. Johnston (ed.), Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (J. M. Sasson)
66.
C. Kelly, Ruling the Later Roman Empire (R. M. Frakes) 72.
P. Kruschwitz and M. Schumacher, Das vorklassische Lehrgedict der Römer
(K. Volk) 69.
R. G. M. Nisbet and N. Rudd, A Commentary on Horace, Odes Book III
(A. Barchiesi) 73.
G. J. Reydams-Schils (ed.), Plato’s Timaeus as Cultural Icon (P. Lautner)
81.
M. Riley and D. P. Huber (eds.), John Barclay: Argenis (A. Watanabe) 74.
H. Schlange-Schöningen, Die römische Gesellschaft bei Galen: Biographie
und Sozialgeschichte (J. Scarborough) 63.
M. B. Skinner, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (A. Lear) 64.
R. Weiss, Virtue in the Cave: Moral Inquiry in Plato’s Meno (D. Miller)
80.

100.1.pmd 82 11/13/2006, 7:40 PM