Timaeus | Page 7

afraid that the poets are equally incapable; for, although he pretends to have nothing
to say against them, he remarks that they are a tribe of imitators, who can only describe
what they have seen. And he fears that the Sophists, who are plentifully supplied with
graces of speech, in their erratic way of life having never had a city or house of their own,
may through want of experience err in their conception of philosophers and statesmen.
'And therefore to you I turn, Timaeus, citizen of Locris, who are at once a philosopher
and a statesman, and to you, Critias, whom all Athenians know to be similarly
accomplished, and to Hermocrates, who is also fitted by nature and education to share in
our discourse.'
HERMOCRATES: 'We will do our best, and have been already preparing; for on our way
home, Critias told us of an ancient tradition, which I wish, Critias, that you would repeat
to Socrates.' 'I will, if Timaeus approves.' 'I approve.' Listen then, Socrates, to a tale of
Solon's, who, being the friend of Dropidas my great-grandfather, told it to my grandfather
Critias, and he told me. The narrative related to ancient famous actions of the Athenian
people, and to one especially, which I will rehearse in honour of you and of the goddess.
Critias when he told this tale of the olden time, was ninety years old, I being not more
than ten. The occasion of the rehearsal was the day of the Apaturia called the Registration
of Youth, at which our parents gave prizes for recitation. Some poems of Solon were
recited by the boys. They had not at that time gone out of fashion, and the recital of them
led some one to say, perhaps in compliment to Critias, that Solon was not only the wisest
of men but also the best of poets. The old man brightened up at hearing this, and said:
Had Solon only had the leisure which was required to complete the famous legend which
he brought with him from Egypt he would have been as distinguished as Homer and
Hesiod. 'And what was the subject of the poem?' said the person who made the remark.
The subject was a very noble one; he described the most famous action in which the
Athenian people were ever engaged. But the memory of their exploits has passed away
owing to the lapse of time and the extinction of the actors. 'Tell us,' said the other, 'the
whole story, and where Solon heard the story.' He replied-- There is at the head of the

Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile divides, a city and district called Sais; the city was
the birthplace of King Amasis, and is under the protection of the goddess Neith or Athene.
The citizens have a friendly feeling towards the Athenians, believing themselves to be
related to them. Hither came Solon, and was received with honour; and here he first
learnt, by conversing with the Egyptian priests, how ignorant he and his countrymen were
of antiquity. Perceiving this, and with the view of eliciting information from them, he
told them the tales of Phoroneus and Niobe, and also of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and he
endeavoured to count the generations which had since passed. Thereupon an aged priest
said to him: 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are ever young, and there is no old man who is
a Hellene.' 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'In mind,' replied the priest, 'I mean to say that
you are children; there is no opinion or tradition of knowledge among you which is white
with age; and I will tell you why. Like the rest of mankind you have suffered from
convulsions of nature, which are chiefly brought about by the two great agencies of fire
and water. The former is symbolized in the Hellenic tale of young Phaethon who drove
his father's horses the wrong way, and having burnt up the earth was himself burnt up by
a thunderbolt. For there occurs at long intervals a derangement of the heavenly bodies,
and then the earth is destroyed by fire. At such times, and when fire is the agent, those
who dwell by rivers or on the seashore are safer than those who dwell upon high and dry
places, who in their turn are safer when the danger is from water. Now the Nile is our
saviour from fire, and as there is little rain in Egypt, we are not harmed by water; whereas
in other countries, when a deluge comes, the inhabitants are swept by the rivers into the
sea. The memorials which your own and other nations have once had of the famous
actions of mankind perish in the waters at certain periods; and the rude survivors in the
mountains begin