Credible Theories
Greece and Rome · Plato, Timaeus 22b–d

'You Hellenes are never anything but children'

ReferencePlato, Timaeus 22b–d
Writtenc. 360 BCE
SetSolon in Egypt, c. 590 BCE
There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes… once upon a time Phaethon, the son of Helios… burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals.

Translation: Jowett, 1871 · About the translator

Read it literally

An Egyptian priest says the myths are real disasters caused by objects in the sky, repeated over long cycles, and that Greeks forgot because their records were wiped each time.

What scholars say

Plato says the story came from Egyptian priests through Solon; historians doubt that chain.

From the sky Strange time
People and places herePlato

Quick answers about Plato, Timaeus 22b–d

Where is Plato, Timaeus 22b–d found?

Plato, Timaeus 22b–d (Greece and Rome). Translation quoted: Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (1871).

When was Plato, Timaeus 22b–d written?

c. 360 BCE.

What do scholars say about Plato, Timaeus 22b–d?

Plato says the story came from Egyptian priests through Solon; historians doubt that chain.

Rabbit holes in this passage

EventSolon and the priests of SaisAn Egyptian priest tells the Athenian sage Solon that Greeks are children who have forgotten the world's repeated destructions.

Sources

  1. Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (1871)Primary text
  2. Plato, Timaeus 21e–25d, trans. Benjamin Jowett (1871)Primary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

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