The Timaeus of Plato

76 A] TIMAIO2. 281
uniformity; and he fastened the extremities of the jaw : bones to
them just under the face; and the rest he distributed over all
the limbs, uniting joint to joint. And our framers ordained the
functions of the mouth, furnishing
it with teeth and tongue and
lips, in the way it is now arranged, combining in their purpose
the necessary and the best; for they devised the incoming with
the necessary in view, but the outgoing with the most excellent.
For all that enters in to give sustenance to the body is of necessity;
but the stream of speech which flows out and ministers to
understanding
is of all streams the most noble and excellent.
But as to the head, it was neither possible to leave it of bare
bone, owing to the extremes of heat and cold in the seasons;
nor yet by covering
it over to allow it to become dull and senseless
through the burden of flesh. Of the fleshy material as it was
drying a larger film formed on the surface and separated itself;
this is what is now called skin. This by the influence of the
moisture of the brain combined and grew up and clothed the
head all round: and the moisture rising up under the sutures
saturated and closed it in on the crown, fastening it together
like a knot. Now the form of the sutures is manifold, owing to
the power of the soul's revolutions and of the aliment;
if these
I cannot see my way to any satisfactory 1 7.
TO 8i TWV pcujxuv] The number
emendation.
and diversity of the sutures depends upon
14. 8e'p(xa] Is this meant to be de- the violence of the struggle described in
rived from X^t/xa? The PVV looks like 436 foil, between the influx of aliment
it ;
and Plato's etymological audacity has and the revolutions of the soul acting
adventured things /ciVrepa'than this. through the brain. There is a passage
8td ri}v irpl riv eyK^aXov voriSa] of Hippokrates which curiously falls in
Plato is explaining how it comes to with Plato's connexion of the sutures
pass that the skull is covered with with the soul's irepioSoi: de capitis vulskin,
although, according to his account, neribus vol. Ill p. 347 Ktihn 6Vrw /XTJthere
is no flesh upon it. He regards it dertpudi juijSe/otfoj' vpo^oK^v ?x> OVTOS
as an extension of the skin on the face x ei T^s ^a^as TTJS Kf