The Timaeus of Plato

24 A] TIMAIOS. 75
remember but one deluge, whereas there
had been many before
it ;
and moreover ye know not that the fairest and noblest race
among mankind lived once in your country, whence ye sprang
and all your city which now is, from a very little seed that of
old was left over. Ye however know it not, because the survivors
lived
and died for many generations without utterance in
writing. For once upon a time, Solon, far back beyond the
greatest destruction by waters, that which is now the city of
the Athenians was foremost both in war and in all besides, and
her laws were exceedingly righteous above all cities. Her deeds
and her government are said to have been the noblest among all
under heaven whereof the report has come to our ears.
And
Solon said that on hearing this he was astonished, and used all
urgency in entreating the priests to relate to him from beginning
to end all about those ancient citizens. So the priest said, I
grudge thee not, O Solon, and I will tell it for thy sake and for
the sake of thy city, and chiefly for the honour of the goddess
who was the possessor and nurse and instructress both of your
city and of ours for she founded
; yours earlier by a thousand
years, having taken the seed of you from Earth and Hephaistos;
and ours in later time. And the date of our city's foundation is
recorded in our sacred writings to be eight thousand years ago.
But concerning the citizens of Athens nine thousand years ago I
will inform you in brief of their laws and of the noblest of the
deeds which they performed
: the exact truth concerning everything
we will examine in due order hereafter, taking the actual
records at our leisure.
Consider now their laws in comparison with those of our
country for
; you will find here at the present day many examples
of the laws which then existed among you
: first the
separation of the priestly caste from the rest ;
next the distinc-
Athenian mythology : Erechtheus was the ical TOVTWV ol plv Iptes, ol 5
son of Earth and Hephaistos. xX^arat, ol 3 POVKO\OI, ol 8t ffv^iZrai, ol
12. irapaSeCYp-ara is of course not put S /ccunjXot, ol5 ep/j.rjvtes, ol 8t KV^epvrjrat.
for elxovas, as Proklos would have it, but The discrepancy arises from the fact that
signifies samples, specimens. there were actually three castes, the two
23. TO TWV Icplwv y&'os] Plato's classi- higher being priests and warriors, and
fication does not coincide with that given the lowest comprising men following
in Herodotus n 164. The latter makes various occupations which are differently
seven castes : ftm 5 Alyvrrluv eirra. yfrfa, enumerated by different authentic