Timaeus And Critias

Product Description

' The god wanted everything to be good marred by as little imperfection as possible' Timaeus one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces is an attempt to construct the universe & explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible The result is a brilliant bizarre & surreal cosmos
- the product of the rational thinking of a creator god & his astral assistants & of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements At times dazzlingly clear at times intriguingly opaque this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials The unfinished companion piece Critias is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis It tells how a model society became corrupt & how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction & diagrams ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more