HONR 302 - Assignment #1 An Epitome of the Timaeus

In the Fifth Century C.E. Boethius, a Roman Senator, was imprisoned by Theodoric, and executed. While in prison with an unknown fate he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in which Lady Philosophy brings him from despair to health. In Poem 9 of Book 3 (quoted below) he presents an epitome ( a critical summary as it were) of the Timaeus. Your task in two pages or so is to show that this poem is indeed a summary of the Timaeus. You can do this in a number of ways - a paper in standard essay form, a line-by-line commentary, or simply as a set of footnotes to the quoted piece below. Due date - Friday February 15.

“Oh God, Maker of heaven and earth, Who govern the world with eternal reason, at your command time passes from the beginning. You place all things in motion, though You are yourself without change. No external causes impelled You to make this work from chaotic matter. Rather it was the form of the highest good, existing within You without envy, which caused you to fashion all things according to the eternal exemplar. You who are most beautiful produce the beautiful world from your divine mind. And forming it in your image, You order the perfect parts in a perfect whole.

You bond the elements in harmony so that the cold and heat, dry and wet are joined, and the purer fire does not fly up through the air, nor the earth sink beneath the weight of water.

You release the world-soul throughout the harmonious parts of the universe as your surrogate, threefold in its operations, to give motion to all things. That soul, thus divided, pursues its revolving course in two circles, and returning to itself, embraces the profound mind and transforms heaven to its own image.

In like manner You create souls and lesser living forms and, adapting them to their high flight in swift chariots, You scatter them through the earth and sky. And when they have turned again toward You, by your gracious law , You call them back like leaping flames.

Grant, Oh Father, that my mind may rise to Thy sacred throne. Let it see the fountain of good; let it find light, so that the clear light of my soul may fix itself in Thee. Burn off the fogs and clouds of earth and shine through in Thy splendor. For Thou art the serenity, the tranquil peace of virtuous men. The sight of Thee is beginning and end; one guide, leader, path, and goal.”