314
PLATO
views, however, have been attributed to Plato by later writers.
In the Timaeus Plato had used of the earth the expression
which has usually been translated 'our nurse, globed {¿XXo-
pivpv) round the axis stretched from pole to pole through
the universe О It is well known that Aristotle refers to the
passage in these terms:
4 Some say that the earth, actually lying at the centre (ка1
KeL/xii'rju етn rod Ktvrpov), is yet wound and moves {i'XХесгвси
ка\ KLveiadai) about the axis stretched through the universe
from pole to pole.’ 2
This naturally implies that Aristotle attributed to Plato
the view that the earth rotates about its axis. Such a view
is, however, entirely inconsistent with the whole system
described in the Timaeus (and also in the Laws, which Plato
did not live to finish), where it is the sphere of the fixed
stars which by its revolution about the earth in 24 hours
makes night and day; moreover, there is no reason to doubt
the evidence that it was Heraclides of Pontus who was the
first to affirm the rotation of the earth about its own axis
in 24 hours. The natural inference seems to be that Aristotle
either misunderstood or. misrepresented Plato, the ambiguity
of the word iXXopevpv being the contributing cause or the
pretext as the case may be. There are, however, those who
maintain that Aristotle must have known what Plato meant
and was incapable of misrepresenting him on a subject like
this. Among these is Professor Burnet, 3 who, being satisfied
that Aristotle understood iXXop-tvpv to mean motion of some
sort, and on the strength of a new reading which he has
adopted from two MSS. of the first class, has essayed a new
interpretation of Plato’s phrase. The new reading differs
from the former texts in having the article три after
iXXop-eupu, which makes the phrase run thus, yrju Se трофои
реи pperepau, IXXopeupu Se три тгбpi той Slcc ttccutos тгоХои
тетареиои. Burnet, holding that we can only supply with
три some word like ¿Sou, understands тrepioSou or ттерьфораи,
and translates 4 earth our nurse going to and fro on its path
round the axis which stretches right through the universe ’.
1 Timccetis 40 b.
2 Arist. De caelo, ii. 18, 293 b 20; cf. ii. 14, 296a 25.
3 Greek Philosophy, Part I, Thales to Plato, pp. 847-8.
