The Timaeus as an Origin Story

Abstract This paper proposes a new way of understanding the thematic unity of the Timaeus . One of the major obstacles to appreciating the unity of the dialogue has been the apparent disconnect between the prologue, which prominently includes Critias’ account of ancient Athens (20d–26d), and Timaeus’ cosmological account. Past attempts to establish unity have worked on the assumption that the Timaeus as a whole is looking forward to the Critias and have sought to show that Critias’ account is in some sense complementary to Timaeus’ cosmological program. Building on recent work that calls the authenticity of the Critias into question, I argue that we can best appreciate the thematic unity of the dialogue by reading Timaeus’ account as a critical response to Critias’ account.