著者

国方 栄二

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典學研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.40-50, 1990-03-29

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It is often thought that the Eleatic stranger introduced the myth in the Politicus, with a view to recalling our minds from resting in an ideal, i e, the so-called Golden Age of Cronos in which harmony is completely realized, it remains for us to take account of the imperfect conditions of our actual world But, as H Herter correctly surmised, modern attempts to find an ideal state or community in the reign of Cronos seem unsuccessful It is clear from the text that the measure of human happiness is the pursuit of philosophy (272 B-C), and the cycle of Cronos is characterized by forgetfulness (272 A 2) In this way, the reign of Cronos is far from a model, serving rather as a foil for our present cycle Yet the story is combined with a complicated cosmological theory according to which, in one era, the cosmos is assisted on its way by its Creator, and in another era, when He releases control, the cosmos begins to revolve with its own motion Moreover, the cosmos periodically reverses the direction of its rotation How, then, can this strange theory be harmonized with our abovementioned interpretation? The aim of this paper is to reexamine the cosmology of the Politicus in detail, and to question the cause of this retrograde motion Then, on the basis of this analysis, we finally ask what Plato's real intention is when he seeks a definition of the true statesman in the cycle of Zeus Conclusions (1) The cosmos cannot free itself from change owing to its bodily nature, but it tries to maintain its uniformity, like that of the Forms, so far as it can Thus it has acquired the motion of a circle (269 D 5-E 4) I take την ανακυκλησιν at 269 E 3 as the circular movement, not as the reversal of rotation (as many scholars since Campbell), since it is not clear from this why the cosmos must move in reverse In this section, we must notice that it is not said that the retrograde motion is caused because of some bodily element of the cosmos Scholars make a mistake when they take it that the retrograde motion is simply equivalent to disorderly motion Since the cosmos has a circular motion, albeit in reverse direction, we must suppose behind it the intelligence, i e φρονησιζ, with which it is endowed by the Creator, even though, as time goes on, its recollection grows dim due to the material element in its composition (2) The reason why the weakness of World-Soul is stressed in the Politicus in comparison with the Timaeus or Leges X, is because of the need to show that in each era the cosmos and human beings undergo the same παθοζ In the age of Cronos, both the cosmos and human beings pass time idly On the other hand, in the age of Zeus, they both have to direct their own lives (274 D) Still, the care of the Creator is not entirely excluded in the period of Zeus, and even then the cosmos is governed by Him indirectly through the φρονησιζ (or διδαχη) Thus, abiding by it is best for human beings as well as for the World-Soul Although we cannot but set men as rulers over men, the best thing that we can do is to set a man having intelligence over other men Plato wanted to show this in the encompassing context of cosmic history