Here Proklus recognises the efficacy of the axis in producing and maintaining the revolution of the Kosmos, but he does not remark that it initiates this movement by revolving itself. The Θεοτὴς, which Proklus ascribes to the axis, is invested in the earth packed round it, by the Platonic Timæus.
Now the function which Plato ascribes to the earth in the passage of the Timæus before us is very analogous to that which in the Republic he ascribes to Necessity — the active guardianship of the axis of the kosmos and the maintenance of its regular rotation. With a view to the exercise of this function, the earth is planted in the centre of the axis, the very root of the kosmic soul (Plato, Timæus, p. 34 B). It is even “packed close round the axis,” in order to make sure that the axis shall not be displaced from its proper situation and direction. The earth is thus not merely active and influential, but is really the chief regulator of the march of the kosmos, being the immediate neighbour and auxiliary of the kosmic soul. Such a function is worthy of “the first and eldest of intra-kosmic deities,” as Plato calls the earth. With perfect propriety he may say that the earth, in the exercise of such a function, “is guardian and artificer of day and night.” This is noway inconsistent with that which he says in another passage, that the revolutions of the outer sidereal sphere determine day and night. For these revolutions of the outer sidereal sphere depend upon the revolutions of the axis, which latter is kept in uniform position and movement by the earth grasping it round its centre and revolving with it. The earth does not determine days and nights by means of its own rotations, but by its continued influence upon the rotations of the kosmic axis, and (through this latter) upon those of the outer sidereal sphere.
It is important to attend to the circumstance last mentioned, and to understand in what sense Plato admitted a rotatory movement of the earth. In my judgment, the conception respecting the earth and its functions, as developed in the Platonic Timæus, has not been considered with all its points taken together. One point among several, and that too the least important point, has been discussed as if it were the whole, because it falls in with the discussions of subsequent astronomy. Thus Plato admits the rotation of the earth, but he does not admit it as producing any effects, or as the primary function of the earth: it is only an indirect consequence of the position which the earth occupies in the discharge of its primary function — of keeping the cosmical axis steady, and maintaining the uniformity of its rotations. If the cosmical axis is to revolve, the earth, being closely packed and fastened round it, must revolve along with it. If the earth stood still, and resisted all rotation of its own, it would at the same time arrest the rotations of the cosmical axis, and of course those of the entire kosmos besides.
The above is the interpretation which I propose of the passage in the Platonic Timæus, and which I shall show to coincide with Aristotle’s comment upon it. Messrs. Boeckh and Martin interpret differently. They do not advert to the sense in which Plato conceives the axis of the kosmos — not as an imaginary line, but as a solid revolving cylinder; and moreover they understand the function assigned by the Platonic Timæus to the earth in a way which I cannot admit. They suppose that the function assigned to the earth is not to keep up and regularize, but to withstand and countervail, the rotation of the kosmos. M. Boeckh comments upon Gruppe, who had said (after Ideler) that when the earth is called φύλακα καὶ δημιουργὸν νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, Plato must have meant to designate some active function ascribed to it, and not any function merely passive or negative. I agree with Gruppe in this remark, and I have endeavoured to point out what this active function of the earth is, in the Platonic theory. But M. Boeckh (Untersuchungen, &c., p. 69-70) controverts Gruppe’s remark, observing, first, that it is enough if the earth is in any way necessary to the production of the given effect; secondly, that if active force be required, the earth (in the Platonic theory) does exercise such, by its purely passive resistance, which is in itself an energetic putting forth of power.
M. Boeckh’s words are:— “Es kommt nur darauf an, dass er ein Werk, eine Wirkung, hervorbringt oder zu einer Wirkung beiträgt, die ohne ihn nicht wäre: dann ist er durch seine Wirksamkeit ein Werkmeister der Sache, sey es auch ohne active Thätigkeit, durch bloss passiven Widerstand, der auch eine mächtige Kraft-äusserung ist. Die Erde ist Werkmeisterin der Nacht und des Tages, wie Martin (b. ii. p. 88) sehr treffend sagt ‘par son énergique existence, c’est à dire, par son immobilité même:’ denn sie setzt der täglichen Bewegung des Himmels beständig eine gleiche Kraft in entgegengesetzter Richtung entgegen. So muss nach dem Zusammenhange ausgelegt werden: so meint es Platon klar und ohne Verhüllungen: denn wenige Zeilen vorher hat er gesagt, Nacht und Tag, das heisst ein Sterntag oder Zeittag, sei ein Umlauf des Kreises des Selbigen — das ist, eine tägliche Umkreisung des Himmels von Osten nach Westen, wodurch also die Erde in Stillstand versetzt ist: und diese tägliche Bewegung des Himmels hat er im vorhergehenden immer und immer gelehrt.” . . . . “Indem Platon die Erde nennt εἱλομένην, nicht περὶ τὸν ἑαυτῆς πόλον, sondern περὶ τὸν διὰ παντὸς πόλον τεταμένον, setzt er also die tägliche Bewegung des Himmels voraus” (p. 70-71).[2]
[2] “We are only required to show, that the Earth produces a work or an effect, — or contributes to an effect which would not exist without such help: the Earth is then, through such operation, an Artificer of what is produced, even without any positive activity, by its simply passive resistance, which indeed is in itself a powerful exercise of force. The Earth is Artificer of night and day, according to the striking expression of Martin, ‘par son énergique existence, c’est-à-dire, par son immobilité même:’ for the Earth opposes, to the diurnal movement of the Heavens, a constant and equal force in the opposite direction. This explanation must be the true one required by the context: this is Plato’s meaning, plainly and without disguise: for he has said, a few lines before, that Night and Day (that is, a sidereal day, or day of time) is a diurnal revolution of the Heaven from East to West, whereby accordingly the Earth is assumed as at rest: And this diurnal movement of the Heaven he has taught over and over again in the preceding part of his discourse.” — “Since therefore Plato calls the Earth εἱλομένην, not περὶ τὸν ἑαυτῆς πόλον, but περὶ τὸν διὰ παντὸς πόλον τεταμένον, he implies thereby the diurnal movement of the Heaven.”
I not only admit but put it in the front of my own case, that Plato in the Timæus assumes the diurnal movement of the celestial sphere; but I contend that he also assumes the diurnal rotation of the earth. M. Boeckh founds his contrary interpretation upon the unquestionable truth that these two assumptions are inconsistent; and upon the inference that because the two cannot stand together in fact, therefore they cannot have stood together in the mind of Plato. In that inference I have already stated that I cannot acquiesce.
But while M. Boeckh takes so much pains to vindicate Plato from one contradiction, he unconsciously involves Plato in another contradiction, for which, in my judgment, there is no foundation whatever. M. Boeckh affirms that the function of the earth (in the Platonic Timæus) is to put forth a great force of passive resistance — “to oppose constantly, against the diurnal movement of the heavens, an equal force in an opposite direction.” Is it not plain, upon this supposition, that the kosmos would come to a standstill, and that its rotation would cease altogether? As the earth is packed close or fastened round the cosmical axis, so, if the axis endeavours to revolve with a given force, and the earth resists with equal force, the effect will be that the two forces will destroy one another, and that neither the earth nor the axis will move at all. There would be the same nullifying antagonism as if, — reverting to the analogous case of the spindle and the verticilli (already alluded to) in the tenth book of the Republic, — as if, while Ananké turned the spindle with a given force in one direction, Klotho (instead of lending assistance) were to apply her hand to the outermost verticillus with equal force of resistance in the opposite direction (see Reipubl. x. p. 617 D). It is plain that the spindle would never turn at all.
Here, then, is a grave contradiction attaching to the view of Boeckh and Martin as to the function of the earth. They have not, in my judgment, sufficiently investigated the manner in which Plato represents to himself the cosmical axis: nor have they fully appreciated what is affirmed or implied in the debated word εἱλόμενον — εἱλούμενον — ἰλλόμενον. That word has been explained partly by Ruhnken in his notes on Timæi Lexicon, but still more by Buttmann in his Lexilogus, so accurately and copiously as to leave nothing further wanting. I accept fully the explanation given by Buttmann, and have followed it throughout this article. After going over many other examples, Buttmann comes to consider this passage of the Platonic Timæus; and he explains the word εἱλομένην or ἰλλόμενην as meaning — “sich drängen oder gedrängt werden um die Axe: d. h. von allen Seiten her an die Axe. Auch lasse man sich das Praesens nicht irren: die Kräfte, welche den Weltbau machen und zusammen halten, sind als fortdauernd thätig gedacht. Die Erde drängt sich (ununterbrochen) an den Pol, macht, bildet eine Kugel um ihn. Welcher Gebrauch völlig entspricht dem wonach dasselbe Verbum ein einwickeln, einhüllen, bedeutet. Auch hier mengt sich in der Vorstellung einiges hinzu, was auf ein biegen winden, und mitunter auf ein drehen führt: was aber überall nur ein durch die Sache selbst hinzutretender Begriff ist,” p. 151. And again, p. 154, he gives the result — that the word has only “die Bedeutung drängen, befestigen, nebst den davon ausgehenden — die von drehen, winden, aber ihm gänzlich fremd sind, und nur aus der Natur der Gegenstände in einigen Fällen als Nebengedanken hinzutreten.”[3]
[3] “To pack itself, or to be packed, round the axis: that is, upon the axis from all sides. We must not be misled by the present tense: for the forces, which compose and hold together the structure of the universe, are conceived as continuously in active operation. The Earth packs itself, or is packed, on to the axis — makes or forms a ball round the axis: which corresponds fully to that other usage of the word, in the sense of wrapping up or swathing round. Here too there is a superadded something blended with the idea, which conducts us to turning, winding, and thus to revolving: but this is every where nothing more than an accessory notion, suggested by the circumstances of the case. The word has only the meaning, to pack, to fasten — the senses, to wind, to revolve, are altogether foreign to it, and can only be superadded as accessory ideas, in certain particular instances, by the special nature of the case.”