Divine generation and the work of likening

Use in the book

The paired accusatives Θεογονίαν and ζῳογονίαν at 980c identify one program with two related subjects. The Athenian does not recount a genealogy of named divine parents and children. He begins with the priority of soul, defines a living being through soul and body, and distinguishes bodily constitutions. The stellar gods can thereby be included among living beings without being assimilated to mortal earthly life. The joint heading explains why a discussion of divinity turns immediately into an account of animation and bodily kinds.

The new beginning explicitly resumes a previous account against the impious. That account established gods who exist, care, and cannot readily be soothed concerning justice; its greatest conclusion was the priority of soul. The edition identifies the background as Laws 10. The Epinomis does not reproduce that book's full proofs. Instead it takes their result as the beginning from which a better account can be constructed. The claim of continuity is the Athenian's own, while the actual development, including five bodies and a hierarchy of middle beings, must be read in this work's words.

The verb apeikazein frames this procedure at 980a and 980c and returns at 985b. There, one who likens rightly would liken the water-kind to a demigod. The repeated verb makes classification partly an act of fitting description: a familiar religious designation is attached to the properties of a bodily kind. It does not establish that every familiar story about demigods has been accepted. In particular, the watery class is not here defined as the genealogical offspring of a god and a human parent.

The language of beginnings at 981a is emphatic and self-conscious: “the first part, at least, of the first,” “the beginning of the beginning,” and the speakers' setting foot upon great matters of wisdom. These expressions mark foundational priority, not a dated first event in an independently narrated cosmic history. The repeated perfect and participial language of coming into being should likewise not be silently converted into a modern creation-from-nothing doctrine. What the passage supplies is an explanatory beginning in soul and the production of composite living beings.

The claim that predecessors likened badly is broad. The later recapitulation at 988c distinguishes early accounts of the gods from subsequent accounts that make bodies older than soul. Those remarks illuminate the polemic, but the text here does not name its targets one by one. The parentage of the dialogue itself is also disputed in the supplied introduction. It is safer to describe this as the Epinomis' reformulation than as an unqualified statement of what Plato always taught.

Places to read

1. 980aκάλλιον … καὶ ἄμεινον ἀπεικάζοντι — A lawgiver may represent the gods more finely and better
2. 980cΘεογονίαν τοίνυν καὶ ζῳογονίαν — Divine and animate generation form the announced subject
3. 980cκακῶς ἀπεικασάντων τῶν ἔμπροσθεν — The predecessors' representation is criticized
4. 981aτὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ἀρχῆς — The new account emphasizes its foundational starting point
5. 985bἡμίθεον μὲν ἀπεικάσειεν ἄν τις ὀρθῶς ἀπεικάζων — The water-kind is appropriately likened to a demigod

Translation in this edition

“Liken” is deliberately retained at the three principal occurrences; “generation of gods,” “of living beings,” and “coming into being” keep the compounds distinct from genesis. The supplied translation's “our story” at 980a renders μῦθον, but does not make the later λόγος merely a tale. These words identify different aspects of the speaker's undertaking rather than competing guarantees of truth.

The beginning of the beginning — ἀρχή (archē)

ἀρχή (archē)

The beginning of the beginning. The repeated language of beginning makes soul’s priority the explanatory foundation of the new account. Here archē is a starting point, not one of the political offices assigned at the work’s close. Attested: ἀρχὴν (981a). Divine generation and the work of likening.

A foundational account — γένεσις (genesis)

γένεσις (genesis)

A foundational account. Coming into being is the field whose first beginning the soul-priority argument supplies. The word does not by itself specify creation from nothing or a measurable first cosmic date. Attested: γενέσεως (981a). Divine generation and the work of likening.

Theological starting point — θεογονία (theogonia)

θεογονία (theogonia)

Theological starting point. The generation of gods is paired with that of living beings as the subject to be represented better. The exposition proceeds through soul and bodies rather than a genealogy of named divine parents. Attested: Θεογονίαν (980c). Divine generation and the work of likening.

Animation within theology — ζῳογονία (zōiogonia)

ζῳογονία (zōiogonia)

Animation within theology. Generation of living beings is the second member of the announced program. Its pairing with divine generation prepares the inclusion of stars among ensouled bodily creatures. Attested: ζῳογονίαν (980c). Divine generation and the work of likening.

Better verbal representation — ἀπεικάζειν (apeikazein)

ἀπεικάζειν (apeikazein)

Better verbal representation. The Athenian undertakes to represent divine and animate generation better than his predecessors. A likeness can be better or worse; the verb alone neither proves nor dismisses the proposed account. Attested: ἀπεικάσαι (980c). Divine generation and the work of likening.

A more plausible beginning — πιθανός (pithanos)

πιθανός (pithanos)

A more plausible beginning. If soul’s priority is accepted, the account’s first beginning will have been made more plausibly. The comparative remains within an explicit conditional. Attested: πιθανώτερον (981a). Divine generation and the work of likening.

Better likeness after bad predecessors (contextual phrase)

κακῶς ἀπεικασάντων τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, βέλτιον ἀπεικάσαι (980c)

The genitive absolute names the predecessors’ bad representation, and the comparative adverb sets the present undertaking against it. Repetition of the same verb locates improvement in the quality of the likeness. It does not name the predecessors individually or settle authorship of the work. Divine generation and the work of likening.

A conditional first foundation (contextual phrase)

εἰ δ’ ἔχει τοῦτο οὕτως (981a)

If this is so makes the accepted priority of soul a condition for the claimed better beginning that follows. The clause does not undermine the Athenian’s commitment, but it preserves the structure of the reasoning: the construction proceeds from a premise already taken up. Divine generation and the work of likening.