Abstract

In the Timaeus, Plato reconstructs in narrative form (by means of a likely myth) the genesis and the structure of the physical world. He imagines the cosmos to be similar to an artefact produced by a divine craftsman, the demiurge. This craftsman wants his product to be similar to an intelligible model, the world of forms. The introduction of time aims to make the generated copy (the sensible world) maximally similar to its eternal model (the intelligible living being). Timaeus understands time as an eternal and mobile image of eternity. This assertion means that time is a projection, carried out according to mathematical rules, of eternity: eternity is compressed and not extended, like the geometric point, but manifests itself in the cosmos in the form of time, i.e. as a numerical extension. Finally, Plato states that time is born together with the universe. In reality, both the universe and time are infinite, both in the past and in the future.