Timaeus and Critias -- Plato

<strong>'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.'</strong> <p/> <em>Timaeus</em>, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and<br>of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, <br>who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials. <br> The unfinished companion piece, <em>Critias</em>, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial<br>ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams. <p/><strong>About the Series: </strong>For over 100 years <strong>Oxford World's Classics </strong>has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert<