PLATO, PLATON. Plato, c. 427-348 B.C., was the son of Ariston, who traced his descent from Codrus, the last king of Athens. His mother was Perictone, the sixth descendant of the great Athenian lawgiver Solon. Given the name Aristocles after his grandfather, he was nevertheless called Plato because of his broad wrestler's face. In his youth he wrote poetry and plays but gave them up when he met Socrates. After 399 B.C., the year of Socrates's execution, Plato traveled to Megera, Egypt, and returned to Athens in 389 to form his Academy. He is the author of about twenty-five dialogues, conversations between Socrates and his disciples, the most famous being Ion, Protagoras, Apology, Crito, Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, Timaeus, Meno, and Laws. He died in 347 (Diogenes Laertius III).

The Timaeus was the best known of Plato's dialogues during the Middle Ages. Although Aristippus, archdeacon of Catania, had translated the Phaedo and the Meno before 1162, neither of these translations appear to have been widely known. Medieval scholars knew the Timaeus in the fourth-century translation with commentary by Calcidius, on which medieval Platonism is based. Its influence may be seen in the works of Martianus Capella (De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologie), Boethius (De consolatione philosophiae), Macrobius (Commentarius in Somnium Scipionis, based largely on Porphyry's commentary on the Timaeus), Alain de Lille (De planctu Naturae), Abelard (Introductio ad theologiam and Theologia christiana), Bernard Silvester (De mundi universitate and Cosmographia).

Chaucer quotes from Timaeus 29B: "the wordes moote be cosyn to the dede," Gen Prol 741-742, MancT 207-210, Bo III, Prosa 12.205-207. The story of the disciple who asked Plato the name of the secret stone, CYT 1448-1471, is told of Solomon in Tabula Chemica of Senior Zadith in Zetner's Theatrum chemicum V.224 (1622). Plato is quoted at HF II.757-765, an idea found in Bo III, Prosa 11. 43-47. Plato is the authority for the doctrine that the air is the habitation of certain citizens and beasts, HF II.929-932. Augustine cites Plato on the subject in De civitatis Dei (The City of God) VII.15-16, where "beasts" refer to the demons of the air. Skeat (III: 264) suggests that "beasts" refers to the signs of the zodiac and "citizen" to aerial powers, as in Alain de Lille, Anticlaudianus IV.271-278. The zodiac is the circle of beasts, Astr I.21.49-62.

Boethius was much indebted to Plato in De consolatione philosophiae. Lady Philosophy laments the long time that she has been striving against foolishness, long before Plato's time, Bo I, Prosa 3.23-28, and that Plato confirms her teaching that the commonwealth would be happier if the rulers studied wisdom, Bo I, Prosa 4.26-30. This notion appears in Republic V.473C-D, VI.485B-E. She reminds Boethius that her disciple Plato says, In Thymeo, that people should ask God's help in little things, Bo III, Prosa 9.189-194, Timaeus 27C. Scholars have pointed out that Metrum 9 of Book III is an abridgement of the first part of the Timaeus. Lady Philosophy gives Plato's doctrine that men record things that they have forgotten, that is, the doctrine of the recollection of the former life, Bo III, Metr 11.43-47, as found in Phaedo 72-76, Meno 81-86. Plato says that only wise men do what they desire, Bo IV, Prosa 2.260-268. Boethius quotes Plato that God is eternal and the world perpetual, Bo V, Prosa 6.59-67. In Timaeus 37D Plato says that the father made the universe, a movable image of eternity. There is an apparent reference to the Symposium, LGW F 521-526, LGW G 511-514, where Chaucer mentions Agaton, the poet in whose honor the banquet in the Symposium is held. [Agaton: Boece: Senior]

The name never occurs initially. Plato appears 5 times in medial positions, Gen Prol 741; CYT 1453, 1456, 1463; MancT 207; and three times in final rhyming position, CYT 1448, 1460; HF II.931, and throughout the prose of Boece. Platon, the French variant, occurs once, in final rhyming position, HF II.759.