Thaimios divides living things into four categories: celestial beings, flying creatures, aquatic creatures, and terrestrial animals. Among these, the celestial beings are created from bright and beautiful fire, and they are given a circular shape that resembles the entire universe.
After the movements of stars, planets, and Earth are described, the explanation shifts to unseen gods. However, because their creation is beyond human power, it becomes necessary to accept the traditions passed down by people who claim to be descendants of the gods from ancient times.
Dialogue Text
Timaios (Continued) There are four kinds of living things. The first is the race of the gods who dwell on high, the second are winged creatures that fly in the air, the third are those that live in the water, and the fourth are terrestrial beings that walk upon the earth. God fashioned most of the divine race from fire, because it is the brightest and fairest thing to behold. And he made them round, like all other things, and placed them in accordance with the best intellect. He distributed them throughout the entire heavens, so that they might be a true ornament for the whole.
Timaios (Continued) God gave each [thing] two movements. One is a movement that causes it to always think the same thing about itself, in the same place and about the same things. The other is a forward-moving movement, governed by circular motion of identity and similarity. As for the remaining five movements, He kept them as still and upright as possible, striving to make each one the best it could be.
Timaios (Continued). For this reason, the celestial bodies become divine and eternal beings, remaining in the same place and rotating according to the same pattern, always staying there. On the other hand, those that revolve and exhibit wandering motion originated from what was described earlier. Regarding the Earth, it nourishes us, rotates around the axis that permeates everything, and acts as a guardian of night and day, creating them. The Earth is the first and oldest among the gods that arose within the heavens.
Timaios (Continued) These dances of the gods, their approaches to one another, the circles revolving again and returning relative to each other, moving forward; also, which gods are in what position with respect to each other when they merge, and which are directly opposite; furthermore, which gods obstruct us from seeing each other at certain times, and how they appear and send signs of things that will happen later to those who cannot reason – trying to describe these things without actually seeing these imitations would be a futile effort. Here, we will conclude our natural explanation about the visible and existing gods with this much.
Timaios (Continued): Regarding other divine beings, to speak of their generation and to know about it is beyond our power. However, we must trust those people who were mentioned before, namely the descendants of the gods, and who claim to know very well about their ancestors. Even if they are speaking without probable proof or necessary proof, we cannot distrust the children of the gods. Since they claim to be telling things that are close to them, let us trust them according to custom.