Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.27)

Commentaries on Plato’s Alcibiades, from the voice of Olympiodorus, the great philosopher.

Aristotle, in beginning his own theology, says that all human beings by nature desire to know a reference to the opening line of Aristotle's Metaphysics; the proof is the love of the senses. But I, beginning the philosophy of Plato, would say this more forcefully: that all human beings desire the wisdom of Plato, all wishing to draw something noble from it, and striving to be possessors of its streams, and making themselves full of Platonic inspirations. There are four of these inspirations in him, in four dialogues: one, in the Timaeus, in which he was inspired, becoming possessed by the god, and assuming the persona of the Creator speaking to the heavens about the administration of things here, whom he calls the "new gods." For this reason, Iamblichus, commenting on the dialogue, titled it "The Creation of Zeus." The second inspiration is in the Republic, where, having become possessed by the Muses, he assumed the persona of the Muses explaining the resolution of the the constitution I the established by him referring to Plato. Where he says: "For to everything that has come to be, decay also follows by necessity." The third inspiration is the one in the Phaedrus, where Socrates, philosophizing about love under the plane tree, became possessed by the nymphs. The fourth is the one in the Theaetetus, where he became inspired according to philosophy, assuming the persona of the leading philosopher, that is to say, the contemplative one. For these reasons, everyone runs to the philosophy of Plato.

S

Come, let us also tell of the lineage of the philosopher, not for the sake of long-windedness, but rather for the benefit and education of those approaching him; for he was not just anyone, but rather one who concerned himself with many people. For Plato is said to have been born of a father, Ariston, the son of Aristocles, from whom he traced his lineage back to Solon, the lawgiver. Therefore, also in ancestral? zeal, he wrote laws in twelve books, and the establishment of a constitution in eleven. He came from a mother, Perictione, who descended from Neleus, the son of Codrus. They say, therefore, that an Apollonian phantom had intercourse with his mother, Perictione, and in the night, appearing to Ariston, commanded him...