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[58a] and motion in non-uniformity; and the cause of the non-uniform nature lies in inequality. Now we have explained the origin of inequality1; but we have not declared how it is that these bodies are not separated according to their several Kinds, and cease not from their motion and passage one through another. Wherefore, we shall once more expound the matter as follows. The revolution of the All, since it comprehends the Kinds, compresses them all, seeing that it is circular and tends naturally to come together to itself2; and thus it suffers no void place to be left.


1 Cf. 53 C ff.: the varying shapes and sizes of the primary triangles account for the “inequality.”

2 i.e., exerts a centripetal force. For this “compression” cf. Emped. Frag. 185 Τιτὰν ἠδ᾽ αἰθὴρ σφίγγων περὶ κύκλον ἅπαντα.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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