Of the Platonic Idea as Understood by Aristotle
by John Milton
Tell, presiding goddesses of the sacred groves,
and Memory, blessed mother of Ninefold deity,
and Eternity, reclining in immeasurable and distant cave,
keeping records and unalterable laws of Jove,
recording heavenly feasts and quotidian acts of gods:
Who is that first, that eternal, incorruptible,
coeval with the heavens, one and universal
exemplar for God, after whose image
Nature has formed the human race?
Surely he does not, twin of virgin Pallas,
live unborn in Jove's mind?
But, remarkably, however common to all is his nature,
he stands apart as singular, locally bound;
possibly, as companion of sempiternal stars,
he wanders through heaven's ten spheres,
or inhabits the moon, planet closest to earth.
Possibly he sits by Lethe's oblivion-giving waters,
drowsily, among souls waiting placement in bodies;
or perhaps in some remote region of earth
this archetype of man walks, a great giant,
lifting his head high to frighten gods,
more huge even than star-bearing Atlas.
Nor did the Dircean augur, given deeper light
in blindness, see him in vision's depths.
Nor did Pleione's grandchild reveal him,
in night-quiet, to his wise tribe of prophets.
Nor did the Assyrian priest, though able to tell
ancient Ninus' ancestral tree, speak of old Belus
and of renowned Osiris, know anything of this.
Nor did even he of threefold glorious name,
Thrice-great Hermes, though knowing mysteries,
hand down such a marvel to Isis' devotees.
But you, perennial adornment of the Academy
(if you were first to bring to schools such monsters)
surely you will the poets exiled from the City
recall, for you are the greatest fabler --
or the founder himself must depart.
You can see theactual Latin here. C. S. Lewis also worked up a slightly paraphrastic version, which can be seen online (scroll down slightly). I'm not sure why Lewis blunts the Hermes Trismegistus reference; surely he recognized it. The poem, of course, is ironic; it is the Aristotelian, with his crude materialism, who is being made fun of, not Plato. For an English translation a little closer to the Latin in some ways, see here. Fabulator Maximus, by the way, is an excellent title.
