Abstract

"Creation and Procreation in Plato's Cosmology: A Reading of the Timaeus," shows that the maternal feminine principle is at once systematically excluded and yet logically necessary, that it is demeaned as female and then positively and metaphorically appropriated as male, thus giving the maternal feminine an uncanny presence in Plato's philosophy. This strategic maneuver is exposed in Plato's work at three levels: cosmic, human, and mythic; the cosmic sets the standard which the human strives to imitate and which the mythic approximates but only as a pretense. At the cosmic level, the creation of the universe is not an erotic affair, but an artistic act performed by the male artisan god acting as rational intelligence persuading errant necessity to bring most of the disorderly and recalcitrant materials to the best end. Although this creative act of the father effectively effaces the maternity of the cosmic mother, Chora , it also transcends the violent incorporation of the mother in Hesiod's Theogony. At the human level, man can't suspend Eros in procreation and so a woman's maternity remains intact; however, as is consistent with ancient Greek culture, the male imitates the cosmos by controlling the female with such institutions as marriage and motherhood. In addition, man can imitate the cosmos by using his reason to control his emotions , ideally acting like Socrates who sublimates his Eros and pursues philosophy, thus giving birth to ideas; while women, on the other hand, remain tied to the body, and thus unable to pursue philosophy. At the mythic level, referring to the Republic and the Critias as a prelude in the Timaeus, the human mother is denied in favor of an abstract earth mother , Eros is drained from the guardians' life, and maternity is made easy for the guardian women who are more masculine than feminine. Moreover, their affiliation with Athena, the virgin warrior goddess, and her tenuous ties to maternity, further denies maternity to women. Finally, we know that this mythic ideal that eliminates Eros and denies maternity to women is only a pretense