Editing Demiurge (section)

==Plato and the ''Timaeus''==
{{main|Timaeus (dialogue)}}
[[Plato]], as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the [[Socratic dialogue]] ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' (28a [[wikt:ff.#Abbreviation|ff.]]), {{circa}}&nbsp;360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world. Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly [[:wikt:benevolence|benevolent]], and so it desires a world as good as possible. The result of his work is a universe as a living god with lesser gods, such as the stars, planets, and gods of traditional religion, inside it. Plato argues that the cosmos needed a Demiurge because the cosmos needed a cause that makes [[Analogy of the divided line|Becoming resemble Being]].<ref>See Thomas K. Johansen. 2014. "Why the Cosmos Needs a Craftsman: Plato, Timaeus 27d5-29b1," ''Phronesis'' 59 (4): 297-320.[https://philpapers.org/archive/JOHWTC-3.pdf]</ref> ''Timaeus'' is a philosophical reconciliation of [[Hesiod]]'s cosmology in his ''[[Theogony]]'', [[syncretism|syncretically]] reconciling Hesiod to [[Homer]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origin|year=1974|first=Joseph|last=Fontenrose|page=226|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h56ansk4SyQC&pg=PA226 | isbn=978-0-8196-0285-5 | publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's Timaeus|year=1999|first=John|last=Sallis|page=86|isbn=0-253-21308-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gS_9aQ5mYKgC&pg=PA86 | publisher=Indiana University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy|first=Thomas|last=Keightley|year=1838|page=[https://archive.org/details/mythologyancien04keiggoog/page/n90 44]|publisher=Oxford University|url=https://archive.org/details/mythologyancien04keiggoog|quote=theogony timaeus.}}</ref> though other scholars have argued that Plato's theology 'invokes a broad cultural horizon without committing to any specific poetic or religious tradition'.<ref>{{cite book|title=Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy|year=2023|first=Vilius|last=Bartninkas|page=65|url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009322638 | isbn=9781009322638 | publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781009322638 }}</ref> Moreover, Plato believed that the Demiurge created other, so-called "lower" gods who, in turn, created humanity.<ref>Thomas Johansen. 2020. “Crafting the Cosmos: Plato on the Limitations of Divine Craftsmanship,” in T.K. Johansen (ed.), ''Productive Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy'': ''The Concept of'' Technē, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 86-108.[https://philpapers.org/archive/JOHCTC-4.pdf]</ref> Some scholars have argued that the lower gods are gods of traditional mythology, such as Zeus and Hera.<ref>Vilius Bartninkas. 2023. ''Traditional and Cosmic Gods in Later Plato and the Early Academy.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref>