The mouth, metonymy of the Cosmos: Intelligence and necessity in Timaeus. Intermediary figures in Platonic philosophy

Abstract

In Timaeus the mouth is the meeting place of the necessary and the best. I will take this as a starting point to reflect on the entities that exercise an intermediary (metaxý ) function in Platonic thought. To do so, I will resort to analogy as defined by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics and Poetics. The aim is to show the importance of these mediating figures in the unitary conception of the human being and of the healthy political community, which, as described in Republic V, should be as a single individual.