Of Human Fates, Punishments and Animal Bodies. Ps.-Timaeus of Locri and the Exegesis of Timaeus 90e1-92c9 / Di destini umani, punizioni e corpi animali Ps.-Timeo di Locri e l’esegesi di Timeo 90e1-92c9

This article focuses on the final sentences of the treatise attributed to Timaeus of Locri, which offers an interpretation of the closing section of Plato’s Timaeus. The passage has long provoked debate on Timaeus of Locri’s understanding of metempsychosis, some holding that he rejected it and reduced it to a persuasive myth, others holding that he accepted it without specifying his own interpretation of the matter. Through a new translation and a close analysis of the text, this article attempts to shed light on the author’s exegetical strategy, which aims at defending Plato from critical and literal readings of his depictions of human transmigration into animal bodies without rejecting the idea of metempsychosis. This new reading better accounts for the economy of the passage and explains it within the context of the Platonic- Pythagorean philosophy of the Post-Hellenistic age, all while showing the originality of its author’s exegetical strategy.