在这个摹本中,有七个星体,放在异的圈的七条轨道上,围绕中间的地球转动。首先是月亮,然后是太阳,次之为晨星和赫耳墨斯神的居所墓星,它们的运行速度和太阳相同,但运动方式相反。至于其他行星,他也按数的关系来安置。为了使这八个行星的运行快慢清晰地显现出来,造物者把从地球算起的第二个行星,即太阳,点着了火。于是便有了昼夜这样一个时间单位;这是一个极为智慧的周期。当月亮转完一圈,并超过太阳时,是一个月。太阳转完一圈是一年。其余的时间单位,除了少数人意外,一般人是不注意的,因而无以名之。
The sun and moon and five other stars,
which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish
and preserve the numbers of time; and when he had made-their several
bodies, he placed them in the orbits in which the circle of the other was
revolving-in seven orbits seven stars. First, there was the moon in the orbit
nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the second orbit above the
earth; then came the morning star and the star sacred to Hermes, moving
in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite
direction; and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer
overtake and are overtaken by each other.
And the
month is accomplished when the moon has completed her orbit and
overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has completed his own orbit.
一时找不到完整的中译本,只找到个英译本,又找了网上一些中文概述。从上面这几段(应该是对同一段文字的翻译/概述)看,柏拉图的模型就是最原始的地心说啊,当然只是定性的论述,还没有到托勒密的定量计算。