PLATONIC

, something that relates to Plato, his school, philosophy, opinions, or the like.

PLATONIC Bodies, so called from Plato who treated of them, are what are otherwise called the regular bodies. They are five in number; the tetraedron, the hexaedron, the octaedron, the dodecaedron, and the icosaedron. See each of these articles, as also Regular Bodies.

Platonic Year, or the Great Year, is a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places, in respect of the equinoxes.

The Platonic year, according to Tycho Brahe, is 25816 solar years, according to Riccioli 25920, and according to Cassini 24800 years.

This period being once accomplished, it was an opinion among the ancients, that the world was to begin anew, and the same series of things to return over again.