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The aim of this research is to analyse references to Middle Platonic exegeses on Plato’s cosmogony in the second book of Proclus’ Commentary on the Timaeus. Passages (which are generally dealt with only as fragments) will be systematically observed by considering their context and the way Proclus presents them : one will finally be able to emphasise that Proclus’ witness does not sustain the idea that Middle Platonic commentaries were continuous. Then, the major source for Middle Platonic exegeses on the Timaeus strongly suggests us to adopt a sceptical attitude with respect to this problem. In addition, some further aspects will emerge, for what concerns both Middle Platonic exegetical approach and Proclus’ method of using his (either direct or indirect) sources.

Contemporary debate on Plato’s cosmogony often assumes that the ‘literal’ reading of theTimaeusyields an account of creation, while the view that the cosmos always existed is non-literal. In antiquity, Taurus has been seen as a forerunner of the ‘non-literal’ interpretation. This paper shows, on the contrary, that Taurus’ argument for the sempiternity of the cosmos is a literalist one, relying on a strict linguistic analysis ofTimaeus28b6-8.