Geometrical reasons are co-eternal with God — and in them there is first the difference between the curved and the straight line. Above (in Book 1) it was said that the curved somehow bears a likeness to God; the straight line represents creatures. And first in the adornment of the world, the farthest region of the fixed stars has been made spherical, in that geometrical likeness of God, because as a corporeal God — worshipped by the gentiles under the name of Jupiter — it had to contain all the remaining things in itself. Accordingly, rectilinear magnitudes pertained to the inmost contents of the farthest sphere; and the first and the most beautiful magnitudes to the primary contents. But among rectilinear magnitudes the first, the most perfect, the most beautiful, and most simple are those which are called the five regular solids. More than 2,000 years ago Pythagoreans said that these five were the figures of the world, as they believed that the four elements and the heavens–the fifth essence–were conformed to the archetype for these five figures. The Five Regular Solids “But the true reason for these figures including one another mutually is in order that these five figures may conform to the intervals of the spheres. Therefore, if there are five spherical intervals, it is necessary that there be six spheres; just as with four linear intervals, there must necessarily be five digits. “
Kepler, _Epitome_
