What has been above delivered concerning the mundane Gods is perfectly
conformable to the doctrine of Plato, as delivered by him in the
Timæus, in the speech[71] of the demiurgus to the junior Gods. For it
is there said, “When, therefore, all such Gods as visibly revolve,
and all such as become apparent when they please, were generated, he
who fabricated this universe thus addressed them: Gods of Gods, of
whom I am the demiurgus and father, whatever is generated by me is
indissoluble, such being my will in its fabrication. Indeed every thing
which is bound is dissoluble; but to be willing to dissolve that which
is beautifully harmonized and well composed is the property of an evil
nature. Hence, so far as you are generated, you are not immortal, nor
in every respect indissoluble, yet you shall never be dissolved, nor
become subject to the fatality of death; my will being a much greater
and more excellent bond than the vital connectives with which you were
bound at the commencement of your generation. Learn now, therefore,
what I say to you indicating my desire. Three genera of mortals yet
remain to be produced. Without the generation of these, therefore,
the universe will be imperfect; for it will not contain every kind of
animal in its spacious extent. But it ought to contain them, that it
may be sufficiently perfect. Yet if these are generated and participate
of life through me they will become equal to the Gods. That mortal
natures, therefore, may subsist, and that the universe may be truly
all, convert yourselves according to your nature to the fabrication
of animals, imitating the power which I employed in your generation.
And whatever among these is of such a nature as to deserve the same
appellation with immortals, which is called divine, obtains sovereignty
in them, and willingly pursues justice and reverences you,--of this
I myself will deliver the seed and beginning. It is your business
to accomplish the rest; to weave together the mortal and immortal
nature; by this mean fabricating and generating animals, causing them
to increase by supplying them with nutriment, and receiving them back
again when dissolved by corruption.”
As the commentary of Proclus on this speech most admirably unfolds
its recondite meaning, and is at the same time replete with the most
interesting information respecting the mundane Gods, I shall give the
following extracts from it, in which the most magnificent exuberance of
diction is combined with the greatest fecundity and scientific accuracy
of conception.
“The scope of this speech (says Proclus) is to insert demiurgic power
and providence in the mundane genera of Gods, to lead them forth to
the generation of the remaining kinds of animals, and to place them
over mortals, analogously to the father of wholes over the one orderly
distribution of the universe. For it is necessary that some things
should be primarily generated by the demiurgic monad, and others
through other media; the Demiurgus, indeed, producing all things from
himself, at once and eternally, but the things produced in order, and
first proceeding from him, producing together with him the natures
posterior to themselves. Thus, for instance, the celestial produce
sublunary Gods, and these generate mortal animals; the Demiurgus at
the same time fabricating these in conjunction with the celestial and
sublunary divinities. For in speaking he understands all things, and by
understanding all things he also makes the mortal genera of animals;
these requiring another proximate generating cause, so far as they
are mortal, and through this receiving a progression into being. But
the character of the words is enthusiastic, shining with intellectual
intuitions, pure and venerable as being perfected by the father of the
Gods, differing from and transcending human conceptions, delicate and
at the same time terrific, full of grace and beauty--at once concise
and perfectly accurate. Plato, therefore, particularly studies these
things in the imitations of divine speeches; as he also evinces in the
Republic, when he represents the Muses speaking sublimely, and the
prophet ascending to a lofty seat. He also adorns both these speeches
with conciseness and venerableness, employing the accurate powers of
colons, directly shadowing forth divine intellections through such a
form of words. But in the words before us he omits no transcendency
either of the grand and robust in the sentences and the names
adapted to these devices, or of magnitude in the conceptions and the
figures which give completion to this idea. Besides this, also, much
distinction and purity, the unfolding of truth, and the illustrious
prerogatives of beauty, are mingled with the idea of magnitude, this
being especially adapted to the subject things, to the speaker, and to
the hearers. For the objects of this speech are, the perfection of the
universe, an assimilation to all-perfect animal [i.e. to its paradigm],
and the generation of all mortal animals; the maker of all things, at
the same time, presubsisting and adorning all things through exempt
transcendency; but the secondary fabricators adding what was wanting
to the formation of the universe. All, therefore, being great and
divine, as well the persons as the things, and shining with beauty and
a distinction from each other, Plato has employed words adapted to the
form of the speech.
“Homer, also, when energizing enthusiastically, represents Jupiter
speaking, converting to himself the two-fold co-ordinations of Gods;
becoming himself, as it were, the centre of all the divine genera in
the world, and making all things obedient to his intellection. But
at one time he conjoins the multitude of Gods with himself without a
medium, and at another through Themis as the medium.
But Jove to Themis gives command to call
The Gods to council.
“This Goddess pervading everywhere collects the divine number, and
converts it to the demiurgic monad. For the Gods are both separate
from mundane affairs, and eternally provide for all things, being at
the same time exempt from them through the highest transcendency, and
extending their providence everywhere. For their unmingled nature
is not without providential energy, nor is their providence mingled
with matter. Through transcendency of power they are not filled
with the subjects of their government, and through beneficent will,
they make all things similar to themselves; in permanently abiding,
proceeding, and in being separated from all things, being similarly
present to all things. Since, therefore, the Gods that govern the
world, and the dæmons the attendants of these, receive after this
manner unmingled purity, and providential administration from their
father; at one time he converts them to himself without a medium, and
illuminates them with a separate, unmingled, and pure form of life.
Whence also I think he orders them to be separated from all things,
to remain exempt in Olympus, and neither convert themselves to Greeks
nor Barbarians; which is just the same as to say, that they must
transcend the two-fold orders of mundane natures, and abide immutably
in undefiled intellection. But at another time he converts them to a
providential attention to secondary natures, through Themis, and calls
upon them to direct the mundane battle, and excites different Gods
to different works. These divinities, therefore, especially require
the assistance of Themis, who contains in herself the divine laws,
according to which providence is intimately connected with wholes.
Homer, therefore, divinely delivers two-fold speeches, accompanying
the two-fold energies of Jupiter; but Plato, through this one speech,
comprehends those two-fold modes of discourse. For the Demiurgus
renders the Gods unmingled with secondary natures, and causes them to
provide for, and give existence to, mortals. But he orders them to
fabricate in imitation of himself: and in an injunction of this kind,
both these are comprehended, viz. the unmingled through the imitation
of the father, for he is separate, being exempt from mundane wholes;
but providential energy, through the command to fabricate, nourish, and
increase mortal natures. Or rather, we may survey both in each; for
in imitating the demiurgus, they provide for secondary natures, as he
does for the immortals; and in fabricating they are separate from the
things fabricated. For every demiurgic cause is exempt from the things
generated by it; but that which is mingled with and filled from them is
imbecil and inefficacious, and is unable to adorn and fabricate them.
And thus much in common respecting the whole of the speech.
“Let us then, in the first place, consider what we are to understand by
“Gods of Gods,” and what power it possesses: for that this invocation
is collective and convertive of multitude to its monad, that it calls
upwards the natures which have proceeded to the one fabrication of
them, and inserts a boundary and divine measure in them, is clear to
those who are not entirely unacquainted with such-like discourses. But
how those that are allotted the world by their father are called Gods
of Gods, and according to what conception, cannot easily be indicated
to the many; for there is an unfolding of one divine intelligence in
these names.” Proclus then proceeds to relate the explanations given
by others of these words; which having rejected as erroneous, he very
properly, in my opinion, adopts the following, which is that of his
preceptor, the great Syrianus. “All the mundane Gods are not simply
Gods, but they are wholly Gods which participate: for there is in them
that which is separate, unapparent, and supermundane, and also that
which is the apparent image of them, and has an orderly establishment
in the world. And that, indeed, which is unapparent in them is
primarily a God, this being undistributed and one: but this vehicle
which is suspended from their unapparent essence is secondarily a God.
For if, with respect to us, man is two-fold, one inward, according to
the soul, the other apparent, which we see, much more must both these
be asserted of the mundane Gods; since divinity also is two-fold, one
unapparent and the other apparent. This being the case, we must say,
that “Gods of Gods” is addressed to all the mundane divinities, in whom
there is a connection of unapparent with apparent Gods: for they are
Gods that participate. In short, since two-fold orders are produced
by the Demiurgus, some being supermundane, and others mundane, and
some being without, and others with participation [of body], if the
Demiurgus now addressed the supermundane orders, he would have alone
said to them, “Gods:” for they are without participation [i.e. without
the participation of body], are separate and unapparent:--but since the
speech is to the mundane Gods, he calls them Gods of Gods, as being
participated by other apparent divinities. In these also dæmons are
comprehended; for they also are Gods, as to their order with respect
to the Gods, whose peculiarity they indivisibly participate. Thus also
Plato, in the Phædrus, when he calls the twelve Gods the leaders
of dæmons, at the same time denominates all the attendants of the
divinities Gods, adding, ‘and this is the life of the Gods.’ All these,
therefore, are Gods of Gods, as possessing the apparent connected with
the unapparent, and the mundane with the supermundane.