Having therefore solved the problem pertaining to the essence, let us
in the next place consider the order of the sublunary Gods, and the
meaning of the subsequent words of Plato. For let them be Gods, and
let them be called dæmons for the cause above assigned, where must we
arrange them? Must it be, as we have before said, under the moon, or
prior to the celestial[130] Gods? For this may appear to be proper
for these two reasons; one indeed, because Plato indicates that he
ascends to a greater order, by saying that it exceeds our ability to
speak concerning them, having already spoken concerning the celestial
Gods; but the other, because he follows in what he says, those who
have delivered to us Theogonies. For they prior to the world and the
demiurgus, delivered these generations of Gods proceeding from Heaven
and Earth. In answer to this query however, we must say, that he
produces them after the celestial Gods, and through this from Heaven
and Earth. For on this account he said that Earth was the most ancient
of the Gods within the Heaven, because from this and Heaven, he was
about to produce the other Gods which the heavens contain. This we
demonstrate from the demiurgus addressing his speech to these Gods,
and to all the rest, as being produced by him within the universe.
Why, however, Plato says that he follows the Theogony, and why he
shall omit to speak concerning the sublunary deities, we must refer to
his having no clear indications of the subsistence of these from the
phænomena, as he had of the celestial divinities, from the order of
their periods, which is adapted to the government of Gods. It exceeds
the province therefore of physiology to speak of beings, concerning
whom natural effects afford us no stable belief. Hence Plato says, as a
physiologist, that it surpasses his ability to speak of these.
If, however, he says that he follows those who are divinely inspired,
but they speaking concerning the supercelestial Gods, he adopts a
similar Theogony, though discoursing of the sub-celestial divinities,
we must not consider this as wonderful. For he knew that all the
orders of the Gods, proceed as far as to the last of things, from the
arrangement which is the principle of their progression, every where
generating series from themselves analogous to the superior deities
from which they proceed. Hence, though the orders of these Gods which
are celebrated by theologists, are above the world, yet they subsist
also in the sensible universe. And as this visible heaven is allied
to that which is supermundane, so likewise our earth is allied to the
earth which is there, and the orders subsisting from the one to the
orders proceeding from the other. From these things too, this also
may be assumed, that according to Plato as well as according to other
theologists, first natures as they proceed, produce things subordinate
in conjunction with the causes of themselves. For these sublunary Gods
proceeding from the demiurgus, are also said to be generated from
Heaven and Earth that first proceed from him. The demiurgus therefore
says to all of them that they ought to fabricate mortal natures,
imitating his[131] power about their generation. Hence all of them
proceed from one producing cause, though those of a secondary order
proceed likewise from the Gods that are prior to them. It follows
therefore from this, that not every thing which is produced by the
junior Gods is mortal, since some of these proceed from other junior
Gods; but the contrary alone is true, that every thing mortal is
generated by these divinities. And again, it follows from this, that
the junior Gods produce some things according to the immoveable, but
others according to the moveable hyparxes of themselves. For they would
not be the causes of immortals, if they produced all things according
to moveable hyparxes; if it be true that every thing which subsists
from a moveable cause, is essentially mutable.
Again, when Plato says, “It is therefore necessary to believe in
ancient men, who being the progeny of the Gods as they themselves
assert, must have a clear knowledge of their parents; for it is
impossible not to believe in the children of the Gods, though they
should speak without probable and necessary arguments,” we may collect
from this, that he who simply believes in things which seem difficult
to be known, and which are of a dubious nature, runs in the paths of
abundance, recurring to divine knowledge, and deific intelligence,
through which all things become apparent and known. For all things
are contained in the Gods. But that which antecedently comprehends
all things, is likewise able to fill other things with the knowledge
of itself. Hence, Timæus here sends us to theologists, and to the
generation of the Gods celebrated by them. Who therefore are they, and
what is their knowledge? They indeed are the progeny of the Gods, and
clearly know their progenitors; being the progeny and children of the
Gods, as preserving the form of their presiding deity according to
the present life. For Apolloniacal souls, in consequence of chusing a
prophetic, or telestic life, are called the children and progeny of
Apollo; children indeed, so far as they are souls pertaining to this
God, and adapted to this series; but progeny because they demonstrate
their present life to be conformable to these characteristics of the
God. All souls therefore, are the children of the Gods; but all do not
know their presiding God. Such however, as have this knowledge and
chuse a similar life, are called the children and progeny[132] of the
Gods. Hence Plato adds, “as they say,” for they unfold the order from
which they came. Thus the Sibyl[133] as soon as she was born, uttered
oracles; and Hercules appeared at his birth with demiurgic symbols. But
souls of this kind convert themselves to their progenitors, and are
filled from them with deific knowledge. Their knowledge however, is
enthusiastic, being conjoined to deity through divine light, and exempt
from all other knowledge, both that which is probable, and that which
is demonstrative. For the former is conversant with nature, and the
universal in particulars; but the latter with an incorporeal essence,
and the objects of science. Divinely-inspired knowledge however, alone,
is conjoined with the Gods themselves.
Timæus, or in other words Plato, afterwards adds: “But as they declare
that their narrations are about affairs, to which they are naturally
allied, it is proper that complying with the law, we should assent to
their tradition.” From these words, he who considers them accurately
may assume many things, such as that divinely-inspired knowledge is
perfected through familiarity with and alliance to the Gods. For the
sun is seen through solar-form light, and divinity becomes apparent
through divine illumination. It may likewise be inferred that the
divine law defines the orders of the Gods which the divinely-inspired
conceptions of the ancients unfold, according to which also souls
energizing, though not enthusiastically, are persuaded by those
that enthusiastically energize. Complying with this law, Timæus in
the beginning of this dialogue says that he shall invoke the Gods
and Goddesses. From these words also we may infer, that all the
kingdoms both in the heavens and the sublunary region, are adorned
and distributed in order, according to the first and intellectual
principles; and that all of them are every where according to the
analogous. Likewise that the order of things precedes our conceptions.
But it is Pythagoric to follow the Orphic genealogies. For the science
concerning the Gods proceeded from the Orphic tradition through
Pythagoras, to the Greeks, as Pythagoras himself says in the _Sacred
Discourse_.