Hear, all ye Gods and Goddesses, my words.
And converting the two-fold co-ordinations to himself. Through the whole of his poetry, likewise, he praises him as the supreme of rulers, and the father of men and Gods, and celebrates him with all demiurgic conceptions. As, therefore, we have shown that all the Grecian theology attributes the total fabrication of things to Jupiter, what ought we to conceive of these words of Plato? Is it not, that the same God king Jupiter, is with him maker and father, and is neither father alone, nor father and maker. For father is the monad, as the Pythagoreans say, but the decad is the demiurgic® order of divine natures, “to which divine number arrives from the secret recesses of the monad, which decad is the venerable uni- versal recipient, surrounding all things with bound, is immutable and unwearied, and is called the sacred decad.” Hence, after the paternal monad, and the paternal and at the same time effective tetrad, the demiurgic decad proceeds. And it is indeed immutable, because an immutable deity subsists together with it. But it surrounds all things with bound, as supplying with order things that are disorderly, and with ornament things that are unadorned. It likewtse illuminates souls with intellect, as being intellect totally, and body with soul, as possessing and comprehending the cause of soul, and generates things which are truly gene- rated, both such as are middles, and such as are last, in consequence of compre- hending in itself demiurgic being. From what is written also in’ the Protagoras, we may collect what the demiurgic order is. For Jupiter there becomes the cause of the whole political science, and of the reasons essentially disseminated in souls. This, however, is to bind the whole fabrication of things, and to connect all things by his own immutable powers. For as the theolovist establishes about him. the Curetic order, thus also Plato says, that he is surrounded with terrible guards. And as the former establishes him on the summit of Olympus, so the latter assigns to him a tower, in which being eternally seated, he adoins all things through the middle orders. Who the Demiurgus therefore is, and that he is a divine intellect, the cause of total fabrication, is evident from what has been said; and likewise that Jupiter himselfis celebrated as the Demiurgus both by Orpheus and Plato.
* Here also it is requisite to make the same emendation as above, * Δημιονργικὴ is omitted in the original,
Book 11.) Timaeus of Plato. 267
Whether, however, we must say that he is a fontal or a ruling God, or belongs to some other order of the demiurgic series, deserves not to be passed over in silence. It appears, therefore, that such things as the theurgist [Julian] ascribes to the third divinity of the rulers, these Plato assigns to the Demiurgus ;* such as to fabricate the heavens, iaclosing them in a convex figure; to establish the nu- merous multitude of inerratic stars; to give subsistence to the heptad of planetary animals; and to place earth in the middle, but water in the hosoms of the earth, and air above these. If, however, we accurately consider the affair, we shall find that the third of the mundane rulers divides the universe into parts; that the second divides it into wholes, and is celebrated as the demiurgic cause of motion ; and that the first by his will alone disposes all things, and constitutes the whole world according to union. But the God who is said by Timzus to be the De- miurgus, produces all things by his will, imparts to the universe a division into wholes, and also into parts, which give completion to all the wholenesses [rag ολοτητας πασας]. For he not only makes the universe to be a whole of wholes, but he also produces the multitude of each wholeness. On all these accounts therefore, we think it proper to assert that the Demiurgus is beyond the triad of ruling fathers ; that he is one fontal cause, and that the Oracles represent him eradicating the multitude of ideas in the fontal soul, and constituting the world from intellect, soul and body, and producing our souls, and sending them into generation. The Oracles likewise assert the same things of him as Timzus. For they say, “ The father of Gods and men placed our intellect in soul, but soul in sluggish body.” But this is the admirable thing celebrated by the Greeks, con- cerning him who is according to them? the Demiurgus. If however these things are asserted conformably * both to Timaus and the Oracles, those who are incited by the divinely delivered theology [of the Chaldeans] will say that this Demiurgus is fontal; that he fabricates the whole world conformably to ideas, considered as
ἡ Itappears to be necessary here to read ry δημιουργῳ instead of ry κοσμῳ. * The Greek in this place is very faulty. For it is κατέθετο yap νον μὲν ev ψνχῃ ἐνιματι de ἡμεαι cysareOnce πατὴρ ανδρων re θεων re. Instead of which it ought to be,
careflero yap
Novy μεν ere ψυχῃ, Yuxny δ᾽ ενε σώματι apyy
Ἡμεων εγκατεθηκε xarnp ανδρων τε θεων τε.
3 For παρ᾽ avrne here, it isnecessary to read παρ᾽ ἀντοιε. * For ομωφνλως in this place read opoperws.
268 PROCLUS ON THE [Βοοκ "1.
one, and as many, and as divided both into wholes and parts, and that he is cele- rated as the maker and father of the universe, and as the father of Gods and men
hy Plato, Orpheus, and the Oracles ; generating indeed, the multitude of Gods, but ~ending souls to the generations of men, as Timeus himself also says. For if he is the best of causes, as he says, by what contrivance can he be arranged in the second orders of Demiurg:? Por the most excellent among the Demiurgi is significant of the highest transcendency in the demiurzic series. But the highest summit of every serivs is fontal, so that this Demiurgus is necessarily fontal, and not ruling; the rulers being every where secondary to their proper fountam, Henee also he renders the mundane Gods Demiurgi, or fabricators, as being a certain demiurgic fountain, Since, however, thereare many fontal Demiurgt, in what place this Demiurgus is to be arranged, requires greater Consideration. But from what has been said, it is evident in what order of Gods it’ is necessary to investigate him; from which hhewise, it is manifest after what manner it 18 dificult to find him, and when found to speak of him to all men. Its also evident how he is father and maker, and what his eNective power Is 5 and that he is not as sume say, the maler of inanimate natures, but the father of such as are animated. For he is both the maker! and father ofall things. Por he ts called the father of works, as he himself says in his speech (to the junior Gods). But heis maker and father, as the cause of union, essence, and hypostasis, and the
supplier of providential inspection in all things.
Again, however, this must be considered respecting him, viz. according to Pry of the paradigms the artificer fabricated the world, whether according to that which subsists with invariable sameness, or that which
was venerated.”
Timaus having shown what the form is of the mundane system, that it Is ge- nerated, and the manner in which it is generated, viz. as sensible ; for he makes no mention whatever of time, because he has not yet constituted time 5 and having also shown what the demiurgic cause Is, viz. that it is effective and at the same time paternal, but this is intellectual, imparticipable and total :—he now passes to the third object of inquiry, what the nature is of the paradigm of the universe, whether generated, or etern: il?) For he perceived that every artificer
1 Plouprys is omitted here im the origiual,
Rook 11.] Tim.Eus of Plato, 269
either assumes the paradigm of the things which he fabricates, externally, or himself produces them from the paradigm in himself. Just as of human artificers, some ave able to imitate other things accurately ; but others possess themselves a power capable of fashioning admirable and useful works. Thus he who first made a ship formed in his imagination the paradigm of if. Farther still, this also must be observed, that every thing which makes in an orderly manner, has the scope and ineasure of that which is made. For if it has not, it will err in making, and will not know whether it has arrived at the end when it has. For whence will it know that this is the end, since something may be deficient or redundant, and it may be necessary to take something away, orto add something? For on. this account bodies make irrationally and stupidly, because they have no measure, hor cause of the thing that is made. For it is necessary that the medicine should be heated to a certain degree ; but if art and the medical intellect are not present, defining the’ measure of energy to the fire, it will operate too abundantly and destroy the whole, though it was intended to contribute to the production of the remedy. For it has not the form of the thing produced. Every thing, therefore, which makes ought to have the reason of the thing that is made, if it intends to make in an orderly manner, Hence Plato perceiving this, at the same time that he admuts the eflective cause, introduces the paradigm of the universe ; just as Aristotle also by subverting the paradigm, co-subverts likewise the maker. — Plato therefore, taking it for granted that there is a paradigm, investigates through these things what the nature ofitis, and employing the before-mentioned defini- tions, discovers the object of his inquiry, through the three former hypotheses. But in what manner he makes the discovery, and through what kind of demon- “stration, we shall shortly after survey,
In the first place, however, this very thing must be shown by us, that the world was generated according toa certain paradigm. And in the next place, we must mvestigate what this paradigm is, and in what order of beings it subsists. — If indeed the fabrication of wholes is indefinite and without design, there is nota paradigmatic cause of the universe ; but if itis not lawful to conceive this to be the case, and the Demiurgus knows what he produces, and knowing thus produces the fabrication of the world, the causes of the things generated are contained in him, and it is necessary either that he should primarily possess these causes, or that they should be imparted to him by more ancient principles. But whichever of these we admit, there is a paradigmatic cause prior to the world. Farther still, since the Demiurgus is intellect, if he produces by his very being,
470 PROCLUS ON THE [poox 1}.
he produces that which is most similar to himself. But this is to produce an image of himself. If, however, he produces from deliberation, this is entirely and in every respect unworthy of the demiurgic cause. And if some one should admit this to be the case, yet it will follow that the form of the demiurgic work pre-exists in him. For every one who deliberates and consults, antecedently assumes in himself the paradigm of that about which he deliberates. “This there- fore, may be demonstrated through many other arguments, that it is necessary the paradigm of the world should have an existence prior to the w orld, and especially when the demiurgic cause is pre-supposed. For it is necessary that the Demi- urgus being intellectual, should either be ignorant of the order of what is fabricated, or that he should know it. But if he isignorant of this, how can he providentially attend to it?) And how can he give arrangement to the universe? If, therefore, he knows it, how is it possible he should not comprehend that which is generated by the intellection of it, according to one cause?