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The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning Proclus

Philosophy

The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning

Name: The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning
Author: Proclus

Proclus

Neoplatonism -- Early works to 1800; Plato -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- Early works to 1800

demonstrations about the Parmenides, and all the divisions which it
contains.

At present we shall observe that Plato does not admit all the fabulous
figments of dramatic composition, but those only which have reference
to the beautiful and the good, and which are not discordant with a
divine essence. For that mythological mode which indicates divine
concerns through conjecture is ancient, concealing truth under a
multitude of veils, and proceeding in a manner similar to nature, which
extends sensible figments of intelligibles, material, of immaterial,
partible, of impartible natures, and images, and things which have
a false being, of things perfectly true. But Plato rejects the more
tragical mode of mythologizing of the ancient poets, who thought proper
to establish an arcane theology respecting the Gods, and on this
account devised wanderings, sections, battles, lacerations, rapes and
adulteries of the Gods, and many other such symbols of the truth about
divine natures, which this theology conceals; this mode he rejects,
and asserts that it is in every respect most foreign from erudition.
But he considers those mythological discourses about the Gods, as more
persuasive, and more adapted to truth and the philosophic habit, which
assert that a divine nature is the cause of all good, but of no evil,
and that it is void of all mutation, ever preserving its own order
immutable, and comprehending in itself the fountain of truth, but
never becoming the cause of any deception to others. For such types of
theology, Socrates delivers in the Republic.

All the fables therefore of Plato, guarding the truth in concealment,
have not even their externally apparent apparatus discordant with our
undisciplined and unperverted anticipation respecting the Gods. But
they bring with them an image of the mundane composition, in which
both the apparent beauty is worthy of divinity, and a beauty more
divine than this, is established in the unapparent lives and powers of
the Gods. This therefore, is one of the mythological modes respecting
divine concerns, which from the apparently unlawful, irrational, and
inordinate, passes into order and bound, and regards as its scope the
composition of the beautiful and good.

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