The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 2 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 p
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Again, in the Phædo, mention is made by Plato of Cadmus, who, according
to Olympiodorus, is the sublunary world, as being Dionysiacal, on which
account Harmonia or Harmony is united to the God, and also as being the
father of the four Bacchuses. The four elements likewise he informs
us are said to be Dionysiacal, viz. _fire_ to be _Semele_; _earth_,
_Agave_, tearing in pieces her own offspring; _water_, _Ino_; and
lastly, _air_, _Autonoe_. There is great beauty in conjoining Harmony,
the daughter of Venus and Mars, with Cadmus. For Venus, as we have
before observed, is the cause of all the harmony and analogy in the
universe, and beautifully illuminates the order and communion of all
mundane concerns. But Mars excites the contrarieties of the universe,
that the world may exist perfect and entire from all its parts. The
progeny, therefore, of these two divinities must be the _concordant
discord_, or _harmony_ of the sublunary world.
Farther still, the Syrens are mentioned by Plato, both in the 10th book
of the Republic, and in the Cratylus. And Proclus, in the 6th book of
this work, has explained the meaning of what Plato says of them in
the former of those dialogues. But in his MS. Scholia on the Cratylus
he says, “The divine Plato knew that there are three kinds of Sirens;
the _celestial_, which is under the government of Jupiter; _that which
produces generation_, and is under the government of Neptune; and that
which is _cathartic_, and is under the government of Pluto. It is
common to all these, to incline all things through an harmonic motion
to their ruling Gods. Hence, when the soul is in the heavens, the
Sirens are desirous of uniting it to the divine life which flourishes
there. But it is proper that souls living in generation should sail
beyond them, like the Homeric Ulysses, that they may not be allured
by generation, of which the sea is an image. And when souls are in
Hades, the Sirens are desirous of uniting them through intellectual
conceptions to Pluto. So that Plato knew that in the kingdom of Hades
there are Gods, dæmons, and souls, who dance as it were round Pluto,
allured by the Sirens that dwell there.”
CHAPTER XXXVII.