The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2)

Chapter 116: CHAPTER VI.

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About This Book

The work expounds a Neoplatonic theology in which an ineffable first principle emanates successive orders—intellect, soul, natures, and the world—each sustaining series of beings that descend to corporeal existence. It argues that multiplicity issues from unity by similitude and that divine hypostases function as intermediate causes between the first principle and the sensible realm. Additional treatises consider providence, fate, and the subsistence of evil, while a concise set of doctrinal propositions lays out systematic metaphysical demonstrations. The style combines symbolic imagery with geometric and dialectical reasoning to reconcile mystical theism with rigorous philosophical argument.

CHAPTER VI.

Saturn however is the only one of the Gods who is said both to receive and give the royal dignity with a certain necessity, and as it were violence, cutting off the genitals of his father, and being himself castrated by the mighty Jupiter. For he bounds the kingdom of his father, and is bounded by the God posterior to himself. He is also filled from the natures placed above him, but fills the whole fabrication [of the universe] with prolific perfection. But separating himself from his father, he is exempt from his progeny. Being however one all-perfect intellect, he contains in himself the multitude of total intelligibles. And as he deifies the intellectual summit, he illuminates all things with intelligible light.