OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 2/11/2016, SPi

Proclus’ Theology 209

Table 10.1
Modes of exposition Platonic works Theologian

by means of symbols Protagoras, Gorgias, Symposium Orpheus

under divine inspiration Phaedrus Chaldaeans
by means of images Timaeus, Statesman Pythagoras
by means of dialectics Sophist, Parmenides Plato

Chaldaeans, and Plato (see Table 10.1). Orpheus reveals the divine principles
by means of symbols;8 Pythagoras uses images, insofar as mathematics plays
the part of images with regard to the divine principles;9 the Chaldaeans
express themselves under divine inspiration; and Plato’s work is characterized
by a scientific mode of expression (see Bouffartigue 1987).
In the context of this programme, the works of Homer and Hesiod, while
not neglected, were thus supplanted by the Orphic Rhapsodies,10 which rep-
resented ‘Greek theology’, and the Chaldaean Oracles, representing ‘Barbarian
theology’. This primacy, which may at first glance seem surprising, can be
explained by the fact that these two texts were composed from a Middle
Platonic perspective. It was therefore easy for the Neoplatonists to find traces
of Platonic doctrine in them.

10.2. THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE THEOLOGY

OF PLATO AN D OTHER T HEOLOGIES

The extensive use of this exegetical practice11 allows Proclus, on the one hand,
to interpret all Plato’s dialogues from a theological viewpoint, in the perspec-
tive of the second part of the Parmenides, and, on the other, to demonstrate
the agreement of this scientific theology with that of Pythagoras, Orpheus, and
the Chaldaean Oracles (see Saffrey 1992a). This agreement was necessary, for
each theology can only speak the truth and must therefore agree with all the
others, since theology is a discourse on the gods and comes from the gods.

10.2.1. Orpheus and Pythagoras as Inspirers of Plato:

The Foundational Myth in Iamblichus

At the beginning of the Platonic Theology, while evoking the entire history of
philosophy in its broad outlines, Proclus writes:
Each of these doctrines must be declared to be in agreement with the principles of
Plato and with the mystical traditions of the theologians, for all of Greek theology