#proclus — Public Fediverse posts

In later antiquity and the middle ages, a ‘circular number’ was one that reappeared in its own powers: 5 and 6 were circular number since their powers (25, 125, 625, ...; 36, 216, 1296, ...) always end in 5 or 6.

Nicomachus (fl. c.100 CE), Proclus (410/12–485 CE), and Boethius (c.480–c.524 CE) discussed them. In an educational textbook, Cassiodorus (c.485–c.585 CE) gave this definition:

‘A circular number is one that when it is multiplied by itself, beginning from itself turns back to itself, for example 5 times 5 is 25 *as the diagram indicates*’. (emphasis added; see 1st+2nd attached images)

So circular numbers seem to have been a connection between number symbolism and a geometrical aesthetic admiration of circles and spheres (more on this in a later post).

5 being a circular number crops up in the in the late mediaeval poem ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ (c. late 13th century). 5 was used as symbol of perfection and eternity: Gawain's virtues were five and many times five, and they were linked to the pentagram, the five-pointed star, which was his emblem. At line $625 = 5 \times 5 \times 5 \times 5$, the poet says that the pentagram was a symbol set up by Solomon; it was known as ‘þe endeles knot’. This name presumably refers to how the pentagram can be drawn in a single unbroken stroke (see 3rd attached image)

Very subtly, the circularity is hinted at by the first line of the poem (‘Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye’) being echoed at line 2525 — or 25-25 — (‘After þe segge and þe asaute watz sesed at Troye’).

1/2

#NumberSymbolism #arithmology #Nicomachus #Proclus #Boethius #Cassiodorus #poetry

Oh, The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast is starting on the (neo)Platonic Academy, with a long episode on Plutarch of Athens & Syrianus, & promised multiple future episodes on Proclus (necessary, given his importance). Between this & new @epbutler.bsky.socia course starting, I'm spoiled.

"The Great God Pan Lives: Introducing the Athenian Academy"

https://shwep.net/podcast/the-great-god-pan-lives-introducing-the-athenian-academy/

#Polytheism #Paganism #Platonism #Proclus #Neoplatonism

Proclus Interprets Hesiod: The Procline Philosophy of the Soul by John Finnamore. https://www.academia.edu/110982735/Proclus_Interprets_Hesiod_Soul_Matters

Interesting article on how #Proclus interprets #Hesiod's different metal races/ages of men in Works and Days with the human soul.

Question for the #Plato nists about this passage from #Proclus : do we know what the "divine number" is, as a number? Like are the natural numbers divine, while the rational numbers are intellective and the irrational numbers are psychical or something? (Image is from the Juan and Maria Balboa translation of elements of theology on Archive.org)

@khthoniaa #Proclus writes "all the Gods are boniform, and through intelligible wisdom they have a knowledge ineffable, and established above intellect, thus also, I think, through the summit of beauty, every thing divine is lovely. For from thence all the Gods derive beauty, and being filled with it, fill the natures posterior to themselves, exciting all things, agitating them with Bacchic fury about the love of themselves, and pouring supernally on all things the divine effluxion of beauty."

@Em @AimeeMaroux As Euripides has Herakles say in the eponymous play.

**"Nor can I ever believe that one God is the lord of another.

A God, if he is a real God, is in need of nothing."**

Which works well with a #polycentric framework of #polytheism, I'd say.

Sovereignty of the Gods is shared amongst what #Proclus calls the totality of the divine set (pas ... theios arithmos), a manifold of Gods that are prior to Being where each God contains all of being.

@helmsinepu This is one of my top 10 religious pet peeves. It has to involve a strawmanning of polytheism and animism into versions of them which only exist in monotheist and animist's heads.

I tell them to go read #Proclus or #Iamblichus or #Damascius or some of Hindu philosophers and to get back to me.

Not all are products of intellectual knowledge and aim for a close relationship with the objects that they signify"

From #Proclus, on his Scholia to #Plato's Cratylus.

Saw some fascist idiots on the birb site trying to diss a trans inclusive analysis of #Plotinus so I made these memes based on #Proclus actual own words to show that #Neoplatonism and #Platonism of late antique #Polytheism are in fact very #transinclusive.

@khthoniaa Sort of? Been very influenced by #Proclus recently and preserves a good bit of #Orphic stuff, eg his #Timaeus commentary tells the beautiful Orphic Theogony myth of Zeus seeking counsel from Nyx on how to be the Demiurge.

“each of the Gods is the
universe, but after a different manner,”

Proclus In Tim. I, 308

#Proclus #Neoplatonism #Polytheism #Myth #Mythology #Gods #Paganism #Pagan #Platonism #Timaeus

@ytetic I haven't read enough Leibniz to say for sure but post the Renaissance a lot of Proclus was available - #Hegel was a fan of #Proclus for sure.

Hegel believed that Proclus was a better example of Plato’s philosophy than was Plotinus because Plotinus was overly influenced by Arisotle whereas Proclus refused to place any other philosopher between himself and Plato.

@ytetic Incarnation for Humans souls yes, but not for #Gods. But the Gods work at different levels/emanations of reality in #Neoplatonism so #Proclus discusses a God like Zeus operating/manifesting at 5 different levels as the Paternal God of the Intellect/Demiurge of the Hypercosmic Soul, Demiurge of Nature, and the Encosmic (aka the material world) as Zeus the planet aka Jupiter.

but the power that provides unification is foreign to the one who presides over the division and opposition of encosmic things [Ares]. So it is this cooperation of dissimilar causes that the myths have referred to as adultery." Proclus, Commentary on the Republic 141f. (2/2)

I like this from Proclus as it works as a continuation of #Empedocles idea of the Cosmos sustained by Love/Strife

#Proclus #Polytheism #Aphrodite #Ares #Hephaestus #Paganism #Myth #Neoplatonism #GreekMythology #Mythology

"Both require Aphrodite for their own activity: Ares so that he can implant harmony and order among the opposites, Hephaestus so that he can produce in perceptible creations beauty and splendour because communion with the cause which produces beauty and binds together belongs by nature to the demiurge of perceptible things [Hephaestus], (1/2)

#Proclus #Polytheism #Aphrodite #Ares #Hephaestus #Paganism #Myth #Neoplatonism

Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul. Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife.
-Homeric Hymn 8, to Ares

A very late written Homeric Hymn sometimes attributed to #Proclus because it's close to his style of #Platonic hymns.

#Polytheism #Myth #Ares #Paganism #Neoplatonism

@ytetic Well Being itself in #Neoplatonism is usually associated with Phanes, who is neither male nor female but a mix (as all of reality is).

But here Hera has a role over the generation of life as individual beings. “the source of all the Titanic division [diairesis ]perceived in souls according to destiny [ moiras], and the cause of distinction [diakrisis ]" says #Proclus as in Hera presides over our existence as separate individuals. #Polytheism #Neoplatonism

It is not, therefore, that the insanity Hera causes in Herakles has the ancillary benefit of causing his civilizing labors: rather, Herakles’s labors and his insanity are symbolically one and the same . Heroic action is in a certain sense, then, linked to divine passion." (4/4)

Edward Butler (@[email protected]) "Queen of Kinêsis: Understanding Hera"

https://www.academia.edu/5098733/_Queen_of_Kin%C3%AAsis_Understanding_Hera_pp_126_148_in_Queen_of_Olympos_A_Devotional_Anthology_for_Hera_and_Iuno_ed_Lykeia_Asheville_NC_Bibliotheca_Alexandrina_2013_

#Proclus #Neoplatonism #Hera #Myth #Polytheism #GreekMythology #Polytheist #Pagan #Platonism

The insanity of #Herakles or of Io, which are attributed to Hera, are thus symbols of the procession of soul into the physical realm, away from the realm of pure Mind and thus, by definition, in the direction of ‘insanity’. By causing ‘insanity’ in Herakles, Hera leads him to the performance of labors that result in new possibilities for humanity; they are labors of civilization. (2/?) #Neoplatonism #Proclus #Hera #Myth #Mythology #Platonism

"#Proclus says that the myths designate Hera “the cause of insanity [mania], but Zeus of temperance [sôphrosunê ]; and the former, of labors in the realm of becoming, but the latter, of leading up from it [anagôgê]. For Hera excites all things to procession, multiplies them, and causes them by her illuminations to be prolific” ( In Tim. III, 251). (1/?) #Neoplatonism #Hera #Zeus #Polytheism #Mythology

"Every God in his/her own existence [huparxis] possesses the providence [pronoein] of the universe [tôn holôn], and the primary providence is in the Gods”

(Proclus Elements of Theology prop. 120) #Proclus #Polytheism #Neoplatonism

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 16

The Greek scholar Proclus described the circle as the "simplest and most perfect form,” yet as much as we strive for simplicity and perfection, there is chaos. And it is beautiful.

#fractal #chaos #circle #perfectcircle #proclus