On the Mysteries (De Mysteriis)

of the gods,
and the
diverse
flowing
of the gods

—s are animate, and certain participations of intellect itself; nor, again, is the property of the gods rightly established [in this way], for the gods preside over pure intellects.

On the difference between the Gods and Daemons according to the Greeks and the most devoted.

substances
offered
adoring
soul
supreme
in one
know
actions
prayer
Porphyry
gods
mun-
dane
worship

The gods are properly defined not according to the principle of intellect itself, but according to unity, goodness, and the intelligible object.

Porphyry suspects that pure and separate intellects have no relation to sensible things, nor do they hear prayers. Nevertheless, the principal worship must be offered to the separate substances. In this worship, indeed, the highest part of the soul is awakened and joined to the highest things; the supreme beings comprehend and know all our affairs in the One, and they encompass the actions of religious prayers within themselves. Nor do they depart from themselves, but remaining in themselves, they are fully present to the intention of those who pray. Indeed, it is fitting to supplicate most humbly. For to acknowledge our own lowliness, if we are compared to the higher beings, causes us to supplicate most earnestly, and to turn ourselves toward them entirely, and through constant habit to become like them. Especially beneficial, however, are the prayers sent from heaven, in which a divine power resides: these things are said against Porphyry, who thinks that we ought properly to worship the mundane gods, because