On the Mysteries of the Egyptians - Pimander - Asclepius

Heroes are composed of the properties of the extremes—namely, of the gods and of souls original: "ex proprietatibus extremorum, scilicet deorum, atque animarum." In this hierarchy, Gods are the "high" extreme and Souls are the "low" extreme.—but in daemons original: "dæmonibus." These are intermediary spirits, not "demons" in the modern sense. there is more of the divine, whereas in heroes there is more of the human.

Gods hold the highest rank of all beings; souls hold the lowest. The gods are capable of all things, united in a single moment; souls, on the contrary, are neither capable of all things, nor are they capable in a single moment, nor are they united. The gods act upon and care for all things without being drawn down original: "non inclinati." Iamblichus emphasizes that gods do not lose their divinity or become "weighted down" when they govern the material world. toward them; souls act with a certain inclination and a turning toward what they govern. The gods are the primary causes; souls depend perpetually upon the will of those gods. The gods, with the swiftest vigor, grasp their ultimate ends together with their beginnings; souls proceed from one thing to another, moving from the imperfect toward the perfect. The gods cannot be grasped by any measure or form; souls are held back and overcome by their own inclinations, habits, and whims original: "nutu," literally a nod or a gesture, implying a fluctuating will.. They are touched by a desire for lesser things and a familiarity with them, and from this, they contract certain qualities In Neoplatonic thought, the soul "contracts" or takes on the characteristics of the material body it inhabits..

Intellect original: "Intellectus." In this context, it refers to Nous, the divine "Mind" or "Divine Intelligence" that sits just below the ultimate One., the maker of all things, is always present in all gods most fully through a single act that remains within itself. The soul is a participant in an intellect that is more divisible original: "partibilis," meaning it can be broken down or shared among many individual things. and multiform.