On the Chaldean Oracles

Those discussing the One bring forward arguments that are, in a way, admitted by the anonymous Turin author (whom I published in Rheinisches Museum 47, 599 ff.), who is older than Proclus Proclus (c. 412–485 AD) was one of the last major Greek philosophers and a head of the Platonic Academy in Athens.. In column IX, line 5, a passage where I previously stated (loc. cit. p. 625) and will demonstrate below that the precepts of the Oracles are being considered, it says: "and not removing him from the Triad, they see fit to do away with number, so as to say that he even utterly declines to be called 'the One'." original Greek: καὶ τῆς τριάδος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἐξελόντες ἀναιρεῖν ἀριθμὸν ἀξιοῦσιν, ὡς καὶ τὸ ἓν λέγειν αὐτὸν εἶναι παντελῶς παραιτεῖσθαι. — Now we may refer to the supreme god of the Chaldeans The Chaldean Oracles were a 2nd-century collection of mystical verses combining Platonic philosophy with Eastern "Chaldean" wisdom. a fragment preserved by Damascius (I 154, 16):

For there is something Intelligible term: Intelligible (noēton) — that which can be grasped by the mind/intellect rather than the senses. which you must perceive with the flower of the mind;
for if you lean your mind toward it and perceive that thing
as if perceiving something specific, you shall not perceive it. For it is a power
of radiant strength, flashing with intellectual rays.
One must not perceive that Intelligible with vehemence,
nor with the extended flame of an extended mind that measures all things,
except for that Intelligible; one must perceive this:
(for if you lean your mind toward it, you shall perceive it)
not intently, but bringing a pure, averted eye
10 of the soul, to extend an empty mind toward the Intelligible,
so that you may learn the Intelligible, since it exists outside of the mind.¹)

Damascius wrongly refers this to the "Intelligible" as a whole, following the interpretation of Iamblichus²), whereas the text actually deals with something superior to all other intelligibles, which is known by a singular faculty of the mind and is therefore situated outside the mind. Nor is this contradicted by the sentiment of the verses:

For the mind is not without the Intelligible, and the Intelligible
does not exist apart from the mind.

¹) To this refers Proclus, Vatican Excerpts 194, 6 ff. Verse 1 is cited by Psellus 1144ᵇ; "flower" original: ἄνθος (anthos) (cf. Rohde 478⁴) is used very frequently: Proclus, Platonic Theology 6, 35; On the Oracles 51, 13; 70, 26; On Providence 172, 15; On the Alcibiades 519, 37; On the Parmenides 1044, 28. Damascius I 44, 2. where one should read "itself" original: αὐτό II 98, 22. And just as the versifier often used metaphor, so the Platonists applied it to other things; Julian, Oration IV 134ᵃ. Proclus, Platonic Theology 237, 2; 318 end; On the Parmenides 855, 10. Philoponus, On the Creation of the World p. 5 "Plato, the flower of philosophy." Verse 2: "if you lean your mind and it perceives." Verse 3: "for it is (your mind) a power of sight (sharp) shining on both sides, flashing with intellectual strikes" cf. Pseudo-Phocylides 121. Epistle to the Hebrews 4, 12 etc. Verse 6: "nor" original: οὐδὲ instead of "but" original: ἀλλὰ Philo I 23. Verse 8: deleted by the same, it should rather be included in parentheses. Verse 9: "eye of the soul" original: ὄμμα ψυχῆς cf. Plato, Republic VII 519ᵇ "the vision of the soul" 533ᵇ "the eye of the soul" etc. in Didymus, On the Trinity III 21 p. 396. Hermes Trismegistus 70, 1. Verse 10: let the mind be empty of all other thoughts, cf. Plotinus V 5, 6 "he who wishes to know that which is beyond the Intelligible will behold it by leaving behind all that is Intelligible" VI 7, 34 "since the soul also, when it takes a strained love for Him, puts away every form it has, even if it were an Intelligible form within it," Hermes Trismegistus 70, 10. Verse 11: corrupted by Psellus 1148ᵈ.

²) 155, 7 punctuate: "knowledge being neither seeking after, etc."