SENINA T.A. Poseidon and Pluto as Creators of the Human Soul in George Gemistos Plethon’s Pantheon
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.6.5
Tatyana A. Senina,
Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Senior Researcher, Sociological Institute of theRussian Academy of Sciences – Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of theRussian Academy of Sciences, 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya St, 25/14, 190005 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation;
Lead Editor, Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Bolshaya Morskaya St, 67, 190000Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation,
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8120-3499
Abstract. Introduction. The article examines the place of the creators of the human soul in the theological system of George Gemistos Plethon. In his interpretations of the Chaldean Oracles, Plethon calls the “second god” the “direct creator of the soul”; in the Plethon’s “Book of Laws,” this god is Poseidon, second after the supreme god Zeus, called the “immediate head” of humans. At the same time, in the “Book of Laws,” the gods-children of Zeus are called “creators” and “co-creators,” assistants of Poseidon in the creation of the universe; in particular, Pluto is the “head” and “ruler” of souls, the “leader” of humans. Why, then, is Pluto not the direct creator of the soul, if Poseidon uses him as an intermediary? Methods. Methods employed in this article are source research, information analysis, and comparative research. Sources on the subject include Plethon’s “Book of Laws,” commentaries on the Chaldean Oracles, and “On the differences of Aristotle from Plato.” Analysis. A consideration of the hierarchy of gods and their functions in the pantheon of Plethon shows that Gemistos calls Poseidon “the immediate creator” of the soul and “the immediate head” of humans, meaning that Poseidon is such as the immediate, in contrast to Zeus, creator of the world as a whole. Thus, Poseidon, like his father Zeus, whose only possible accurate image he is, is called δημιουργός and παραγωγός not in the same sense in which the other gods, whose assistance he uses in the creation of separate parts of the universe, can be so called. Results. Poseidon, as the totality of all forms of beings, is the immediate creator of the entire world as a whole, including the human soul. Other gods, including the “chief of human nature” and the “head of our immortal part,” Pluto, are responsible only for separate parts of the universe, and for them, “creation” and “production” of the corresponding parts of the universe turn out to be closer to “ordering,” “decoration,” and “guidance.” Appendix. The article is accompanied by a Russian translation of Plethon’s “Summary of the doctrines of Zoroaster and Plato.” Funding. The study was funded by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 23-28-01028 “George Gemistus Plethon and the Role of Platonism in the Philosophical and Theological Tradition of Byzantium in the mid-11th – 15th centuries” (Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences), https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-28-01028/.
Key words: George Gemistos Plethon, Byzantine philosophy, theology, Hellenism, creation of the human soul, Poseidon, Pluto, translations of sources.
Citation. Senina T.A. Poseidon and Pluto as Creators of the Human Soul in George Gemistos Plethon’s Pantheon. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2024, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 59-70. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.6.5
Poseidon and Plutoas Creators of the Human Soulin George Gemistos Plethon’s Pantheon by Senina T.A. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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