ABSTRACT
In the metaphysical system of George Gemisttos Plethon, reality is divided into three degrees ordered in a hierarchical scale. In the conclusion at the end of his Explanation of Magian Oracles he interprets the account of ‘the mythology of the Magi’ found in Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris from his own philosophical perspective. In his comparison of the Zoroastrian mythology found by Plutarch and of the Magian Oracles, Plethon identifies Horomazes with ‘the Father ’ of the Oracles, Mithra with ‘the second intellect ’ and Ahriman who has no equivalent in the Oracles, with the Sun. As Plethon claims in the Laws, the Forms and daemons closer to the first principle, itself ‘purely one ’, are in lesser number whereas those that are further from it are more numerous. As Plethon’s account makes clear, the common feature of the gods of all orders is their perpetual existence, without beginning or end.
