ABSTRACT
The sensible cosmos was created as an image of the intelligible order of the Forms under the leadership of Poseidon. Imitating the first principle and forming this heaven, Poseidon made the cosmos that is as beautiful as possible ‘for Zeus’. In order to create the heaven of the sensible cosmos, Poseidon, the Form itself, ‘uses’ himself together with the rest of the intelligible essence, which is ‘in every respect and altogether separated from matter’, as a model for sensible things. For George Gemisttos Plethon, something that is itself the best must always, as much as possible, give a share of its own good to other things. In Plethon’s philosophy the Sun together with the Moon form a pair analogous to Poseidon and Hera among the Olympians, and Cronus and Aphrodite among the Titans. The Sun has an eminent position among stars and sensible things in general because it is the boundary and bond between the sensible and the intelligible world.
