ABSTRACT
George Gemisttos Plethon calls the first principle of everything by various traditional names derived from different sources. In the Laws he names it Zeus, which is the familiar name of ‘the Father of the gods and men’ in ancient Greek mythology. According to Plethon, the principle which is really the first, that is to say, uncreated by any higher cause, has to be one without any distinguishable individual parts. According to Plethon’s commentary, the latter affirms the absolute difference of the first principle from the things created by it. He describes ‘the Father’ as ‘transcendent ’ and not limited in any way because he is uncreated and itself by itself. In the commentary on this Oracle Plethon emphasizes the need to acquire actually the cognition of the intelligible things, whose images have been sown in us by the creator and exist potentially in our soul.
