Proclus, Theologia Platonica; Michael Psellos

Which are the dialogues,
and from which especially
must one grasp the
theology of Plato, and by what
criteria [must we judge] the things
said hereafter concerning the
gods, as he tells
us through these:—

...by the wind of Boreas, and describing the passions as they were in a measured form, saying that water was generated by Boreas with a lotus for them. For if even those who relate myths concerning the gods—the myths appearing more venerable than they are—possess hidden causes, and if someone were to declare to us that certain Platonic myths are physical, and that their hypotheses coincide with the things of this world, we shall say that they wander entirely away from the majesty of the whole. We should consider as the only interpreters of the truth within these discourses those who aim at the divine, immaterial, and separate substance; and looking toward this, they also perceive the life-giving essences and the uplifting powers of the myths, and thus the preconceptions concerning divine matters within us. Since, therefore, we have distinguished all the modes of the Platonic theology in these ways, and since it is fitting that the life-giving and uplifting element be present in the interpretations of the myths, and as we have handed down the truth concerning the gods, we shall write what follows this: let us consider, upon these points, from where and from which dialogues especially we believe it necessary for the doctrines concerning the gods according to Plato to be gathered. And toward whom and in what things must we look, so that we may be able to judge the things that shall be said and the recent interpretations of those things referred to him. If, then, the truth concerning the gods extends through almost all the Platonic dialogues, so to speak, and is instilled in every one—offering to some more obscure, and to others clear, venerable, evident, and supernatural conceptions of the First Philosophy—then, just as some immaterial and separate substance of the gods is referred to those capable of participating in them in any degree, and just as the Demiurge of all the cosmic worlds established the expressions of the unknown existence of the gods in every part and nature of the universe, so that all things might turn back toward the divine according to their kinship with it, so I believe also the inspired mind of Plato...