Proclus, Theologia Platonica; Michael Psellos

...having woven [these things] together in their own writings for their own pupils. We, however, believe that in the Timaeus, the whole political theory is primary. They expect the mind to attend immediately to the most beautiful examples of our constitution, laws, and political customs; but indeed, they consider the work of Plato alone to be the complete good of first philosophy, and as someone who leaves aside not even a main point in the contemplation of sympathy, he will not deprive you of the final knowledge of beings. For you might wish us to be greatly adorned by mythical fictions, being filled with much of the inward meaning derived from the analysis of such things, and yet such things hold the tradition to such an extent in the Platonic dialogues.

It is as though it were prior to the political nature and the demonstrations concerning it; for it is neither the political aspect of justice nor the form of temperance. For it is not for their own sake, but for the sake of the primary objectives, that Plato interweaves mythology with the inquiries into ethical dogmas, so that we might not only exercise the intellectual part of the soul through these dialectical arguments, but that the divine part of the soul as well, through sympathy toward more mystical matters, might more delightfully apprehend the knowledge of beings. Since in dialectical arguments we seem to be compelled toward the acceptance of truth, but in myths, we are affected ineffably; and we project self-vitalizing concepts, having discovered the mystical element within us.

Hence, I believe, Timaeus also, whenever he speaks among the myth-makers as if reporting educational reminders concerning the generation of secondary things from the first causes, even if they speak without demonstration—for such a form of discourse is not demonstrative, but inspired—it is not of necessity, but is devised after the manner of the ancients in things sympathetic; not belonging to mere learning, but to those who hold to a sympathy toward the realities themselves. Nor indeed does he pursue the causes of the myths alone, but also those of the other theological dogmas, aiming at...