JUPITER, THE GREAT CHIEF, OR THIRD GOD, IS THE SOUL, OR VENUS.
8. Finally, who is this Jupiter into whose gardens (Plato said that) Abundance entered? What are these gardens? As we have already agreed, Venus is the Soul, and Abundance is the Reason of all things. We still have to explain the significance of Jupiter and his gardens.
Jupiter cannot well signify anything else than the soul, since we have already admitted that the soul was Venus. We must here consider Jupiter as that deity which Plato, in his Phaedrus, calls the Great Chief;[145] and, elsewhere, as I think, the Third God. He explains himself more clearly in this respect in the Philebus,[146] where he says that Jupiter "has a royal soul, a royal intelligence." Since Jupiter is, therefore, both an intelligence and a soul, since he forms part of the order of causes, since we must assign him his rank according to what is best in him; and for several reasons, chiefly because he is a cause, a royal and directing cause, he must be considered as the Intelligence. Venus (that is, Aphrodite) which belongs to him, which proceeds from him, and accompanies him, occupies the rank of a soul, for she represents in the soul that which is beautiful, brilliant, pure, and delicate ("abron"); and that is why she is called "Aphrodite."[147] In fact, if we refer the male deities to the intellect, and if we consider the female deities as souls—because a soul is attached to each intelligence—we shall have one more reason to relate Venus to Jupiter. Our views upon this point are confirmed by the teachings of the priests and the (Orphic) Theologians, who always identify Venus and Juno, and who call the evening star, or Star of Venus, the Star of Juno.[148]
JUPITER'S GARDEN IS THE FRUITFUL REASON THAT BEGETS EVERY OBJECT.
9. Abundance, being the reason of the things that exist in Intelligence and in the intelligible world—I mean the reason which pours itself out and develops—trends towards the soul, and exists therein. Indeed, the (Being) which remains united in Intelligence does not emanate from a foreign principle, while the intoxication of Abundance is only a factitious fulness. But what is that which is intoxicated with nectar? It is Reason that descends from the superior principle to the inferior; the Soul receives it from Intelligence at the moment of the birth of Venus; that is why it is said that the nectar flows in the garden of Jupiter. This whole garden is the glory and splendor of the wealth (of Intelligence);[149] this glory originates in the reason of Jupiter; this splendor is the light which the intelligence of this Deity sheds on the soul. What else but the beauties and splendors of this deity could the "gardens of Jupiter" signify? On the other hand, what else can the beauties and splendors of Jupiter be, if not the reasons[150] that emanate from him? At the same time, these reasons are called Abundance (Poros, or "euporia"), the wealth of the beauties which manifest; that is the nectar which intoxicates Abundance.[151] For indeed what else is the nectar among the deities, but that which each of them receives? Now Reason is that which is received from Intelligence by its next inferior principle. Intelligence possesses itself fully; yet this self-possession does not intoxicate it, as it possesses nothing foreign thereto. On the contrary, Reason is engendered by Intelligence. As it exists beneath Intelligence, and does not, as Intelligence does, belong to itself, it exists in another principle; consequently, we say that Abundance is lying down in the garden of Jupiter, and that at the very moment when Venus, being born, takes her place among living beings.
THE OBJECT OF MYTHS IS TO ANALYSE; AND TO DISTINGUISH.
10. If myths are to earn their name (of something "reserved," or "silent") they must necessarily develop their stories under the category of time, and present as separate many things, that are simultaneous, though different in rank or power. That is the reason they so often mention the generation of ungenerated things, and that they so often separate simultaneous things.[152] But after having thus (by this analysis) yielded us all the instruction possible to them, these myths leave it to the reader to make a synthesis thereof. Ours is the following:
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PLATONIC MYTH OF THE GARDEN OF JUPITER.
Venus is the Soul which coexists with Intelligence, and subsists by Intelligence. She receives from Intelligence the reasons[150] which fill her,[153] and embellishes her, and whose abundance makes us see in the Soul the splendor and image of all beauties. The reasons which subsist in the Soul are Abundance[154] of the nectar which flows down from above. Their splendors which shine in the Soul, as in life, represent the Garden of Jupiter. Abundance falls asleep in this garden, because he is weighted down by the fulness contained within him. As life manifests and ever exists in the order of beings, (Plato) says that the deities are seated at a feast, because they ever enjoy this beatitude.