To me, the sense is that, to your point, the gods are doing something, per se. It's their overwhelming effulgence that, without effort, give rise to the world and everything in it. And yes, without any diminishment in themselves.
Interesting his use of "First God" here. Is that also in Nock's translation (I beg your forgiveness for the ask, again)? The sense in the Timaeus, of Demiurge begetting the "younger" gods, seems to directly imply a hierarchy amongst the divinities that is, for whatever it's worth, at odds with the later Neoplatonic vision (and as Butler expresses in in his henadological approach).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2022-01-26 09:04 pm (UTC)Interesting his use of "First God" here. Is that also in Nock's translation (I beg your forgiveness for the ask, again)? The sense in the Timaeus, of Demiurge begetting the "younger" gods, seems to directly imply a hierarchy amongst the divinities that is, for whatever it's worth, at odds with the later Neoplatonic vision (and as Butler expresses in in his henadological approach).