Abstract

Among the neoplatonists, Hieroclès of Alexandria, with his book, On Providence and Fate and the relation of Free Will to Divine Governance takes a singular place. In the texts of the beginnings, the God is both maker and father and king over all. Some texts of the Commentary of the Golden Verses suggest an origin in pythagorean cosmology, so as in the Codex 214 when he quotes the ethereal beings before the earthly creatures, and when he speaks of the vehicle of the Soul. But the demiurge is not only the god who gives order inside the disorder, but that one who combines corporeal nature with incorporeal creation. However man is free, and it is in the entwinement of human freedom and divine judgement that Providence occurs.