This framework aligns heavily with the thesis presented by philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark in his seminal work on the founder of Neoplatonism. 🔱 The Role of Myth: Reinterpreting Tradition

Rather than viewing the Olympian gods as literal superhuman entities, Plotinus treats them as representations of the higher planes of reality. The gods reflect the Divine Intellect ( Nous ) and the archetypal forms.

Plotinus did not invent a brand new religion; he read the classical Greek literary and mythological tradition as an encoded map of the human psyche and metaphysical reality.

He casts the ordinary, material life of humans as a shared dream or a play on a stage. Myth is the tool used to pierce that dream and remind the soul of its true, native homeland. Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice