This is in effect the defence of the ‘Scriptor de Mysteriis’ (possibly Iamblichus, see Bernays ‘2 Abhandlungen’ 1880, p. 37): material means of worship are a means of access directly to the lower (or quasi-material) gods, and so indirectly to the higher. Few men can reach the latter without the aid of their manifestation in the lower; πάρεστιν ἀ& 204·λως τοῖς ἐνύλοις τὰ ἄ& 203·λα (v. 23, cf. 14).