To understand Pythagorean theology it is first important to understand the Pythagorean world view, in this way all subsequent issues can be understood as parts relating to the whole. I must also preface my remarks by saying that in reality this entire world view scheme is inherently inaccurate because the World is really an ineffable Unity and cannot truly be understood in discursive terms.

To make the world intelligible in discursive terms the Pythagoreans divided it into a hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy resides the One. The One is all that is called God, Good, Beautiful, Unity, Mind, ECT... The One is in no place and in no time because time and place flow from the One and not vice versa. The One is All and in All and All flows from it. All is contingent on the One and the One is contingent on nothing. As two, three or four could not exist without one, all that exits cannot be without the One. Conversely one has no need of two, three or four. The One is without need, it is entirely self-subsistent. One of the favorite names the Pythagoreans used for God is Apollo because it means, not many.

On the second tier on our hierarchy reside the Immortal Gods. These are the causes, the essences and substances, to them are assigned the principal numbers of the decad. They are perfect and incorruptible without changing opinions but only true knowledge. They do no evil or anything out of the harmony with the One.

On the following tier of this hierarchy reside the Heros, and Hierocles says of them, "These are the middle sort of the Intelligent Essences and holding the next place after the Immortal Gods, they precede human nature and join the last beings to the first."