 Gregory of Nyssa’s imago dei anthropology provides the scaffolding for Maximus’ understanding of the role and status of the human being. Eriugena extrapolates from both Gregory of Nazianzus’ view that the essence of God is ineffable and ultimately beyond definition and from Gregory of Nyssa’s apophatic anthropology; therefore, both the divine and the human are ultimately unfathomable and ineffable: as the image of God (imago dei), the human being in its essence is as incomprehensible and undefinable as God.