  The antagonism between God and the Indefinite Dyad, between intellect and soul, between the rational and the non-rational aspect of the world soul, and ultimately between goodness and badness is an entrenched feature of the world, according to Plutarch. He claims that the world contains both goodness and badness and he postulates two antithetical principles to account for each one of them (De Iside 369C–D), since God can only be the principle of goodness (ibid; cf. Republic 379c, Theaetetus 176a). And he criticizes the Epicureans and the Stoics, who postulate either matter (the atoms) or god respectively as active principles of the world (De Iside 369A). Plutarch expresses his dualism also in religious-symbolic terms: he equates the pair of good and evil principles with the Persian pair of gods Oromazes and Areimanius (De Iside 369D–E). Plutarch's pervasive dualism gives rise to problems, however. The constant presence and operation of the disorderly, non-rational aspect of the soul in the universe (De an. procr. 1027A), implies God's failure totally to dominate. Plutarch appears to maintain that God's power is limited by the necessity (anankê) imposed by matter. Yet, on the other hand, he does distinguish between the rule of nature, or fate, on the one hand, and divine providence on the other, arguing, against the Stoics, that God can dominate nature (De facie 927A-B) and can function providentially for us (De comm. not. 1075E, De Iside 371A, De defect oraculorum 413E –Ammonius speaking). The fact that God, by means of his logos, with which he is often identified (De Iside 373A-B), moulds the principle of disorder, the Indefinite Dyad, suggests to Plutarch the supremacy of God over any other force. This is actually one of the reasons why Plutarch defends temporal creation; if the world were eternal and God responsible for it, then God would be the cause of both good and bad, while on Plutarch's interpretation of the Timaeus badness is accounted for by the evil world soul, which, as I said above, according to Plutarch is pre-cosmic (see Dillon 2002, 234; see also below, sect. 4.3).