HERACLEON, a Gnostic who flourished c. A.D. 125, prob ably in the south of Italy. He appears to have regarded the divine nature as a vast abyss in whose pleroma were aeons of different orders,—emanations from the source of being. Midway between the supreme God and the material world was the Demi urgus, who created the latter, and under whose jurisdiction the animal soul of man proceeded after death, while his celestial soul returned to its origin. Origen, who treats Heracleon as a notable exegete, has preserved fragments of his commentary on the fourth gospel (brought together by Grabe in vol. ii. of his Spicilegium), while Clement of Alexandria quotes what appears to be a passage from a commentary on Luke. These writings are intensely mystical and allegorical.