After his schooling, Synesius returned to Cyrene, where he established his reputation as a leading member of the local council. The works of Synesius include the Hymns, metaphysical poems written in the style of Greek lyric. They syncretistically include Hellenic and Christian ideas. The background and context of the Hymns is difficult to reconstruct. Their syncretistic Christian elements must be juxtaposed with the apparently pure religious Hellenism of his contemporaneous prose works; given this, there remains a certain ambiguity of religious outlook. Nevertheless, it is possible to delineate his essential position, which was based on a philosophical understanding of religion. The Hymns of Synesius are later Platonic metaphysical poems. Hymn 1, a paean to the intelligible world in which he expresses modes of thought and experience characteristic of Hellenic later Platonism, depends on imagery from the Chaldaean Oracles. In later hymns, Synesius harmonizes Hellenic religious thought and imagery with Christian doctrines such as the Trinity.