Porphyry

Greek scholar and philosopher

• Born: c. 234
• Birthplace: Tyre, Phoenicia (now in Lebanon)
• Died: c. 305
• Place of death: Probably Rome (now in Italy)

As the devoted disciple of Plotinus, who is credited as the founder of Neoplatonic thought, Porphyry undertook to compile and edit his master’s philosophical works. He also wrote extensive commentaries on Greek philosophers and on the allegorical interpretation, or exegesis, of the Homeric myths.

Early Life

Porphyry (POHR-feh-ree) was born of well-to-do Syrian parents in the Phoenician city of Tyre, where he spent most of his early years. His original name was Malchus, which in the Syro-Phoenician language signifies a king. He first Hellenized his name to Basileus, the Greek word for king. Later, at the suggestion of one of his teachers, Cassius Longinus, he changed it to Porphyry, which alludes to the royal purple color of the regal garments.

Sometime in his teens, Porphyry went to Athens to continue his education. There, he attended the lectures of the erudite critic and philosopher Cassius Longinus. From Longinus, he first learned of and was influenced by the Platonism of the time. At the age of thirty, he went to Rome to become the pupil of Plotinus. He remained with Plotinus for six years, during which time he gained his confidence and respect, enjoying prolonged private discussions with him. He was entrusted by Plotinus with the arrangement and editing of his writings, the Enneads (c. 256-270; The Enneads, 1918). At the end of his six years with Plotinus, Porphyry suffered an acute depression and was contemplating suicide. Plotinus persuaded him to leave Rome. He traveled to Sicily and remained there for several years. He was in Sicily when Plotinus died in 270.

Life’s Work

During his stay in Sicily, Porphyry wrote some of his most important philosophical works. He wrote commentaries on the Platonic and Aristotelian systems of philosophy, none of which survives. One of his works, the Isagoge (The Introduction of Porphyry, 1938), a commentary on Aristotle’s Categoriae (fourth century b.c.e.; Categories, 1812), served as an introduction to the elementary concepts of Aristotelian logic. The Isagoge was translated into Latin and interpreted by the medieval philosopher and theologian Boethius. The work’s views on the ontological status of universals, stated in the beginning, exercised great influence on the early medieval controversy between realism and nominalism, as well as being the subject of many commentaries. In Sicily, Porphyry also composed, in fifteen books, the polemic Kata Christanōn (c. 270 c.e.; Against the Christians, 1830). It was not a particularly philosophical work but a defensive reaction against the growing popularity of Christianity. This work was often imitated in later years, but it also provoked a number of Christian replies and brought on Porphyry much slander and verbal abuse.

Very little is known of the remainder of Porphyry’s life. He returned to Rome several years after the death of Plotinus, supposedly to take over Plotinus’s school. It was in Rome that he edited the works of Plotinus, wrote his biography, and gained a reputation as teacher and public speaker by his expositions of Plotinus’s thought. At the advanced age of seventy, c. 304, he married Marcella, the widow of a friend with seven children. As he states in Pros Markellan (Porphyry, the Philosopher, to His Wife, Marcella, 1896; better known as Ad Marcellam), the letter he sent to his wife while on a trip away from home, they married so that he could help to raise and educate her children.

Porphyry was very successful in popularizing the thought of Plotinus and in expounding it in a clear, concise, comprehensible manner. It was the Porphyrian version of Neoplatonism that influenced Western thought, both pagan and Christian, until the ninth century. His views are basically those of his master Plotinus. History does not credit Porphyry with any original views. Still, Porphyry did not follow Plotinus slavishly. The main emphasis of his thought was on the salvation, or ascent, of the individual soul, and he wanted to find a universal way of salvation that could be practiced by all individuals. Thus, he placed a greater emphasis on the moral and ascetic aspects of Neoplatonism, was much more interested in the popular religious practices than his master, and introduced the idea of theurgy into Neoplatonism. Porphyry’s views on the ascent of the soul are found in the following works: Aphormai pros ta noēta (Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures, 1823; better known as Sententiae), a disjointed collection of ideas; Peri apochēs empsychōn (On Abstinence from Animal Food, 1823; better known as De abstinentia), a treatise defending vegetarianism; and the Ad Marcellam, which deals with the practice of virtue and self-control.

Like Plotinus, Porphyry believed that the soul of an individual is of divine origin and has fallen into matter—the body. While in the body, the soul must purify itself by turning its attention from the bodily and material things to contemplation of the absolute supreme deity—the One, or God. Contemplation, or love of God, cannot be combined with concern for or love of the body. Thus, the soul must purify itself by liberating itself from the bonds of the body. This liberation is not attained by death only but by freeing the soul from its bodily concerns. The soul’s purification is achieved through the practice of the virtues. Systematizing Plotinus’s treatise on the virtues, Porphyry classifies them into four main types: the political (or civic), the purifying, the contemplative, and the paradigmatic. The political/civic and purifying virtues are acquired on the conscious level, while the soul is still aware of and concerned with matters of the material world, and are preparatory to the other virtues, which are acquired purely through the intellect, when the soul has entered the realm of true being or intellect.

The first and lowest class of virtues, the political/civic, produce moderation and free the soul from excessive bodily concern and indulgences, tempering the individual’s behavior toward his fellow humans. Mastery of that leads to the purifying virtues. These virtues completely free the body from all bodily and material attachments and lead the soul toward contemplation of true being. Porphyry believed that the soul’s purification and ascent were facilitated by the practice of asceticism. In De abstinentia, he stressed the abstinence from animal food, as well as from all external pleasures and desires, and the practice of celibacy. At the third stage of the ascent, the soul is directed toward the world of the intellect, is filled by it and guided by it; the soul has realized its true self, its divinity. Finally, in the fourth and last stage, the soul completely discards all the qualities of a mortal or material nature and its affection for them and becomes pure intellect, living by reason alone and becoming one with the supreme being: God.

Porphyry believed that philosophy was the best means by which the soul could achieve salvation. However, he realized that the discipline of philosophy as a means of salvation was not possible for all. His interest in and search for a universal way of salvation common to all nations and levels of humankind led him to accept external aids that would lead an individual to that end. He acknowledged the religious practices, rites, and superstitions of the popular polytheism of the time and accepted their gods as symbols, giving their myths an esoteric interpretation. Unlike his master, Plotinus, he upheld the worship of the national gods, claiming that it is important to show respect for the ancient religious practice of a nation.

The early centuries of the Christian era were times of increasing insecurity and anxiety that led individuals to long for salvation, a release from the misery and failure of human life. People turned to the practice of magic and the utterances of the oracles or inspired prophets for answers to their everyday concerns and solutions to their spiritual needs. Astrology and the mystery cults with their purification rites, their enthusiasm and ecstasy, and their rewards of immortality through deification enjoyed immense popularity. The Chaldaean Oracles in particular, composed about 200 c.e. in hexameter verse, were purported to be a divine revelation containing both a theology and a way of salvation communicated by the gods through an entranced medium or prophet. They presented a sure method of salvation through ritual magic, by means of which a divine force could be incarnated in a human being, resulting in a state of prophetic trance.

This approach to salvation and union with the divine was known as theurgy. Porphyry acknowledged theurgy as an alternative approach to salvation. Theurgy became one of the major influences in the development of later Neoplatonism from the time of Porphyry to the eleventh century. Porphyry believed that theurgy had some validity and in some way connected the individual with the gods—but only on the lower, or conscious, level. Remaining basically loyal to the philosophy of Plotinus, Porphyry maintained that it is only philosophy that can lead the soul to final union with God.

Significance

Although Porphyry has been considered an unoriginal and uncritical thinker, his contributions to learning are far from insignificant. He had an insatiable intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge that led him to delve into and become well-versed in many subjects. In addition to the preservation and intelligible interpretation of Neoplatonism, his main contribution, Porphyry wrote on numerous and varied subjects: rhetoric, grammar, numbers, geometry, music, philology, and philosophy. History credits him with seventy-seven titles. Unfortunately, many of his works are either no longer extant or available only in scanty fragments. Being a detailed scholar, he quotes his authorities by name in his works and thus has preserved numerous fragments of scholarship that otherwise would not have been maintained.

His Isagoge became a standard medieval textbook of logic. Of his non-philosophical works, Homērika zētēmata (The Homeric Questions, 1993) is considered a milestone in the history of Homeric scholarship concerning the meaning and exegesis of the Homeric works and reveals his vast knowledge of the epics. The essay on the Homeric cave of the nymphs in the Odyssey (c. 725 b.c.e.; English translation, 1614) is an excellent example of the type of mystical allegorizing of the Homeric epics that was prevalent at the time and is the oldest surviving interpretive critical essay.

In the field of religion, his polemic against the Christians is a study in biblical criticism that was not equaled until modern times, and he anticipated modern scholars in discovering the late date of the biblical Book of Daniel through sound historical scholarship. Although the text was condemned by the Christian church in 448, sufficient fragments remain to show Porphyry’s expert knowledge of Hebrew and his wide and accurate knowledge of both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Applying the standards of historical criticism to the Scriptures, he denied the authenticity and prophetic character of the Book of Daniel, disputed the authorship of the Pentateuch, and pointed out the discrepancies within the different Gospel narratives and the Epistles of Saint Paul. He is believed to have been the first individual to apply the rules of historical criticism to the Scriptures.

Porphyry stands at the end of the creative phase of Greek philosophical thought. After him, Neoplatonism became more a religion than a philosophy. In an attempt to rescue pagan religion and culture from the overwhelming strength of Christianity, Neoplatonism sacrificed Greek rationalism for occult magico-religious practices that were meant to secure the salvation of the soul.

Bibliography

Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. Contains an excellent study of Porphyry’s work on the Homeric epics. It analyzes in detail the surviving fragments of Homērika zētēmata and presents an in-depth study of Porphyry’s essay on the cave of the nymphs.

Porphyry. Neoplatonic Saints: The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by Their Students. Translated by Mark Edwards. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000. A major source of information for the life of Porphyry, this work is primarily a biography of Plotinus. However, it contains many facts of Porphyry’s early life and discusses his association with Plotinus and with Cassius Longinus. It also presents an interesting profile of Porphyry’s personality.

Porphyry. On the Cave of the Nymphs. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Phanes Press, 1991. An example of Porphyry’s method of allegorically interpreting the poetic mythology current at that time. The work is a mystical interpretation of the cave of the nymphs in Homer’s Odyssey.

Porphyry. Porphyry, the Philosopher, to His Wife, Marcella. Translated by Alice Zimmern. London: George Redway, 1896. An old work, but invaluable. It is the only translation of Porphyry’s Ad Marcellam in English. The lengthy introduction, comprising more than half of the book, includes a summary of the development of Neoplatonism, a review of Porphyry’s emphases, and a discussion of the letter to Marcella, showing its religious character and its emphasis on the practice of virtue.

Smith, Andrew. Porphyry’s Place in the Neoplatonic Tradition. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974. A study in post-Plotinian Neoplatonism. It presents an analysis of Porphyry’s views of the soul and its means of salvation and compares them with those of Plotinus and Iamblichus, Plotinus’s pupil and successor. Includes an extensive bibliography of ancient and modern sources and an appendix listing the works of Porphyry relevant to the doctrine of the soul.