Work · Hellenistic, Roman & Late Antique
Enneads
From the One through Intellect and Soul down to matter – and back.
Introduction
Plotinus wrote 54 treatises, starting at about the age of fifty, as questions arose in his teaching. Around 300 CE his pupil Porphyry arranged them into six groups of nine (Greek ennea), from ethical questions through the world, the soul and the intellect to the One, and added a biography of his teacher. The treatises often begin with a problem in Plato or Aristotle and work through objections, as in a seminar. Key topics include the soul’s descent into the body, beauty, the nature of evil as lack and the return to the One. Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation, printed in Florence in 1492, made them a source of Renaissance Platonism.
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Connections
Builds on
- Parmenidesc. 370 BCE · Plato
- Timaeusc. 360 BCE · Plato
- Metaphysicsc. 340 BCE · Aristotle
Taken up in
- Confessionsc. 400 · Augustine
- Elements of Theologyc. 470 · Proclus
- The Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae)c. 1050 · Solomon ibn Gabirol
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