Porphyry and Iamblichus

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521040549.019

Chapter 18 - Porphyry and Iamblichus

from Part IV - THE LATER NEOPLATONISTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Edited by

A. H. Armstrong

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Porphyry's philosophical career

Most of the features of Neoplatonism that we have been sketching are evident in the work of Porphyry. So it will avoid repetition to give him more attention than might otherwise have seemed due to him. Porphyry was born in about 232, the year when Plotinus started to study philosophy at Alexandria. His parents were well-to-do Syrians, and he spent most of his boyhood, so far as we know, in the busy Phoenician city of Tyre. Even if he did not travel he had ample opportunity there to make the far from superficial acquaintance with the mystery cults and magical practices of the Middle East and beyond which his writings were to show. He probably knew several languages by the time he came to the West; he continued to read widely; and it was not a conventional compliment that Simplicius paid when he called him the most learned of philosophers. Three later stages of his career have left their mark on his philosophy, his attendance at Longinus' lectures, his friendship with Plotinus and a period away from Plotinus in Sicily.

Like other young foreigners of means but a little older than most, it would seem, Porphyry continued his education at Athens. Here the dominant influence was that of Longinus (who died in 272). The old-fashioned taste of the famous critic no doubt had some part in the clarity of Porphyry's style which was soon contrasted with Plotinus' indirectness. But this ‘living library and walking museum’, as Eunapius called him, lectured on philosophy too; and we have the testimony of both to their friendship.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy , pp. 283 - 301

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521040549.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1967

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Chapter 18 - Porphyry and Iamblichus

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