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Bible Encyclopedias
Porphyry (Scholar)
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or PORPHYRY ( IIopc pcos) (A.D. 233-c. 304), Greek scholar, historian, and Neoplatonist, was born at Tyre, or Batanaea in Syria. He studied grammar and rhetoric under Cassius Longinus. His original name was Malchus (king), which was changed by his tutor into Porphyrius (clad in purple), a jesting allusion to the colour of the imperial robes (cf. porphyrogenitus, born in the purple). In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, and for six years devoted himself to the study of Neoplatonism. Having injured his health by overwork, he went to live in Sicily for five years. On his return to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and endeavoured to render the obscure doctrines of Plotinus (who had died in the meantime) intelligible to the ordinary understanding. His most distinguished pupil was Iamblichus. When advanced in years he married Marcella, a widow with seven children and an enthusiastic student of philosophy. Nothing more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain.
Of his - numerous works on a great variety of subjects the following are extant: Life of Plotinus and an exposition of his teaching in the 'A40P 7 .cac lrpin Tic vonra ( Sententiae ad intelligibilia ducentes, Aids to the study of the Intelligibles). The Life of Pythagoras, which is incomplete, probably formed part of a larger history of philosophy (4,L 6r040s loropia, in four books) down to Plato. His work on Aristotle is represented by the Introduction (eivaywy1 7 ) to and Commentary (Ei 7 ynacs, in the form of questions and answers) on the Categories. The first, translated into Latin by Boetius, was extensively used in the middle ages as a compendium of Aristotelian logic; of the second only fragments have been preserved. His XpovLKh, a chronological work, extended from the taking of Troy down to A.D. 270; to it Eusebius is indebted for his list of the Macedonian kings. The treatise OcXbXo
os L ropia is called an a,poavcs (lecture) by Eusebius, who in his Praeparatio evangelica (x. 3) has preserved a considerable extract from it, treating of plagiarism amongst the ancients. Other grammatical and literary works are `OµnpaKh nri 7 µara (Quaestiones homericae); and De antro nympharum, in which the description in the Odyssey (xiii. 102-112) is explained as an allegory of the universe. The IIepi is roxiis E,u,]rvxwv (De abstinentia), on abstinence from animal food, is especially valuable as having preserved numerous original statements of the old philosophers and the substance of Theophrastus's IIEpi EUVE13elas ( On Piety). It also contains a long fragment from the Cretans of Euripides. The llpin Mapt4XXav is an exhortation to his wife Marcella to practise virtue and self-restraint and to study philosophy. The letter to the Egyptian priest Anebo, dealing with religious questions, was answered by a member of the school of Iamblichus, who called himself Abammon, in the De mysteriis. It is frequently referred to by Eusebius, Cyrir and Augustine. Eusebius preserved fragments of the IIEpi T? 7 S EK Xoyiwv jtXocroOtas philosophia ex oraculis haurienda ), in which he expressed his belief in the responses of the oracles of various gods as confirming his theosophical views. Porphyry is well known as a violent opponent of Christianity and defender of Paganism; of his KaTa Xperrcav&v (Adversus Christianos ) in 15 books, perhaps the most important of all his works, only fragments remain. Counter-treatises were written by Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinarius (or Apollinaris) of Laodicea, Methodius of Olympus, and Macarius of Magnesia, but all these are lost. Porphyry's view of the book of Daniel, that it was the work of a writer in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, is given by Jerome. There is no proof of the assertion of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, and Augustine, that Porphyry was once a Christian.
There is no complete edition of the works of Porphyry. Separate editions: Vita Plotini in R. Volkmann's edition of the Enneades of Plotinus (1883); Sententiae, by B. Mommert (1907); Vita Pythagorae, De antro nympharum, De abstinentia, Ad Marcellam, by A. Nauck
(1885); Isagoge et in Aristotelis categorias commentarium," by A. Busse in Commentaria in Aristotelem graeca (1887), iv. 1, with the translation of Boetius (ed. with introd., S. Brandt, 1906); fragments of the Chronica in C. W. Muller, Frag. hist. graec. (1849), iii. 688; Quaestiones homericae, by H. Schrader (1880, 1890); Letter to Anebo W. Pharthey's edition of Iamblichus De mysteriis (1857); De philosophia ex oraculis haurienda, by G. Wolff (1856); fragments of the Adversus Christianos by A. Georgiades (Leipzig, 1891); English trans. of the De abstinentia, De antro nympharum and Sententiae, by Thomas Taylor (1823); of the Sententiae by T. Davidson in the .Journal of Speculative Philosophy, iii. (1869); of the De abstinentia by S. Hibberd (1857), and of the Ad Marcellam by A. Zimmern (18 6 On) Porphyry and his works generally see Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca (ed. Harles), v. 725; Eunapius, Vita philosophorum; article in SuIdas; Lucas Holstenius, De vita et scriptis Porphyrii (Cambridge, 1655); J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Classical Scholarship (1906), i. 343; W. Christ, Gesch. der griechischen Litteratur (1898), § 621; M. N. Bouillet, Porphyre, son role dans l'ecole neoplatonicienne (1864)
A. I. Kleffner, Porphyrius der Neuplatoniker and Christenfeind (Paderborn, 1896)
on his philosophy, T. Whittaker, The NeoPlatonists (Cambridge, 1901), and Neoplatonism.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Porphyry (Scholar)'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/p/porphyry-scholar.html. 1910.
