Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy

Abstract

Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234-305) was not only the biographer of his teacher Plotinus, and the editor of his Enneads, but an important Platonist philosopher in his own right. Presented here are two texts of Porphyry’s, preserved in fragments, in which he tries to bring philosophy to bear on religion, and ultimately to align the two. In his Letter to Anebo and Philosophy from Oracles, Porphyry explores questions of reason, revelation, and ritual, of theology and theurgy, of how divination serves divinization. This edition includes the Greek fragments and Latin quotations of both texts with facing English translation, a Greek-English (including Latin equivalents), and a commentary.