Enneads

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The Six Enneads, sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads (Greek: Ἐννεάδες), is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry (c. 270 AD). Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas and they were founders of Neoplatonism. His work, through Augustine of Hippo, and therefore subsequent Christian and Muslim thinkers, has greatly influenced Western and Near-Eastern thought.

Contents

Organization and content

Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-four treatises, which greatly vary in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split some original texts and joined others together to match this very number. Then he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine (Greek. ennea) or Enneads. He also collected The Enneads into three volumes. The first volume contained the three firsts Enneads (I, II, III); the second the Fourth (IV) and the Fifth (V) Enneads; and the remaining volume was devoted to the Sixth (VI) and last. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, Life of Plotinus, intended to be an Introduction to the Enneads.

Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in which Enneads were written (see Chronological Listing below), but responds to a plan of study which leads the learner from subjects related to his own affairs to subjects concerning the uttermost principles of the universe.

Although not exclusively, Porphyry tells us (Cf. Life of Plotinus, chapters.24-26) that the First Ennead deals with Human or ethical topics; the Second and Third Enneads are mostly devoted to cosmological subjects or physical reality; The Fourth concerns about Soul; the Fifth to knowledge and intelligible reality; and finally the Sixth has for topics Being and what is above it, the One or first principle of all.

How to quote and refer to The Enneads

Since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Paris-Bruxelles, 1951-1973) and the revised one (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1964-1984) there is an academic convention of quoting the Enneads by first mentioning the number of Ennead (usually in Romans from I to VI), the number of treatise within each Ennead (in arabics from 1 to 9), the number of chapter (in arabics also), and the line(s) in one of the mentioned editions. These numbers are divided by dots, by commas or blank spaces (there is no absolute consensus about this).

E.g. For Fourth Ennead (IV), treatise number seven (7), chapter two (2), lines one to five (1-5), we write:

E.g. The following three mean Third Ennead (III), treatise number five (5), chapter nine (9), line eight (8):

It is important to remark that some translations or editions do not include the line numbers according to P. Henry and H.-R. Schwyzer’s edition. In addition to this, the chronological order of the treatises is numbered between brackets or parentheses.

E.g. For the previously given:

Table of contents

The names of treatises may differ according to translation.

The First Ennead

The Second Ennead

The Third Ennead

The Fourth Ennead

The Fifth Ennead

The Sixth Ennead

Note on the Plotiniana Arabica or Arabic Plotinus

After the fall of Western Roman Empire and during the period of the Byzantine Empire, the authorship of some Plotinus' texts became clouded. Many passages of Enneads IV-VI, now known as Plotiniana Arabica, circulated among Islamic scholars (as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi and Avicenna) under the name The Theology of Aristotle or quoted as "Sayings of an old [wise] man". The writings had a significant effect on Islamic philosophy, due to Islamic interest in Aristotle. A Latin version of the so called Theology appeared in Europe in 1519. (Cf. O'MEARA, An Introduction the Enneads. Oxford: 1995, 111ff.)

Some editions, translations and tools

Contemporary scholars refer to the Plotinus' critical editions made by

Useful tools for the study of the Enneads are

English

French

Spanish

Italian

German

Dutch

External links

Plotinus' writings: Chronological listing

According to the fourth chapter of Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, preserving the titles he assigned them and the corresponding treatise number in the Enneads.