Porphyry
3rd-century Greek Neoplatonist philosopher · Academics · Lived 233 to 301 · aged 68
Porphyry is read about 318 times a day, in 56 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 361 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He salvaged his teacher's metaphysics for posterity, then spent the rest of his career writing everything from vegetarian treatises to attacks on Christianity sharp enough that an emperor ordered them burned.
Also in Deutsch
Photos 8
Portrait of Porphyry of Tyre from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens
AverroesAndPorphyry
Israel the Grammarian's commonplace book.jpg?width=1200)
Porfirio, artistotele, e frammento delle heroides in volgare, appartenuto a guido di dolce, 1250-1300 ca. (bml, pl. 11 sin 2)
Porfirio
Porphyrios Eisagoge altgriechisch.jpg?width=1200)
Porphyrios Sucevita Fresco (cropped)
Porphyrios Sucevita FrescoIn their own words 10
, Every body is in place; but nothing essentially incorporeal, or any thing of this kind, has any locality.
Things essentially incorporeal, because they are more excellent than all body and place, are every where, not with interval, but impartibly.
Soul, indeed, is a certain medium between an impartible essence, and an essence which is divisible about bodies. But intellect is an impartible essence alone.
About this person
Born around 234 in Tyre during Roman Phoenicia, Porphyry studied under Plotinus and became the sole editor of the Enneads - without him, Neoplatonism's founding texts would have been lost. He then ranged across disciplines in Greek, producing works on music theory, Homer, and vegetarianism, but his Isagoge became his most enduring legacy: for a thousand years it was the standard logic textbook across Latin and Arabic traditions. His anti-Christian polemics, especially Philosophy from Oracles and Against the Christians, made him a lightning rod - Constantine the Great eventually banned the latter. He died around 305, having shaped both medieval philosophy and the battle lines between pagan thought and early Christianity.
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