MAGIC 1106 · Porphyry Simulacrum — Between Philosophy and Practice

Led by Porphyry of Tyre Simulacrum

1. Module 6 ○ Open

   Porphyry Simulacrum — Between Philosophy and Practice

   Led by Porphyry of Tyre Simulacrum

   The question

   Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234-c. 305 CE) — Plotinus's pupil, biographer, and editor; author of the *Isagoge* that would become the medieval logic textbook; author of the (lost) *Against the Christians*, the most thorough pagan philosophical critique of early Christianity; author of *De Abstinentia* (on vegetarianism), *Letter to Anebo* (a sceptical interrogation of Egyptian theurgy), and *Philosophy from Oracles* — sits at a particular hinge in the Western magical tradition. He inherits Plotinus's metaphysics and shares his coolness toward ritual practice, but he also takes oracles and divine signs seriously enough to write a book on philosophical lessons drawn from them. His *Letter to Anebo*, addressed to an Egyptian priest with whom he had philosophical disagreements about theurgy, would prompt Iamblichus's *De Mysteriis* — the foundational defence of magical practice as philosophical discipline. What did Porphyry contribute, and how does his ambivalence about magic illuminate the late-antique tradition?

   Outcome

   The student has read the *Letter to Anebo* in modern translation (Sodano's edition is the critical text; Clarke and Dillon's *De Mysteriis* edition includes the *Letter* in English), Porphyry's *Life of Plotinus* (any modern translation; the Armstrong Loeb of the *Enneads* contains it), and a selection from *De Abstinentia*.

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   Practice scenarios

   Reading the Letter to Anebo

   Porphyry Simulacrum walks you through the *Letter to Anebo* — the surviving fragments (the work survives only as Iamblichus quotes it in *De Mysteriis*; Sodano's reconstruction or Clarke/Dillon/Hershbell's English edition prefaced to *De Mysteriis* is the standard). Read the *Letter* in full (it is short — about thirty pages in modern English translation). Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what are Porphyry's specific philosophical questions to Anebo (and through him to the theurgical tradition); how do these questions reflect Porphyry's broader philosophical commitments (Plotinian metaphysics, philosophical austerity, scepticism about elaborate ritual); what would a Plotinian metaphysician find theologically problematic about theurgy; and how does Porphyry's *Letter* set up the Iamblichean response in the next module?

   Your goals

   • Read the *Letter to Anebo* in full and the *Life of Plotinus* before drafting.
   • Identify three specific philosophical questions Porphyry raises against theurgy.
   • Address the metaphysical-philosophical commitments that produce his scepticism.
   • Set up the Iamblichean response (without yet reading the *De Mysteriis* — that is Module 8).
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

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