Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-fourtreatises, which vary greatly in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split 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) orEnneads. He also collectedThe Enneads into three volumes. The first volume contained the first threeEnneads (I, II, III), the second volume has theFourth (IV) and theFifth (V)Enneads, and the last volume was devoted to the remainingEnnead. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master,Life of Plotinus, intended to be an introduction to theEnneads.
Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in whichEnneads were written (seeChronological 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 theuniverse.
Although not exclusively, Porphyry writes in chapters 24–26 of theLife of Plotinus that theFirst Ennead deals with human or ethical topics, theSecond andThird Enneads are mostly devoted tocosmological subjects orphysical reality. TheFourth concerns theSoul, theFifthknowledge and intelligible reality, and finally theSixth coversbeing and what is above it,the One or first principle of all.
Since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by Paul Henry andHans-Rudolf Schwyzer (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Paris-Bruxelles, 1951–1973; H-S1 oreditio major text) and the revised one (Plotini Opera. 3 volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1984; referred to as the H-S2 oreditio minor text) there is an academic convention of citing theEnneads by first mentioning the number ofEnnead (usually in Romans from I to VI), the number of treatise within eachEnnead (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 periods, commas, or blank spaces.
E.g. ForFourth Ennead (IV), treatise number seven (7), chapter two (2), lines one to five (1-5), we write:
IV.7.2.1-5
E.g. The following three meanThird Ennead (III), treatise number five (5), chapter nine (9), line eight (8):
III, 5, 9, 8
3,5,9,8
III 5 9 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, and given below.
E.g. For the previously given:
IV.7 (2).2.1-5 since treatise IV.7 was the second written by Plotinus.
III, 5 [50], 9, 8 since III.5 was the fiftieth written by Plotinus.
The names of treatises may differ according to translation. The numbers in square brackets before the individual works refer to the chronological order they were written according to Porphyry'sLife of Plotinus.
The chronological listing is given by Porphyry (Life of Plotinus 4–6). The first 21 treatises (through IV.1) had already been written when Porphyry met Plotinus, so they were not necessarily written in the order shown.
I.6,IV.7,III.1,IV.2,V.9,IV.8,V.4,IV.9,VI.9
V.1,V.2,II.4,III.9,II.2,III.4,I.9,II.6,V.7
I.2,I.3,IV.1,VI.4,VI.5,V.6,II.5,III.6,IV.3
IV.4,IV.5,III.8,V.8,V.5,II.9,VI.6,II.8,I.5
II.7,VI.7,VI.8,II.1,IV.6,VI.1,VI.2,VI.3,III.7
I.4,III.2,III.3,V.3,III.5,I.8,II.3,I.1,I.7
In table format, the chronological order of Porphyry corresponding each of the Ennead treatises is:[2]
After the fall ofWestern Roman Empire and during the period of theByzantine Empire, the authorship of some Plotinus' texts became clouded.Many passages ofEnneads IV-VI, now known asPlotiniana Arabica, circulated amongIslamic scholars (asAl-Kindi,Al-Farabi andAvicenna) under the nameThe Theology of Aristotle or quoted as "Sayings of an old [wise] man".The writings had a significant effect onIslamic philosophy, due to Islamic interest inAristotle. A Latin version of the so-calledTheology appeared in Europe in 1519. (Cf. O'Meara,An Introduction to the Enneads. Oxford: 1995, 111ff.)
Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer.Plotini Opera. (Editio maior in 3 vols. including English translation ofPlotiniana Arabica orThe Theology of Aristotle) Bruxelles and Paris: Museum Lessianum, 1951–1973.
Henry, Paul, and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer.Plotini Opera. (Editio minor in 3 vols.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964–1982.
Complete English translations
Taylor, Thomas.Collected Writings of Plotinus, Frome, Prometheus Trust, 1994.ISBN1-898910-02-2 (contains approximately half of the Enneads)
Plotinus. The Enneads (translated byStephen MacKenna), London, Medici Society, 1917–1930 (anonline version is available atSacred Texts); 2nd edition, B. S. Page (ed.), 1956.
Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.); George Boys-Stones, John M. Dillon, Lloyd P. Gerson, R.A. King, Andrew Smith and James Wilberding (trs.).The Enneads. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Commentaries
The Enneads of Plotinus Series. Edited byJohn M. Dillon and Andrew Smith. Parmenides Publishing. 2012–Ongoing.
Atkinson, Michael.Plotinus' Ennead V.1: On the Three Principal Hypostases Oxford: OUP, 1983.
Bussanich, John.The One and Its Relation to Intellect (Translation and commentary of selected treatises). Leiden: Brill, 1988.
The Six Enneads (completeStephen MacKenna and B. S. Page translation) in PDF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, Theological Markup Language (XML), and 'Palm Doc' versions.
The Six Enneads – Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML (incomplete copy: the pages are truncated).
The Enneads,Greek text page scans of Kirchhoff's edition.
Plotinian Bibliography 2001- by Richard Dufour (French and English versions), continues his research presented inPlotinus: a Bibliography 1950-2000, referred above.
Enneads – Alternate version of the LibriVox audiobook with Sections following the Translator Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie's Chronological Organization of the Books.
Philosophy portal
Works related toEnneads at Wikisource
Quotations related toEnneads at Wikiquote
Enneads public domain audiobook atLibriVox