Select Works of Porphyry

...lifeNote f; but I write for the person who considers what he is, where he came from, and where he ought to go. I write for the one who, in matters of diet and other essential concerns, differs from those who choose other ways of living; for I direct my words to none but people like theseoriginal: page 19." This treatise is also highly valuable for the historical information it contains, quite apart from the abundant philosophical beauty found within it.

The Explanation of the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs, which follows next, is remarkable not only for the great learning original: erudition it displays, but also for containing profound secrets original: arcana of the mythology and symbolic theology of the Greeks.

And the third treatise, which is called

f. The translator of this work and the other treatises in this volume has faced circumstances where he was forced to combine an active lifestyle with a contemplative one original Greek: μετα θεωρητικου νου πολιτευομενος, meaning "conducting oneself with a contemplative mind" while learning the philosophy of Plato and sharing it for the benefit of others. Because of this, he has also found it necessary to eat meat original: "a fleshy diet". However, nothing but absolute necessity—due to reasons that are not necessary to detail here—could have led him to choose animal food instead of vegetable nourishment. Even though he was raised on Eleatic A pre-Socratic school of philosophy focused on the nature of "Being" and Academic The school founded by Plato studies, he did not study in the idyllic "Academic groves" of leisure.

g. Page 19.