Select Works of Porphyry (On Abstinence, Cave of the Nymphs, Auxiliaries)

INTRODUCTION.

This dogma, which was derived principally from the sixth book of Plato's Republic and his Parmenides, and was adopted by all succeeding Platonists, is copiously unfolded. The truth of it is supported by reasoning replete with what Plato calls "geometrical necessities" by those two great philosophical luminaries, Proclus and Damascius^b—the former of whom was the leader Coryphaeus of the Platonists, and the latter of whom possessed a profoundly investigating mind.

Of the disciples of Porphyry, the most celebrated was Iamblichus, a man of uncommonly penetrating genius. Like his master Plato, he was surnamed the divine because of the sublimity of his conceptions and his admirable proficiency in theological learning. This extraordinary man, though zealously attached to the Platonic philosophy, also explored the wisdom of other sects, particularly the Pythagoreans, Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and formed one beautiful system of deep, specialized knowledge recondite knowledge from their harmonious conjunction^c.

^b See the 2nd book of my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato, and the Introduction to my translation of Plato, and notes on the 3rd volume of that translation.
^c See my translation of his Life of Pythagoras, and also of his treatise on the Mysteries. The Emperor Julian says of Iamblichus "that he was posterior in time, but not in genius, to Plato himself."