Was Plotinus a Magician ?
| Autor: | A.H. Armstrong |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1955 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Phronesis. 1:73-79 |
| ISSN: | 1568-5284 0031-8868 |
| DOI: | 10.1163/156852855x00078 |
| Popis: | ISUPPOSE that most Plotinian scholars would agree with the judgement of Dodds 1 "The creator of Neoplatonism was neither a magician nor pace certain modern writers a theurgist .... . Not that he denied the efficacy of magic (could any man of the third century deny it?). But it did not interest him. He saw in it merely an application to mean personal ends of "the true magic which is the sum of love and hatred in the universe", the mysterious and truly admirable Oetax which makes the cosmos one; men marvel at human yoiltEa. more than at the magic of nature only because it is less familiar (Enneads 4. 4. 3 7-40) ". But Dodds's judgement has recently been challenged by Dr. P. Merlan in a most stimulating article2 entitled Plotinus and Magic, which might be described as an extremely able speech for the prosecution of Plotinus on the charge not only of being interested in magic but of actually practising it. I do not believe that Merlan proves his case, and I think it is worth trying to show in some detail why he does not, as his article provides a useful opportunity for a re-examination of the evidence which illuminates some important aspects of Plotinus's thought. Merlan's method is to relate three incidents recorded by Porphyry in the tenth chapter of his Life of Plotinus to cemin passages in the Enneads whose true meaning he thinks the incidents enable us to discern. He begins with the affair of Olympius, which he summarises as follows: "Olympius, a fellow-philosopher envious of Plotinus's intellectual superiority tried to harm him by magic spells. He did so by directing star-rays against him. But he had soon to give up, because he found that the soul of Plotinus was powerful enough not only to resist these spells but even to turn them back on his enemy so that they were harming him. A weird story. And as if he wanted to prove that it was not only a kind of legend about Plotinus, Porphyry adds: "Plotinus knew very well when Olympius was making his attempts. He used to tell that in such moments his intestines were violently contracting". Merlan's last sentence is an interpretation rather than a translation of Prophyry's picturesque phrase ?eycdv ocu'p -ro aM?cx 'r6Ocq 'ra arta VTLO &XeaOtt T&V tisX&V 0CU'T4A pO XX auv0XLob0kvdY)v. But I am prepared to agree that he is quite probably right in following Harder's reference |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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