Table Of Contentplotinus
plotinus
Myth, Metaphor, and
Philosophical Practice
stephen r. l. clark
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
stephen r. l. clark is professor emeritus at the University of Liverpool and
has also taught at the University of Oxford and the University of Glasgow. He
is the author of many books, including, most recently, Understanding Faith,
Philosophical Futures, and Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2016 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 33967- 2 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 33970- 2 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226339702.001.0001
Quotations from Plotinus, The Enneads, are reprinted by permission of the
publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Plotinus, The
Enneads, 7 vols., Loeb Classical Library, vols. 440–5 and 468, translated by A. H.
Armstrong (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, copyright © 1966– 88,
by the President and Fellows of Harvard College). Loeb Classical Library® is a
registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Clark, Stephen R. L., author.
Title: Plotinus : myth, metaphor, and philosophical practice / Stephen R. L. Clark.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2015037892 | isbn 9780226339672 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn
9780226339702 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Plotinus. | Philosophy, Ancient.
Classification: lcc b693.z7 c55 2016 | ddc 186/.4—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037892
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
Let us fly to our dear country. What then is our way of escape, and how
are we to find it? We shall put out to sea, as Odysseus did, from the witch
Circe or Calypso— as the poet says (I think with a hidden meaning)— and
was not content to stay though he had delights of the eyes and lived
among much beauty of sense. Our country from which we came is
There, our Father is There. How shall we travel to it, where is our way
of escape? We cannot get there on foot; for our feet only carry us every-
where in this world, from one country to another. You must not get
ready a carriage, either, or a boat. Let all these things go, and do not look.
Shut your eyes, and change to and wake another way of seeing, which
everyone has but few use.
—Plotinus, Ennead I.6 [1].8, 16–2 8
contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xix
Part I: Prolegomena 1
1. Why Read Plotinus? 3
2. How to Read Plotinus 14
3. Theories about Metaphor 21
4. Dialectic 31
Part II: Metaphorically Speaking 43
5. Naked and Alone 45
6. On Becoming Love 64
7. Shadow Plays and Mirrors 83
8. Reason Drunk and Sober 91
9. Dancing 105
10. Remembering and Forgetting 121
11. Standing Up to the Blows of Fortune 139
Part III: The Plotinian Imaginary 147
12. Platonic and Classical Myths 149
13. Spheres and Circles 162
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viii contents
14. Charms and Countercharms 171
15. Invoking Demons 179
16. Images Within and Without 194
17. Fixed Stars and Planets 209
18. Waking Up 226
Part IV: Understanding the Hypostases 231
19. Matter 233
20. Nature 246
21. Soul 259
22. Nous 263
23. The One 272
Part V: The Plotinian Way 279
Bibliography 299
Index of Passages from the Enneads 329
Index of Names and Subjects 333
preface
This volume had its beginnings in a Leverhulme Trust– funded project
(2002– 3) whose aim was to examine Plotinus’s use of metaphor, with
the working assumption that this could be identified as philosophically
“constructive” rather than merely ornamental or rhetorical. My colleague
Panayiota Vassilopoulou and I shared a conviction that Plotinus’s work was
more than a compendium of abstract arguments, and that it could be under-
stood only by those willing at least to try to follow its advice (just as a
poem is understood only by reciting it, a play by its performance, or a phi-
losophy by arguing about it). Our original intention was to write a joint
study of these issues, and in what follows I continue to be influenced by my
colleague’s thoughts and studies. Other events, responsibilities, and proj-
ects have delayed us both, and this volume, in consequence, is written only
by myself, with all the appropriate thanks both to Panayiota and to other
friends, students, and acquaintances.
By “constructive,” I mean that these images and metaphors were in-
tended to be spiritual or imaginative exercises, which could be expected
to have a transformative effect on those willing to follow them through:
“dynamic” in two ways at least, in that they develop as one contemplates
them, and that their enjoyment changes one’s underlying mind- set. The
project offered to the Trust was to see how this approach could enrich our
understanding of Plotinus and how it could be applied in current pedagogic
practice. We aimed first to identify prominent and recurring metaphorical
images in Plotinus’s philosophical system and to read these metaphors with
attention to their root, or “literal,” meaning in the context of his times and
to their previous philosophical associations. In this way, we aimed to fol-
low and adopt Plotinus’s own method when engaging with his predecessors
and thus to establish new ways of grasping and using the Plotinian texts.
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