SOURCE: Edwards, M. J. “Birth, Death, and Divinity in Porphyry's Life of Plotinus.” In Greek Biography and the Panegyric in Late Antiquity, edited by Tomas Hägg and Philip Rousseau, with the assistance of Christian Hogel, pp. 52-71. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Edwards analyzes the Life of Plotinus and suggests that in this work Porphyry attempts to solve the mysteries about his teacher Plotinus—including his supernatural capacities—that remained obscure during his lifetime. The critic also characterizes the work as more than a biography, calling it a gospel of sorts.

Open any book about Plotinus, and it is almost sure to be prefaced by a chapter on his life. The method is that of Porphyry, his most successful pupil, and the content of the chapter in most cases will be drawn entirely from his introduction to the Enneads, although perhaps with...