On Theology and Theurgy

Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234–305) was not only the biographer of his teacher Plotinus, and the editor of his Enneads, but an important Platonist philosopher in his own right. On Theology and Theurgy presents two of Porphyry’s texts, preserved in fragments, in which he tries to bring philosophy to bear on religion, and ultimately to align the two. In “Letter to Anebo” and “Philosophy from Oracles,” Porphyry explores questions of reason, revelation, and ritual, of theology and theurgy, of how divination serves divinization. This edition includes the Greek fragments and Latin quotations of both texts with facing English translation, a Greek-English glossary (including Latin equivalents), and a commentary.