Ennead I.6 [1], On Beauty, chapter 6

porphyrian I.6 · chronological 1 · chapter 6 · volkmann page 91-92

ἔστι γὰρ δή, ὡς ὁ παλαιὸς λόγος, καὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη καὶ ἡ ἀνδρεία καὶ πᾶσα ἀρετὴ κάθαρσις καὶ ἡ φρόνησις αὐτή. διὸ καὶ αἱ τελεταὶ ὀρθῶς αἰνίττονται τὸν μὴ κεκαθαρμένον καὶ εἰς ᾅδου κείσεσθαι ἐν βορβόρῳ, ὅτι τὸ μὴ καθαρὸν βορβόρῳ διὰ κάκην φίλον: οἷα δὴ καὶ ὗες, οὐ καθαραὶ τὸ σῶμα, χαίρουσι τῷ τοιούτῳ. τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ εἴη σωφροσύνη ἀληθὴς ἢ τὸ μὴ προσομιλεῖν ἡδοναῖς τοῦ σώματος, φεύγειν δὲ ὡς οὐ καθαρὰς οὐδὲ καθαροῦ; ἡ δὲ ἀνδρεία ἀφοβία θανάτου. ὁ δέ ἐστι χωρὶς εἶναι τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ σώματος. οὐ φοβεῖται δὲ τοῦτο, ὃς ἀγαπᾷ μόνος γενέσθαι. μεγαλοψυχία δὲ δὴ ὑπεροψία τῶν τῇδε. ἡ δὲ φρόνησις νόησις ἐν ἀποστροφῇ τῶν κάτω, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἄνω τὴν ψυχὴν ἄγουσα. γίνεται οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ καθαρθεῖσα εἶδος καὶ λόγος καὶ πάντη ἀσώματος καὶ νοερὰ καὶ ὅλη τοῦ θείου, ὅθεν ἡ πηγὴ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τὰ συγγενῆ πάντα τοιαῦτα. ψυχὴ οὖν ἀναχθεῖσα πρὸς νοῦν ἐπὶ τὸ μᾶλλόν ἐστι καλόν. νοῦς δὲ καὶ τὰ παρὰ νοῦ τὸ κάλλος αὐτῇ οἰκεῖον καὶ οὐκ ἀλλότριον, ὅτι τότε ἐστὶν ὄντως μόνον ψυχή. διὸ καὶ λέγεται ὀρθῶς τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ καλὸν τὴν ψυχὴν γίνεσθαι ὁμοιωθῆναι εἶναι θεῷ, ὅτι ἐκεῖθεν τὸ καλὸν καὶ ἡ μοῖρα ἡ ἑτέρα τῶν ὄντων. μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ ὄντα ἡ καλλονή ἐστιν, ἡ δὲ ἑτέρα φύσις τὸ αἰσχρόν. τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ [αἰσχρὸν] καὶ πρῶτον κακόν, ὥστε κἀκεῖνο ταὐτὸν ἀγαθόν τε καὶ καλόν, ἢ τἀγαθόν τε καὶ καλλονή. ὁμοίως οὖν ζητητέον καλόν τε καὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ αἰσχρόν τε καὶ κακόν. καὶ τὸ πρῶτον θετέον τὴν καλλονήν, ὅπερ καὶ τἀγαθόν: ἀφ̓ οὗ νοῦς εὐθὺς τὸ καλόν: ψυχὴ δὲ νῷ καλόν: τὰ δὲ ἄλλα ἤδη παρὰ ψυχῆς μορφούσης καλά, τά τε ἐν ταῖς πράξεσι τά τε ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασι. καὶ δὴ καὶ τὰ σώματα, ὅσα οὕτω λέγεται, ψυχὴ ἤδη ποιεῖ: ἅτε γὰρ θεῖον οὖσα καὶ οἷον μοῖρα τοῦ καλοῦ, ὧν ἂν ἐφάψηται καὶ κρατῇ, καλὰ ταῦτα, ὡς δυνατὸν αὐτοῖς μεταλαβεῖν, ποιεῖ.

For indeed, as the ancient saying has it, self-control and courage and every virtue is a purification, and so is wisdom itself. That is why the mysteries say rightly, in their riddling way, that one who has not been purified will lie in mire in Hades: because what is not pure is fond of mire through its badness — as pigs, which are not pure in body, delight in such stuff. For what would true self-control be but not to consort with the pleasures of the body, but to flee them as impure and as belonging to what is impure? And courage is fearlessness of death; and death is the soul's being apart from the body. One who is glad to be alone does not fear this. Greatness of soul is disdain for the things here. And wisdom is an intellection that turns away from the things below and leads the soul to the things above. The soul, then, once purified, becomes form and rational form, and wholly incorporeal and intellectual, and entirely of the divine, where the spring of the beautiful is, and all the things akin to it. The soul, led up to intellect, is beautiful in a greater degree. And intellect and the things from intellect are its beauty, its own and not alien, because only then is it truly soul. That is why it is rightly said that the soul's becoming good and beautiful is its being made like to god, because from there come the beautiful and the other portion of the things that are. Or rather, the things that are are loveliness, and the other nature is the ugly; and this same is the first evil, so that on that side too the same is good and beautiful — or, the good and loveliness. We must, then, inquire in the same way into beautiful and good, and ugly and evil. And first we must set down loveliness, which is also the good; from it, intellect is at once the beautiful; and soul is beautiful by intellect; and the other things are then beautiful from soul as it shapes them, both those in actions and those in pursuits. And bodies too, those that are called so, soul makes so: for since it is divine and, as it were, a portion of the beautiful, whatever it touches and masters it makes beautiful, as far as they are able to partake.

'Made like to god' is Plato, Theaetetus 176b (ὁμοίωσις θεῷ). ἡ μοῖρα ἡ ἑτέρα τῶν ὄντων is rendered literally, 'the other portion of the things that are'; the phrase is disputed and the English does not settle it. καλλονή is 'loveliness', kept apart from κάλλος (glossary). Volkmann brackets αἰσχρὸν in 'this same [ugly] is the first evil'; the English follows the text without it.

Greek collated line by line against the Volkmann plate (vol. 1, pp. 91–92); every departure of the First1KGreek transcription from the printed page is corrected and recorded in the apparatus.