Ennead I.6 [1], On Beauty, chapter 8

porphyrian I.6 · chronological 1 · chapter 8 · volkmann page 94-95

τίς οὖν ὁ τρόπος; τίς μηχανή; πῶς τις θεάσεται κάλλος ἀμήχανον οἷον ἔνδον ἐν ἁγίοις ἱεροῖς μένον οὐδὲ προιὸν εἰς τὸ ἔξω, ἵνα τις καὶ βέβηλος ἴδῃ; ἴτω δὴ καὶ συνεπέσθω εἰς τὸ εἴσω ὁ δυνάμενος ἔξω καταλιπὼν ὄψιν ὀμμάτων μηδ’ ἐπιστρέφων αὐτὸν εἰς τὰς προτέρας ἀγλαίας σωμάτων. ἰδόντα γὰρ δεῖ τὰ ἐν σώμασι καλὰ μήτοι προστρέχειν, ἀλλὰ γνόντα, ὥς εἰσιν εἰκόνες καὶ ἴχνη καὶ σκιαί, φεύγειν πρὸς ἐκεῖνο, οὗ ταῦτα εἰκόνες. εἰ γάρ τις ἐπιδράμοι λαβεῖν βουλόμενος ὡς ἀληθινοῦ, οἷα εἰδώλου καλοῦ ἐφ̓ ὕδατος ὀχουμένου, οὗ λαβεῖν βουληθείς, ὥς πού τις μῦθος, δοκεῖ μοι, αἰνίττεται, δὺς εἰς τὸ κάτω τοῦ ῥεύματος ἀφανὴς ἐγένετο, τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ τρόπον ὁ ἐχόμενος τῶν καλῶν σωμάτων καὶ μὴ ἀφιεὶς οὐ τῷ σώματι, τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ καταδύσεται εἰς σκοτεινὰ καὶ ἀτερπῆ τῷ νῷ βάθη, ἔνθα τυφλὸς [καὶ] ἐν ᾅδου μένων καὶ ἐνταῦθα κἀκεῖ σκιαῖς συνέσται. φεύγωμεν δὴ φίλην ἐς πατρίδα, ἀληθέστερον ἄν τις παρακελεύοιτο. τίς οὖν ἡ φυγή; καὶ πῶς ἀναξόμεθα; οἷον ἀπὸ μάγου Κίρκης φησὶν ἢ Καλυψοῦς Ὀδυσσεὺς αἰνιττόμενος, δοκεῖ μοι, μεῖναι οὐκ ἀρεσθείς, καίτοι ἔχων ἡδονὰς δι’ ὀμμάτων καὶ κάλλει πολλῷ αἰσθητῷ συνών. πατρὶς δὲ ἡμῖν, ὅθενπερ ἤλθομεν, καὶ πατὴρ ἐκεῖ. τίς οὖν ὁ στόλος καὶ ἡ φυγή; οὐ ποσὶ δεῖ διανύσαι: πανταχοῦ γὰρ φέρουσι πόδες ἐπὶ γῆν ἄλλην ἀπ’ ἄλλης: οὐδέ σε δεῖ ἵππων ὄχημα ἤ τι θαλάττιον παρασκευάσαι, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πάντα ἀφεῖναι δεῖ καὶ μὴ βλέπειν, ἀλλ’ οἷον μύσαντα ὄψιν ἄλλην ἀλλάξασθαι καὶ ἀνεγεῖραι, ἣν ἔχει μὲν πᾶς, χρῶνται δὲ ὀλίγοι.

What, then, is the way? What is the means? How is one to behold a beauty beyond all means, which remains, as it were, within, in the holy sanctuaries, and does not come out to the outside, so that the profane too might see it? Let whoever is able go, and follow it within, leaving outside the sight of the eyes, and not turning himself back to the former splendours of bodies. For when he sees the beauties in bodies he must not run to them, but know that they are images and traces and shadows, and flee to that of which these are images. For if someone should run to them wanting to seize them as real — like a beautiful image riding on water, which someone wanted to seize, as some story hints, I think, and he plunged down into the depth of the stream and vanished — in the same way the one who holds to beautiful bodies and will not let them go will sink, not in body but in soul, into depths dark and joyless to intellect, where, blind in Hades, he will consort with shadows both here and there. 'Let us flee, then, to our dear fatherland': this is what one would more truly urge. What, then, is the flight? And how shall we put out to sea? As Odysseus says, speaking in riddles, I think, of his escape from the sorceress Circe or from Calypso — not content to stay, although he had pleasures for the eyes and consorted with much beauty that the senses perceive. Our fatherland is that from which we came, and our father is there. What, then, is the journey, and the flight? It is not to be accomplished on foot; for feet carry us everywhere from one land to another. Nor must you make ready a chariot and horses, or anything on the sea; you must let all these things go, and not look, but, as it were closing your eyes, exchange this sight for another and wake it — the sight which everyone has, but few use.

'Let us flee to our dear fatherland' echoes Homer, Iliad 2.140 and 9.27. The image on the water is Narcissus, whom Plotinus does not name. κάλλος ἀμήχανον answers τίς μηχανή, and 'a beauty beyond all means' keeps the play. Volkmann brackets καὶ in 'blind [and] in Hades'; the English follows the text without it.

Greek collated line by line against the Volkmann plate (vol. 1, pp. 94–95); every departure of the First1KGreek transcription from the printed page is corrected and recorded in the apparatus.