The Six Enneads, sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads, were written by the Neo-Platonist Plotinus; it was edited and compiled by his last student Porphyry in a short period (c. 270 CE) after the death of Plotinus. Plotinus was a Platonic philosopher, being possibly a 12th to 14th generation student of the Greek philosopher Plato. He claimed his Platonist education was passed to him by the Platonist Ammonius Saccas of Alexandria, one of the founders of Neo-Platonism. Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is an ancient school of philosophy beginning in the 3rd century A.D. It was based on the teachings of Plato and Platonists; but it interpreted Plato in many new ways, such that Neoplatonism was quite different from what Plato taught, though not many Neoplatonists would... Plotinus Plotinus (Greek: ) (ca. ... Porphyry (Greek: , c. ... Events Quintillus briefly holds power over the Roman Empire, and is succeeded by Aurelian Vandals and Sarmatians driven out of Roman territory Romans leave Utrecht after regular invasions of Germanic people. ... The Common Era (CE), sometimes known as the Current Era or as the Christian Era, is the period of measured time beginning with the year 1 on the Gregorian calendar. ... Platonic idealism is the theory that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. ... Plato (ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, wide, broad-shouldered) (c. ... Ammonius Saccas (3rd century AD) was a Greek philosopher of Alexandria, often called the founder of the Neoplatonic school. ... Alexandria Modern Alexandria. ... Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is an ancient school of philosophy beginning in the 3rd century A.D. It was based on the teachings of Plato and Platonists; but it interpreted Plato in many new ways, such that Neoplatonism was quite different from what Plato taught, though not many Neoplatonists would...

This article refers to the version translated into modern English, by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page. It is divided into six chapters (called enneads) and each chapter is subdivided into nine subchapters (called tractates). The Ennead (a word derived from Greek, meaning the nine) is a grouping of nine deities, most often used in the context of Egyptian mythology. ... The lost key [The story from Middle East] One night a neighbor strolling by Nasrudins house found him outside under th street lamp brushing through the dust. ...

Table of contents

The First Ennead

• First Tractate - "The Animate and the Man"
• Second Tractate - "On Virtue"
• Third Tractate - "On Dialectic [The Upward Way]."
• Fourth Tractate - "On True Happiness"
• Fifth Tractate - "Happiness and Extension of Time."
• Sixth Tractate - "Beauty"
• Seventh Tractate - "On the Primal Good and Secondary Forms of Good [Otherwise, 'On Happiness']"
• Eighth Tractate - "On the Nature and Source of Evil"
• Ninth Tractate - "The Reasoned Dismissal"

The Second Ennead

• First Tractate - "On the Kosmos, or on the Heavenly System"
• Second Tractate - "The Heavenly Circuit"
• Third Tractate - "Are the Stars Causes?"
• Fourth Tractate - "Matter in its Two Kinds"
• Fifth Tractate - "On Potentiality and Actuality."
• Sixth Tractate - "Quality and Form-Idea."
• Seventh Tractate - "On Complete Transfusion."
• Eighth Tractate - "Why Distant Objects Appear Small."
• Ninth Tractate - "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of the Kosmos and The Kosmos Itself to be Evil: [Generally Quoted as "Against the Gnostics"].

The Third Ennead

• First Tractate - "Fate"
• Second Tractate - "On Providence (1)."
• Third Tractate - "On Providence (2)."
• Fourth Tractate - "Our Tutelary Spirit"
• Fifth Tractate - "On Love"
• Sixth Tractate - "The Impassivity of the Unembodied"
• Seventh Tractate - "Time and Eternity"
• Eighth Tractate - "Nature Contemplation and the One"
• Ninth Tractate - "Detached Considerations"

The Fourth Ennead

• First Tractate - "On the Essence of the Soul (1)."
• Second Tractate - "On the Essence of the Soul (2)."
• Third Tractate - "Problems of the Soul (1)."
• Fourth Tractate - "Problems of the Soul (2)."
• Fifth Tractate - "Problems of the Soul (3). [Also known as, "On Sight"].
• Sixth Tractate - "Perception and Memory"
• Seventh Tractate - "The Immortality of the Soul"
• Eighth Tractate - "The Soul's Descent into Body"
• Ninth Tractate - "Are All Souls One?"

The Fifth Ennead

• First Tractate - "The Three Initial Hypostases"
• Second Tractate - "The Origin and Order of the Beings. Following on the First"
• Third Tractate - "The Knowing Hypostases and the Transcendent."
• Fourth Tractate - "How The Secondaries Rise From The First: and on the one."
• Fifth Tractate - "That The Intellectual Beings Are Not Outside The Intellectual-Principle: and on The Nature of The Good."
• Sixth Tractate - "That The Principle Transcending Being Has No Intellecual Act. What Being Has Intellection Primally and What Being Has It Secondarily."
• Seventh Tractate - "Is There Aa Ideal Archetype of Particular Beings?"
• Eighth Tractate - "On The Intellectual Beauty."
• Ninth Tractate - "The Intellecual-Principle, The Ideas, and The Authentic Existence."

The Sixth Ennead

• First Tractate - "On the Kinds of Being (1)"
• Second Tractate - "On The Kinds of Being (2)"
• Third Tractate - "On The Kinds of Being (3)"
• Fourth Tractate - "On The Integral Omnipresence of The Authentic Existent (1)"
• Fifth Tractate - "On The Integral Omnipresence of The Authentic Existent (2)"
• Sixth Tractate - "On Numbers"
• Seventh Tractate - "How the Multiplicity of The Ideal-Forms Came Into Being: And Upon the Good"
• Eighth Tractate - "On Free-Will and the Will of the One"
• Ninth Tractate - "On the Good, or the One"

External links

• The Six Enneads (complete Mackenna and Page translation) in monospaced text. The table of contents in the article above is from this source.
• The Six Enneads (complete Mackenna and Page translation) in PDF, HTML, and 'Palm Doc' versions.
• The Six Enneads Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML.