Select Works of Plotinus — trans. Thomas Taylor

That, merg’d beneath life’s dreadful-sounding sea.

In body’s chains they willingly may toil.

Nor e’er remember in the dark abyss
The splendid palace of their sire sublime/'

p. 537

you will vanquish in the former, you will he van¬ quished in the latter contests. For when the di¬ vine part of the soul does not follow the inferior part, but frequently restrains it, and is converted to itself, then in process of time it becomes so corro¬ borated as to sustain all attacks, and so resplendent as it were, that it no longer receives the influxes of daemons. Thus, therefore, the whole animal then becomes truly divine and one. And this is a celes¬ tial plant in the earth, which does not receive a foreign ingraftment, so as to produce fruits from 'it, but changes that which is foreign into its own na¬ ture. Evil daemons, therefore, despairing of ob¬ taining the victory over it, then entirely contend in the second contest, which consists in endeavouring to extirpate this plant from the earth, and destroy it, as in no respect adapted to themselves. For they are ashamed of being vanquished, if some one of a nature foreign to themselves subdues them, and is resident in the places which belong to them ; this being in reality, and appearing to be a trophy of victory. For a man of this kind is not only a detriment to them in himself, but causes others also to revolt from their dominion. For when virtue is the object of emulation, vice must necessarily perish.

p. 538

On this account, therefore, these daemons endea¬ vour by stratagems to destroy every one, whether he be a private person or a potentate, who refuses obedience to the laws of matter. As you, how¬ ever, are a king, it will be easier for you than for a private person to guard against their attacks. For they assault externally, if they do not make any progress in their internal attempts, by war, se¬ dition, and by such things as injure the body, by which, however, that king will not be in the least subdued who pays attention to himself. For that is not to be conquered in which strength and wis¬ dom are conjoined. But when these are separated from each other, strength being without skill, and wisdom being imbecile, they are easily subdued.

The conception, indeed, my son, of your fore¬ fathers in the formation of sacred images, is per¬ fectly admirable.

¬ dom are conjoined. But when these are separated from each other, strength being without skill, and wisdom being imbecile, they are easily subdued.

The conception, indeed, my son, of your fore¬ fathers in the formation of sacred images, is per¬ fectly admirable. For the Egyptians make a two¬ fold representation of the daemon Hermes, placing a young by the side of an elderly man, intending to signify by this, that he who rightly inspects [sacred concerns] ought to be both intelligent and strong, one of these being imperfect in affording utility without the other. On this account, also, a sphinxp. 539 is established by us in the vestibules of our temples, as a sacred symbol of the conjunction of these two goods ; the beast in this figure signifying strength, but the man wisdom.1 For strength when desti-

1 The following explanation of the sphinx is extracted from the notes to my translation of Fausanias : Tire sphinx, accord¬ ing to Lasus Hermioneus, was the daughter of Echidna and Typhon ; and according to Clearchus, she had the head and hands of a virgin, the body of a dog, a human voice, the tail of a dragon, the claws of a lion, and the wings of a bird. But it appears to me that the ancients, by the sphinx, designed t© represent to us the nature of the phantasy or imagination. In order to be convinced of which, it is necessary to observe, that the rational soul, or the true man, consists of intellect, dianoia or the discursive energy of reason, and opinion ; but the ficti¬ tious man, or the irrational soul, commences from the phan¬ tasy, under which desire and anger subsist. Hence the basis of the rational life is opinion, but the summit of the irrational life is the phantasy. But the phantasy, as Iamblichus beau» tifully observes, grows upon, as it were, and fashions all the powers of the soul ; exciting in opinion the illuminations from the senses, and fixing in that life which is extended with body, the impressions which descend from intellect. Hence, says Proclus, it folds itself about the indivisibility of true intellect, conforms itself to all formless species, and becomes perfectly every thing, from which dianoia and our indivisible reason consist.

This being the case, as the phantasy is all things passively which intellect is impassively (on which account Aristotle calls the phantasy passive intellect) hence the head of the sphinx is human, but at the same time of the feminine sex ; this sex being the image, from its passivity, of the irrational life.

s passively which intellect is impassively (on which account Aristotle calls the phantasy passive intellect) hence the head of the sphinx is human, but at the same time of the feminine sex ; this sex being the image, from its passivity, of the irrational life. By the sphinx having the body of a dog, the discriminating powerp. 540 tute of the ruling aid of wisdom, is borne along with stupid astonishment, mingling and confoundof the phantasy is implied : for a dog is the image of the discri¬ minating power of the soul. Hence Hercules drew up this power from Hades, viz. from the obscurity of a sensible life. But by her having the tail of a dragon, and the claws of a lion, the communication of the phantasy with desire and anger is signified. And her wings are images of the elevating powers, which the phantasy naturally possesses ; for it is re-elevated in conjunction with the returning soul, to the region every way resplendent with divine light. But the riddles of the sphinx are images of the obscure and intricate nature of the phantasy. He, therefore, who is unable to solve the riddles of the sphinx, i. e. who cannot comprehend the dark and perplexed nature of the phantasy, will be drawn into her embraces and torn in pieces, viz. the phantasy in such a one will subject to its power the rational life, cause its indivisible energies to become divisible, and thus destroy as much as possible its very essence. But be who, like (Edipus, is able to solve the enigmas of the sphinx, or, in other words, to comprehend the dark essence of his phantasy, will, by illuminating its obscurity with the light of intellect, cause it, by becoming lucid throughout, to be no longer what it was before.

Hence we may see the propriety of the Egyptians placing a sphinx in the vestibule of the temple of Isis,4 who is the same with Minerva. For what the phantasy is in the microcosm man, that asther is in the universe. But opinion may be called the vestibule of the rational soul, and the rational soul is as it were the temple of that intellectual illumination which proceeds from Minerva. In this vestibule, therefore, the phantasy is seated. And in a similar manner sether is seated in the vestibule of that divine soul, which is suspended from the deity of Minerva, and which may be called her temple* So that sether is the sphinx of the universe.

p. 541

ing all things ; and intellect is useless for the pur¬ poses of action, when it is deprived of the subser¬ viency of hands.