(b Tyre or Bashan [Batanea], c232/3; d Rome, c305). Greco-Syrian Neoplatonic philosopher and scholar. His original name was Malchos (‘king’). He was a pupil of Longinus at Athens and of Plotinus at Rome, and spent much time in Sicily. Eunapius, in his Lives of the Sophists (late 4th century), praised Porphyry for having presented the doctrines of Plotinus in a clearly comprehensible manner. Whereas Plotinus denied the Aristotelian categories, however, Porphyry wrote a commentary on them and added an introduction, which strongly influenced medieval logic through Boethius and others; his ideas became authoritative for the Latin Neoplatonists, including Augustine. Porphyry's central doctrine was the idea of submerging the soul in the Deity through an ecstasy that can be induced by means of magic (theourgia) and asceticism.
Porphyry's treatise Against the Christians (Kata Christianōn), in 15 books, was destroyed under Theodosius II in 448. However, fragments of it quoted by the Church Fathers reveal certain points of agreement with Christianity, especially concerning music. Porphyry may have been the first author to attack secular music for its sensual attraction; his treatise De abstinentia contains a polemic against dance and drama, and the music associated with them, for they deflect man from his true goal. Even though inferior deities (good and evil demons) could be influenced by orgiastic music, the highest deity should be approached only ‘with pure silence and pure thoughts’ (On Abstinence, ii.34).
In his commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics (Eis ta Harmonika Ptolemaiou hypomnēma), Porphyry shows a greater technical knowledge of music (see Ptolemy). The work survives in 70 manuscripts and is quoted in numerous Byzantine scholia in manuscripts of Ptolemy's treatise. (Pappus is no longer considered to be the author of part of this commentary.) It extends only as far as the seventh chapter of the second book of Ptolemy and is uneven in content: there is little on Ptolemy's doctrines of intervals, genera and modes (i.4–15; ii.1–7) but much on the introductory chapters setting out the structure of the work. Porphyry discusses in detail basic principles of harmonic theory (i.1–2), and, above all, acoustics (i.3); he compares sense perception and reason, the criteria by which former theorists had judged consonance. Porphyry assigned Ptolemy to an intermediate position between the Pythagorean and Aristoxenian schools of music theory, since Ptolemy had conceived of reason according to the former and sense perception according to the latter.
According to his Pythagorean point of view, Porphyry adopted the same numerical proportions as the foundation of both rhythm and melody (i.e. successions of pitches). Quantitative differences in the speed of vibrations determine whether a note is high or low; but Porphyry, unlike Ptolemy, went on to claim that these differences of pitch are qualitative (Düring, 1932/R, esp. p.58).
One of the most valuable aspects of Porphyry's commentary derives from his extensive use of earlier specialist treatises on music, some otherwise unknown. He quoted from the Pythagorean Primer of Music of Ptolemaïs of Cyrene, Concerning the Difference between the Pythagorean and Aristoxenian Theories of Music of Didymus, the Compendium of Music of Heraclides, an Interpretation of the Timaeus by Aelian, the Likenesses of Dionysius ‘ho mousikos’, the Mathematics of Archytas, the Music of Theophrastus, and a Sounds (Peri akoustōn) of the school of Aristotle.
A. Nauck, ed.: Porphyrii philosophi Platonici opuscula selecta (Leipzig, 1886/R)
I. Düring, ed.: Porphyrios Kommentar zur Harmonielehre des Ptolemaios (Göteborg, 1932/R)
I. Düring, trans.: Ptolemaios und Porphyrios über die Musik (Göteborg, 1934/R)
A.R. Sodano, ed.: Porphyrii in Platonis Timaeum commentariorum fragmenta (Naples, 1964)
J. Bouffartigue and M. Patillon, eds. and trans.: Porphyre: De l'abstinence (Paris, 1977–9)
A. Barker, ed.: Greek Musical Writings, ii: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory (Cambridge, 1989), 229–44
A. Smith, ed.: Porphyrii fragmenta (Leipzig, 1993)
F. Boll: Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie und Astrologie (Leipzig, 1894); also pubd in Jahrbücher für classische Philologie, suppl.xxi (1894), 66–254
C. Stumpf: ‘Geschichte des Konsonanzbegriffes, I: Die Definition der Konsonanz im Altertum’, Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-philologische Klasse, xxi (1897), 1–78; pubd separately (Munich, 1901)
H. Abert: Die Musikanschauung des Mittelalters und ihre Grundlagen (Halle, 1905/R)
J. Bidez: Vie de Porphyre, le philosophe néo-platonicien (Ghent and Leipzig, 1913/R)
L. Schönberger: Studien zum 1. Buch der Harmonik des Claudius Ptolemäus (Augsburg, 1914)
W. Theiler: Porphyrios und Augustin (Halle, 1933)
O.J. Gombosi: Die Tonarten und Stimmungen der antiken Musik (Copenhagen, 1939/R)
J. Handschin: Der Toncharakter: eine Einführung in die Tonpsychologie (Zürich, 1948/R)
R. Beutler: ‘Porphyrios’, Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, xliii (Stuttgart, 1953), 273–313
L. Richter: Zur Wissenschaftslehre von der Musik bei Platon und Aristoteles (Berlin, 1961)
Porphyre: Vandoeuvres-Geneva 1965, ed. H. Dörrie (Geneva, 1966)
P. Hadot: Porphyre et Victorinus (Paris, 1968)
B. Alexanderson: Textual Remarks on Ptolemy's Harmonica and Porphyry's Commentary (Göteborg, 1969)
J. Flamant: Macrobe: et le néo-platonisme latin, à la fin du IVe siècle (Leiden, 1977)
C. Zintzen, ed.: Die Philosophie des Neuplatonismus (Darmstadt, 1977)
L. Hadot: Arts libéraux et philosophie dans la pensée antique (Paris, 1984)
LUKAS RICHTER