Organization and Content
Porphyry edited the writings of Plotinus in fifty-four treatises, which greatly vary in length and number of chapters, mostly because he split some original texts and joined others together to match this very number. Then he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine (Greek. ennea) or Enneads. He also collected The Enneads into three volumes. The first volume contained the three firsts Enneads (I, II, III); the second the Fourth (IV) and the Fifth (V) Enneads; and the remaining volume was devoted to the Sixth (VI) and last. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, Life of Plotinus, intended to be an Introduction to the Enneads.
Porphyry's edition does not follow the chronological order in which Enneads were written (see Chronological Listing below), but responds to a plan of study which leads the learner from subjects related to his own affairs to subjects concerning the uttermost principles of the universe.
Although not exclusively, Porphyry tells us (Cf. Life of Plotinus, chapters.24-26) that the First Ennead deals with Human or ethical topics; the Second and Third Enneads are mostly devoted to cosmological subjects or physical reality; The Fourth concerns about Soul; the Fifth to knowledge and intelligible reality; and finally the Sixth has for topics Being and what is above it, the One or first principle of all.
Read more about this topic: Enneads
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