Criticism > Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism > Plotinus - E. R. Dodds (essay date 1928)

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E. R. Dodds (essay date 1928)

SOURCE: “The Parmenides of Plato and the Origin of the Neoplatonic ‘One’,” in The Classical Quarterly, Vol. XXII, Nos. 3-4, July-October, 1928, pp. 129-42.

[In the following essay, Dodds traces Plato's influence on the thought of Plotinus.]

expedition to the East with a view to studying the philosophy of Persia and India, but failed to get there; and that on one occasion he accepted the invitation of an Egyptian priest to take part in a spiritualistic seance arranged by the priest at the Iseum in Rome.¹ Add to this the fact that in one passage, dealing with the theory of Beauty,² he expresses his admiration of the Egyptian hieroglyphs; and that (like Plato) he compares philosophy to an initiation into the mysteries—perhaps in his case the Isiac mysteries,³ and perhaps not. Even so might an Englishman, educated and perhaps born in India, take advantage of a...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. E. R. Dodds (essay date 1928)
   2. A. Hilary Armstrong (lecture date 1956)
   3. E. R. Dodds (lecture date 1959)
   4. John M. Rist (essay date 1961)
   5. A. H. Armstrong (essay date 1966)
   6. John M. Rist (essay date 1967)
   7. A. H. Armstrong (lecture date 1979)
   8. A. P. Bos (lecture date 1984)
   9. R. Ferwada (lecture date 1984)
   10. Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson (essay date 1988)
   11. Frederic M. Schroeder (essay date 1992)
   12. Steven K. Strange (essay date 1994)
   13. Georges Leroux (essay date 1996)
   14. Frederic M. Schroeder (essay date 1996)
   15. Th. G. Sinnige (essay date 1999)
   16. Sara Rappe (essay date 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

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