Heir to the Last of the Greeks

The below biography of Porphyry is wrested, like the juice from an orange, from an essay on Greek Oracles by Frederic William Henry Myers. His object was to show how the history of Delphi parallels the history of Hellenic culture, but it is surprising that the end of each is punctuated by a single person, and so the biography of the nation includes the biography of the man.

I felt that it was worth transcribing and excerpting, not only for its literary merit but also for the sketch it draws of a fascinating person. It is, of course, impossible—given the gulf of years—to know whether such a sketch is in any way accurate, but the archetypal story it tells is one worth knowing, I think. ( Read more... )