Abstract

This paper examines some aspects of the place of women in Plotinus’ school, on the basis of Porphyry’s account given in the Life of Plotinus. Firstly, I will recall how Plotinus, who allows equal dignity to all souls, regardless of gender, provides an open teaching equally directed to women and men. Secondly, I will draw attention to the fact that Plotinus never evokes any female deficiency in his discussion of moral weakness. He rather uses examples based on children’s behaviors, as is the case in the ethical treatises of the first Ennead, as well as in the famous episode of the wet nurse described in Plot. 3.