In the last seventeen years of his life, Plotinus wrote a massive six-part treatise in Greek called The Enneads that repackaged the Greek genius Pythagoras for a whole new audience. In a passage that acknowledges the entire Odyssey as a parable of spiritual liberation, and specifically describes the Greek of Odysseus’s escape from Circe’s island as full of “hidden meaning,” Plotinus compares our journey through life (and the afterlife) to that of Homer’s main character. The real adventure, however, lies within. Our focus should be directed inward. “We must not look, but must, as it were, close
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