Ennead

Ennead is a term for a group or collection of nine elements. The word comes from the Greek ennea meaning nine. In scholarly and cultural contexts, Ennead is used to designate authoritative nine-member corpora rather than any arbitrary nine.

In Egyptian religion, the most well-known Ennead is the Heliopolitan Ennead, a pantheon associated with creation and kingship. Its nine members typically include Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. In this framework, Atum self-created and produced Shu and Tefnut, who in turn produced Geb and Nut, who begat Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. The Ennead functioned as a cosmogony and genealogical system that underpinned ritual, temple organization, and royal ideology, with Heliopolis as a religious center where these deities were worshipped. Some later traditions vary by placing other figures in related groups, but the canonical Heliopolitan Ennead centers on the nine listed above.

In philosophy, the Enneads refers to the collection of works by the philosopher Plotinus, compiled by his student Porphyry around the late 3rd century CE. The Enneads consist of 54 treatises arranged in six groups of nine, often preceded by an introductory work. They expound a Neoplatonist metaphysical system centered on the One as the source of all reality, with the Nous (Intellect) and the World Soul as subsequent emanations. The Enneads profoundly influenced late antique philosophy and subsequent Christian and Islamic thought.

Beyond these uses, Ennead can denote any ninefold grouping, depending on the context.