Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry divided virtues in four categories in his work Sententiae. Political virtues, kathartikes (cleansing) virtues, mental virtues, paradigmatic virtues. The political virtues set boundaries to the passions of the soul. The cleansing virtues help the removal of those passions. The mental virtues help to the removal of the passions which do not think of the mental energy. The paradigmatic virtues help to the removal of the essense of the passions of the mind(?), here the ancient text is missing. The human who practices the kathartikes virtues is becoming a daemon or a agathos daemon, a good daemon, something like the guardian angel of the christianity. The one who will obtain the mental virtues becomes a god. Let's see the kathartic virtues of Porphyrios.

Sententiae 100-130

"First of all the foundantion and the base of katharsis (=cleansing) is the motto "know thyself". A soul connected with a foreign thing to her and with a different matter form her." He means the body. The man should concentrate to different places from his body, in order to be in a situation of apathy concerning the body. The man should not accept the pains or he should take them with as less lamentation as it gets. Anger should be removed or be less and less as a feeling. In any way, we should not combine anger with our choices or our decisions. Fear should also be removed, because the cleansed man has nothing to be afraid of. Desires should also be removed, desires for bad things, like special food, drinks, desires of the body. Our thoughts should be based in logic. As the proccess continues every collision on the way should be overcomed by the power of logic. In front of logic any impure element will go back and disappear.