Pentalogy

A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- penta-, "five" and -λογία -logia, "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts.

The most famous pentalogy in medieval literature is Nizami Ganjavi's Panj Ganj, or Khamsa ("Five Treasures"), a collection of five epics which was composed in the latter half of the 12th century.

In an attempt to subvert the normal linear structure, Durrell explicitly specified it as a quincunx and related it to the Gnostical interpretations.

The best-known discussion of this shape in English literature is Thomas Browne's essay The Garden of Cyrus, which relies on Pythagorean traditions, but Durrell goes much further afield, relating it to Angkor Wat and the Kundalini.

In an interview, Durrell agreed with James P. Carley that "Christianity as we know it is a quaternity with a suppressed fourth" and a critic describes his ambition as being that of "achieving the 'quintessence', that is in its combination of Eastern spirituality and Western science leading to the global vision of 'Reality Prime'.