law pertaining to a thing of this kind, because it was _ prohibited by natural law. They are-said, however, on a certain occasion, in which one soul was required for another, to have, for the first time, sacrificed a victim; and this taking place, the whole of the victim was then consumed by fire. But afterwards, when the victim was burnt, a portion of the flesh fell on the earth, which was taken by the priest, who, in so doing, having burnt his fingers, involuntarily moved them to his mouth, as a remedy for the pain which the burning produced. Having, therefore, thus tasted of the roasted flesh, he also desired to eat abundantly of it, and could not refrain from giving some of it to his wife. Pygmalion, however, becoming acquainted with this circumstance, ordered both the priest and his wife to be hurled headlong from a steep rock, and gave the priesthood to another person, who not long after performing the same sacrifice, and eating the flesh of the victim, fell into the same calamities as his predecessor. The thing, however, proceeding still farther, and men using the same kind of sacrifice, and through yielding to desire, not abstaining from, but feeding on flesh, the deed was no longer punished. Nevertheless abstinence from fish continued among the Syrians till the time of Menander: for he says, The Syrians for example take, since these When by intemperance led of fish they eat, Swoln in their belly and their feet become. With sack then cover’d, in the public way They on a dunghill sit, that by their lowly state, The Goddess may, appeas’d, the crime forgive.
/ 16. Among the Persians, indeed, those who are wise in divine concerns, and worship divinity, are called Magi; for this is the signification of Magus, in the Persian tongue. But so great and so venerable are these men thought to be by the Persians, that Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had among other things this engraved on his tomb, that he had been the master of the Magi. They 54 -ON ABSTINENCE FROM are likewise divided into three genera, as we are informed by Eubulus, who wrote the history of Mithra, in a treatise consisting of many books. In this work he says, that the first and most learned class of the Magi neither eat nor slay any thing animated, but adhere to the ancient abstinence from animals. The second class use some animals indeed [for food], but do not slay any that are tame. Nor do those of the third class, similarly with other men, lay their hands on all animals. For the dogma with all of them which ranks as the first is this, that there is a transmigration of souls; and this they also appear to indicate in the mysteries of Mithra. For in these mysteries, obscurely signifying our having some- ~ thing in common with brutes, they are accustomed to call us by the names of different animals. Thus they denominate the males who participate in the same mys- teries lions, but the females lionesses, and those who are ministrant to these rites crows. With respect to their fathers also, they adopt the same mode. For these are denominated by them eagles and hawks. And he wha is initiated in the Leontic mysteries, is invested with all- various forms of animals‘; of which particulars, Pallas, in his treatise concerning Mithra, assigning the cause, says, that it is the common opinion that these things are to be referred to the circle of the zodiac, but that truly and accurately speaking, they obscurely signify something pertaining to human souls, which, according to the Per- 4 Similar to this was the garment with which Apuleius was invested after his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, and which he describes as follows:—“‘ There [#. e. on a wooden throne] I sat conspicuous, in a garment which was indeed linen, but was elegantly painted. A pre- cious cloak also depended from my shoulders behind my back, as far as to my heels. Nevertheless, to whatever part of me you directed your view, you might see that 1 was remarkable by the animals which were painted round my vestment, in various colours. Here were Indian dragons, there Hyperborean griffins, which the other hemisphere gene- rates in the form of a winged animal. Men devoted to the service of divinity, call this cloak the Olympic garment.” — See Book 11. of my translation of the Metamorphosis of Apuleius.
΄ - ες ANIMAL FOOD.—BOOK IY. 154 sians, are invested with bodies of all-various forms.. For the Latins also, says Eubulus, call some men, in their tongue, boars and scorpions, lizards, and blackbirds. After the same manner likewise the Persians denominate the Gods the demiurgic causes of these: for they call Diana a she-wolf; but the sun,a bull,a lion, a dragon, and a hawk; and Hecate, a horse, a bull, a lioness, and a dog. But most theologists say that the name of Proserpine [της ΦερεφατΊης} is derived from nourishing a ringdove, [παρα τὸ φερξειν τὴν Qarlav]: for the ringdove is sacred to this Goddess". Hence, also, the priests of Maia dedicate.
τ Proclus, however, in his Scholia on the Cratylus of Plato, gives & much more theological account of the derivation of the name of Proser- pine, as follows: — “ Socrates now delivers these three vivific monads in a consequent order, viz. Ceres, Juno, Proserpine; calling the first the mother, the second the sister, and the third the daughter of the Demiurgus [Jupiter]. All of them, however, are partakers of the whole of fabrication; the first in an exempt manner, and intellectually; the secon@ in a fontal manner, and, at the same time, in a way adapted to a principle [agysnec]; and the third in. a manner adapted to a principle and a leader [αρχίκως nas πγεμονικως.
Of these Goddesses the last is allotted triple powers, and impartibly and uniformly comprehends three monads of Gods. But she is called Core [og] through the purity of her essence, and her undefiled trans- cendency in her generations. She also possesses a first, middle, and last empire; and according to her summit, indeed, she is called Diana by Orpheus; but, according to her middle, Proserpine; and according to the extremity of the order, Minerva. Likewise, according to an essence transcending the other powers of this triple vivific order, the dominion of Hecate is established; but according to a middle power, and which is generative of wholes, that of soul; and, according to intellectual con- version, that of Virtue ®. Ceres, therefore, subsisting on high, and among the supermundane Gods, uniformly extends this triple order of divinities; and, together with Jupiter, generates Bacchus, who impartibly presides over partible fabrication. But beneath, in conjunction with Pluto, she is particularly beheld according to the middle characteristic: for it is this which, proceeding every where, imparts vivification to the last of * Proclus says this conformably to the theology of the Chaldeans; for, according to that theology, the first monad of the vivific triad is Hecate, the second Soul, and the third Virtue.
156 ON ABSTINENCE FROM to her a ringdove. And Maia is the same with Proser- pine, as being obstetric, and a nurse’. For this God- 4 things. Hence she is called Proserpine, because she especially asso- ciates with Pluto, and, together with bim, distributes in an orderly man- ner the extremities of the universe. And, according to her extremities, indeed, she is said to be a virgin, and to remain undefiled; but, accord- ing to her middle, to be conjoined with Hades, and to beget the Furies in the subterranean regions. She, therefore, is also called Ceres, but after another manner than the supermundane and ruling Ceres. For the one is the connective unity of the three vivific principles; but the other is the middle of them, in herself possessing the peculiarities of the extremes. Hence, in the Proserpine conjoined with Pluto, you will find the peculiarities of Hecate and Minerva; but these extremes subsist in her occultly, while the peculiarity of the middle shines forth, and that which is characteristic of ruling soul, which in the supermundane Ceres was of a ruling® nature, but here subsists according to ἃ mundane pecu- larity.”
Proclus farther observes, “ that Proserpine is denominated either through judging of forms, and separating them from each other, thus obscurely signifying the subversion of slaughter}, (δια τὸ κρίνειν τὰ εἰδη, και χωρίζειν ἀλληλῶν ὡς τοῦ geyou THY avaipEctY αἰμττο μενον) or through separating souls perfectly from bodies, through a conversion to things on high, which is the most fortunate slaughter and death to such as are worthy of it. (ὃ δια τὸ χωριζεῖιν τὰς ψυχας τέλεως ax τῶν σωμάτων δια THE πρὸς τὰ ἀγὼ EMICleopNE, σπερ ἐστιν ευτυχεσήατος φονος καὶ ϑανατος τοῖς ἀξιουμένοις ταυτου.) But the name φερέφαττα, Pherephatta, is adapted to Proserpine, according to a contact with generation; but according to wisdom and counsel, to Minerva. At the same time, however, all the appellations by which she is distin- guished, are adapted to the perfection of soul. On this account, also, she is called Proserpine, and not by the names of the extremes; since that which was ravished by Pluto, is this middle deity; the extremes at the same time being firmly established in themselves; according to which Ceres is said to remain a virgin.
* The first sulsistence of Maia, who, according tu the Orphic theology, is the same with the Goddess Night, is at the summit of the intelligible, * That is, of a supermundane nature; for the ruling are the super- mundane Gods. t Proclas here alludes to the war which subsists among forms through their union with matter, and which Proserpine subverts by separating them from each other.
ANIMAL FOOD.—BOOK Iv. 157 dess is terrestrial, and so likewise is Ceres. To this Goddess, also, a cock is consecrated; and on this account those that are initiated in her mysteries abstain from domestic birds. In the Eleusinian mysteries, likewise, the Initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from fishes and beans, pomegranates and apples; which fruits are as equally defiling to the touch, as a woman re- cently delivered, and a dead body. But whoever is ac- quainted with the nature of divinely-luminous appearances [φασματα,} knows also on what'account it is requisite to abstain from all birds, and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns, and to be established with the celestial Gods. Vice, however, as we have frequently said, is sufficiently able to patronize itself, and especially when it pleads its cause among the ignorant. Hence, among those that are moderately vicious, some think that a dehortation of this kind is vain babbling, and, according to the proverb, the nu- gacity of old women; and others are of opinion that it is superstition. But those who have made greater advances in improbity, are prepared, not only to blaspheme those who exhort to, and demonstrate the propriety of this — abstinence, but calumniate purity itself as enchantment and pride. They, however, suffering the punishment of their sins, both from Gods and men, are, in the first place, sufficiently punished by a disposition [2. 6. by a depravity] of this kind. We shall, therefore, still farther make mention of another foreign nation, renowned and and at the same time intellectual order, and is wholly absorbed in the intelligible. As we are also informed by Proclus (in Cratylum), “ She is the paradigm of Ceres, For immortal Night is the nurse of the Gods [according to Orpheus]. Night, however, is the cause of aliment intel- ligibly: for the intelligible is, as the Chaldean Oracle says, the aliment of the intellectual orders of Gods. But Ceres, first of all, separates the two kinds of aliment [nectar and ambrosia] in the Gods.” He adds, ** Hence our sovereign mistress [%sewove], Ceres, not only generates life, but that which gives perfection to life; and this from supernal natures, to such as are last. For virtue is the perfection of souls.”
158 -. ON ABSTINENCE FROM just, and believed to be pious in divine concerns, and then pass on to other particulars.
17. For the polity of the Indians being distributed into many parts, there is one tribe among them of men divinely wise, whom the Greeks are accustomed to call Gymnosophists‘. But of’ these there are two sects, over one of which the Bramins preside, but over the other the Samaneans. The race of the Bramins, however, receive divine wisdom of this kind by succession, in the same manner as the priesthood. But the Samaneans are elected, and consist of those who wish to possess divine knowledge. And the particulars respecting them are the following, as the Babylonian Bardesanes " narrates, who lived in the times of our fathers, and was familiar with those Indians who, together with Damadamis, werc sent to Cesar. All the Bramins originate from one stock; for all of them are derived from one father and one mother. But the Samaneans are not the offspring of one family, being, as we have said, collected from every nation of Indians.. A Bramin, however, is not a subject ef any government, nor does he contribute any thing together with others to government. And with respect to those that are philosophers, among these some dwell on mountains, and others about the river Ganges. And those that live on mountains feed on autumnal fruits, and en cows’ milk coagulated with herbs. But those that reside near the Ganges, live also on autumnal ‘fruits, which are produced in abundance about that river. The land likewise nearly always bears new fruit, together with much rice, which grows spontaneously, and. which they use when there is a deficiency of autumnal fruits. But to taste of any other nutriment, or, in short, to touch animal food, is considered by them as equivalent to extreme * Concerning the Indian philosophers, see the second book of Dio- dorus Siculus.
" This is the Bardesanes who lived in the time of Marcus Antoninus, and who wrote a treatise on the Lake of Probation in India, which is mentioned by-Porphyry in his fragment ‘De Styge, preserved by Stobetis.
impurity and impiety. And this is one of their dogmas. They also worship divinity with piety and purity. They spend the day, and the greater part of the night, in hymns and prayers to the Gods; each of them having a cottage to himself, and living, as much as possible, alone. — For the Bramins cannot endure to remain with others, nor to speak much; but when this happens to take place, they afterwards withdraw themselves, and do not speak for many days. They likewise frequently fast. But the Samaneans are, as we have said, elected. When, how- ever, any one is desirous of being enrolled in their order, he proceeds to the rulers of the city; but abandons the city or village that he inhabited, and the wealth and all the other property that he possessed. Having likewise the superfluities of his body cut off, he receives a garment, and departs to the Samaneans, but does not return either to his wife or children, if he happens to have any, nor does he pay any attention to them, or think that they at all pertain to him. And, with respect to his children indeed, the king provides what ig/necessary for them, and the relatives provide for the wife. And such is the life of the Samaneans. But they live out of the city, and spend the whole day in conversation pertaining to divinity. They have also houses and temples, built by the king, in which there are stewards, who receive a certain emolument from the king, for the purpose of supplying those that dwell in them with nutriment. But their food consists of rice, bread, autumnal fruits, and pot-herbs. And when they enter into their house, the sound of a bell being the signal of their entrance, those that are not Samanzans depart from it, and the Sama- neans begin immediately to pray. But having prayed, again, on the bell sounding as a signal, the servants give to each Samanean a platter, (for two of them do not eat out of the same dish,) and feed them with rice. And to him who is in want of a variety of food, a pot-herb is added, or some autumnal fruit. But having eaten as much as is requisite, without any delay they proceed to 160. ON ABSTINENCE FROM their accustomed employments. All of them likewise are unmarried, and have no possessions: and so much are both these and the Bramins venerated by the other Indians, that the king also visits them, and requests them to pray to and supplicate the Gods, when any calamity befals the country, or to advise him how to act.
18. But they are so disposed with respect to death, that they unwillingly endure the whole time of the pre- sent life, as a certain servitude to nature, and therefore they hasten to liberate their souls from the bodies [with which they are connected]. Hence frequently, when they are seen to be well, and are neither oppressed, nor driven to desperation by any evil, they depart from life. And though they previously announce to others that it is their intention to commit suicide, yet no one impedes them; but, proclaiming all those to be happy who thus quit the present life, they enjoin certain things to the domestics and kindred of the dead: so stable and true do they, and also the multitude, believe the assertion to be, that souls [in another life] associate with each other. But as soon as those to whom they have proclaimed that this is their intention, have heard the. mandates given to them, they deliver the body to fire, in order that they may separate the soul from the body in the purest manner, and thus they die celebrated by all the Samane- ans. For these men dismiss their dearest friends to death more easily than others part with their fellow-citizens when going the longest journeys. And they lament themselves, indeed, as still continuing in life; but they procldim those that are dead to be blessed, in conse- quence of having now obtained an immortal allotment. Nor is there any sophist, such as there is now amongst _ the Greeks, either among these Samaneans, or the above- mentioned Bramins, who would be seen to doubt and to say, if all men should imitate you [. 6. should imitate those Samanezans who commit suicide], what would become of us? Nor through these are human affairs con- fused. For neither do all men imitate them, and those ANIMAL FOOD.—BOOK IV. 16] who have, may be said to have been rather the causes of équitable legislation, than of confusion to the different hations of men. Moreover, the law did not compel the Samaneans and Bramins to eat animal food, but, per- mitting others to feed on flésh, it suffered these to be a law to themselves, and venerated them as being supe- tior to law. Nor did the law subject these men to the punishment whieh it inflicts, as: Ηἶ they were the primary perpetrators of injustice, but it reserved this for others. Hence, to those who ask, what would be the consequence if all men imitated such characters as these, the saying of Pythagoras must be the answer; that if all men were kings, the passage through life would be difficult, yet regal government is not on this aceount to be avoided. And [we likewise say] that if all men were worthy, no administra- tion of a polity would be found in which the dignity that probity merits would be preserved. Nevertheless, no one would be so insané as not to think that all men should — earnestly endeavour to become worthy characters. Indeed, the law grants to the vulgar many other things [besides a fleshly diet], which, nevertheless, it does not grant to a philosopher, not even to one who conducts the affairs of fovernment in a proper manner. For it does not receive every artist into the administration, though it does not forbid the exercise of any art, nor yet men of every pur- suit. But it excludes those who are occupied in vile and illiberal arts*, and, in short, all those who are destitute of justice and the other virtues, from having any thing to do with the management of public affairs. Thus, likewise, the law does not forbid the vulgar from associating with harlots, on whom at the same time it imposes a fine; but thinks that it is disgraceful and base for men that are moderately good to have any connexion with them. Moreover, the law does not prohibit a man from spending the whole of his life in a tavern, yet at the same time this * Baraven, ὑ. 6. dirty mechanics and bellows-blowers, an appella- ‘ion -by whith Plato in hie Rivals designates the experimentalists.. M 162 ON ABSTINENCE FROM is most disgraceful even to a man of moderate worth. It appears, therefore, that the same thing must also be said with respect to diet. For that which is permitted to the multitude, must not likewise be granted to the best of men. For the man who is a philosopher, should espe- cially ordain for himself those sacred laws -which the Gods, and men who are followers of the Gods, have insti- tuted. But the sacred laws of nations and cities appear to have ordained for sacred men purity, and to have interdicted them animal food. They have also forbidden the multitude to eat certain animals, either from motives - of piety, or on account of some injury which would be imitate priests, or to be obedient to the mandates of all legislators; but, in‘either way, he who is perfectly legal and pious ought to abstain from all animals. For if some who are only partially pious abstain from certain animals, he who is in every respect pious will abstain from all animals.
19. I had almost, however, forgotten to adduce what is said by Euripides, who asserts, that the prophets of Jupiter in Crete abstained from animals. But what is said by the chorus to Minos on this subject, is as follows: Sprung fromy Pheenicia’s royal line, Son of Europa, nymph divine, And mighty Jove, thy envy’d reign O’er Crete extending, whose domain Is with a hundred cities crown’d — I leave yon consecrated ground, Yon fane, whose beams the artist’s toil With cypress, rooted from the soil, Hath fashion’d. In the mystic rites Initiated, life’s best delights I place in chastity alone, Midst Night’s dread orgies wont to rove, The priest of ZagreusY and of Jove; y Zagreus is-an epithet of Bacchus. Wodhull, however, from whose translation of Euripides the above lines are taken, 15 greatly mistaken in ANIMAL FOOD.—BOOK IV. 163 Feasts of crude flesh I now decline, And wave aloof the blazing pine ΄ To Cybele, nor fear to claim Her own Curete’s hallow’d name; Clad in a snowy vest I fly - Far from the throes of pregnancy, - Never amidst the tombs intrude, And slay no animal for food.
20. For holy men were of opinion that purity con- sisted in a thing not being mingled with its contrary, and that mixture is defilement. Hence, they thought that nutriment should be assumed from fruits, and not from dead bodies, and that we should not, by introducing that which is animated to our nature, defile what is administered by nature. But they conceived, that the slaughter of animals, as they are sensitive, and the depriving them of their souls, is a defilement to the living; and that the pollution is much greater, to mingle a body which was once sensitive, but is now deprived of sense, with a sensitive and living being. Hence univer- sally, the purity pertaining to piety consists in rejecting and abstaining from many things, and in an abandonment of such as are of a contrary nature, and the assumption of such as are appropriate and concordant. On this account, venereal connexions are attended with defilement. For in these, a conjunction takes place of the female with the male; and the seed, when retained by the woman, and causing her to be pregnant, defiles the soul, through its - association with the body; but when it does not produce conception, it pollutes, in consequence of becoming a lifeless mass. The connexion also of males with males defiles, because it is an emission of seed as it were into a dead body, and because it is contrary to nature. And, in short, all venery, and emissions of the seed in sleep, saying, that “it is evident from the hymns of Orpheus that Zagreus was & name given to Bacchus at his sacred rites.” For the word Zaygtue (Zagreus) is not to be found either in the hymns of Orpheus, or in any other of the Orphic writings that are extant.
164 ΟΝ ABSTINENCE FROM pollute, because the soul becomes mingled with the body, and is drawn down to pleasure. The passions of the soul likewise defile, through the complication of the irrational and effeminate part with reason, the internal masculine part. For, in a certain respect, defilement and pollution manifest the mixture of things of an heterogeneous nature, and especially when the abstersion of this mixture is attended with difficulty. Whence, also, in tinctures which are produced through mixture, one species being complicated with another, this mixture is denominated a defilement.
As when some woman with a lively red Stains the pure iv’ry says Homer’. And again, painters call the mixtures of colours, corruptions. It is usual, likewise, to denominate that which is unmingled and pure, incorruptible, and te call that which is genuine, uopolluted. For water, when mingled with earth, is corrupted, and is not genuine. But water which is diffluent, and runs with tumultuous rapidity, leaves behind in its course the earth which it cairies in its stream.
When from a limpid and perennial fount It defluous runs.
as Hesiod says*. For such water is salubrious, because it is uncorrupted and unmixed. The female, likewise, that does not receive into herself the exhalation of seed, as said to be uncorrupted. So that the mixture of con- traries is corruption and defilement. For the mixture of dead with living bodies, and the insertion of beings that ‘were once living and sentient into animals, and of dead into living flesh, may be reasonably supposed to intro- duce defilement and stains to our nature; just, again, as the soul is polluted when it is invested with the body. Hence, he who is born, is polluted by the mixture of Tliad, ΓΝ. ν. 141. * Oper, οἱ Dies, 505.
ANIMAL FOOD.—BOOK IV. 165 his soul with body; and he who dies, defiles his body, through leaving it a corpse, different and foreign from that which possesses life. The soul, likewise, is polluted by anger and desire, and the multitude of passtons of which in a certain respect diet is a co-operating cause. But as water which flows through a rock is more uncor- rupted than that which runs through marshes, because it does not bring with it much mud; thus, also, the soul which administers its own affairs in a body that is dry, and is not moistened by the juices of foreign flesh, is in a more excellent condition, is more uncorrupted, and is more prompt for intellectual energy. Thus too, it ts said, that the thyme which is the driest and the sharpest to the taste, affords the best honey to bees. The dianoe- tic, therefore, or discursive power of the soul, is polluted; or rather, he who energizes dianoétically, when ts energy is mingled with the energies of either the imagi- native or doxastic power. But purification consists in a separation from all these, and the wisdom which is adapted to divine concerns, is a desertion of every thing, of this kind. The proper nutriment, likewise, of each. thing, is that which essentially preserves it. Thus you. may say, that the nutriment of a stone is the cause of its: continuing to be a stone, and of firmly remaining in a.
lapideous form; but the nutriment of a plant 15. that.