Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, ed. William W. Goodwin, 95

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[95]

Question 95.

Why was it ordained that they that were to live chaste should abstain from pulse?

Solution. Did they, like the Pythagoreans, abominate beans for the causes which are alleged, and the lathyrus and erebinthus as being named from Lethe and Erebus? Or was it because they used pulse for the most part in their funeral feasts and invocations of the dead? Or rather was it because they should bring empty and slender bodies to their purifications and expiations? For pulse are windy, and cause a great deal of excrements that require purging off. Or is it because they irritate lechery, by reason of their flatulent and windy nature?

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 95 focus

[95] διὰ τί νενόμισται τοὺς ἁγνεύοντας ὀσπρίων ἀπέχεσθαι;

πότερον, ὡς οἱ Πυθαγορικοὶ, τοὺς μὲν κυάμους ἀφωσιοῦντο διὰ τὰς λεγομένας αἰτίας, τὸν δὲ 286e λάθυρον καὶ τὸν ἐρέβινθον ὡς παρωνύμους τοῦ ἐρέβους καὶ τῆς λήθης;

ἢ ὅτι πρὸς τὰ περίδειπνα καὶ τὰς προκλήσεις τῶν νεκρῶν μάλιστα χρῶνται τοῖς ὀσπρίοις;

ἢ μᾶλλον ὅτι δεῖ πρὸς τὰς ἁγνείας καὶ ἁγιστείας καθαρὰ καὶ λιτὰ τὰ σώματα ἔχειν; ἔστι δὲ τὰ ὄσπρια πνευματώδη καὶ περίττευμα ποιεῖ πολλῆς καθάρσεως δεόμενον.

ἢ ὅτι καὶ πρὸς συνουσίαν παρορμᾷ διὰ τὸ φυσῶδες καὶ πνευματικόν;

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 95 focus

[95] διὰ τί νενόμισται τοὺς ἁγνεύοντας ὀσπρίων ἀπέχεσθαι; πότερον, ὡς οἱ Πυθαγορικοὶ τοὺς μὲν κυάμους ἀφωσιοῦντο διὰ τὰς λεγομένας αἰτίας, τὸν 286e δὲ λάθυρον καὶ τὸν ἐρέβινθον ὡς παρωνύμους τοῦ ἐρέβους καὶ τῆς λήθης· ἢ ὅτι πρὸς τὰ περίδειπνα 5 καὶ τὰς προκλήσεις τῶν νεκρῶν μάλιστα χρῶνται τοῖς ὀσπρίοις; ἢ μᾶλλον ὅτι δεῖ πρὸς τὰς ἁγνείας καὶ ἁγιστείας καθαρὰ καὶ λιτὰ τὰ σώματα ἔχειν; ἔστι δὲ τὰ ὄσπρια πνευματώδη καὶ περίσσευμα ¹ ποιεῖ πολλῆς καθάρσεως δεόμενον. ἢ ὅτι καὶ πρὸς συνουσίαν 10 παρορμᾷ διὰ τὸ φυσῶδες καὶ πνευματικόν;

Translations (1)

The Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 95 focus

[95] Why is it the customary rule that those who are practising holy living must abstain from legumes?¹

Did they, like the followers of Pythagoras,² religiously abstain from beans for the reasons which are commonly offered,³ and from vetch and chickpea, because their names ( lathyros and erebinthos) suggest Lethê and Erebus?

Or is it because they make particular use of legumes for funeral feasts and invocations of the dead?

Or is it rather because one must keep the body clean and light for purposes of holy living and lustration? Now legumes are a flatulent food and produce surplus matter that requires much purgation.

Or is it because the windy and flatulent quality of the food stimulates desire?

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 95

ed. William W. Goodwin

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Question 95.

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers