Plutarch, Bruta animalia ratione uti, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 8

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[8]

GRYLLUS.

Though men are so vile and incontinent where the desires I have spoken of are concerned, they can be proved to be even more so in the case of essential desires, being here far inferior to animals in temperance.¹ These are the desires for food and drink, in which we beasts always take our pleasure along with some sort of utility; whereas you, in your pursuit of pleasure rather than natural nourishment, are punished by many serious ailments which, welling up from one single source, the surfeit of your bodies, fill you with all manner of flatulence that is difficult to purge.² In the first place each species of animal has one single food proper to it, grass or some root or fruit. Those that are carnivorous resort to no other kind of nourishment, nor do they deprive those weaker than themselves of sustenance; but the lion lets the deer, and the wolf lets the sheep, feed in its natural pasture. But man in his pleasures is led astray by gluttony to everything edible³; he tries and tastes everything as if he had not yet come to recognize what is suitable and proper for him; alone of all creatures he is omnivorous.⁴

In the first place his eating of flesh is caused by no lack of means or methods,⁵ for he can always in season harvest and garner and gather in such a succession of plants and grains as will all but tire him out with their abundance; but driven on by luxurious desires and satiety with merely essential nourishment, he pursues illicit food, made unclean by the slaughter of beasts; and he does this in a much more cruel way than the most savage beasts of prey. Blood and gore and raw flesh are the proper diet of kite and wolf and snake; to man they are an appetizer.⁶ Then, too, man makes use of every kind of food and does not, like beasts, abstain from most kinds and consequently make war on a few only that he must have for food. In a word, nothing that flies or swims or moves on land has escaped your so-called civilized and hospitable tables.

Bruta animalia ratione uti. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

Beasts are rational (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold, and Helmbold, William C., translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing))

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ τὰ ἄλογα λόγῳ χρῆσθαι Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 8 focus

[8]

ΓΡ.

οὕτω δὲ φαῦλοι καὶ ἀκρατεῖς περὶ τὰς εἰρημένας ἐπιθυμίας ὄντες ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐν ταῖς ἀναγκαίαις ἐλέγχονται πολὺ τῷ σωφρονεῖν ἀπολειπόμενοι τῶν θηρίων, αὗται δʼ εἰσὶν αἱ περὶ βρῶσιν καὶ πόσιν 991b ὧν ἡμεῖς μὲν τὸ ἡδὺ μετὰ χρείας τινὸς ἀεὶ λαμβάνομεν 25 ὑμεῖς δὲ τὴν ἡδονὴν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν τῆς τροφῆς διώκοντες ὑπὸ πολλῶν καὶ μακρῶν κολάζεσθε νοσημάτων, ἅπερ ἐκ μιᾶς πηγῆς ἐπαντλούμενα τῆς πλησμονῆς τοῖς σώμασι παντοδαπῶν πνευμάτων καὶ δυσκαθάρτων ὑμᾶς ἐμπίπλησι. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἑκάστῳ γένει ζῴου μία τροφὴ σύμφυλός ἐστι, τοῖς μὲν πόα τοῖς δὲ ῥίζα τις ἢ καρπός· ὅσα 5 δὲ σαρκοφαγεῖ, πρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο τρέπεται βορᾶς εἶδος οὐδʼ ἀφαιρεῖται τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων τὴν τροφήν· ἀλλʼ ἐᾷ νέμεσθαι καὶ λέων ἔλαφον καὶ λύκος πρόβατον 991c πέφυκεν. ὁ δʼ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ πάντα ταῖς ἡδοναῖς ὑπὸ λαιμαργίας ἐξαγόμενος καὶ πειρώμενος 10 πάντων καὶ ἀπογευόμενος, ὡς οὐδέπω τὸ πρόσφορον καὶ οἰκεῖον ἐγνωκώς, μόνος γέγονε τῶν ὄντων παμφάγον. καὶ σαρξὶ χρῆται πρῶτον ὑπʼ οὐδεμιᾶς ἀπορίας οὐδʼ ἀμηχανίας, ᾧ πάρεστιν ἀεὶ καθʼ ὥραν ἄλλα ἐπʼ ἄλλοις ἀπὸ φυτῶν καὶ σπερμάτων τρυγῶντι 15 καὶ λαμβάνοντι καὶ δρεπομένῳ μὴ κάμνειν διὰ πλῆθος· ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ τρυφῆς καὶ κόρου τῶν ἀναγκαίων βρώσεις ἀνεπιτηδείους καὶ οὐ καθαρὰς σφαγαῖς ζῴων μετερχόμενος πολὺ τῶν ἀγριωτάτων θηρίων ὠμότερον. αἷμα μὲν γὰρ καὶ φόνος καὶ σάρκες 20 991d ἰκτίνῳ καὶ λύκῳ καὶ δράκοντι σιτίον οἰκεῖον, ἀνθρώπῳ δʼ ὄψον ἐστίν. ἔπειτα παντὶ γένει χρώμενος οὐχ ὡς,· τὰ θηρία τῶν πλείστων ἀπέχεται, ὀλίγοις δὲ πολεμεῖ διὰ τὴν τῆς τροφῆς ἀνάγκην ἀλλʼ οὔτε τι πτηνὸν οὔτε νηκτόν, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, οὔτε χερσαῖον 25 ἐκπέφευγε τὰς ἡμέρους δὴ λεγομένας; ὑμῶν καὶ φιλοξένους τραπέζας.

Translations (1)

That brute beasts make use of reason Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; J., A., Sir, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 8 focus

[8]

GRYLLUS.

Now being thus wicked and incontinent in reference to the aforesaid lustful desires, it is no less easy to be proved that men are more intemperate than beasts, even in those things which are necessary, that is to say, in eating and drinking, the pleasure of which we always enjoy with some benefit to ourselves. But you, pursuing the pleasures of eating and drinking beyond the satisfaction of nature, are punished with many and tedious diseases, which, arising from the single fountain of superfluous gormandizing, fill your bodies with all manner of wind and vapors not easy for purgation to expel. In the first place, all sorts of beasts, according to their kind, feed upon one sort of food, which is proper to their natures; some upon grass, some upon roots, and others upon fruits. They that feed upon flesh never mind any other sort of food. Neither do they rob the weaker animals of their nourishment. But the lion suffers the hart, and the wolf the sheep, to feed upon what Nature has provided for them. But man, such is his voracity, falls upon all, to satisfy the pleasures of his appetite; tries all things, tastes all things; and, as if he were yet to seek what was the most proper diet and most agreeable to his nature, among all the creatures is the only all-devourer. And first he makes use of flesh, not for want, as having the liberty to take his choice of herbs and fruits, the plenty of which is inexhaustible; but out of luxury and being closed with necessaries, he seeks after inconvenient and impure diet, purchased by the slaughter of living creatures; by that means showing himself more cruel than the most savage of wild beasts. For blood, murder, and flesh are proper to nourish the kite, the wolf, and dragon; but to men they are delicious viands. Then making use of all, he does not do like the beasts, which abstain from most creatures and are at enmity only with a few, and that only compelled by the necessities of hunger; but neither fowl nor fish nor any thing that lives upon the land escapes your tables, though they bear the epithets of human and hospitable.

Notes on the current edition

Beasts are rational

1. Cf. Philo, 47 (p. 122).

2. Cf. Mor. 131 f.

3. Cf. 964 f supra; and with the whole passage cf. the impressive proem to the seventh book of Pliny’s Natural History.

4. Man is the only animal liable to the disease of a continuously insatiable appetite. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 283; cf. Philo, 62 (p. 136); Lucan, iv. 373-381; al.

5. Cf. 993 d infra.

6. Cf. 993 d, 995 c infra.

Plutarch Bruta animalia ratione uti 8

Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator)

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GRYLLUS.

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GRYLLUS.

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