Plutarch, De esu carnium II, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 5

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[5] Yet even if the argument of the migration of souls from body to body is not demonstrated to the point of complete belief, there is enough doubt to make us quite cautious and fearful. It is as though in a clash of armies by night¹ you had drawn your sword and were rushing at a man whose fallen body was hidden by his armour and should hear someone remarking that he wasn’t quite sure, but that he thought and believed that the prostrate figure was that of your son or brother or father or tent-mate - which would be the better course: to approve a false suspicion and spare your enemy as a friend, or to disregard an uncertain authority and kill your friend as a foe? The latter course you will declare to be shocking. Consider also Merope² in the play raising her axe against her son himself because she believes him to be that son’s murderer and saying

This blow I give you is more costly yet -

what a stir she rouses in the theatre as she brings them to their feet in terror lest she wound the youth before the old man can stop her! Now suppose one old man stood beside her saying, Hit him! He’s your enemy, and another who said, Don’t strike! He is your son: which would be the greater misdeed, to omit the punishment of an enemy because of the son, or to slay a child under the impulse of anger against an enemy? In a ease, then, where it is not hate or anger or self-defence or fear for ourselves that induces us to murder, but the motive of pleasure, and the victim stands there under our power with its head bent back and one of our philosophers says, Kill it! It’s only a brute beast; but the other says, Stop! What if the soul of some relative or friend has found its way into this body? - Good God! Of course the risk is equal or much the same in the two cases - if I refuse to eat flesh, or if I, disbelieving, kill my child or some other relative!

De esu carnium II. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

On the eating of flesh II (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 σαρκοφαγίας λόγος β′ Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 5 focus

[5] καίτοι τῆς λεγομένης ταῖς ψυχαῖς εἰς σώματα 15 998d παλιμμεταβολῆς εἰ μὴ πίστεως ἄξιον τὸ ἀποδεικνύμενον, ἀλλʼ εὐλαβείας γε μεγάλης καὶ δέους τὸ ἀμφίβολον. οἷον εἴ τις ἐν νυκτομαχίαις στρατοπέδων ἀνδρὶ πεπτωκότι καὶ τὸ σῶμα κρυπτομένῳ τοῖς ὅπλοις ἐπιφέρων ξίφος ἀκούσειέ τινος λέγοντος 20 οὐ πάνυ μὲν εἰδέναι βεβαίως, οἴεσθαι δὲ καὶ δοκεῖν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν κείμενον ἢ ἀδελφὸν ἢ πατέρα ἢ σύσκηνον εἶναι τί βέλτιον, ὑπονοίᾳ προσθέμενον οὐκ ἀληθεῖ προέσθαι τὸν ἐχθρὸν ὡς φίλον, ἢ καταφρονήσαντα τοῦ μὴ βεβαίου πρὸς πίστιν ἀνελεῖν 998e τὸν οἰκεῖον ὡς πολέμιον; ἐκεῖνο δεινὸν φήσετε πάντες. σκόπει δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐν τῇ τραγῳδίᾳ Μερόπην 5 ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτὸν ὡς φονέα τοῦ υἱοῦ πέλεκυν ἀραμένην καὶ λέγουσαν

ὠνητέραν δὴ τήνδʼ ἐγὼ δίδωμί σοι

πληγήν·

ὅσον ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ κίνημα ποιεῖ, συνεξορθιάζουσα 10 φόβῳ, καὶ δέος μὴ φθάσῃ τὸν ἐπιλαμβανόμενον γέροντα καὶ τρώσῃ τὸ μειράκιον. εἰ δʼ ἕτερος γέρων παρεστήκοι λέγων παῖσον, πολέμιός ἐστιν· ἕτερος δὲ μὴ παίσῃς, υἱός ἐστι· πότερον ἀδίκημα μεῖζον, ἐχθροῦ κόλασιν ἐκλιπεῖν διὰ τὸν υἱὸν ἢ τεκνοκτονίᾳ 15 περιπεσεῖν ὑπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἐχθρὸν ὀργῆς; ὁπότε τοίνυν οὐ μῖσός ἐστιν οὐδὲ θυμὸς ὁ πρὸς τὸν φόνον ἐξάγων ἡμᾶς οὐδʼ ἄμυνά τις οὐδὲ φόβος ὑπὲρ αὑτῶν, 998f ἀλλʼ εἰς ἡδονῆς μέρος ἕστηκεν ἱερεῖον ἀνακεκλασμένῳ τραχήλῳ ὑποκείμενον, εἶτα λέγει τῶν 20 φιλοσόφων ὁ μὲν κατάκοψον, ἄλογόν ἐστι τὸ ζῷον. ὁ δὲ ἀνάσχου· τί γὰρ εἰ συγγενοῦς ἢ θεοῦ τινος ἐνταῦθα ψυχὴ κεχώρηκεν; ἴσος γε, ὦ θεοί, καὶ ὅμοιος ὁ κίνδυνος ἕχει, ἂν ἀπειθῶ φαγεῖν κρέας, ἂν ἀπιστῶ φονεῦσαι τέκνον ἢ ἕτερον οἰκεῖον;

Translations (1)

Of eating of flesh: Tract II. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Baxter, William, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 5 focus

[5] And if what is argued about the return of souls into bodies is not of force enough to beget faith, yet methinks the very uncertainty of the thing should fill us with apprehension and fear. Suppose, for instance, one should in some night engagement run on with his drawn sword upon one that had fallen down and covered his body with his arms, and should in the mean time hear one say, that he was not very sure, but that he fancied and believed, that the party lying there was his own son, brother, father, or tent-companion; which were more advisable, think you, — to hearken to a false suggestion, and so to let go an enemy under the notion of a friend, or to slight an authority not sufficient to beget faith, and to slay a friend instead of a foe? This you will all say would be insupportable. Do but consider the famous Merope in the tragedy, who taking up a hatchet, and lifting it at her son’s head, whom she took for her son’s murderer, speaks thus as she was ready to give the fatal blow,

Villain, this pious blow shall cleave thy head;

what a bustle she raises in the whole theatre while she raises herself to give the blow, and what a fear they are all in, lest she should prevent the old man that comes to stop her hand, and should wound the youth. Now if another old man should stand by her and say, Strike, it is thy enemy, and this, Hold, it is thy son; which, think you, would be the greater injustice, to omit the punishing of an enemy for the sake of one’s child, or to suffer one’s self to be so transported with anger at an enemy as to kill one’s child? Since then neither hatred nor wrath nor any revenge nor fear for ourselves carries us to the slaughter of a beast, but the poor sacrifice stands with an inclined neck, only to satisfy thy lust and pleasure, and then one philosopher stands by and tells thee, Cut him down, it is but an unreasonable animal, and another cries, Hold, what if there should be the soul of some kinsman or God inclosed in him — good Gods! is there the like danger if I refuse to eat flesh, as if I for want of faith murder my child or some other friend?

Notes on the current edition

On the eating of flesh II

1. Cf. Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach:

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

2. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 500, frag. 456 from the Cresphontes. Aristotle, Poetics, xiv. 19 (1454 a 5) tells us that all turns out well: Merope recognizes her son before she can kill him; but it was a close thing, as Plutarch implies.

Plutarch De esu carnium II 5

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

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