Sounds like the degraded mindset of today a little bit doesnt it? Arent we chastised by those who judge themselves by comparison to us, as being involved in great harm and wrongdoings, and so need to vindicate themselves by trying to prove us as being in the wrong? Pythagoreans were despised as subversives, with many keeping their vegetarianism to themselves for fear of persecution. --------------- In the Greek tradition of Pythagoras, it was not only the avoidance of animal cruelty that established vegetarianism as a way of life, he also saw the health advantages a meat-free diet. Pythagoras viewed vegetarianism as a key factor in peaceful human co-existence, putting forward the view that slaughtering animals brutalised the human soul. Other notable Ancient Greek thinkers that came after Pythagoras favoured a vegetarian diet. These included Theophrastus, pupil of Aristotle and successor to him as head of the Lyceum at Athens. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all debated the status of animals though Aristotles conclusion that the animal kingdom exists for human use (and in his view, as equal to slaves) prefigured the the view of the Romans and the christian church that was to become the dominant view in the west. Pythagorean ideals found very limited sympathy within the brutality of Ancient Rome, where many wild animals were murdered at the hands of gladiators in the name of sport and spectacle. Pythagoreans were despised as subversives, with many keeping their vegetarianism to themselves for fear of persecution. However, the term Pythagorean was to become synonymous with vegetarian and vegetarianism was to spread throughout the Roman Empire from the 3rd to 6th centuries among those influenced by Neo-Platonist philosophy. Such authors included Plutarch (c.CE46) whose 16 volume work Moralia includes the Essay on Flesh Eating , Porphyry (c.CE232) who wrote On Abstinence From Animal Food and Apollonius who was a well travelled healer and strict vegetarian who spoke out against deliberately imposed grain restrictions. https://vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=830
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:36:50 +0000
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