Plutarque
Eating flesh deprives a living being of light and life for a little pleasure; what is astonishing is that anyone ever began.
Life
Writer and priest of Apollo at Delphi (c. 46 - c. 120), born at Chaeronea in Boeotia. He wrote the Parallel Lives and a vast collection of essays, the Moralia, including the discourse On the Eating of Flesh, which wonders how anyone ever began to eat the flesh of animals.
Main works
Biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, paired and compared.
A collection of essays on ethics, religion and daily life.
Two discourses against eating animal flesh.
In his own words
« Why do you falsely accuse the earth of being unable to feed you? »
Τί καταψεύδεσθε τῆς γῆς ὡς τρέφειν μὴ δυναμένης;
« I wonder with what feeling, in what state of mind, the first man touched slaughter with his mouth and brought to his lips the flesh of a dead animal. »
ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἥψατο φόνου στόματι καὶ τεθνηκότος ζῴου χείλεσι προσήψατο σαρκὸς
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceA Platonist priest at Delphi, he believes in a supreme good god and in providence, while the divine remains beyond full understanding.
Plutarque, Sur Isis et Osiris ; Sur les délais de la justice divine (Moralia, v. 100)
His Lives judge people by their character and virtues, and the Moralia teach moral progress by habit.
Plutarque, Vies parallèles ; Comment progresser dans la vertu (Moralia, v. 100)