Sunday, August 13, 2023

Pythagoras: sinfulness of eating beans


Cicero related a theory that beans had been forbidden because they disturbed the mind, but also indicated some skepticism:

Now Plato’s advice to us is to set out for the land of dreams with bodies so prepared that no error or confusion may assail the soul. For this reason, it is thought, the Pythagoreans were forbidden to indulge in beans; for that food produces great flatulence and induces a condition at war with a soul in search of truth.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (c. 44 BCE). On Divination 1.62. Translated by William Armistead Falconer (1923). Perseus Digital Library.

 https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/43992/pythagoras-sinfulness-of-eating-beans

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