Book 6
782
Ath. The custom of men sacrificing one another is, in fact, one that survives even now among many peoples; whereas amongst others we hear of how the opposite custom existed, when they were forbidden so much as to eat an ox, and their offerings to the gods consisted, not of animals, but of cakes of meal and grain steeped in honey, and other such bloodless sacrifices, and from flesh they abstained as though it were unholy to eat it or to stain with blood the altars of the gods; instead of that, those of us men who then existed lived what is called an Orphic life, keeping wholly to inanimate food and, contrariwise, abstaining wholly from things animate.
782
Clin. Certainly what you say is widely reported and easy to credit.
782
Ath. Someone might ask us— For what purpose have you now said all this?
782
Clin. A correct surmise, Stranger.
782
Ath. So I will try, if I can, Clinias, to explain the subject which comes next in order.
782
Clin. Say on.
782
Ath. I observe that with men all things depend on a threefold need and desire, wherein if they proceed rightly, the result is goodness, if badly, the opposite. Of these desires they possess those for food and drink as soon as they are born; and about the whole sphere of food every creature has an instinctive lust, and is full of craving, and quite deaf to any suggestion that they ought to do anything else than satisfy their tastes and desires for all such objects, and thus rid themselves entirely of all pain.
