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Porphyry, On abstinence from animal food, book IV, translatedby: Thomas Taylor (online source)

6. Chaeremon the Stoic, therefore, in his narration of the Egyptian priests,who, he says, were considered by the Egyptians as philosophers, informs us,that they chose temples, as the places in which they might philosophize. For

to dwell with the statues of the Gods is a thing allied to the whole desire, bywhich the soul tends to the contemplation of their divinities. And from thedivine veneration indeed, which was paid to them through dwelling intemples, they obtained security, all men honouring these philosophers, as ifthey were certain sacred animals. They also led a solitary life, as they onlymingled with other men in solemn sacrifices and festivals. But at other timesthe priests were almost inaccessible to any one who wished to converse withthem. For it was requisite that he who approached to them should be first

purified, and abstain from many things; and this is as it were a commonsacred law respecting the Egyptian priests. But these [philosophic priests],having relinquished every other employment, and human labours, gave up

the whole of their life to the contemplation and worship of divine naturesand to divine inspiration; through the latter, indeed, procuring forthemselves, honour, security, and piety; but through contemplation, science;and through both, a certain occult exercise of manners, worthy of antiquity.

For to be always conversant with divine knowledge and inspiration,removes those who are so from all avarice, suppresses the passions, andexcites to an intellectual life. But they were studious of frugality in their dietand apparel, and also of continence and endurance, and in all things wereattentive to justice and equity. They likewise were rendered venerable,through rarely mingling with other men. For during the time of what arecalled purifications, they scarcely mingled with their nearest kindred, and

those of their own order, nor were they to be seen by anyone, unless it wasrequisite for the necessary purposes of purification. For the sanctuary wasinaccessible to those who were not purified, and they dwelt in holy places forthe purpose of performing divine works; but at all other times theyassociated more freely with those who lived like themselves. They did not,however, associate with any one who was not a religious character. But theywere always seen near to the Gods, or the statues of the Gods, the latter ofwhich they were beheld either carrying, or preceding in a sacred procession,or disposing in an orderly manner, with modesty and gravity; each of whichoperations was not the effect of pride, but an indication of some physicalreason. Their venerable gravity also was apparent from their manners. For

their walking was orderly, and their aspect sedate; and they were sostudious of preserving this gravity of countenance, that they did not evenwink, when at any time they were unwilling to do so; and they seldomlaughed, and when they did, their laughter proceeded no farther than to asmile. But they always kept their hands within their garments. Each likewisebore about him a symbol indicative of the order which he was allotted insacred concerns; for there were many orders of priests. Their diet also wasslender and simple. For, with respect to wine, some of them did not at alldrink it, but others drank very little of it, on account of its being injurious tothe nerves, oppressive to the head, an impediment to invention, and anincentive to venereal desires. In many other things also they conducted

themselves with caution; neither using bread at all in purifications, and atthose times in which they were not employed in purifying themselves, theywere accustomed to eat bread with hyssop, cut into small pieces. For it is

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said, that hyssop very much purifies the power of bread. But they, for themost part, abstained from oil, the greater number of them entirely; and if atany time they used it with pot-herbs, they took very little of it, and only asmuch as was sufficient to mitigate the taste of the herbs.

7. It was not lawful for them therefore to meddle with the esculent andpotable substances, which were produced out of Egypt, and this contributedmuch to the exclusion of luxury from these priests. But they abstained fromall the fish that was caught in Egypt, and from such quadrupeds as hadsolid, or many-fissured hoofs, and from such as were not horned; andlikewise from all such birds as were carnivorous. Many of them, however,entirely abstained from all animals; and in purifications this abstinence wasadopted by all of them, for then they did not even eat an egg. Moreover, theyalso rejected other things, without being calumniated for so doing. Thus, forinstance, of oxen, they rejected the females, and also such of the males aswere twins, or were speckled, or of a different colour, or alternately variedin their form, or which were now tamed, as having been already consecrated

to labours, and resembled animals that are honoured, or which were theimages of any thing [that is divine], or those that had but one eye, or thosethat verged to a similitude of the human form. There are also innumerableother observations pertaining to the art of those who are calledmosxofragistai, or who stamp calves with a seal, and of which books havebeen composed. But these observations are still more curious respectingbirds; as, for instance, that a turtle should not be eaten; for it is said that ahawk frequently dismisses this bird after he has seized it, and preserves itslife, as a reward for having had connexion with it. The Egyptian priests,therefore, that they might not ignorantly meddle with a turtle of this kind,avoided the whole species of those birds. And these indeed were certain

common religious ceremonies; but there were different ceremonies, whichvaried according to the class of the priests that used them, and were adaptedto the several divinities. But chastity and purifications were common to allthe priests. When also the time arrived in which they were to performsomething pertaining to the sacred rites of religion, they spent some days in

preparatory ceremonies, some indeed forty-two, but others a greater, andothers a less number of days; yet never less than seven days; and during thistime they abstained from all animals, and likewise from all pot-herbs andleguminous substances, and, above all, from a venereal connexion withwomen; for they never at any time had connexion with males. They likewisewashed themselves with cold water thrice every day; viz. when they rose

from their bed, before dinner, and when they betook themselves to sleep. Butif they happened to be polluted in their sleep by the emission of the seed, theyimmediately purified their body in a bath. They also used cold bathing atother times, but not so frequently as on the above occasion. Their bed waswoven from the branches of the palm tree, which they call bais; and theirbolster was a smooth semi-cylindric piece of wood. But they exercisedthemselves in the endurance of hunger and thirst, and were accustomed to

paucity of food through the whole of their life.

8. This also is a testimony of their continence, that, though they neitherexercised themselves in walking or riding, yet they lived free from disease,

and were sufficiently strong for the endurance of modern labours. They boretherefore many burdens in the performance of sacred operations, andaccomplished many ministrant works, which required more than commonstrength. But they divided the night into the observation of the celestial


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bodies, and sometimes devoted a part of it to offices of purification; and theydistributed the day into the worship of the Gods, according to which theycelebrated them with hymns thrice or four times, viz. in the morning andevening, when the sun is at his meridian altitude, and when he is declining tothe west. The rest of their time they devoted to arithmetical and geometricalspeculations, always labouring to effect something, and to make some new

discovery, and, in short, continually exercising their skill. In winter nightsalso they were occupied in the same employments, being vigilantly engagedin literary pursuits, as paying no attention to the acquisition of externals,and being liberated from the servitude of that bad master, excessive expense.

Hence their unwearied and incessant labour testifies their endurance, buttheir continence is manifested by their liberation from the desire of externalgood. To sail from Egypt likewise, [i.e. to quit Egypt,] was considered bythem to be one of the most unholy things, in consequence of their beingcareful to avoid foreign luxury and pursuits; for this appeared to them to bealone lawful to those who were compelled to do so by regal necessities.

Indeed, they were very anxious to continue in the observance of the institutes

of their country, and those who were found to have violated them, thoughbut in a small degree were expelled [from the college of the priests]. The truemethod of philosophizing, likewise, was preserved by the prophets, by thehierostolistae, and the sacred scribes, and also by the horologi, or calculatorsof nativities. But the rest of the priests, and of the pastophori 10, curators oftemples, and ministers of the Gods, were similarly studious of purity, yet notso accurately, and with such great continence, as the priests of whom wehave been speaking. And such are the particulars which are narrated of the

Egyptians, by a man who was a lover of truth, and an accurate writer, andwho among the Stoics strenuously and solidly philosophized.


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