At the great festival
held annually in honor of Demeter, roast pig was the piece de
resistance in the bill of fare, because the pig was the sacred
animal of Demeter. Aristophanes in 'The Frogs' makes one of the
characters hint that some of the others 'smell of roast pig.'
These people undoubtedly had been at the festival (known as the
Thesmophoria) and had eaten freely of roast pig, Those who took
part in another Greek mystery or festival (known as the
Eleusinia) abstained from certain food, and above all from beans.
"Again, as we all know, mice are esteemed in China and in some
parts of India. But the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews
abhorred mice and would not touch mouse-meat. Rats and field-mice
were sacred in Old Egypt, and were not to be eaten on this
account. So, too, in some parts of Greece, the mouse was the
sacred animal of Apollo, and mice were fed in his temples. The
chosen people were forbidden to eat 'the weasel, and the mouse,
and the tortoise after his kind.' These came under the
designation of unclean animals, which were to be avoided.
"But people have abstained from eating kinds of flesh which could
not be called unclean. For example, the people of Thebes, as
Herodotus tells us, abstained from sheep.
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