Philosopher and poet Empedocles (492 – 432 BC) – to whom we attribute among other things the first conception of the elemental theory of matter (earth, air, fire, water) – was a Pythagorean, and therefore morally opposed to eating or harming animals. He believed animal sacrifice to be a diabolical injustice, even if done in the service of the gods.
In an apocryphal story we hear of him creating an ox out of honey and barley-meal, offering it at an altar instead of a real animal.
“When Empedocles won the horse race at Olympia, being a Pythagorean who abstained from animal food, he distributed to all who came to the gathering beef made of myrrh, incense and aromatics. I am sure that at the race-feast few of those who enjoy feeding their stomachs rather than their noses, stretched a hand to this.”
As we see in the quote above, we also hear of him shaping a bull from valuable aromatics and “slaughtering” his perfume-animal to celebrate having won a horse race in Olympia.
Historical records are hazy, and his win was probably misattributed (some scholars argue that the story actually happend to Empedocles’ grandfather). But, because it’s such a nice story, we’ll accept it as a non-truth-we-wish-was-true.
Image 1: A bull-shaped incense burner (Obsolescence Project)
Image 2: A fetching portrait of our hero, as portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle (Anton Koberger, 1493)
Writing:
Saskia Wilson-Brown
Julianne Lee
for the Institute for Art and Olfaction
