Musonius Rufus, Lectures 18.3

Furthermore, as man of all creatures on earth is the nearest of kin to the gods, so he should be nourished in a manner most like the gods. 

 
Now the vapors rising from the earth and water are sufficient for them, and so, he said, we ought to be nourished on food most like that, the lightest and purest; for thus our souls would be pure and dry, and being so, would be finest and wisest, as it seemed to Heraclitus when he said, "The clear dry soul is wisest and best." 
 
But now, he said, we feed ourselves much worse than the unreasoning brutes. For even if they, driven by appetite as by a lash, fall upon their food, nevertheless they are not guilty of making a fuss about their food and exercising ingenuity about it, but they are satisfied with what comes their way, seeking satiety only, nothing more. 
 
But we contrive all kinds of arts and devices to give relish to eating and to make more enticing the act of swallowing. 
 
We might not wish to believe in the gods if it doesn’t suit us, and yet our foods should still be light and pure, exactly the way our souls ought to be. 
 
Again, look beyond the different symbolism of ambrosia, or the rising vapors, or the clear and dry soul described by Heraclitus, to consider how Musonius is pointing at what can best elevate our human nature. 
 
A thing becomes more perfect and complete by possessing a greater self-sufficiency, less bound to what is below it, and therefore more attuned to what is above it. Just as the mind and the will of a man are weighed down by a dependence upon externals, so too the body of a man is made heavy by gluttony and luxury, both literally and figuratively. 
 
I might assume that this will make my life quite unpleasant, but that is only because I am failing to understand the proper relationship of action and pleasure. It won’t be the best for me because it is at first the most pleasing, but rather it will become the most pleasing because it is the already the best. I will only find wallowing in base things gratifying when I have not yet tasted of genuine merit. 
 
It is quite natural for an animal to immediately gorge itself on whatever is put before it, since it is a creature ruled by instinct alone. Yet I have the power of judgment, and as such it is hardly right for me to consume thoughtlessly, and it is even worse for me to treat my food as something to gratify my senses alone, however refined I may think them to be. 
 
The beast will stop when his belly is full, but a man will be tempted to make an elaborate affair of his eating and drinking, not feeding to make himself healthy and strong, but feasting merely in order to tickle his fancies. The man will only stop when his lusts are satisfied, which means, of course, barring pauses to catch his breath, that he won’t really stop at all. 

Written in 5/2000

IMAGE: Jan Bruegel/Hendrick van Balen, The Feast of the Gods (The Wedding of Thetis and Perseus) (c. 1618)