Pythagoras: Beans contained spirits of the dead
Pythagoras — if we are to presume he was a real man who existed, which for these purposes, let’s presume he was real & existed… Well, I recently came across the notion that Pythagoras prohibited eating beans! Apparently he believed real souls were contained in them — or something about the souls of the underworld being inside the bean — I’m not fully sure… Here’s what Aristotle said about it (if we presume Aristotle was real too)… According to Aristotle, Pythagoras counseled abstinence from beans either because they are like the genitals, or because they are like the gates of Hades . . . as being alone unjointed, or because they are injurious, or because they are like the form of the universe, or because they belong to oligarchy, since they are used in election by lot.” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, R.D. Hicks, Ed. Just found this interesting and wanted to share & see if anyone has any thoughts to add!