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Why was it forbidden to priests that had any
sore upon their bodies to sit and watch for birds of
omen?
Is this also a symbolic indication that those who
deal with matters divine should be in no way suffering from any smart, and should not, as it were, have
any sore or affection in their souls, but should be untroubled, unscathed, and undistracted?
Or is it only logical, if no one would use for sacrifice a victim afflicted with a sore, or use such birds
for augury, that they should be still more on their
guard against such things in their own case, and be
pure, unhurt, and sound when they advance to interpret signs from the gods?1 For a sore seems to
be a sort of mutilation or pollution of the body.
1 Cf. Moralia, 383 b; Leviticus, xxii. 17-21.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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