[73a]
and the mortal kind, while still incomplete, come straightway to a complete end,—foreseeing this, the Gods set the “abdomen,”1 as it is called, to serve as a receptacle for the holding of the superfluous meat and drink; and round about therein they coiled the structure of the entrails, to prevent the food from passing through quickly and thereby compelling the body to require more food quickly, and causing insatiate appetite, whereby the whole kind by reason of its gluttony would be rendered devoid of philosophy and of culture, and disobedient to the most divine part we possess.As regards the bones and the flesh and all such substances
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1 Literally “the lower belly,” as distinct from “the upper belly” or thorax.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
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