Food making lawful eating and the first necessities

Use in the book

The first necessary knowledge is introduced through a story of moving away from mutual eating and toward lawful food (975a). The story is explicitly marked “as the story has it.” It describes a civilizing benefit before the speech turns to the limits of the resulting expertise. The Athenian's blessing on the predecessors likewise keeps the rejection from being simple abuse of those who made human subsistence possible.

The central concession is clear despite the textual difficulty nearby: making meal and flour, with nourishment, is fine and good, but will never produce a man completely wise (975b). Fine and good production and completed wisdom are not synonymous. The word “completely” matters: the target is the outcome specified by the larger inquiry, not whether the producer can competently make food.

The following explanation is obscure. The name of “making” is said to produce distaste for the things made. The edition proposes that naming the activity as a trade may lower the products' standing, but explicitly labels this an interpretation. A lexicon should not turn that tentative social explanation into an established etymology or a clear philosophical deduction from the noun poiēsis. The nearby corrupt farewell to the first men is likewise not a secure basis for identifying a named inventor or cult figure.

Nourishment returns when Heaven provides the seasons and sustenance for all (977b) and when measured winds and rains allow fruits and a pregnant earth to nourish living beings (979a). Food is not removed from the account of good life; its production is placed inside a larger cosmic order. At the ending the educational way itself is called nourishment (992a), so the same family can concern bodily maintenance and the formation of the learner without making food production the wisdom sought.

Places to read

1. 975aτῆς ἀλληλοφαγίας — Mutual eating is the condition from which the story describes a departure
2. 975aὡς ὁ μῦθός ἐστιν — The report is explicitly framed as a story
3. 975aεἰς τὴν νόμιμον ἐδωδήν — The alternative is lawful eating
4. 975bἡ … ἀλφίτων τε καὶ ἀλεύρων ποίησις — The named products are meal and flour
5. 975bτροφὴ καλὴ μὲν καὶ ἀγαθή — Nourishment receives a positive concession
6. 975bσοφὸν δὲ ἄνδρα τελέως — The denied outcome is a completely wise man
7. 979aτροφὴν πᾶσι τοῖς ζῴοις — Nourishment later belongs to the benefits of measured celestial order

Translation in this edition

The dagger at 975b belongs to the corrupt preceding farewell; the explanatory note does not claim to repair it. “Making” translates poiēsis literally, and the interpretation of the following distaste clause is marked as doubtful. The note's parallel in Laws 6 is background supplied by the edition, not an additional spoken occurrence in Epinomis.

Necessary food product — ἄλφιτον (alphiton)

ἄλφιτον (alphiton)

Necessary food product. Barley-meal is paired with wheat-flour as a fine and good product whose making nevertheless does not make the producer completely wise. Attested: ἀλφίτων (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Obscure devaluation of making — δυσχέρεια (dyschereia)

δυσχέρεια (dyschereia)

Obscure devaluation of making. The distaste supposedly produced by the name of making in the food-production passage. Its precise explanation is not secured by the text. Attested: δυσχέρειαν (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Lawful subsistence — ἐδωδή (edōdē)

ἐδωδή (edōdē)

Lawful subsistence. Eating is the regulated activity established by the story of human departure from mutual consumption. Attested: ἐδωδὴν (975a). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Good nourishment — καλός (kalos)

καλός (kalos)

Good nourishment. The adjective praises nourishment together with good, preserving the concession before the exclusion from wisdom. Attested: καλὴ (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Beneficial nourishment — ἀγαθός (agathos)

ἀγαθός (agathos)

Beneficial nourishment. Nourishment is fine and good, though its making cannot by itself produce a completely wise person. Attested: ἀγαθή (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Blessing on predecessors — ἵλεως (hileōs)

ἵλεως (hileōs)

Blessing on predecessors. The Athenian wishes the predecessors gracious and says they are so before dismissing their achievements as insufficient for wisdom. Attested: ἵλεῳ (975a). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Regulated eating — νόμιμος (nomimos)

νόμιμος (nomimos)

Regulated eating. The adjective qualifies the eating to which the first food-related achievement directed humans, opposing it to mutual eating. Attested: νόμιμον (975a). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Food production and its name — ποίησις (poiēsis)

ποίησις (poiēsis)

Food production and its name. Making meal and flour is praised as good, while the obscure following clause says the name of making causes distaste for what is made. A trade-status explanation remains interpretation. Attested: ποίησις (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Pre-civilized food story — ἀλληλοφαγία (allēlophagia)

ἀλληλοφαγία (allēlophagia)

Pre-civilized food story. The eating of one another among living beings from which the first food-producing knowledge is said, according to the story, to have drawn humans away. Attested: ἀλληλοφαγίας (975a). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

The name making — ἐπίκλησις (epiklēsis)

ἐπίκλησις (epiklēsis)

The name making. The name of making is said to bring distaste for what is made in the obscure food-production clause. A social explanation through trade status remains interpretation. Attested: ἐπίκλησις (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Bodily provision — τροφή (trophē)

τροφή (trophē)

Bodily provision. Nourishment accompanying meal and flour is explicitly fine and good, though its provision does not produce complete wisdom. Attested: τροφὴ (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Production of a wise person — ἀπεργάζεσθαι (apergazesthai)

ἀπεργάζεσθαι (apergazesthai)

Production of a wise person. Food-making will not produce a completely wise man, although its nourishment is fine and good; the object of this producing is the person’s achieved condition. Attested: ἀπεργάσασθαι (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Reported subsistence story — μῦθος (mythos)

μῦθος (mythos)

Reported subsistence story. The qualification introducing the claim that a first expertise ended some forms of mutual eating and established lawful eating. Attested: μῦθός (975a). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Necessary food product — ἄλευρον (aleuron)

ἄλευρον (aleuron)

Necessary food product. Wheat-flour is the second named staple product, acknowledging bodily benefit without identifying its producer’s craft with complete wisdom. Attested: ἀλεύρων (975b). Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

As the story has it (contextual phrase)

ὡς ὁ μῦθός ἐστιν (975a)

This parenthetic qualification marks the account of food knowledge moving humans away from mutual eating. It tells the reader the status of the civilizing narrative. It is not a documentary claim about an identified prehistoric event, nor does its use make every subsequent sentence merely fictional. Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.

Fine and good but not completely wise (contextual phrase)

καλὴ μὲν καὶ ἀγαθή, σοφὸν δὲ ἄνδρα τελέως (975b)

The extract shows the μέν–δέ contrast between nourishment’s conceded goodness and the denied result of its making: a completely wise man. The following negative supplies the denial. Because the contrast concerns different objects and predicates, there is no contradiction in valuing food production while withholding the ultimate intellectual title. Food making lawful eating and the first necessities.