Refuser la nourriture carnée. Végétarisme et pratiques civiques en Grèce ancienne

Must the abstinence from meat be conceived as a rejection of the norm, which is defined by the participation of the citizens to the blood sacrifice and to the following consumption of the flesh, two fundamental civico-religious acts ? The current historiography considers that if civic life structures and recognizes itself through the killing of the animal and its consumption, then the place of the citizens refusing meat consumption can only be marginal. Using all of the literary sources from antiquity (6th cent. B.C.-5th cent. A.D.), this dissertation, far from confirming this analysis, reveals a much more complex situation. The abstinence from meat affirms itself as a marker of identity, clearly showing the normative plurality of the practice, flexible depending on the parties involved and/or excluded. In fact, as all dietary practices, norms are not excluding, and one can conform oneself to it depending on the context in which they are shaped. Thus, vegetarianism does not hinder the duties of the citizens, and does not entail marginality within the city.