About the Planting of Noah (164-165)

For one may almost say that no bad man can really perform sacrifices, not even if he were to bring the altar ten thousand oxen every day without intermission; for his most important and indispensable offering, namely his mind, is polluted. And it is impious for

polluted things to come near to the altar.

This, now, is the second point of view in which this question may be regarded, by which we have shown that it is not inconsistent with the character of the wise man to get drunk.

There is a third way of looking at this subject, which depends chiefly on the exceeding plausibility of an argument derived from etymology. For some persons think that drunkenness derives its name not merely from the fact of its being admitted after sacrifice, but also because it is the cause of relaxation (μέθεσις) to the soul.