The mythic past According to Graeco-Roman Utopian views, animal sacrifice had not always taken place. Theophrastus’ theory about the origin and development of Greek sacrifice was influential. Theophrastus was the leader of the Peripatetic school after Aristotle (372–328 BCE ), but Dirk Obbink stresses that like “many pagan philosophers critical of traditional religion, Theophrastus gained abiding credibility in later antiquity” (Obbink 1988: 273). According to Theophrastus, culture and sacrifice developed from simple to increasingly complex and diverse forms, and at the same time their development was part of a process of degeneration. Following Theophrastus closely, Porphyry argued that animal sacrifices were not as ancient as vegetable sacrifices, and he urged people to return to these orig- inal cultic practices ( On Abstinence , 2.27–32). In accordance with Theophrastus, he lists the evolution of sacrifices from offerings of greenstuff, leaves and roots, via grains to cakes, and finally to animals. Like Theophrastus, Porphyry describes the sacrifice of animals as originally caused by famine or other misfortune ( ibid ., 2.9.1, 2.12.1). Thus offerings of animals did not constitute the original type of sacrifice (2.5–9, 2.12ff; cf. Pliny, Natural History , 18.7) but were the event that ended the Golden Age. In accordance with this view, the first offering of an animal was seen as starting a movement downwards.