E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Eat not the Brain.
This is the 31st Symbol in the Protreptics of Iamblichus; and the prohibition is very similar to that of Moses forbidding the Jews to eat the blood, because the blood is the life. The brain is the seat of reason and the ruler of the body. It was also esteemed the Divine part—at least, of man.
