#Herodotus #religion #sacrifice "The poor people, because they cannot afford to sacrifice real pigs, bake cakes molded in the shape of pigs & sacrifice these instead."

— Herodotus

#Herodotus #Patriarchy #Rape #Abuse #ViolenceAgainstWomen

"It is the way of people to have no concern for abducted women; it is quite obvious that women would not have been abducted if they had not been compliant."

— Herodotus

I never knew that the unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service, the thing about "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night", actually comes from #Herodotus! He was describing the Persians' system of couriers, which he thought was the best in the world.

Here's an interesting thing from #Herodotus. Right at the beginning of Book 4, he describes how the Scythians get mare's milk to drink: "They have blow-pipes made out of bones [...] and while one person inserts one of these pipes into the vagina of a mare a blows into it, someone else is doing the milking. They say that the effect of this is that the mare's veins are pumped up and the udder descends."

Sounds kind of like one of the implausible tall tales of foreigners' practices that Herodotus loves telling. But I was *also* just rereading James Herriot, who has a story about a farmer with a pig whose milk won't let down for a new litter. There's a snow storm, and Herriot can't make it to the farm, so he advises the farmer by phone to insert his hand into the sow's uterus and manipulate it to stimulate milk production. It works, and the litter is saved, to the farmer's young daughter's delight.

#Herodotus: "The Egyptians have a story to explain why although pigs are taboo at all other festivals, they are sacrificed on this one occasion; but although I know it, it is an inappropriate tale to tell."

Also Herodotus, one paragraph earlier: "A remarkable thing happened in this province in my time: a goat mated with a woman, for all to see. This happened in public view."

What could the guy who's happy to tell you about the goatfucker he saw possibly consider to be too inappropriate to tell?

Reading #Herodotus, just finished the bit in Book 1 where he describes how Tomyris defeated Cyrus. According to him, Tomyris was queen of the Massagetae, not the Scythians. The two peoples were related but not the same. #Civ6 lied to me!

"But some say a man ain't happy unless a man truly dies."
- #Prince

"Call no man happy till he dies."
- Solon, via #Herodotus

Yes you weren't expecting a #classics and #classicPop mashup this Monday but sometimes life is unexpected.

#ancientGreece

My historical interests include #PlinyTheYounger, #Tacitus, #RomanHistory, #Classics, #Herodotus, #AmericanCivilWar, #Reconstruction, #UlyssesSGrant, #WWI, #WWII, #DwightDEisenhower, #MilitaryHistory, #MedicalHistory, #Memory, #Propaganda, #Memoirs, #Epistolography

#OTD in 1918, WW I came to an end, and the Spanish Flu was raging. How much has changed in 104 years, and how little.

The war in #Ukraine is on my mind, and this thought from #Herodotus: "No one is so foolish as to prefer #war over #peace, in which, instead of children burying parents, parents bury children."

How much has changed in two and a half millennia. And how little.

#ancient #wisdom #AncientWisdom #OnThisDay #Україна