Tag: customs

  • Tales From Herodotus XX. The Power of Custom

    Posted on

    by

    An Aghori sadhu of India, drinks from a skull cup.

    Translated from Tales From Herodotus.

    Every single person believes that their customs are by far the most noble. And it is possible to surmise this by many other proofs, but particularly by the following.

    Darius, when he was king, called some Hellenes, and asked for how much wealth they would be willing to eat their fathers after they died; and they said they would not do this thing for anything. After that, Darius called those of the Indians called the Callatiae, who did eat their parents, and he asked (in the presence of the Hellenes who understood what they said through an interpreter) what wealth would they accept to burn their fathers by fire after they met their end; and they shouted loudly, demanding that he say nothing so ill omened.