20171209

Sat Dec 9 10:20:19 EST 2017 Slept from midnight to nine without waking. Half an inch of snow on the ground, and it's still coming down. High of thirty-two today. Goals: - Buy more paint for Warhammer 40K minis No, but I painted more minis. - Do some Go stuff A bit. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7gkz30/even_the_spartans_didnt_go_to_sleep_at_10pm_is_a/ > The result of the legal requirement to dine with the tent group was that every Spartiate spent every night at a drinking party. The symposion was stereotypically a bawdy affair; it was common to engage in rounds of “bottoms up” drinking to the health of the host, the gods, the musicians and dancers and rhapsodes offering entertainment, or whoever else came to mind. We know of Classical Greek drinking songs and drinking games. We have vase paintings of men throwing up (link NSFW) because they've had too much; such pictures were sometimes humourously painted at the bottom of a wine cup, so that they would appear as the drinker got literally and figuratively “in their cups”. The result of the legal requirement to dine with the tent group was that every Spartiate spent every night at a drinking party. The symposion was stereotypically a bawdy affair; it was common to engage in rounds of “bottoms up” drinking to the health of the host, the gods, the musicians and dancers and rhapsodes offering entertainment, or whoever else came to mind. We know of Classical Greek drinking songs and drinking games. We have vase paintings of men throwing up (link NSFW) because they've had too much; such pictures were sometimes humourously painted at the bottom of a wine cup, so that they would appear as the drinker got literally and figuratively “in their cups”. [...] The Spartans, therefore, decided it would be wise to temper the excesses of their drinking parties. They allegedly taught their children about the dangers of drunkenness by getting their helots trashed and forcing them to perform humiliating dances. They rationed the amount of wine allowed per man on campaign, and at home they banned the practice of drinking rounds to people's health. However, they also put in place a very simple rule: they forbade citizens of military age (20-60) from carrying lamps or torches when they made their way home from their messes. Those who were too wasted would inevitably get lost or fall into a ditch somewhere, to the general merriment of the other members of their tent group. To avoid the humiliation, it was hoped, Spartiates would keep careful track of their consumption to make sure they could still find their way home (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lakedaimonians 5.7). > The Spartans, therefore, decided it would be wise to temper the excesses of their drinking parties. They allegedly taught their children about the dangers of drunkenness by getting their helots trashed and forcing them to perform humiliating dances. They rationed the amount of wine allowed per man on campaign, and at home they banned the practice of drinking rounds to people's health. However, they also put in place a very simple rule: they forbade citizens of military age (20-60) from carrying lamps or torches when they made their way home from their messes. Those who were too wasted would inevitably get lost or fall into a ditch somewhere, to the general merriment of the other members of their tent group. To avoid the humiliation, it was hoped, Spartiates would keep careful track of their consumption to make sure they could still find their way home (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lakedaimonians 5.7). Not a super-productive day. I watched a couple of episodes of Storn gGirl Bong-soon, which is a lot of fun. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-translators-reckoning-with-the-women-of-the-odyssey Lunch: tacos (whole wheat tortilla, pinto beans, cheese, onions, tomato, jalapeno, sriracha), coffee Dinner: pizza

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