Pousanius - The Importance of a Different Culture

Pausanius hired a messenger to take a letter to xerxes, but the messenger instead took the letter to the spartan authorities. They had never heard such contempt for their ways spoken so brazenly by one of their own and they made arrangements for his immediate arrest. Unwilling to forcibly remove him from the sacred temple, the authorities kept him trapped inside until he eventually died of starvation. Many of us, like pousanius, feel the siren call of the exotic, the foreign. Measure and moderate this desire. Cultures have norms that reflect centuries of shared beliefs and ideals. Do not expect to scoff at such things with impunity. You will be punished somehow