Whatever should I do?
To understand how societies evolve,read the problem pages
FOR more than 1,000 years the Oracle at Delphi offered advice to all who asked for it. More than 500 snippets of oracular wisdom have survived. Some sound just like a modern agony aunt, if you ignore the animal sacrifice and the priestess’s mystic trance. The aphorisms inscribed outside the shrine were “know thyself” and “nothing in excess”.
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “Whatever should I do?”
From the December 19th 2015 edition
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