January 12 - Song For Cleomenes

oh, I love the riff for this, the slow descending chaotic catastrophic roll of guitar with spoken words over the top.

And what words. Easy to listen to, steady in pace, but setting a scene of impending pain and disaster.

John's love for the vast period we think of as classical antiquity means that he finds nasty and delightful stories of tyrants and burning boats and pain without reason but with explanation.

John's simple trick for grounding yourself in mindsets beyond your experience is a tremendous one and one that honestly could be used in countless current situations along with classical antiquity: Imagine it's you.

The one thing it took some reading to discover was who Cleomenes was. I'm passingly familiar with the Spartan kings, but couldn't place a Cleomenes in Sivily in this period. Thankfully Mountain Goats fans are (said with love and compliment and hopefully siblinghood) nerds. And so the reading and the investigation had been done for me, that Cleomenes is mentioned in Cicero as the husband of one of the women Verres took advantage of. You can find the lyrics and letter here: https://themountaingoats.net/misc/cleomenes.html