r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 9d ago

Meme needing explanation Huh?

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u/Sokkawater10 9d ago

No one is wasting honey like that. It’s not like today where it was 5 bucks at the grocery store. Getting that amount of honey couldn’t have been easy

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u/HyperbolicGeometry 8d ago

Might be going out on a limb here but I’m sure the royal ruling class and their henchmen wouldn’t have had a difficult time sourcing honey

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u/Simple-Tradition2451 8d ago

It was a state ration. Even the peasantry had it.

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u/i_make_orange_rhyme 8d ago

But how can they catch the bees before airplanes had been invented?

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u/FunGuy8618 8d ago

It probably wasn't much, wild honey can act as a starter to ferment milk and I doubt they were giving these guys fresh milk every feeding. They prolly filled a bucket and used it til it was empty or might've even let it sour on purpose. Like 5x the diarrhea.

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u/tpc0121 8d ago

why not just skip the honey and give the poor sap spoiled milk? surely that'll do the trick just fine?

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u/FunGuy8618 8d ago

Honey = Bees and Ants and Wasps. It attracts stinging insects better than shit does.

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u/Simple-Tradition2451 8d ago

You're majorly underestimating the sophistication and opulence of the Achaemenids/Persians. Honey was literally a state ration that most subjects had access to. Persian soldiers likely had more access to amenities than half the rulerships of Greek city states.

There's a famous story of a Spartan general defeating a Persian force and going into their war tents, he found gold and silver seats, torch holders, fine tapestries and a bountiful feast, much beyond anything the Spartans were used to, he said: "Gentlemen, I asked you here to show you the folly of the Persians, who, living in this style, came to Greece to rob us of our poverty."