“To the regret of myself and many fellow Athenians, modern society has lately been deep in both squander and quandary. Shipwrecked travellers need housing, for example, and doctors are ever undersupplied in leeches. Yet when our leaders sacrifice 122 boatloads of goats, doves and virgins, it’s to pay not for the resolution of these issues, but instead for the upcoming Hellenic Spherical Earth Postal Survey.”