A brief history of the hangover and its remedies—from cabbages to cloves and the lungs of a goat
Anyone who has ever woken up with a hangover will recognize its physical and psychological effects: headache, nausea, self-loathing, regret and perhaps even some shame at the uninhibited behavior that accompanied the intoxication.
In these days of smartphones, any shame experienced by the foggy memory of drunken behavior the night before is invariably worse when there is photographic evidence online forever for all to see and judge. The old adage that the best thing for a hangover is not drinking too much alcohol the night before is of little help to the afflicted.
Drinking to excess has a long cultural pedigree. In Plato's Symposium (circa 385–370 BC), which documents a drinking party where guests debate the nature of love, the disruptive drunkenness of the gatecrasher Alcibiades contrasts with Socrates' capacity to drink to excess while staying sober and avoiding a hangover.
Worshippers of the Greek god of wine Dionysus, meanwhile, advocated intoxication as a means of reaching a state of transcendence. For example, in an ancient Greek collection of hymns addressed to various gods and attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus, Orphic Hymn 29 calls upon Dionysus to "give me in blameless plenty to rejoice."
The Greeks and the Romans believed that it was dangerous and barbaric to drink wine undiluted. The ancient historian Herodotus wrote that Cleomenes I, the king of Sparta, went mad from drinking undiluted wine with Scythians—the much-feared and reputedly savage nomadic warrior tribes that originally hailed from ancient Siberia.
