Herodotus and Relativism

I recently came across this interesting story by Herodotus and a corresponding comment by Mary Midgley (philosopher) in her book "Can't We Make Moral Judgements?" that I thought readers of this blog may enjoy.

Darius the Great, King of Persia "summoned the Greeks (who cremated their dead) who were with him and asked them for what price they would eat their fathers' dead bodies. They answered that there was no price for which they would do it. Then Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding through interpreters what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrid an act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is , I think, rightly said in Pindar's poem that custom is lord of all"

Mary Midgley states that the Persian King appears "in the role of the detached, sophisticated, neutral observer above the dispute who understands other people's difficulties. He is the one who can see through superficial symbols to the reality behind them. The Persians, after all, neither burned their own dead nor ate them. They knew very well that they had solved the problem of disposal in the only right way, namely by putting corpses on high towers and letting the vultures eat them"