Ancient Greek mythology is filled with heroes, gods, and epic adventures. The stories told in the myths are interesting and engaging enough that most of us will be familiar with at least a few, and...
A common motif in British folklore is that of an otherworldly female, who is somehow captured or charmed by a mortal man to be his bride. The females are often therianthropes, that is shape-shifters...
The 19th century gave us some of the best work on mythology, but much of it has been ignored over time. Since around the 1960s, when excitement was at its peak regarding space travel and the moon...
Today, the thought of infanticide – the intentional killing of infants – fills us with horror, but in many ancient societies, not only was this practice permitted, it was considered a regular fact of...
More so than females, the male Norse explorers who took residence in Iceland more than 1,000 years were buried with their horses and new DNA evidence proves that the horses slaughtered to accompany...
The Romans possessed a rich mythology that exerted (and continues to exert) a significant influence on Western culture. Many Roman myths, specifically those concerning the gods, have their equivalent...
Minerva was an important goddess in the pantheon of the ancient Romans. She was worshipped primarily as the goddess of wisdom. Nevertheless, she was also believed to be the goddess of trade, the arts...
The Domovoi is a supernatural creature found in Slavic mythology. These are household sprites that attach themselves to a family and serve as their guardian. As benevolent spirits, the Domovoi would...
The Blemmyes are an example of various species of bizarre creatures rumored, in antiquity and later, to inhabit remote parts of the world - from dog-headed humanoids to strange men with a single...
The dragon is one of the most well-known creatures in ancient mythology, and many cultures have this creature (or one of its related forms) in their folklore. In East Asian countries, for instance,...
Myths, folklore ancient songs and poems present the number ‘nine’ as being connected with the underworld, and this has been extended into modern pop culture. There were ‘nine circles of Hell’ in...
A man winds his way through the muck and mire of a 19th-century American port – Nantucket, centre of the world’s whaling industry. He knocks on a door, enters, and begs an exhausted looking man to...
Thanks to scientific discoveries, we know for certain that life on Earth depends upon the sun. But long before scientists even discovered that our planet revolves around it, ancient cultures...
Heimdall is a god in the Norse pantheon, most well-known for his task to announce the coming of Ragnarok by sounding his horn, which will be heard across all worlds. He is one of the better-known...
In Scandinavian folklore, there are numerous races of beings, the best-known of which (apart from human beings) are the gods and the jötnar, their nemesis. In rather simplistic terms, these may be...
A shocking photograph is circulating which depicts a massive disemboweled Sumatran tiger, hanging in a public hall in North Sumatra, with villagers around it “trying to determine whether it was a...