The grandeur that early European explorers had come to expect in royal building programs seems to have been...
Mythology
Mythology preserves stories through which cultures explained origins and gave meaning to human experience. Explore the gods and legendary figures that shaped religious and literary traditions.
Passing lion, brick panel from the Procession Way which ran from the Marduk temple to the Ishtar...
/ An Aztec ceremonial knife with a cedarwood handle and flint blade. The figure of the handle is covered...
Fragment of an inscripted clay cone of Urukagina (or Uruinimgina), lugal (prince) of Lagash. The inscription reads: “He [Uruinimgina] dug...
The Tauroctony / Photo by CristianChirita, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Wikimedia Commons The Roman deity Mithras appears in the historical record in the...
Sacello Ipogeico (Heroon), Paestum, Italy / Photo by Berthold Werner, Wikimedia Commons Hero cults were one of the most...
Puerto Rico: Capilla del Cristo Old San Juan / Wikimedia Commons Taking a look at the long...
With moralistic gods watching, it’s easier to be fair and cooperative. Olivier, CC BY-NC-ND For human groups to grow from small,...
Photo by bl3w, Flickr, Creative Commons Tracing the notion of ekplexis in Greek rhetoric and the connections in etymology, myth,...
We speak of Greek religions or “cults” in the plural, though most of them shared similarities. Curated/Reviewed by...
The limestone Pyramidion of Ramose, from the top of the tomb of the ‘Necropolis Scribe’. Scenes on all four...
“Phèdre et Hippolyte” (1802), by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin / Wikimedia Commons Classical discussions often get caught between that...
Linguistic dating is in close agreement with historians’ and classicists’ beliefs derived from historical and archaeological sources. ...
The Sebasteion, excavated in 1979-81, was a grandiose temple complex dedicated to Aphrodite and the Julio-Claudian emperors...
The Sacred Way at Delphi with the remains of the Athenians’ Treasury The Delphic Oracle belonged to...
The Triumph of Civilization / Photo by Grizzli, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Wikimedia Commons The enormous contribution of ancient...
Cylinder Seal with Griffins, Humans and a Winged Disk / Walters Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons The religions...
If we take off the cloak of reason and instead clothe with that of madness, we may...
The Pantheon in 1836, by Jakob Alt / Albertina, Wikimedia Commons Religious worship was a public affair...
Mt Etna, with Catania in the foreground / Photo by BenAveling, Wikimedia Commons Stories were used as...
Puzzling out the meaning of monsters in Beowulf, comparing the hero with Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the...
The rise of Zeus. By E.M. Berens / 05.21.2014 Cronus (Saturn) Cronus was the god of time...
David, The Love of Helen and Paris (detail), Wikimedia Commons Helen’s homecoming was on the surface successful, but there was...
The Death of Patroclus – Illustration from page 265 of ‘The Iliad of Homer. Translated by Mr...
Aeon-Uranus, Gaea, Carpi, Horae and Prometheus / Greco-Roman mosaic, Damascus Museum The ancient Greeks had several different...
The air god Shu, assisted by other gods, holds up Nut, the sky, as Geb, the earth,...
An Aztec ceremonial knife with a cedarwood handle and flint blade. The figure of the handle is covered in...
Achilles at the Court of King Lycomedes. The sarcophagus had been sawed up to four plates which were...
The stuff of legend. Shutterstock Norse mythology is having a moment as a leading author re-tells the tales for a new generation. By Dr. Carolyne Larrington /...
We need to move beyond assumptions that religion is simply about dogmatism. Daniel Montemayor We need to move...