Mythology Articles

The Popol Vuh recounts the story of twins who journeyed to Xibalba. For the Maya, their round of adventures serves as a metaphor for timeless, repeating cycles and for the regeneration of earth and all living things. – Gene S. Stuart, Mayanist In recent years, there have been many books, and even more websites, concerning the calendar... [continue reading]

This paper attempts to redefine the role of the “hero” in ancient Western epic poetry, focusing specifically on the Iliad of Homer and the Irish epic the Tain Bo Cuailgne, by focusing on the maintenance of a hierarchy of loyalties. Similarly, this paper demonstrates the need to expand the traditional conception of the epic seductress. Ultimately... [continue reading]

The fifth century BCE Greek historian Herodotus relates the importance of bees in ancient Greece, pointing out that the honey of neighboring countries was made using fruit, while the honey of the Greeks was produced by bees. The significance of this difference lies in that, to the Greeks of that time period, bees were considered to be divine insects... [continue reading]

Did the Chinese attribute a secular or a religious origin to law? One influential view has strongly asserted the secular origin. Recently, some scholars have mounted a strong challenge, arguing that this view has overlooked or distorted a vital fragment of evidence that, in their opinion, shows conclusively that law had a religious origin. Before the... [continue reading]

Modern historians and classicists have studied the ancient Greeks’ use of Amazon mythology extensively and exhaustively. Their analysis of the Amazon in literature and artwork has contributed to a better understanding of Greek society, culture, and the mindset of those ancient people. Next to nothing, however, has been written about the ancient Romans&rsquo... [continue reading]

Ancient Ireland presents an interesting case for rhetorical study. While the island is usually considered a part of geographic Europe, it long resisted the influence of cultural Europe. Unlike Britain, for example, Ireland was never conquered by Rome, and its pre-literate culture flourished beyond the fall of the Empire. Consequently, the Irish maintained... [continue reading]

Book 6 of Pharsalia, Lucan’s epic account of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, is set in Thessaly on the eve of the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE. Pharsalus is a major Thessalian city, possibly associated with Phthia in the Homeric catalogue and home to the Thessalian hero, Achilles. In Lucan’s epic Erictho is a Thessalian witch, whom Pompey’s... [continue reading]

The subject of this thesis is a theme that has not been fully studied until today and that has long been thought to be overlooked by the ancient Egyptians in a negative way. The aim of this thesis is then to look carefully into the texts dealing with this theme to reveal how exactly the ancient Egyptians felt about it. The texts scrutinized are divided according... [continue reading]