Magic: Did you mean...?

Freyja (Old Norse for 'Lady', 'Woman', or 'Mistress') is the best-known and most important goddess in Norse mythology. Beautiful and many-functioned, she features heavily as a fertility goddess stemming from her place in the Vanir family...

Gula (also known as Ninkarrak) is the Sumerian goddess of healing and patroness of doctors, healing arts, and medical practices. She is first attested to in the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) where she is referenced as a great goddess of health...

The Book of the Heavenly Cow is an ancient Egyptian text dealing with the rebellion of humanity against the sun god Ra, his destruction of the rebels through the goddess Hathor, the reversal of this decision and Ra's mercy, and his ascent...

In Europe, in the 19th century CE, an interesting device began appearing in graveyards and cemeteries: the mortsafe. This was an iron cage erected over a grave to keep the body of the deceased safe from 'resurrectionists' - better known as...

The pan-Hellenic mythological hero Jason was famed for his expedition with the Argonauts - as the sailors on their ship the Argo were known - in search of the Golden Fleece in Kolchis on the Black Sea, one of the most popular and enduring...

Egyptian law was based on the central cultural value of ma'at (harmony and balance) which was the foundation for the entire civilization. Ma'at was established at the beginning of time by the gods when the earth and universe were formed...

Setna I (also Setna Khaemaus and the Mummies) is a work of ancient Egyptian literature from the Ptolemaic Period (323-30 BCE) written in demotic script. It is part of a cycle of stories known as the Tales of Prince Setna featuring a character...

The poem Lokasenna belongs to the Poetic Edda, a bulk of Old Norse poetry written down in Iceland in the 1200s but based on linguistic features dating back as far as the 900s. In this invaluable resource for Norse mythology, Lokasenna stands...

Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, a new exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, explores the dynamic historical intersection of politics, religion, and art as reflected through Tibetan Buddhism. The exhibition...

Material Objects & Cultures Material objects convey volumes about the people who possessed them. Cultures and societies in every generation are in part classified - either correctly or incorrectly - by the objects or symbols they...