Magic: Did you mean...?

Although the ancient Egyptians are often depicted as death-obsessed and dour, they actually had a great appreciation for life and their culture reflected their belief in existence as an eternal journey imbued with magic. Life was a gift from...

The gods of the Mesopotamian region were not uniform in name, power, provenance or status in the hierarchy. Mesopotamian culture varied from region to region and, because of this, Marduk should not be regarded as King of the Gods in the same...

In ancient Mesopotamia, the gods informed every aspect of daily life including the practice of medicine. Gula, the Sumerian goddess of healing, presided over the medical arts, guiding doctors and dentists in the treatment of health problems...

The Mongol Empire accepted and promoted many other cultures. Historians often talk about cultural exchange across Asia in the Mongol Empire as something that was just facilitated by peace and stability across such a huge area – the 'Pax Mongolica'...

Family planning was a topic of vital importance in the ancient Mediterranean. Some of the earliest medical literature from ancient Greece and Rome deals with fertility and reproductive health. Among the numerous treatments and procedures...

The Frog Princess is a Slavic folktale focusing on the importance of recognizing someone’s inner beauty, regardless of their outward appearance, as well as the possibility of redemption after failure. The tale has many variants and appears...

Among the most engaging and influential works from Egyptian literature are the stories in the cycle known as Setna I and Setna II or The Tales of Prince Setna. These are fictional works from the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (525-332 BCE...

The Origin of Game and Corn is a Cherokee origin myth explaining how wild game first began to run free and corn came to be cultivated. The central figures of Kenati (also given as Kana'ti) and Selu are the embodiment of the Lucky Hunter and...

The death of the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (l. c. 370-415) has long been considered the "passage of philosophy to religion", exemplifying the transition from the pagan values of antiquity to those of the new religion of Christianity...

Martha Rampton’s two primary goals with this book were to define in specific terms what “magic” meant and to examine how that meaning changed over time. She divides the book into four parts, with the last three focusing on specific time periods...