Search Results: Hermes

Ghost stories have existed for thousands of years, often in similar forms and frequently dealing with the same themes, in many of the most ancient cultures. The writer H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, "As may naturally be expected of a form so...

Veii (modern name: Isola Farnese, in Etruscan: Vei), was an important Etruscan town located near the west coast of central Italy. Lying just 16 km north of Rome, it was the most southerly of the major Etrurian settlements. The prosperity...

The kithara (guitar) was a stringed musical instrument, related to the lyre, played by the ancient Greeks and closely associated with the god Apollo, although in mythology its invention is attributed to Hermes who manufactured the instrument...

Tantalus is a figure from Greek mythology who was the rich but wicked king of Sipylus. For attempting to serve his own son at a feast with the gods, he was punished by Zeus to forever go thirsty and hungry in Hades despite being stood in...

Works and Days is an epic poem written in dactylic hexameter, credited to the 8th-century BCE Greek poet Hesiod. Hesiod is generally remembered for two epic works, Theogony and Works and Days but, like his contemporary Homer, he was part...

Kykeon (from the Greek “to mix, stir”) was a beverage of water and barley (sometimes flavored with mint or thyme) popular among the working, 'lower' class of ancient Greece. In Homer's Illiad it is described as a mixture of water, barley...

Leda is a figure from Greek mythology who was famously seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. She was a queen of Sparta and mother of beautiful Helen who sparked the Trojan War, and the Dioscuri twins. Leda and the swan was a popular...

Zeus was the king of the 12 Olympian gods and the supreme god in Greek religion. Zeus is often referred to as the Father, as the god of thunder, and the 'cloud-gatherer'. Zeus controlled the weather and offered signs and omens. Zeus generally...

Ancient Greek comedy was a popular and influential form of theatre performed across ancient Greece from the 6th century BCE. The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aristophanes and Menander and their works and those of their contemporaries...

Homer's Odyssey is an epic poem written in the 8th century BCE which describes the long voyage home of the Greek hero Odysseus. The mythical king sails back to Ithaca with his men after the Trojan War but is beset by all kinds of delays and...