Definitions

The Thesmophoriazusae (also called The Poet & the Women or Women at the Thesmophoria) is a two-act comedy play written in 411 BCE by the great Greek comic playwright, Aristophanes. The play's principal focus is on the Greek tragedian Euripides...

Harold Godwinson (also spelt Godwineson) reigned briefly as King Harold II of England from January to October 1066 CE, the momentous year which witnessed the Norman conquest and end of 500 years of Anglo-Saxon rule. Harold had been, as the...

The Battle of Hastings in south-east England on 14 October 1066 saw the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon king Harold II (r. Jan-Oct 1066) by the invading Norman army led by William, Duke of Normandy (reigned from 1035). After a day of heavy fighting...

Abd al-Rahman was the founder of the Emirate of Cordoba and ruled as Abd al-Rahman I from 756-788 CE. As one of the lone survivors of the Umayyad Dynasty after the Abbasids defeated the Umayyad Caliphate, Abd al-Rahman bridged the Umayyad...

The Lebor Gabála Érenn or The Book of the Taking of Ireland, is a pseudo-historical collection of poetry and prose narrative which was first compiled in the 11th Century CE. The Lebor Gabála centers around an origin myth which describes the...

Einsiedeln Abbey and Monastery (German: Kloster Einsiedeln), located some 31 km (19 mi) southeast of Zürich at the foot of a hill in the town of Einsiedeln in Canton Schwyz, Switzerland, is the most important site of Roman Catholic pilgrimage...

Thor (Old Norse: Þórr) is the Norse god of thunder, the sky, and agriculture. He is the son of Odin, chief of the gods, and Odin's consort Jord (Earth) and husband of the fertility goddess Sif, who is the mother of his son Modi and daughter...

A medieval monastery was an enclosed and sometimes remote community of monks led by an abbot who shunned worldly goods to live a simple life of prayer and devotion. Christian monasteries first developed in the 4th century in Egypt and Syria...

Iphigenia in Aulis (or at Aulis) was written by Euripides, the youngest and most popular of the trilogy of great Greek tragedians. The play was based on the well-known myth surrounding the sacrifice of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's daughter...

People in the Middle Ages have acquired something of a bad reputation when it comes to cleanliness, especially the peasantry. However, despite the general lack of running water and other modern amenities, there were common expectations of...