Modern conceptions of the afterlife are rather binary. As a result of Christianity, we often tend to imagine a rather binary heaven or...

There aren’t many myths which surpass the story of King Tantalus in terms of gruesomeness. In my opinion, Tantalus is the greatest waste...

Artists are obsessed with ideal forms. As one myself, I would know that the relationship between creator and creation is one that is extremely intimate. The classics take that to another level.  In classical societies, the body was seen as a physical manifestation of one’s characters and status. Every man wanted to have the ideal masculine body fitted with abs and strong muscles, and they wished for all their women to have the ideal soft curves and slightly chubbiness symboli

Back in middle school, I carried a piece of amethyst with me everywhere. I have no recollection of where I managed to find it, but I always thought of it as a lucky charm. After all, isn’t it the case with gems and pretty things that we tend to think of them as fortune-bringers? However, the (alleged) origins of amethyst aren’t quite as nice as its looks. The inside of an amethyst gemstone Supposedly, there once lived a nymph named Amethyste. Her looks caught the affections o

The Roses of Heliogabalus, a painting by the Dutch artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. "He [Elagabalus] loaded his parasites with violets and other flowers in a banqueting room with a reversible ceiling, in such a way that some of them expired when they could not crawl out to the surface." Marcus Aurelius Antoninus had only turned 14 when his mother staged a coup against Emperor Macrinus in 218 AD and replaced him with her son, who had just barely started developing his prefront

During Arachne and Athena's competition There’s nothing that the gods hate more than getting humbled. If you’ve read my post on...

Though theater is often reduced into a pure form of entertainment, it played the important role of social and political commentary in both contemporary society and the ancient Roman world. The inherent quality of theater, first and foremost, as a visual spectacle characterized by the use of scenery, props, and costumes in addition to acting as an appeal to its audience’s emotions made it a very enticing strategy for aspiring orators. Cicero was one such person. Known for his

Book 4 of the Aeneid  is one of my all-time favorite selections of Latin poetry. For those who don’t know what the Aeneid  is, it’s essentially a fanfiction/sequel written by the Latin poet Vergil to Homer’s Iliad , commissioned by Caesar Augutus, the first emperor of Rome. The Aeneid follows the story of Aeneas , a displaced Trojan prince and a son of the goddess Venus (and, for the most part, a self-insert of Augustus himself). He receives a prophecy from the Fates that he

Image of a Roman wedding carved onto the side of a tomb. The question of love is one that remains constant throughout the ages. Love’s definition is so difficult to pin down because of its fluidity and variability from person to person, circumstance to circumstance. Nowadays, we look at love as a mental phenomenon that simply happens because our brain wills it to. We naturally respond to our cravings of love by seeking out companionship. The psychological miracle that is love

On the Walpurgis night of 1977, mobs of women stormed Rome in witch disguises, passing the night in rowdy drinking and dancing.  Trailing off American revivals of witchcraft in feminist organizations such as W.I.T.C.H (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), these popular performative transgressions coalesced historical traditions of witchcraft circulating in the late 1950s and the political programs designed to mobilize non-hegemonic knowledge of the 1970s, pr

The Saja Boys really took “let me be your idol” to a new level. Topping every single chart in the world, the fictional Kpop demon boy group from Kpop Demon Hunters did something that I never thought would be possible in a million years…dethrone BTS. Since Kpop had really only turned mainstream in the past decade, you’d expect these kinds of fanatic circles to be relatively modern, but the Ancient World totally pioneered the craze.