I've expressed my admiration for Ovid before, and I will recite it again. For one of the greatest collections of classical mythology, Metamorphoses is a treasure mine of stories fit for psychoanalysis. So, I present to you today the story of an naïve mortal and a wicked erotic god, cursed with loving (in whatever sense of the word) each other.  Psyche was the most beautiful girl on Earth. Suitors, both mortal and divine, came to seek out Psyche from all corners of Greece. Wo

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

The Romans worshipped a god for practically everything. Jupiter ruled the skies, Neptune ruled the waters, Pluto ruled the underground....

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