Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321)
"Heaven calls,
And, round about you wheeling, courts your gaze
With everlasting beauties. Yet your eye
Turns with fond doting still upon the earth.
Therefore...
A man called Thórarin, nicknamed Loftunga (or Praise-Tongue), was an 11th-century Icelandic skald who offered his poetic services to the prominent Scandinavian kings of...
This worn and well-aged painting was created in the 16th century by an unidentified artist. Inspiration for this artwork came from the poem, Gerusalemme...
When Spain began colonizing the American continents, its colonial land-grabs were already condoned by geopolitical norms of the era, as well as papal support....
This painting, by the Austrian artist Johann Michael Rottmayr (c. 1654-1730), was inspired by myths about the ancient Greco-Roman gods. Jove is an alternative...
Around the year 403 BCE, a revolution erupted against a Spartan-supported Athenian oligarchic government, known as ‘the Thirty’. Leading the revolutionary cause was an...
When Spain began colonizing the American continents, its colonial land-grabs were already condoned by geopolitical norms of the era, as well as papal support....
(Sigismund painting, photographed by Georges Jansoone (JoJan), Public Domain via Creative Commons)
Strangulation, War and Deadly Curses
Saints are not born in their perfect, saintly, form....
(St Clare of Montefalco, circa 1670, from the Iglesia del Convento de Nuestra Señora del Pópulo de Agustinos Descalzos. Sevilla, via Creative Commons)
The...
Tian Heng was one of many unlucky kings of ancient Qi. His family had successfully rebelled against the Qin Dynasty during the widespread rebellions...
(Funerary relief of a priest of Magna Mater (gallus) from Lavinium. Rome, Capitoline Museums (mid-second century AD), via Creative Commons)
It took balls to...
This painting, by the Austrian artist Johann Michael Rottmayr (c. 1654-1730), was inspired by myths about the ancient Greco-Roman gods. Jove is an alternative...
Socrates (c. 469-399 BCE)
"Surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know."
This saying, attributed to...
Around the year 403 BCE, a revolution erupted against a Spartan-supported Athenian oligarchic government, known as ‘the Thirty’. Leading the revolutionary cause was an...
After taking the head of the Gorgon, Medusa, the mythical Greek hero, Perseus, somehow found himself on the shores of North Africa. There, according...
This painting, by the Dutch-Flemish artist Otto van Veen (c. 1556–1629), was inspired by ancient history. Particularly, it features a scene from a Gallic-Germanic...
Thorir Olvirsson was an up-and-coming, youthful 11th-century Norwegian nobleman who cultivated a lot of good will with the people living in the regions around...
