Tag Archives: herodotus

Plague of Rationalization

Posted on November 17, 2025 by Nathan

I was recently listening to an episode of Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! from last year, and there was a bit about how ancient authors sometimes tried to rationalize Greek mythology, often coming up with explanations that were more within … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Christianity, Conspiracy Theories, Fairy Tales, Gender, Greek Mythology, Greek Philosophy, History, Judaism, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Names, Philosophy, Religion | Tagged aeolus, akhenaten, amazons, apples, athena, bears, bible, boreas, callisto, centaurs, cetus, cinderella, constellations, cyclopes, dan brown, diodorus siculus, elephants, europa, exodus, garden of eden, genesis, gorgons, gospel of matthew, gospels, graeae, henry lincoln, herakles, hercules, herodotus, hesperides, holy grail, horses, hydra, hyksos, io, jesus, let's talk about myths baby, medea, michael baigent, monotheism, moses, odyssey, orithyia, pegasus, perseus, phaedrus, plato, podcasts, polyphaetes, resurrection, rhinoceroses, richard leigh, scylla, sheep, ships, socrates, the holy blood and the holy grail, unicorns, ursa major, volcanoes, zeus | Leave a comment

Tying Knots and Killing Tots

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Nathan

I’ve been thinking a bit recently about the Gordian Knot. The basic story is that, in 333 BCE, Alexander the Great came to Gordion, the capital of Phrygia in modern-day Turkey, a place famous for its Smurf hats. He’d heard … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Greek Mythology, History, Music, Mythology, Names | Tagged adrastus, agamemnon, alexander the great, apollo, artemis, athena, atreus, cannibalism, cimmerians, clytemnestra, croesus, cybele, delphi, gordian knot, gordias, gyges of lydia, herodotus, hippodamia, hollies, iphigenia, king midas, lycophron of chalcis, nathaniel hawthorne, oenomaus, orestes, pelops, phrygia, sabazios, tantalus, thyestes, trojan war, zeus | 2 Comments

Some Say It’s True, and Some Say It’s a Fable

Posted on June 17, 2023 by Nathan

Breverton’s Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends, by Terry Breverton – This is a collection of myths and legends, some ancient and others pretty recent. They include people, places, artifacts, and both mythical animals and weird beliefs about … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Authors, Book Reviews, Comics, Conspiracy Theories, Dreams, Greek Mythology, Hellenistic Greece, Historical Personages, History, Humor, Jonathan Swift, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Philosophy, Roman, Sesame Street, Television, William Shakespeare | Tagged a link to the past, aesop, ants, bible, breverton's phantasmagoria, cats, chip zdarsky, cranes, demetrius of phalerum, dogs, donkeys, flash thompson, foxes, frogs, gods of pegana, gulliver's travels, hera, hermes, herodotus, in the land of time, in the land of time and other fantasy tales, iron man, jack of hearts, jen again, jeremiah, jorkens, juno, jupiter, lilliput, lions, lord dunsany, luca maresca, mark bagley, mars, mercury, mice, momus, monkeys, peter parker, pliny the elder, poseidon, rainbow rowell, roge antonio, she-hulk, sheep, spider-man, spider-man life story, superheroes, terry breverton, the complete fables, the farmer and the cranes, the frogs asking for a king, the mountain in labor, the tortoise and the hare, the wolf and the lamb, vietnam war, wolves, zeus | 1 Comment

Washing Your Sins Away

Posted on May 20, 2023 by Nathan

One recurring theme in Greek mythology is that of ritual purification for someone who’d committed a crime. There’s a pattern in some stories of a person doing a heinous act, being exiled from their home, and going to someone in … Continue reading →

Posted in Greek Mythology, History, Magic, Mythology, Religion | Tagged adrestus of phrygia, animal sacrifice, apollonius of rhodes, argonautica, atys of lydia, bellerophon, circe, copreus, crime, croesus, eurystheus, exile, hammurabi, hera, hercules, herodotus, homer, iliad, jason, laius of thebes, law, medea, murder, oedipus, oracle of delphi, proteus of argos, purification, ritual, sacrifice, thespius, zeus | 2 Comments

I’d Idle On with an Eidolon

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Nathan

I’d been interested in the origin of the term “eidolon” after hearing the Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby episodes on Euripides’ Helen, and remembering that the term had been used in the Final Fantasy series. It’s basically a phantom, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Final Fantasy, Greek Mythology, History, Magic, Mythology, Names, Plays, Relationships, Religion, Video Games | Tagged achilles, aphrodite, castor, centaurs, clouds, dioscuri, eidolons, euripides, exodus, ghosts, helen, helen dendritis, helen of troy, hera, hermes, herodotus, ixion, menelaus, nemesis, paris, pausanias, podcasts, polydeuces, polyxo, priam of troy, proteus, ramesses ii of egypt, stesichorus, the ten commandments, theoclymenos, trees, trojan war, troy, zeus | Leave a comment

Follow the Arrow

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Nathan

Sculpture by John Raimondi Abaris the Hyperborean is one of those mysterious magicians who shows up in multiple sources, and has led to additional speculation and apocryphal stories in more recent times. He was first mentioned in Archaic Greek texts, He is … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, British, Comics, Dragon Quest, Greek Mythology, Greek Philosophy, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Neil Gaiman, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Video Games | Tagged abaris the hyperborean, abhras, anacharsis, apollo, arimaspea, arimaspoi, aristeas of proconnesus, asclepius, athens, belial, bladud, boreas, constellations, croesus, cyclopes, demons, divination, dragon quest ii, druids, geoffrey of monmouth, griffins, herodotus, hyperborea, iamblicus, john wood the elder, north wind, phalaris, pindar, plato, pythagoras, ravens, sagittarius, sandman, satan, scythia, solon of athens, thrace, zalmoxis, zarlox | Leave a comment

You Can’t Sit at Our Table

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Nathan

Today, I wanted to look at the Table of Nations from Genesis 10. The Hebrew word that’s usually translated “nations” is goyim, which became gentilis in the Latin Vulgate. Both words have come to mean non-Jewish people in general, and … Continue reading →

Posted in African, Christianity, Egyptian, Ethnicity, Etymology, Families, Greek Mythology, History, Judaism, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Names, Prejudice, Religion | Tagged abraham, aegyptus, agenor, andromeda, atlas, babylon, belus, bible, bosporus, canaan, carthage, cetus, crete, danaus, eber, egypt, esau, ethiopia, euripides, europa, flavius josephus, flood, genesis, good news bible, ham, hellen, hera, herodotus, heth, hittites, iapetus, inachus, incest, Iran, ishmael, isis, israel, jacob, japheth, jonah, king cepheus, king solomon, king xerxes i, libya, lydia, magog, mesopotamia, mizraim, moab, mycenae, nimrod, noah, ophir, paul of tarsus, perses, perseus, phoenicia, poseidon, prometheus, racism, scythia, sea monsters, shem, table of nations, tarshish, tartessos, the rose and the ring, titans, tros, troy, william makepeace thackeray, zeus | 1 Comment

Troglodyte Tuesday

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Nathan

I mentioned in my review of Rick Riordan’s The Tower of Nero that I liked the way it portrayed the troglodytes, and since I don’t think I’ve done it before, I might as well take a look at the origins … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Cartoons, Dragon Quest, Games, Greek Mythology, Language, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Rick Riordan, Television, Trials of Apollo, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged abraham, apes, buffalo, chimpanzees, claudius aurelius, cranes, dragon quest iv, dungeons and dragons, ethiopian bulls, flavius josephus, gummi bears, herodotus, horites, jorges luis borges, keturah, lickspittles, munchers, my little pony, pandura, pygmies, sambuca, the immortal, the tower of nero, troggles, troggs, troglodytes | 2 Comments

Close Encounters of the Fundamentalist Kind

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Nathan

You may have heard about Ark Encounter, the replica of Noah’s Ark that was built in Kentucky. This was the brainchild of Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and an Australian creationist, like Ray Comfort. So they believe the … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylonian, Christianity, Current Events, Evolution, Fundamentalism, Greek Mythology, Mythology, Religion, Science, Semitic | Tagged answers in genesis, ark encounter, bible, bill nye, creationism, deucalion, dinosaurs, ea, epic of gilgamesh, flood, frank lewis marsh, genesis, herodotus, ken ham, kinds, mike zovath, noah, noah's ark, prometheus, utnapishtim, zeus | 1 Comment

Great Ants

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Nathan

In Rick Riordan’s latest book, The Hidden Oracle, Apollo encounters a group of giant ants guarding the entrance to a sacred grove. These ants, the Myrmekes, are indeed part of Greek mythology, or perhaps more accurately Greek pseudo-history. The Myrmekes … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Greek Mythology, Hugh Pendexter, Monsters, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Rick Riordan, Trials of Apollo | Tagged achilles, aegina, aelian, ants, hera, herodotus, king aeacus of aegina, mark haas, myrmekes, myrmekes indikoi, myrmidons, the hidden oracle, the medicine man of oz, trojan war, wooglet in oz, zeus | 5 Comments

Tag Archives: herodotus

Plague of Rationalization

Tying Knots and Killing Tots

Some Say It’s True, and Some Say It’s a Fable

Washing Your Sins Away

I’d Idle On with an Eidolon

Follow the Arrow

You Can’t Sit at Our Table

Troglodyte Tuesday

Close Encounters of the Fundamentalist Kind

Great Ants

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