Beauty: Did you mean...?

Foot-binding was a practice first carried out on young girls in Tang Dynasty China to restrict their normal growth and make their feet as small as possible. Considered an attractive quality, the effects of foot-binding were painful...

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on the island of Pharos outside the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt c. 300 - 280 BCE, during the reigns of Ptolemy I and II. With a height of over 100 metres (330 ft), the lighthouse...

Electra is a play written by the 5th-century BCE Greek tragedian Sophocles. Similar to Aeschylus' Libation Bearers, Electra focuses on the return of Electra's brother Orestes from exile and the plot to murder their mother...

Andromache is a Greek tragedy written by Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE), one of only 19 plays (out of 92) to survive. The play is actually in two parts, and like Sophocles' Women of Trachis, it has no central character. The first part...

Elizabeth I reigned as queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Her 44-year reign was so long and packed with momentous events that the second half of the 16th century is now known as the Elizabethan era and still regarded as...

Titus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81 CE. On June 24, 79 CE Titus Flavius Vespasianus succeeded his father Vespasian (r. 69-79 CE) as emperor of the Roman Empire. Prior to his ascension to the throne, he was considered by...

The Hesperides are nymph-goddesses of the evening and the west in Greek mythology. They were the daughters of Atlas, the Titan who bore the heavens on his shoulders, and Hesperis, the personification of the west, or Nyx, the personification...

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian composer best known for his works for the stage, such as the ballets The Firebird, Petrushka, and the groundbreaking The Rite of Spring. The modernist composer lived in Switzerland, France...

Horus is the name of a sky god in ancient Egyptian mythology which designates primarily two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), the last born of the first five original gods, and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis...

The Château de Chenonceau, picturesquely located astride the river Cher, in the Loire Valley town of Chenonceaux, France is a magnificent Renaissance-style building also known as le "Château des Dames" (the Ladies' Castle...