Death: Did you mean...?

During the reign of the emperor Justinian I (527-565 CE), one of the worst outbreaks of the plague took place, claiming the lives of millions of people. The plague arrived in Constantinople in 542 CE, almost a year after the disease first...

Painting by Manuel Dominguez Sanchez, 1871 CE. Museo del Prado

A 1570 CE engraving by Jean Perrissin of the tournament in Paris in 1559 CE where Henry II, king of France, was accidentally killed when a splinter from his opponent's lance pierced his visor. (British Museum, London)

In the second year of the Peloponnesian War, 430 BCE, an outbreak of plague erupted in Athens. The illness would persist throughout scattered parts of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean until finally dying out in 426 BCE. The origin of...

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest religious writings in the world and make up the principal funerary literature of ancient Egypt. They comprise the texts which were inscribed on the sarcophogi and walls of the pyramids at Saqqara in the 5th...

The Egyptians believed the afterlife was a mirror-image of life on earth. When a person died their individual journey did not end but was merely translated from the earthly plane to the eternal. The soul stood in judgement in the Hall of...

In ancient Greece the continued existence of the dead depended on their constant remembrance by the living. The after-life, for the ancient Greeks, consisted of a grey and dreary world in the time of Homer (8th century BCE) and, most famously...

Death of the Nose god Baldr, illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript. SÁM 66, 75v. Baldr was a beloved son of Frigg and Odin. Upon seeing his own death in a prophetic dream he became depressed. His mother did everything...

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a true masterpiece of interactive storytelling. The video game (console versions on Amazon, PC version on Steam) takes the player back to medieval France. The country is troubled by both the Hundred Years' War...

This activity has been designed to fit a 30-45-minute slot for your class. It can be used by any teacher and educator and is suitable for online teaching. Included in this pack: Vocabulary exercise Text comprehension questions...