Lucian: Did you mean...?

Bust of Lucian of Samosata, image included by William Faithorne in John Dryden's The works of Lucian, translated from the Greek by several eminent hands, London, 1711. Born in Roman Syria in the 2nd century CE, Lucian was a well-known satirist...

Magic was ever-present in the wider Greco-Roman world. Spells and herbs, spirits and gods, curses and blessings, prophecies and oracles, they were all the domain of the magic and crafts of the magician for the people living in the ancient...

Aspasia of Miletus (l. c. 470-410/400 BCE) is best known as the consort of the great Athenian statesman Pericles. Her life story has always been given in the shadow of Pericles' fame, but she was a woman of great eloquence and intelligence...

In ancient Greece, dance had a significant presence in everyday life. The Greeks not only danced on many different occasions, but they also recognized several non-performative activities such as ball-playing or rhythmic physical exercise...

Thessalonica (also Thessalonike) was an ancient city of Macedon in northern Greece which today is the city of Thessaloniki. Made capital of the Roman province of Macedon, the city flourished due to its location on the major trade route to...

The myth of Adonis is a legendary love story that combines tragedy and death on the one hand, and the joy of coming back to life on the other. The story of the impossibly handsome Adonis and his lover the goddess Aphrodite originally dates...

History is recorded by individual human beings with their own beliefs and interests guiding what they choose to record, and, as such, many events and details may be omitted from the account of a certain event or the story of a great person’s...

The ancient Celtic pantheon consisted of over 400 gods and goddesses who represented everything from rivers to warfare. With perhaps the exception of Lugh, the Celtic gods were not universally worshipped across Iron Age Europe but were very...

A statue of the snake god Glycon, whose cult became popular in the 2nd-century CE Roman Empire. The Roman satirist Lucian credits the founding of the cult to the mystic and apparent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus. Museum of National History...

The books of the New Testament were written in the 1st century CE. As Christianity spread in the 2nd century CE, many copies were made, some by non-professionals. Early manuscripts are considered to be closer to the original than later manuscripts...