Aztec music: Did you mean...?

Mulan (“magnolia”) is a legendary character in Chinese literature who is best known in the modern day from the Disney filmed adaptations (1998, 2020). Her story, however, about a young girl who takes her father's...

In medieval and Renaissance Europe, dogs were considered little more than "machines" which performed certain tasks, such as guarding a home or tracking game, but this view changed...

Like many great civilisations, the origins of the Chola, a Tamil Hindu dynasty in southern India, are shrouded in the temporal mists of uncertainty and obscurity. It is however known that they were influential from at least...

Leisure activities in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603 CE) became more varied than in any previous period of English history and more professional with what might be called the first genuine entertainment...

Thanks to their favoured position in life and the labour of the peasants on their estates, nobles in an English medieval castle had plenty of leisure hours which could be frittered away by eating, drinking, dancing...

The salon was a notably French cultural event, a private social gathering where a mixture of guests openly discussed art, literature, philosophy, music, and politics. Salons were particularly but not exclusively...

The Hymn to Nisaba (circa 3rd millennium BCE) is a poem praising Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing and accounts who also served as scribe of the gods. The poem is officially dedicated...

The ancient Greeks kept themselves busy and there were plenty of chores, distractions and entertainments available to keep daily life varied. Shopping in the markets of the agora, performing jury service, watching sporting...

Hermes was the Ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, and travel. He is known as the trickster of the Greek pantheon, and most recognisable...

Apollo, although the god of medicine, wasn't the only deity in Greek mythology associated with healing, with many different deities in Ancient Greece including Hygeia and Asclepius, having responsibilities...