Magic: Did you mean...?

The poem Lokasenna belongs to the Poetic Edda, a bulk of Old Norse poetry written down in Iceland in the 1200s but based on linguistic features dating back as far as the 900s. In this invaluable resource for Norse mythology, Lokasenna...

Setna I (also Setna Khaemaus and the Mummies) is a work of ancient Egyptian literature from the Ptolemaic Period (323-30 BCE) written in demotic script. It is part of a cycle of stories known as the Tales of...

Egyptian law was based on the central cultural value of ma'at (harmony and balance) which was the foundation for the entire civilization. Ma'at was established at the beginning of time by the gods when the earth...

Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, a new exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, explores the dynamic historical intersection of politics, religion, and art as reflected...

Paiyatuma and the Maidens of the Corn is a legend of the Zuni nation of the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest of the modern-day USA. Paiyatuma (also given as Paiyatamu) is a kachina spirit – an elemental entity –...

Martha Rampton’s two primary goals with this book were to define in specific terms what “magic” meant and to examine how that meaning changed over time. She divides the book into...

Religion (from the Latin Religio, meaning "restraint," or Relegere, according to Cicero, meaning "to repeat, to read again," or, most likely, Religionem, "to show respect for what is sacred"...

Writing is the physical manifestation of a spoken language. It is thought that human beings developed language circa 35,000 BCE as evidenced by cave paintings from the period of the Cro-Magnon Man...

Ancient Egyptian writing is known as hieroglyphics ('sacred carvings') and developed at some point prior to the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 -2613 BCE). According to some scholars, the concept of the written word was...

Hecate (Hekate) is a goddess of Greek mythology capable of both good and evil. She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. Hecate often carries a torch in her...