Definitions

Angitia, which also appears epigraphically as Angita, Arigitia or Anguita, was a goddess among the pre-Roman Italic and Oscan-Umbrian peoples of central Italy and believed to have persisted as a domestic cult figure well into the Roman Republic...

Commodus was Roman emperor from 180 to 192 CE. With the death of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in March of 180 CE, the long reign of the five good emperors came to an end and with it so did the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace). Those emperors...

A nymph (Greek: νύμφη, nymphē) in Greek and in Roman mythology is a young female deity typically identified with natural features such as mountains (oreads), trees and flowers (dryads and meliae), springs, rivers, and lakes (naiads) or the...

In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. However, Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite; she was a goddess of victory...

Huitzilopochtli (pron. Huit-zi-lo-pocht-li) or 'Hummingbird of the South' or 'Blue Hummingbird on the Left' was one of the most important deities in the Aztec pantheon and for the Méxica he was the supreme god. He was the god of the...

Roman sculpture blended the idealised perfection of Classical Greek sculpture with a greater aspiration for realism. It also absorbed artistic preferences and styles from the East to create images in stone and bronze which rank among the...

The Ishtar Gate was constructed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II circa 575 BCE. It was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon (in present-day Iraq) and was the main entrance into the city. The Ishtar Gate was part of Nebuchadnezzar's...

Xiuhtecuhtli or 'Turquoise Lord' was the Aztec god of fire and also closely associated with young warriors and rulers. To the Maya he was known as Chac Xiutei. Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron of the day Atl (water) and the trecena period 1 Coatl...

Tláloc (pron. Tla-loc) is one of the most important and formidable gods in the Aztec pantheon. He was considered the god of rain, water, lightning and agriculture. Tlaloc was seen as both a benevolent god providing life-giving rain but also...

Tezcatlipoca (pron. Tez-ca-tli-po-ca) or 'Smoking Mirror' in Nahuatl was one of the most important gods in Postclassical Mesoamerican culture and particularly important for the Toltecs and the Aztecs, especially at Texcoco. He was an invisible...