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The Gifts of Isis: Women's Status in Ancient Egypt
An inscription on an Egyptian papyrus dating from the 2nd century CE relates that the goddess Isis, bestowing gifts on humanity at the beginning of time, gave as much power and honor to women as she did to men. This brief passage reflects...

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The Battle of Kadesh & the Poem of Pentaur
The Poem of Pentaur is the official Egyptian record (along with The Bulletin) of the military victory of Ramesses II (known as The Great, 1279-1213 BCE) over the Hittite King Muwatalli II (1295-1272 BCE) at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE...

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The Pyramid Texts: Guide to the Afterlife
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...

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Herodotus: On The Customs of the Persians
Although the Greek historian Herodotus (l. c. 484-425/413 BCE) is often criticized for inaccuracy in his Histories, his frequently-anthologized On the Customs of the Persians is regarded as accurate. The passage is all the more interesting...

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Hesiod on the Birth of the Gods
The Greek poet Hesiod (c. 700 BCE) is most famous for his works Theogony and Works and Days. In this passage from Theogony, Hesiod relates the birth of the gods from cosmic Chaos and follows the lineage through the great Zeus, King of the...

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Epona
Epona was a Celtic goddess. Her name contains an allusion to the horse: in Celtic, "epos" means “horse” and the suffix “-ona” affixed simply means “on”. Epona is the patron goddess of mares and foals. The oldest information about the Gallic...

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Alexandros I Balas
Alexandros I Balas was a Seleucid king from 152 BC to 145 BCE. As the Seleucid king Demetrius I Soter (162-150 BCE) became more and more unpopular due to his arrogance and drunkenness, it was quite an easy task for the rival kingdoms, such...

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The Hypaspists in Ancient Sources
Hypaspist translitterates the Greek term meaning shield-bearer, or armour-bearer (ὁ ὑπασπιστής). This noun is formed from the verb ὑπασπίζειν - to carry the shield for another; serve as a shieldbearer. The Shieldbearers of the Argead kings...

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Some new hypotheses on the problems of the Indo-Greek kingdoms
Warning: See the definitions of Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kingdoms before reading this article, otherwise the following lines could give you serious headaches! A lack of information is a common problem for historians of the Greco-Bactrian...

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The Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder is a document issued by Cyrus the Great, consisting of a cylinder of clay inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform script. The cylinder was created in 539 BCE, surely by order of Cyrus the Great, when he took Babylon from Nabonidus...