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The Gifts of Isis: Women's Status in Ancient Egypt
Article by Joshua J. Mark

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...
The Battle of Kadesh & the Poem of Pentaur
Article by Joshua J. Mark

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...
The Pyramid Texts: Guide to the Afterlife
Article by Joshua J. Mark

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...
Herodotus: On The Customs of the Persians
Article by Joshua J. Mark

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...
Hesiod on the Birth of the Gods
Article by Joshua J. Mark

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...
Epona
Article by bisdent

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...
Alexandros I Balas
Article by Adrian Dumitru

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...
The Hypaspists in Ancient Sources
Article by Mark Passehl

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...
Some new hypotheses on the problems of the Indo-Greek kingdoms
Article by Antoine Simonin

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...
The Cyrus Cylinder
Article by Antoine Simonin

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...
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