Monsoon rain (Goa) Around 1000 BC, in the Vedic period in India, Varuna was an important Hindu god. Varuna was originally a sky god - his name means "the one who covers everything." Often people think [...]
Hades and Persephone in the Greek underworld What happened when you died? Greek people didn't like to talk about what happened to you after you died. So we don't know [...]
Hades kidnaps Persephone (mosaic from Amphipolis, 300s BC) Persephone was the daughter of the goddess Demeter. One day Persephone was dancing with her friends in a sunny meadow, having a good time, picking [...]
Tantalus' crime and punishment: This Italian vase from the 300s BC shows a different version of the story where a spirit holds Tantalus back from a basket of bread and a jug of water [...]
King Eurysthenes hides in a jar, while Hercules threatens him with his dog Cerberus Herakles' last labor For the last and toughest of his twelve labors, Herakles had to get the [...]
Hades and the underworld In Greek mythology, Hades was the god of the dead, who ruled the place where dead people went after they died (Sometimes people also called the underworld "Hades"). [...]
Tomb of the Diver (ca. 500 BC) Classical Greek painting Artists in Classical Greece continued to favor the stiffer Mycenaean style of painting more than the looser, fancier Minoan style. [...]
A Viking religious sacrifice (ca. 900 AD, Sweden) Northern European religion From their first appearance in historical literature around 100 BC, the Germans were polytheistic. They believed in many gods, [...]
