The ancient historian Herodotus was a Greek writer who lived in the midst of the 5th century BCE. He is known as the Father of History which was a title first given to him by the Roman orator Cicero for his famous work The Histories. In this video, we take a look at 7 of the most surprising stories from Herodotus’ Histories. Herodotus’ Histories is a 9 book tome that provides a detailed account of the Greco-Persian wars, as well as observations and stories from his travels to Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor. Although some of the information has been challenged as exaggerated or incorrect (which can in some instances be blamed on issues of translation), he is still recognised as the father of history, with many of his accounts being confirmed by archaeological evidence!
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:54 Who is Herodotus?
1:55 An Introduction to Herodotus’ Histories
3:04 Book One - Croseus vs. The Oracle of Delphi
6:09 Book One - Babylonian Customs
7:42 Book Two - Egyptian Veneration and Care for Animals
9:22 Book Three - Indians and Their Gold Digging Ants
11:35 Book Four - The Agathyrsoi and The Werewolves
12:28 Book Four - The Gindanes, The Lotus Eaters and The Garamantes
13:48 Book Five - The Cross-Dressing Plot to Kill Some Persians
15L57 Outro
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File:Edwin Long 001.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edwin_Long_001.jpg
Edwin Long
The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202.
The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License
Ancient Pompeii was a Roman city in the region of Campania. In 79 CE, the city and surrounding areas were completely covered in ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This eruption and devastation of settlements would have been a tragedy in the ancient world, but it has meant that many things from the ancient world that are usually lost in time have survived to us, which makes Pompeii the richest Roman archaeological site found thus far.
In 1755, the city was finally rediscovered and from then on, excavations have been undertaken in the regions devastated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. What was found in Pompeii changed many preconceived beliefs about the Roman world, like how common bronze statues actually were and how bronze was more commonly used in Roman art than previously thought. The skeletal remains of those who couldn’t flee the eruption and the plaster casts of them have shown us the damage to their teeth, caused by stone chips in bread and an over-sweet diet. Other invaluable finds from the site include textual evidence like inscriptions, wax tablets, signs, amphorae labels and graffiti. It’s the graffiti that has truly given us an insight into the thoughts, desires and daily lives of the ordinary people from Pompeii.
Join World History Encyclopedia as they talk to Garry Shaw, an Egyptologist and author of a brand new book Egyptian Mythology: A Travelers Guide From Aswan to Alexandria. Garry’s book on Egyptian mythology starts with a journey beginning in the south of Egypt, which is the traditional border in the region of Aswan, and then you travel northward to the Mediterranean Sea, stopping at various locations along the way, which have religious importance or a lot of mythology behind them. It’s a fun, different approach to Egyptian mythology than what you normally find in other Egyptian mythology books. Looking at the book as a whole, and also deep-diving into the sites of Saqqara, Pi-Ramesses and Tell-el-Amarna, just us as we take a journey down the Nile river with Garry Shaw!
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:46 What is your book all about?
3:25 How did you go Making a Book about Travel and Mythology?
6:04 Local Variations of Myths and Gods Changing
14:47 Reconstructing Myths
18:25 Using Humour in the Book
20:55 Do you have a Favourite Ancient Egyptian Site?
24:55 The Site of Pi-Ramesses
29:00 Akhenaten and the Amarna Period
36:50 Outro
The Phoenicians were the maritime superpowers of the Mediterranean. Their culture flourished and was at its most powerful between 1500 and 332 BCE when Alexander the Great entered the region and decimated the cities and their populations, bringing to an end the maritime superpower. The Phoenicians were a number of independent city-states that shared the same culture in the modern-day regions of Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Israel. The Phoenician alphabet was the first alphabet and is the basis for many western alphabets today.
The Phoenicians are probably best known for their production of purple dye which was accomplished by its extraction from the murex shellfish, a sea creature that pretty much became extinct in the region due to the popularity of the colour. The production of the dye first began in Tyre during the Bronze Age, which is why it is known as Tyrian purple. Deposits of murex shells have been found on the outskirts of Sidon and Tyre, as well as at Phoenician colonies across the Mediterranean, including Carthage. Carthage began as a small hill community on the North African Coast which is now modern day Tunis and it’s legendary founding of the city is dated to 814 BCE by the Phoenician Queen Elissa, better known as Queen Dido.
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:55 Who Were the Phoenicians?
2:16 Phoenician Trade and Colonization
4:44 Phoenician Purple Dye
6:18 The History of Carthage and Queen Dido
8:07 Phoenician Art
10:09 Phoenician Religion
14:24 Outro
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Stefano Bolognini / User: Tetraktys
The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.
You may know him from the TV series Vikings, but Bjorn Ironside is a legendary Viking known from the medieval stories and historical sagas of raiding alongside his father Ragnar Lothbrok and his brothers, with the most well known being Ivar the Boneless, Hvitserk and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye. The legends of Bjorn and his family are all set in the 9th century CE, but the three sources he is known from the best were all written in the 13th century, hundreds of years after the alleged facts.
What none of the sources mention about Bjorn are whether he had any wives, or the manner of his death. Much like the rest of Bjorn’s family, Bjorn Ironside may be inspired by one or even multiple famous Vikings from the 9th century and his life and heroic story is one of legend, rather than history. It seems that his epithet of ‘Ironside’ is quite literal, and refers to the strength of his sides. The adventures of Bjorn and his brothers take them all over from Scandinavia to Anglo Saxon England, and in some to Normandy, the Frankish Kingdoms and Lombardy!
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:53 Who is Bjorn Ironside?
2:21 Bjorn Ironside in The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok
5:07 Bjorn Ironside in The Tale of Ragnar’s Sons
6:18 Bjorn Ironside in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum
9:20 Outro
Monsters as forces of chaos are popular figures in world mythology so stick around for a glimpse of the terrifying monsters from mythology and folklore from around the world. Monsters and creatures from legend and mythology are understood as personifications of the unknown, explanations for natural events or misfortune, or serve to encourage cultural values or prevent unwanted or dangerous behaviour. Any legend or myth, from any culture, always serves some purpose even if, on the surface, it seems to be just an entertaining tale.
In this video, we are going to introduce a number of terrifying monsters including the Pazuzu, and Assyrian and Babylonian demon best known from the film ‘The Exorcist,’ and the Al, from Ancient Persia, was a nocturnal spirit who entered the house invisibly and then assumed the form of an old woman with long stringy hair, sharp teeth, and talons who preyed on pregnant women and newborns. Some of these monsters you’ll be familiar with, like Scylla and Charybdis from Greek mythology, but some you may not.
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:57 Monsters from Mythology and Folklore
1: 57 The Pazuzu
2:36 The Al
3:21 The Oni
4:02 Scylla and Charybdis
5:06 The Harpies
6:20 The Manticore
7:16 Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hel
8:01 The Kelpie
8:40 Ghosts and Witches
10:44 Vampires and Vampiric Creatures
12:13 Outro
The Ancient Celtic people were never a unified empire, but were individual and complex tribes that shared the Celtic language, and through the trade of goods and ideas, shared similarities in art, warfare, religion and burial practices. The term ‘Celts’ is a general name given to the ancient tribal groups which spanned across western and central Europe during the Late Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. Even though they were related, the tribes had differing governmental systems and would often go into battle against each other (much like the city-states of Greece). These tribes which existed somewhat independently from each other, with both overlapping and unique features were largely absorbed by the Roman Empire by the 1st century CE.
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Who were the Ancient Celts?
1:37 Where did the Celts Originate From?
3:10 Celtic Language and Society
5:07 Celtic Art and Trade
6:42 Celtic Warfare
7:54 Celtic Religion
9:53 What Happened to the Celts?
10:59 Outro
Who doesn’t love a good ghost story, especially during the spooky season and Halloween? Well, the belief in an afterlife was a common feature in all historical civilisations in the ancient world and this encouraged the belief in ghosts as the spirits of the departed who had returned to the realm of the living for one reason or another. This means that there are many stories from around the ancient world that are all about ghosts, so stick around if you want to hear about Khonsemhab and the Ghost from Ancient Egypt, The tale of Ning Caicheng from China and La Llorona from Mexico.
If they aren’t spooky enough, they’re just the beginning! We will tell you all about the haunted Bhangarh Fort from India where you still aren’t allowed to go between dawn and dusk because of reports of people disappearing there and allegedly taken by ghosts. From Greece, we have the tale of Athenodorus and his ghost in chains, and from Rome, we have Tlepolemus’ Ghost where a lover gets her revenge. And have you heard of Hanako-San? The ghost of a young girl who just might drag you to hell… through the toilet?
— CHAPTERS —
0:00 Introduction
0:58 Ghosts in the Ancient World
2:19 An Egyptian Ghost Story
4:08 The Tale of Ning Caicheng
5:15 La Llorona
6:29 Bhangarh Fort, India
8:20 Athenodorus and the Ghost from Greece
9:19 Tlepolemus’ Ghost
10:42 Modern Ghost Stories - The Tale of Hanako-San
12:52 Outro
On this day, 12 November 1946, revolutionary writer and feminist Elisa Acuña Rossetti died in Mexico City aged 74. In 1904 she was jailed for her radical activity, but she resumed it upon her release, in exile in San Antonio, Texas. She became part of the leadership of the anarchist Mexican Liberal Party, and with the outbreak of the Mexican revolution she joined the forces of peasant revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, heading up their propaganda efforts. Later she was heavily involved in supporting the rights of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples.
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