The Fomorians: The Ancient Forces That Opposed Ireland’s Gods and Were Never Fully Defeated
The Fomorians are the oldest hostile force in Irish mythology. They were in Ireland before the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived, […]
Ancient Mythology
Ancient Mythology
Ancient Mythology: The Stories That Shaped the World
Before history was written down, it was told. The great mythological traditions of the ancient world were not simply entertainment or primitive attempts to explain natural phenomena. They were the frameworks through which entire civilisations understood their place in the universe, the nature of their gods, the obligations of the living to the dead, and the rules that governed everything from the weather to the proper conduct of war. They were serious business, and they deserve to be treated as such.
This section covers the major mythological traditions of the ancient world. At present the coverage is deepest in Greek mythology, which has the largest body of content on the site, but the section will expand over time to include Norse, Chinese, Native American, and other traditions as that content develops. Each tradition is covered on its own terms rather than filtered through the lens of the popular culture versions that have accumulated around them, because the original material is almost always stranger, richer, and more interesting than any adaptation has managed to convey.
The articles here are written for people who want to understand what the myths actually said, who the figures in them actually were, and why the civilisations that produced them considered these stories worth preserving across centuries. Browse by subcategory below, or explore the articles directly.
Lugh: The Irish God Who Was Master of Every Art and Killed His Own Grandfather With a Sling Stone
When Lugh arrived at the gates of Tara and asked to be admitted to the court of the Tuatha Dé
The Dagda: The Good God Who Was Neither Good Nor Particularly God-like, and Was More Powerful for It
The Dagda is the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann and one of the most distinctive figures in any
The Tuatha Dé Danann: Ireland’s Divine Race Who Became the Fairy Folk Beneath the Hills
The Tuatha Dé Danann are the gods of Ireland. Not gods in the abstract, remote sense that the word sometimes
The Destruction of Mankind: The Egyptian Myth Where Ra Sent a Goddess to Kill Everyone and Had to Get Her Drunk to Stop Her
Ra made a mistake. He had ruled Egypt and all the earth for longer than anyone could remember, and as
The Duat: The Egyptian Underworld That Was Not Hell and What the Dead Actually Encountered There
The Duat is the most precisely mapped afterlife realm in the ancient world. While the Greek underworld is described in
The Book of the Dead: What It Actually Was, What It Contained, and Why Its Real Name Is More Interesting Than the Name We Use
The Book of the Dead is not a book. It is not dead. And the name was given to it
The Egyptian Creation Myth: How a Civilisation That Had Multiple Competing Creation Stories Was Comfortable With All of Them at Once
Egyptian mythology does not have a creation myth. It has at least three, developed in different cities, promoted by different
The Weighing of the Heart: The Egyptian Judgment of the Dead and What It Actually Meant to Have Your Soul Destroyed
In the Hall of Two Truths, after death, every Egyptian faced a judgment that determined the remainder of their existence.
The Osiris Myth: The Complete Story of Murder, Dismemberment, and Resurrection That Shaped Everything in Egyptian Religion
The Osiris myth is the central narrative of Egyptian religion. It is not simply the most important story in the