All the Violet Tiaras – Jean Menzies
For a period in time that gave us Sappho, and the love affair of Achilles and Patroclus, the Ancient Greek relationship with queer folk is a lot more complicated than…
Turtles all the way down
"Turtles all the way down" is an expression of the problem of infinite regress. The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth…
The Golden Arm
The Golden Arm is a folktale, a story appearing in multiple cultures through oral tradition and folklore, most famously told by Mark Twain and also used by him to instruct…
Sirens, succubi & sex symbols: a history of female monsters
From the dangers of childbirth to female sexuality, myths and legends about female monsters like mermaids and sirens can tell us a lot about different societies’ attitudes towards women over…
Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos
All the stories in humanity’s history that have had a lasting impact on us, from the Bible to Greek myths to the X-Men franchise, have been rich in meaning beyond…
Our fiction addiction: Why humans need stories
From fireside folk tales to Netflix dramas, narratives are essential to every society – and evolutionary theorists are now trying to figure out why, writes David Robson. {read}
The One about the Dead Dog
This is a story inspired by urban legends -- unusual stories or anecdotes based on hearsay that are widely circulated as true. Like alligators in sewers. Or dead dogs in…
12-Pig-faced Women: Citation Needed
For over 200 years in western Europe, there was a pervasive belief among large portions of the population that the upper classes in society were hiding something - women horribly…
78-Egyptian Mythology: The Master Namer
Starting at the beginning of the universe and going to the beginning of the epic and mildly disturbing battles between Set and his nephew Horus, Egyptian mythology is epic, funny,…