Tag Archives: aeneid

Mistletoe the Line

As a kid, I was introduced to the idea of mistletoe being the plant people kiss under at Christmastime. Then, when I was a little older, I started looking into Norse mythology, and found the story about how mistletoe had … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Christmas, Chronicles of Narnia, Etymology, Greek Mythology, Holidays, Language, Magic, Mythology, Names, Norse, Religion, Roman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Forget That Girl

Today, I’d like to talk about Meng Po, a Chinese goddess who makes an appearance in Katie Zhao’s Fallen Hero. She’s a resident of Diyu, the underworld, which combines Taoist and Buddhist traditions. Meng Po makes a magic liquid that … Continue reading

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The Gang’s All Here

Picture by Mark Spears I noticed on Joe Bongiorno’s Royal Timeline of Oz that he’s added several fictional works not directly related to Oz or L. Frank Baum, crediting some of them to Win Scott Eckert’s Wold Newton Universe chronology. … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Comics, Conspiracy Theories, Greek Mythology, History, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Mythology, Norse, Oz, Oz Authors, Roman, Star Trek | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Wages of Sin

Snuff Fiction, by Robert Rankin – While Rankin often employs dark humor, this one is even darker than most, focusing on the narrator’s unfortunate friendship with tobacco magnate, terrorist, and generally underhanded guy Doveston. He’s constantly helping out Doveston with … Continue reading

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Characters, Chinese, Conspiracy Theories, Humor, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Religion, Robert Rankin, Roman, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Tom Holt | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Give Me Your Tyred, Your Punic

Carthage is remembered these days as the main enemy of the ever-expanding Romans in the third and second centuries BC. The two burgeoning empires fought the three Punic Wars, the second of which was when Hannibal launched his unsuccessful campaign … Continue reading

Posted in Greek Mythology, History, Middle East, Mythology, Roman, Roman Empire, Semitic | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Merely a Man

I wrote about demonization last week, but there’s another way people dealt with gods they didn’t believe in, which is claiming that they’re simply people who came to be worshipped. Of course this kind of thing actually happened, both with … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, Greek Mythology, Greek Philosophy, Judaism, Mormonism, Mythology, Norse, Philosophy, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Ferry ‘Cross the Acheron

You’ve probably heard of Charon, the ferryman of the dead from Greek mythology. He’s the son of Erebus and Nyx, the primordial deities of darkness and night, respectively. His job is to take the souls of the dead across the … Continue reading

Posted in Greek Mythology, Mythology | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A Trojan in Italy

Does the Aeneid count as Homeric fanfiction? I mean, it pretty much follows up the Iliad and Odyssey exactly, using some of the same characters and situations. Like Odysseus, Aeneas encounters Polyphemus the Cyclops and visits the world of the … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Greek Mythology, History, Mythology, Roman, Roman Empire | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Not Built in a Day

Since the date of our New Year dates back to the Romans, what better to write about today than the myths surrounding the founding of Rome? Of course, the year didn’t start on the first of January at that point. … Continue reading

Posted in Greek Mythology, History, Mythology, Roman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments