Scylla and Charybdis appear mainly in book twelve of Homer’s Odyssey, in which Odysseus and his crew must sail through the rocks near where the monsters live. Little information is known about their origins, though some stories are provided in myth. Scylla and Charybdis were located on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina […]

When considering the Trojan War, most people think of Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. But these two defining works only tell part of the story. The Iliad is set in the ninth year of a ten-year war, and the Odyssey is the tale of a hero returning after the conflict. Episodes […]

Rivalries between brothers are a recurring motif throughout Roman history. From the bloody struggle between Romulus and Remus during the city’s mythological origins, through to Caracalla’s brutal murder of his brother Geta in the early 3rd century CE, happy families could be rare in Rome. In the late 2nd century BCE, however, two brothers […]

Along with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in September 1848. Throughout the early 1850s, John Everett Millais created many works of art that would define the Pre-Raphaelite art style, exploring themes from folklore, religion, and British literary works. While […]

The Apostle Paul traveled throughout much of the Roman Empire in the first century spreading Christianity and preaching to people and churches. Two of the cities he visited were Philippi in Greece and Colossae in Asia Minor (now Turkey).   Philippi Before Paul Arrived   Philippi was originally a Thrasian colony called Crenides, established […]