🪉 In Greek mythology, the Muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Titaness of memory. They are named Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (singing), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polymnia (hymns), Terpsichore (dancing), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).

👑 Meet Wang Mang, the man who overthrew the Han Dynasty and the first and only emperor of the Xin Dynasty. Though he’s remembered as a usurper, his story is more nuanced than that.

🪨🏃 Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “Sisyphean task” to refer to doing their laundry or dishes? Here’s why!

🌌 Anaximander was one of the most important pre-Socratic philosophers, and one of the first people to try to figure out exactly how the universe works! He also may be the first Greek philosopher to have written down his theories, though much of his work has been lost to time.

😁 The Etruscans were an ancient Italian civilization that lasted from 900 BCE until their full absorption into Rome in 27 BCE. They made many interesting contributions to science and culture, but none more unique than their work in dentistry.

⚡ Whether he’s called Shazam or Captain Marvel, Billy Batson might be the longest-lasting comic book character inspired by ancient cultures, even beating Wonder Woman’s debut by a year!

⚔️ Can humans beat the gods? Watch ‘Record of Ragnarok’ to find out. After the gods council decides to wipe out humanity, they decide to give mortals one last chance: a combat tournament. If humans can beat the gods in 7 out of 13 fights, they live. If they lose, it’s the end of the world.

🍂 If ‘sept-’ means ‘seven’, why is September the ninth month of the year? 🍂 Along with being the first month of Autumn, September is the first in a series of months with numerical root words. But the root word doesn’t match the month's place on the calendar!

🦁 This “City of Iron” was called Meroë, a magnificent metropolis of the ancient Kingdom of Kush located in modern-day Sudan. Flourishing from 750 BCE to 350 CE, this UNESCO World Heritage Site grew into a prosperous trade hub, so wealthy that it once tempted the Persian Empire to conquer it.

🐍 Who is this woman holding a snake skin on her knees? 🐍 This is Lamia, a monster from Greek mythology. Known to devour children and seduce men, she was considered a sort of boogeyman in ancient Greece and appeared for the first time in literature around the 6th century BCE.

👑 When most people think of a female Pharaoh, they may think of Cleopatra or Nefertiti. But there’s another female Pharaoh who, up until very recently, was erased from history: Hatshepsut.

🔪 Sarcasm can hurt ... literally. 🔪 The word “sarcasm” comes from the ancient Greek word “sarkasmos,” which means “tearing flesh.”

🦀 Cancer has been a scourge on humanity for as long as we’ve existed, and our smartest have been trying to cure it since 3,000 BCE. The earliest written description of cancer comes from ancient Egypt on an ancient piece of papyrus, possibly written by the physician Imhotep, a priest of Ra.

🪽 This artifact is, perhaps incorrectly, known as the “Harpy Tomb”! Though this archaic marble chamber is named for the infamous Harpy, it’s actually an Anatolian depiction of Sirens! In Greek Archaic thought, Sirens were winged bird-women. Here they are depicted at the edges of the reliefs.

🕷️ How did Arachne doom herself by defying the gods? In Greek and Roman mythology, Arachne was a woman famous for her weaving. However, her hubris led to her challenging the goddess of handicrafts Minerva (or her Greek counterpart Athena) to a weaving contest, according to Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’.

👑 What do you know about Welsh kings? 🐦‍⬛ This is a famous line from Gansey, one of the protagonists of ‘The Raven Cycle’. This YANA book series follows a group of five teens exploring the wilderness of western Virginia in search of Owain Glyndŵr (Romanized in the series as Owen Glendower).

💡 Eureka! 💡 The word “eureka” comes from the ancient Greek “εὕρηκα” (romanized: heureka), which means “I have found.” It’s most famously associated with the scientist and mathematician Archimedes, inventor of the lever and the Archimedes’ Screw.

🟤 For over 13,000 years, this tiny crop has been shaping human history. When our ancestors finally moved away from their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to build settled communities, they needed a reliable, year-round food supply, and that's where lentils come in!

⛰️ These cliff dwellings are in Mesa Verde National Park in the United States!. ⛰️ This site was built between 1180 CE and 1300 CE by ancestors of the Pueblo people and provides important insight into what life was like during the thousands of years of American history before European contact.

☠️ From the rage of springtime comes a goddess of ghosts, all ye best beware Melinoe; the dark-minded! For fans of Hecate’s witchcraft and Persephone’s deadly reign, Melinoe is not an apple far from her mother’s terrifying tree.

🌜 Let’s meet history’s first named poet: Enheduanna! Enheduanna was the chief priestess of the temple complex at Ur. She lived around 2300 BCE in the time of Sargon. She’s often referred to as his daughter, but whether that title is literal or figurative is unclear.

🤪 Turns out the real idiots are people who don’t participate in democracy. 🤪 The word idiot comes from the ancient Greek ‘idios’, meaning private, with its derivative ‘idiōtēs’ referring to somebody who didn’t hold public office, aka a private citizen.

📜 Are people inherently good? According to Legalism, an ancient Chinese philosophical framework, they aren’t. The tenets of Legalism hold that people are inherently selfish & can’t be trusted, so it’s the duty of a leader to create laws that stymie those selfish urges & of people to follow the law.

🐍 The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes, the Greek god of travel, language, thieves & herald of the gods. Two snakes are intertwined around a rod, which is topped by wings to represent the swiftness of Hermes. In ancient Greece & Rome, the caduceus was a symbol of heralds & ambassadors.

🪽 One of the twelve Olympian gods and a son of Zeus, Hermes was the ancient Greek god of thieves, trade, travel, language, wealth, and animal husbandry! He was also the patron god of shepherds and the creator of the lyre, the alphabet, the panpipes, and the dice.

🌋 Tom Hiddleston, the charismatic actor we know and love as Loki, has released the trailer for his new documentary series on Disney+, a collaboration with National Geographic titled ‘Pompeii: Out of Time’. Of course, Tom won't be playing the God of Mischief here, but a “time detective” narrator.

✨ Fine, we’ll talk about Jojo’s. ✨ In the third story arc of ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures’, called ‘Stardust Crusaders’, the concept of stands is introduced: physical manifestations of a person’s spirit and will.

🏛️ Pictured here is the Severan Forum (also known as the New Forum) in Lepcis Magna, the birthplace of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus!

☀️ July and August are both considered to be the height of summer in the northern hemisphere! But did you know that they have something else in common? Both months were named for famous Roman leaders!

🍏 Did you know that Norse Gods relied on one goddess and her apples to stay young? 🍏 Meet Idunn, the Norse fertility goddess responsible for keeping the residents of Asgard forever young and healthy.