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What Odysseus needed from his father was something more important: the comfort of being a son.
The sonnenrad is a Heathen symbol composed of 12 repeated runes.
The long-standing debate over whether dinosaurs were more like birds or lizards is drawing to a close.
An elaborate device called the Mechanical Turk defeated Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte at chess. Edgar Allan Poe revealed the hoax.
For centuries, men prevented women from writing music. These classical composers broke with social norms and made their mark on history.
Robinson v. California helped to established a rehabilitative ideal: addiction should be dealt with as a therapeutic matter.
Before the war, medical experts treated the body as a sum of its parts. Conditions like wound shock and brain damage called for a change in perspective.
Privateers pillaged British merchant ships in the name of liberty — and profit.
Bernini created art for 8 different popes. In the process, he helped reinforce and redefine Christianity’s visual culture.
Now they're pointing the way to future battery technologies.
Human sacrifice appears to be as old as humanity itself. Still, experts disagree on how and where the practice first originated.
Searching for truth in unorthodox ways can be a valuable exercise. But Anatoly Fomenko's alternate world history is just plain weird.
Geopolitics is not a magic 8-ball. But making financial decisions — such as those regarding retirement — in a multipolar world without geopolitics is akin to flying blind in a storm.
To the ancient Greeks, exotic animals were proof of mythological creatures. To the ancient Romans, they were oddities and adversaries.
Cold War meets Star Wars in this cut-away of a 1950 “rubber bubble,” the first line of defense against nuclear sneak attack.
Was there an intelligent, technologically advanced species long before humans existed? Could there have been a dinosaur civilization?
Were Hitler’s SS henchmen willing executioners fueled by racial propaganda or mindless servants vying for promotions?
Paintings played an important role in these ancient civilizations. Unfortunately, pigment is not nearly as durable as marble.
Speculation about the existence of aliens goes all the way back at least to the Greek philosophers. Their arguments will sound familiar.
The Mayan calendar is revered for its impeccable accuracy. Now, a recent excavation in Guatemala reveals how the system developed over time.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not to mark Mexican independence.
Ukraine destroyed a railway to prevent passage from Transnistria into Ukraine.
Presidential gravesites are spread out “democratically” — but this is more by accident than design.
A toxicological study shows that the victims of human sacrifice consumed coca leaves and ayahuasca before they were killed, but not for reasons we originally thought.
Volcanic activity caused the end-Triassic mass extinction 200 million years ago. The dinosaurs survived and rose to dominance.
The underground burial tombs were used at least as far back as 2500 B.C.
"Immodest Acts" tells the story of Benedetta Carlini, a lesbian nun who claimed to be a mystic visionary but failed to convince the leaders of her faith.
Frank Slater’s book "Practical Portrait Painting" reveals the secrets of masters old and new, from Leonardo da Vinci to Augustus John.