Archaeologists in the Henan Province of China may have found the body of Cao Cao in an 8,000 square-foot tomb complex they have been excavating for a year. He died at age 65 in A.D. 220. Near him were his 50-something wife and a younger female servant. Cao Cao was a ruler of northern China during the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, as well as a poet and military genius. Cao Cao, who unified much of northern China, according to the news article Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives : Discovery News, has been featured in Chinese literature, opera, and films.

See Periods of Ancient China - Three Kingdoms.

Detail From CC Flickr User Alun Salt.

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Wordless Wednesday and About.com's Wordless Wednesday

While it's true that not all the Myth Mondays dealt with Greek mythology, as George O'Connor, author of a new Graphic novel called Zeus King of the Gods, notes in his blog, most were. There are a few Roman ones and one answer to a question on Norse mythology. For your convenience, here is the complete list of 2009 Myth Monday topics:

Greek

• Hercules [Heracles] at Troy
• Hercules Hurls His Guest
• Hercules and the Argonauts
• Hercules the Giant Killer
• Hercules' Labor Days... and Years
• Dionysus the Twice-Born
• Dionysus, Dismemberment, and the Origin of Humans
• Cannibals in Myth and Legend
• Dionysus and the Return of Hephaestus
• Athena and the First King(s) of Athens
• Theseus Returns From Crete
• Theseus Had a Hand in It
• The Deeds of Theseus
• Medea and Athens
• Medea in "Jason and the Argonauts"
• Medea Murders the Children
• Medea, a Victim and Victimizer (With Poll)
• Zeus and Kampe

Norse

• Question About Norse Mythology

Roman

• Who Founded Rome?
• Turnus and Io
• Janus Looks to the New Year

You may also want to read:

• What Is Myth?
• Myth vs. Religion
• Myth vs. Science
• Myth vs.Legend

Two-faced Janus (Ianus), presumed to be native to Italy, is the god of beginnings/endings. It's after Janus that the first month of the year, Januarius 'January', is named. The kalends (the 1st) of each month may have been dedicated to him. As such, Janus is an appropriate god to include in the final Myth Monday before the new year begins.

Rabun Taylor (citation below) eloquently describes the lack of a coherent story about Janus:

"Janus, like so many ancient gods who lacked the grace of a story, was a messy concrescence of scraps fallen from the table of memory. His incoherence was the cause of some puzzlement in the Roman Imperial era, and so he was periodically subjected to reassessments by master yarn-spinners like Ovid or by cosmologists and philosophers seeking to find profound symbolism in his duality."

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