Ancient History

In Greek mythology, Greek gods frequently interact with humans, especially attractive young women, and so you will find them in genealogy charts for the important figures from Greek legend.

Read about the Greek Gods.

The Greek Goddesses don't show up much in the ancestry of the heroes, but play an active role in the Stories From Greek Myth.

• Stories From Greek Myth
• Greek Goddesses
• Greek Gods

Obscure hint (because this is an easy one):
This week's Guess Who is about as far a cry from last week's as possible, but there's still a similarity. It's myth, as opposed to Roman history. Good things are happening at least to the figures shown. Yet, as with last week's scene, even though the central figures are doing what is good for them, the rest of the world may be going to pot.
Guess who the people are.

Answer

Biblical History Contributing Writer Cynthia Astle says that love and marriage in the Bible were quite different from what most people experience today. Here are some frequently asked questions about husbands, wives, and lovers in the Old Testament:

• Love and Marriage in the Bible

Meroe was the second capital of the Kushite kingdom (750 BC - AD 350), located in what is now the Sudan, Africa. It is gaining fame for its matrilinear ruling queens. Eyewitnesses Herodotus and Strabo both describe it. Read: Ancient Historians Describe Meroe.

A lovely Valentine's Day type romance, the story of Cupid and Psyche comes from the Metamorphoses better known as the Golden Ass of Apuleius. The title refers to a golden coin that was given storytellers, although there is a transformation of a human into a donkey.
Beauty and the Beast is on the same theme as Cupid and Psyche. In both, a young woman is given a fantastic husband whom she doesn't fully appreciate until she loses him. She then has to undergo a series of tasks to win him back.
In the story of Cupid and Psyche, the fantastic husband is the god of love who has fallen in love with a mortal whose beauty compares with Cupid's mother's beauty. Cupid's mother is, of course, the very jealous and interfering goddess Venus.

Read Apuleius' Story of Cupid and Psyche and other re-tellings of Cupid and Psyche.

Cupid and Psyche © Clipart.com.

Professor Judith Hallett says that March 1 was the date on which Romans had love celebrations, according to Newswise's article Ancient Rome Waited Until March 1 to say "I Love You".

Today is the first day of the Roman Parentalia holiday, which lasts from the Ides (February is one of the months in which the Ides does not fall on the 15th) to the 21st. During the Parentalia the dead were honored, like Memorial Day in the U.S.

One of these philosophers is known for having said something like "you can't step twice into the same stream." Which one was it? The picture is a hint and if you click on it, you'll find the answer, but please don't look before you make your guess.

For the other presocratic philosophers, see Timeline of Greek and Roman Philosophers.

Lupercalia is one of the most ancient of the Roman holidays (one of the feriae listed on ancient calendars from even before the time Julius Caesar reformed the calendar) and is familiar to us today for two main reasons. It is associated with Valentine's Day and it is the setting for Caesar's refusal of the crown that was made immortal by Shakespeare, in his Julius Caesar.

Read more about Lupercalia.

Putting a story within a story or the play within the play is a familiar, sometimes filibustering technique used skillfully by Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights and for other purposes by Ovid, in his Metamorphoses and Shakespeare, in his comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. A story that Ovid and Shakespeare shared is the doomed love story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Read about The Play Within the Play and compare Shakespeare and Ovid's versions: Pyramus and Thisbe.

Picture: Image ID: 1562027 Les malheurs de Pirame et Thisbé. [The sorrows of Pyramus and Thisbe.] (1925) NYPL Digital Gallery.

Join Me on Facebook | Get My Twitter Updates

On This Day in Ancient History - February 11
On this day in ancient history, Emperor Claudius' son Britannicus was born in 41 A.D. Although Britannicus was Claudius' own son, Claudius made his wife's son, Nero, his heir.

About a decade later (between 50 and 55), on February 11, the future Emperor Domitian's wife, Domitia Longina, was born. Domitian was the last of the Flavian Emperors, the younger son of Vespasian. Domitian restored or built about 50 structures and maintained a higher standard of silver in his currency than had his father. Despite such accomplishments, Domitian was, with good reason, an unpopular ruler who was killed in a palace plot that included Domitia, whom the emperor had exiled and then recalled.

• Domitia and Domitian (Review)
• Claudius

Join Me on Facebook | Get My Twitter Updates