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By Martini Fisher Posted on 31 Jul 201620 Feb 2021

Mythical Creatures as a Reflection of Cultural Fears

Myths and folklore are very interesting parts of every culture. We can see their reflection on so many things: books, paintings, sculptures, music – basically all kinds of art! In … Continue reading Mythical Creatures as a Reflection of Cultural Fears

Categories: mythologyTags: avasflowers, children, flowers, infographic, legend, mythology, nature, spirits, world

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Epictetus told his students to learn from the slaves whispering memento mori ("remember you must die") in the ears of generals and emperors as they rode in triumph through the streets of Rome.

“Each of the criminals is bound to an iron pillar and the ox-headed demon is in the process of administering punishment.” This passage is found in a Chinese Shanshu (“good book” or “morality book”) titled Diyu yu-chi (roughly translated as “Record of a Journey to Hell”). The book emerged in tenth century China and talks about the things that one would find in hell which, of course, include many forms of tortures.

I was opening one of my journals to an entry I did in 2015. This was before I decided to build my website, History Made Beautiful. I had written my first two books at the time and was reflecting on what writing means to me and whether I wanted to continue doing it, along with everything it entails. I wrote, "I accept that life is about nuances, and one can never be completely happy or completely miserable. But writing gives me freedom, and this freedom is as close as I'll ever going to get to being completely happy. It gives me joy to tell people how beautiful I think the world is and how much richer every culture that I have written about than any of my descriptions of them. I wish everyone knows how lucky I think they are no matter where they are from. So, yes. I would like to do this. I would like to do this for as long as I can."

It is easy to see why reading Herodotus' work may seem overwhelming. Too much is going on, right from the start. We have only just embarked on the Histories’ central theme – the origins of the conflict between Greeks and barbarians in the fifth century BCE – when the narrative suddenly changes tack and we find ourselves in tales of nudity, intrigue and murder, only to veer off again when a dolphin saves the singer Arion from drowning. A wild ride all around.

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