Tales of Times Forgotten

According to Pliny the Elder, the Greek philosopher Dionysodoros of Melos was renowned throughout the Hellenistic world for being a great geometrician. He lived to an astoundingly old age and, after his death, his female heirs led a funeral procession in his honor. After bearing his corpse to the tomb, they discovered a mysterious letter sitting in the crypt. They opened it up and found, to their astonishment, that it was written in Dionysodoros’s own handwriting and that it had his signature at the bottom.

Continue reading “Ancient Greek Ghost Stories, Part Seven: Letters from the Afterlife”

We have all doubtlessly wondered at some point how the days of the week received their names. Most of us probably have some vague recollection that the names have something to do with ancient Germanic deities. That is true, but the origins of the names for the days of the week actually go back even further than that. As a bizarre as it may sound, the story actually begins with ancient Babylonian astrologers.

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In classical literature, we often stumble across unusual or amusing anecdotes. Sometimes, however, we find stories that are downright bizarre. For instance, in his Natural History 9.4.9-11, Pliny the Elder describes a bizarre assortment of otherworldly sightings of supernatural sea creatures, including mermaids, mermen, and gigantic sea monsters.

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Today everyone was excited about the total solar eclipse (near-total in some places) that occurred this afternoon over the continental United States. We all knew that the eclipse was going to happen decades in advance due to modern astronomical calculations, but, in ancient times, there was no sound way of predicting when an eclipse would occur… until Thales of Miletos came along.

Continue reading “The Eclipse of Thales and the Battle of Halys”

In his Controversiae 2.2.12, the Roman writer Seneca the Elder tells the story of how the poet Ovid once told all his friends that each of them could choose three lines they disliked from any of his poems, promising that, whichever lines they chose, he would remove.

Continue reading “Ovid’s Worst Lines”

In Book Six of The Guide to Greece, the ancient Greek travel writer Pausanias tells the story of the ghost of a stoned rapist who terrorized the city of Temesa until it was driven out by the Olympic boxer Euthymos.

Continue reading “Ancient Greek Ghost Stories, Part Six: The Hero of Temesa”

Everyone has heard the beautiful, heart-warming tale of how, in 1776, General George Washington, George Ross, and Robert Morris personally visited the humble Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross and showed her a rough sketch for the first flag of the United States of America, to which she made a few minor alterations before sewing it. It is a good story, which is why we tell it. Unfortunately, it is also completely apocryphal; there is no solid historical evidence linking Betsy Ross to the first American flag aside from a highly implausible story told by her grandson nearly a century later.

Continue reading “Betsy Ross Did Not Design the First American Flag”

We all love the Fourth of July. It is a time for fireworks, family, and patriotism. Of course, you should probably be aware that some of the things we consider patriotic today have a somewhat dodgy history. Take the Pledge of Allegiance, for instance. Surely nothing says American patriotism like the Pledge of Allegiance… until you remember that it was actually written by a socialist whose vision for America was quite different from what we admire today.

Continue reading “The Pledge of Allegiance Was Actually Written by a Socialist”