Greek and Roman
A Terrifying Oath
“Whichever contenders trample on this treaty first, spill their brains on the ground as this wine spills – theirs, their children’s too – their enemies rape their wives!” […]
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Greek and Roman
When Octopuses Attack!
“It struggles with him, embracing him with its tentacles, swallows at him with its many suckers and pulls him apart; it attacks shipwrecked men or men who are diving.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Spurned Ultimatum
“Think not, O Caesar, that thou canst entice us, like children, by the blandishments of cajolery like this – that thou canst succeed in leading us astray, leaving the pleasant and noble road of freedom, our birthright, a road wherein our fathers were ever wont to walk straight forwards.” […]
Human Affairs
A Temple to the Old Gods
“A sacrificial bowl was placed on the plat form and in it a sacrificial twig – like a priest’s aspergillum – which was used to sprinkle blood from the blow.” […]
Medieval Mentality
Wisdom of the Snake
“A Norwegian woman, intending to provide for the future good fortune of her son Roller, prepared a dish of food, into which she let drip the putrid saliva of three vipers hanging above it from a slender cord.” […]
Britons and Celts
Some Dreams End in Death
“It seems to me that dreams are like rumours: you must use your common sense, and then accept some but refuse to believe others.” […]
Orient
Traders on the Sea of Darkness
“In the Darkness there is a tree as big as a large village and on it perches an enormous creature, some say a bird.” […]
Greek and Roman
Front-Line Poetry
“Now the savage work went on, Acheans and Trojans mauling each other there like wolves, leaping, hurtling into each other, man throttling man.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Dolphins of Tunisia
“Dolphins are not afraid of humans as something alien, but come to meet vessels at sea and play and leap around them; they try to race ships and overtake them even when they are under full sail.” […]
Viking
The Mild-Mannered Berserker
“n the hayfield at Mavahlid a hand was found where the fight had taken place. It was shown to Thorarin, and he saw that it was the hand of a woman. He asked where Aud was, and was told that she was lying in her bed. He went in to see her and asked whether she was wounded.” […]