Folklore & Mythology

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620–560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare , The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf , are well-known throughout the world. Apollonius of Tyana, the 1st century AD philosopher, is recorded as having said about Aesop:. ...like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he made use of humble incidents to teach great truths, and after serving up a story he adds to it the advice to do a thing or not to do it. Then, too, he was really more attached to truth than the poets are; for the latter do violence to their own stories in order to make them probable; but he by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events. And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of the several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent. (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana , Book V:14). [Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables under the terms of the GNU-FDL] more...

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Beowulf is the earliest extant poem in a modern European language. It was composed in England four centuries before the Norman Conquest. But no one knows exactly when it was composed, or by whom, or why. As a social document this great epic reflects a feudal, newly Christian world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory and death. more...

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This handy guide will introduce students to a text that has been fundamental to literature for nearly 3000 years. It gives readers a summary of The Odyssey and examines its structure. The values and techniques of the poem are clearly outlined, as are the reasons for its longstanding appeal. more...

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Sketching out a fascinating network of historic figures, cults, and Christendom, this book by an occult studies expert and respected authority on magic and sorcery takes western spiritual traditions seriously—but examines them with common sense and self-effacing humor. more...

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This book has been considered a missing link between ancient and modern witchcraft. ARADIA not only inspired Gerald Fardner, Doreen Valiente and other founders of neopagan witchcraft of the twentieth century, it also continues to serve as a reference and inspiration for others. more...

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