The Difference Between St. Valentine and Cupid

Valentine’s Day card

Author Nicole Villeneuve

February 8, 2024

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Each year on February 14, romantic partners exchange affectionate cards and sugary-sweet chocolates, all in the name of St. Valentine — and all while the iconic image of Cupid takes center stage. But who are these figures, and how did they converge for this sentimental holiday? From Cupid’s roots in Greek mythology to St. Valentine’s Christian symbolism, here’s how these two figures became the unlikely faces of love and Valentine’s Day.

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Who Is St. Valentine?

The exact origin of the saintly namesake of Valentine’s Day is murky. According to one belief, St. Valentine was a third-century Roman priest who defied the Roman Empire’s stance against men marrying at a young age (it was thought that they should instead serve as soldiers). Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret, leading to his execution on February 14. Another belief portrays St. Valentine as a compassionate man who helped free persecuted Christians in ancient Rome. According to legend, he healed the local jailer’s blind daughter and, before his death, sent her a note signed, “from your Valentine.” Whether these were two separate figures or just one isn’t entirely clear, nor is whether they were actually historical characters and events or just myths. In records from the medieval era, for instance, there is no connection between St. Valentine and love or marriage. But regardless of how the figure became linked with romance, the association between St. Valentine and love has remained strong.

Who Is Cupid?

Today, we think of Cupid as a surreal cherubic figure, adorned with wings and armed with a bow and arrows. This iconic imagery is rooted in depictions of Eros, the Greek god of love. Initially depicted as a handsome youth, Eros underwent a transformation during the Hellenistic period (around 323 BCE to 31 BCE), evolving into the cherubic, winged child we recognize today. When the Romans adopted the deity, he became Cupid, a name derived from the Latin word for “desire.” The new likeness remained, as did Eros’ mischievous use of his arrows to arouse love or extreme passion in whomever happened to be struck by one.

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How Did Valentine’s Day Start?

While there is no single backstory for our modern celebration of Valentine’s Day, the holiday is often linked to the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which took place on February 15 and dates back to the sixth century BCE. In the fifth century CE, Pope Gelasius I abolished the pagan observance of Lupercalia and instead declared February 14 as a commemorative day for the martyrdom of St. Valentine — with no explicit mention of love, however. In fact, it wasn’t until several centuries later that Valentine’s Day’s romantic connotations emerged, sometime in the late 1300s, when English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about the mating rituals of birds in his epic poem "Parlement of Foules." He wrote of “Seynt Valentynes day” as the day “whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make” — or when birds choose their mates.

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How Did Cupid Become the Face of a Day for St. Valentine?

Chaucer’s prose is believed to be the first mention of Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday; from there, the association gained more traction. In the 1470s, an English woman named Margery Brews wrote to her fiancé John Paston and referred to him as “My right well-beloved Valentine” — a letter believed to be the oldest English-language valentine. The concept of Valentine's as a day for love was helped along not only by Chaucer, but by William Shakespeare, whose use of both Valentine’s Day and Cupid as romantic symbols further bolstered the idea in Britain. Shakespeare also considered Valentine’s Day a day for lovers, and associated Cupid with love. By the 16th century, Valentine’s Day and Cupid were established cultural symbols of love, and they eventually coalesced on greeting cards. At this time, cards were enormously popular across Europe, Valentine’s cards chief among them. By the mid-1800s, many Valentine’s Day cards featured imagery not far off from Chaucer’s whimsical vision of the day — birds and flowers in springtime — as well as frequent portrayals of the familiar winged, curly-haired Cupid.

6 Little-Known Facts About Greek Mythology

Statue of Athena

Author Paul Chang

September 13, 2023

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From Theseus’ battle with the minotaur to the epic siege of Troy, tales from Greek mythology have gripped humanity’s imagination for millennia. Likely originating with the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete (around 3000 to 1100 BCE), these stories portray the adventures and foibles of gods and heroes. The ancient Greeks looked to these myths — which were passed down orally for centuries before being transcribed — to explain everything from earthquakes to the creation of the universe. Though our scientific understanding of the world has progressed since ancient times, Greek mythology continues to shape and inspire many aspects of our culture to this day, from business to entertainment to sports. For a quick look at the history of this fascinating body of stories, here are six facts about Greek mythology.

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The Amazons Were Based on the Real Warrior Women of the Steppe

The Greek myth of the Amazons — a race of warrior women descended from Ares, the god of war — has inspired countless works of art, including the character of Wonder Woman. According to the myths, these warriors lived in a city called Themiskyra composed entirely of women, located on the Black Sea. Until recently, scholars believed that the Amazons were the stuff of fiction — but a growing body of evidence suggests that the stories were inspired by real-life female warriors who roamed the grasslands of the Eurasian Steppe on horseback and wielded bows and arrows. While these women differed from the Amazons of legend in some specifics (for example, they lived alongside men), leading experts now believe that ancient Greek encounters with these warriors gave rise to the legend that spread across the world.

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Greek Mythology’s Most Famous Author May Have Never Existed

Credited as the author of theIliadand theOdyssey — two of Greek mythology’s most important texts — Homer has been viewed as a towering literary figure for much of history. Traditionally, he was thought to have lived in the eighth or ninth century BCE, and was described as being blind and, by some accounts, illiterate (dictating his poems to a literate assistant for transcription). However, since the 18th century, scholars have questioned whether Homer even existed. Some academics, such as the American classicist Milman Parry, have suggested that Homer’s epic poems were the result of oral stories told by various poets and folk singers being compiled into singular texts. Other scholars have questioned historical inconsistencies throughout the poems that could imply parts of the text were written in different time periods. This debate has inspired an entire field of study around Homer’s identity, known as the “Homeric Question.” While Homer’s existence is uncertain, one thing is for sure: The Iliad and the Odyssey continue to transfix and entertain readers to this day.

The Myth of Demeter and Persephone Gave Rise to a Secretive Cult

According to Greek myth, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, had a daughter named Persephone who was kidnapped by Hades and brought to the underworld, leaving a heartbroken Demeter to roam the earth looking for her. Persephone was eventually released by Hades, but forced to return to the underworld for four months out of every year, during which Demeter, in her grief, would cause crops to wither and die — thus explaining the winter season.

The “Eleusinian Mysteries” were secret religious rituals practiced in the ancient Greek city of Eleusis from 1600 BCE to 392 CE that celebrated the myth of Demeter and Persephone. These rituals promised to remove initiates’ fear of death, and despite virtually every important thinker in antiquity — including Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, and Cicero — participating, what actually happened during the ceremony remains a mystery. And for good reason: Initiates were sworn to secrecy on pain of death. While some have speculated that the rituals may have involved a symbolic reenactment of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, and that hallucinogens may have been involved, we may never know the truth of what happened at Eleusis.

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The Ancient City of Troy Actually Existed

Homer’s Iliad tells the story of the 10-year siege of Troy, and centers on the mythical hero Achilles. Until the 19th century, it was widely believed that, like the gods and heroes that inhabit the Iliad, the city of Troy itself was a piece of fiction. But archaeological excavation has revealed that Troy was a real city located in modern-day Turkey at a site called Hisarlik. To date, 10 archaeological layers of Troy have been discovered, spanning at least 4,000 years. However, while modern scholars agree that Troy did exist, the size, population, and stature of the ancient city continue to be a source of debate.

The Olympic Games Have Roots in Greek Mythology

Historians agree that the ancient Olympic Games began in 776 BCE, as part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus. But the ancient Greeks believed that the Games themselves had mythological origins. According to one myth, Zeus created the Games to celebrate his victory over Cronus in their struggle for the throne. More than a thousand years later, the same mythology led to the ancient Olympics’ demise. In 393 CE, the Roman Emperor Theodosius (Greece lost its independence to Rome in the second century BCE) abolished the Games due to their association with the pagan worship of Zeus. The Olympics remained inactive until a French educator named Pierre de Coubertin launched a plan to revive the tournament in 1894, leading to the first Games of the modern era in 1896.

The Most Famous Temple to Athena Exploded in the 17th Century

Every year, tourists from around the world flock to see the Parthenon, an ancient Greek temple to the goddess Athena. Built in the fifth century BCE and located atop the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon once housed a 40-foot statue of Athena made of ivory and gold, as well as stunning sculptures depicting scenes from Greek mythology. It stood intact until the 17th century, during which Athens was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, which was at war with several European countries. As part of the war effort, the Turks used the Parthenon to store gunpowder. During a Venetian attack on Athens in 1687, the Parthenon was struck by a mortar shell, causing a massive explosion that blew up the center of the building. Thankfully, parts of the Parthenon remained standing, and modern efforts to restore and preserve the architectural marvel continue today.

5 Myths About the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

Egyptian Queen Cleopatra

Author Kristina Wright

August 3, 2023

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Though she’s one of the most famous leaders of the ancient world, Cleopatra’s life is still shrouded in mystery. Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator ruled Egypt for 22 years as a powerful queen, and while her legacy is filled with tales of a goddess incarnate who seduced men to get what she wanted and had no problem killing anyone who got in her way (even her own siblings), much of this image is thanks to Hollywood and other pop culture depictions of the Egyptian queen. Actress Elizabeth Taylor famously played her in the big-budget 1963 film Cleopatra, and there have been numerous other portrayals of this enigmatic leader in art, fiction, and film — most of them filled with anachronisms and exaggerations and lacking in historical accuracy.

What historians do know is that when Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII, died in 51 BCE, 18-year-old Cleopatra was named his successor. Over the course of her reign, she ruled alongside two of her brothers and her oldest son. She envisioned herself as the sole ruler of Egypt, however, and formed alliances with two of Rome’s most powerful generals in order to protect and maintain her power. In 47 BCE, she bore a son by Julius Caesar, nicknaming him Caesarion, or “little Caesar,” despite his illegitimacy. A few years later, in 44 BCE, Cleopatra’s relationship with Caesar came to an abrupt end when the Roman leader was assassinated, forcing her to develop new strategic alliances to secure her reign.

The Egyptian queen found a new political and romantic partner in Caesar’s friend and ally Mark Antony. With Antony, Cleopatra continued her political alliance with Rome, and they had three children together. However, Caesar’s adopted son Octavian declared war on the pair, leading to their untimely deaths. Cleopatra died in 30 BCE at age 39, as the last Egyptian queen and next-to-last Egyptian pharaoh. (Octavian had the last pharaoh, Cleopatra and Caesar’s 17-year-old son Caesarion, put to death just days later.) Octavian went on to become the first Roman emperor, dubbed Augustus Caesar, embracing his role as Caesar’s heir and ending the Ptolemaic kingdom.

It has been over 2,000 years since Cleopatra’s death, but her fascinating life still captures the imagination. Here are five popular myths about the Egyptian queen that separate the truth from the legend.

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Myth: Cleopatra Was Ethnically Egyptian

Cleopatra is one of the best-known figures in Egypt’s history , but she wasn’t ethnically Egyptian. Though she was born in Alexandria, Egypt, around 69 BCE, Cleopatra’s lineage is traced to Macedonian Greece. She was the daughter of Ptolemy XII, a descendant of Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian general who served under Alexander the Great and founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled in Egypt. Historians aren’t certain about the identity of Cleopatra’s mother, but theories suggest Cleopatra was the daughter of either Ptolemy’s first wife, Cleopatra V; his second wife, whose name is unknown; or a concubine.

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Myth: Cleopatra Wasn’t Prepared to Be Queen

Little is known about Cleopatra’s life before she became queen, but as a member of Ptolemaic royalty, she was highly educated and received a well-rounded Hellenistic education that included rhetoric, philosophy, astronomy, music, and Greek literature. She spoke around nine languages (Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Syrian, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Persian, and Aramaic) and was the first of the Ptolemaic line to learn the Egyptian language. Praised for her intellect, she was knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects, including economics, military strategy, law, and linguistics.

Myth: Cleopatra Was Known for Her Beauty

Accounts of Cleopatra’s life often suggest she was a beautiful seductress, a myth likely started by Octavian to justify his ongoing rivalry with Mark Antony. Few ancient historians characterized Cleopatra as beautiful and the existing artifacts bearing her likeness are inconsistent in their portrayal of the Egyptian queen. Some coins, for instance, show Cleopatra having more masculine features, such as a strong jaw, sloped forehead, and aquiline nose, perhaps as a way of emphasizing her leadership strength. Other artifacts present her with a more conventionally feminine appearance, accentuating rounded cheeks, stylishly curled hair, and a small chin. While legend attributed Cleopatra’s power to her beauty, it was her intellect and charisma that garnered her the devotion of others. In his 75 CE biography, Life of Antony, Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch wrote of Cleopatra, “For her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her… but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible.”

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Myth: Cleopatra Wasn’t a Good Leader

Born into royalty, Cleopatra was the wealthiest woman in the world during her lifetime and is still one of the wealthiest people in all of history, with an assigned net worth of tens of billions in today’s currency. She identified as the living manifestation of the goddess Isis, adorning herself in beautiful fabrics and priceless jewels, and enjoying an extravagant and decadent lifestyle. But far from being a mere figurehead, Cleopatra was a savvy public relations expert, skilled at both political and military tactics. She took an active role in leading Egypt, using her intelligence and charisma to build valuable strategic alliances in order to protect Egypt’s independence from the Roman Empire. By establishing trade with Eastern nations, she grew Egypt’s economy and solidified its position as a world power.

Myth: A Brokenhearted Cleopatra Died By Snakebite

In 31 BCE, Antony and Cleopatra were overwhelmed by Octavian’s formidable forces and lost the Battle of Actium, forcing the pair to retreat to Alexandria. As the war raged on, the lovers made a pact to take their own lives rather than risk capture by Octavian. When Octavian’s forces entered Alexandria in 30 BCE, Antony, believing Cleopatra was already dead, fell on his own sword. Cleopatra, however, was still alive and barricaded in the seaside mausoleum she was constructing for herself.

The most well-known legend about Cleopatra’s death features a grief-stricken queen coaxing a venomous viper or cobra to bite her. It is generally accepted that Cleopatra died by suicide, but the details of how it was executed may never be known. It seems unlikely that she would have used an imprecise method such as a snakebite, and many historians believe she may have drunk poison or used a toxic ointment instead. While Cleopatra might have grieved the loss of Antony in the days following his death, it was more likely the threat of being paraded through the streets as Octavian’s prisoner that motivated her to end her life.

The Most Popular Things Traded on the Silk Road

Silk Road camels resting

Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

August 3, 2023

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Though it’s often thought of as a single trail, the Silk Road was actually a vast network of trade routes spanning multiple centuries and continents, connecting cultures as far as 6,000 miles away from each other. The network started around 138 BCE, when Han dynasty China sent out an envoy to make trading connections with other Asian countries. Over the next two centuries, trade routes extended westward through the Indian subcontinent, the Syrian desert, and the Arabian Peninsula, all the way to Greece and Rome. Some of these connections were made over land, but many were made by sea, too. This vibrant network lasted around 1,500 years, ending in 1453 CE when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West — but not before the global exchange of goods and ideas changed the course of history. Here are seven of the most influential and sought-after things that were traded on the Silk Road.

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Silk and Other Textiles

Craftspeople in China had been raising silkworms and working with silk for thousands of years before the luxurious textile became a valuable commodity. Silk was so prized in ancient Rome that one 19th-century German geographer named the Silk Road after the coveted material. Silk reached India in the second century BCE, and in the third century CE, Persia became a major silk-trading hub that connected Europe to East Asia. The trade route spread the popular textile around the world, paving the way for the complex woven patterns of Byzantium and Iran. Silk production, however, remained a closely guarded secret in Asia even after Byzantine Emperor Justinian I had silkworms smuggled over in bamboo tubes.

Silk wasn’t the only fiber that changed hands along the Silk Road, however. Hemp, cotton, and wool were all popular items as well. The cultural exchange also included finished fabric and weaving techniques. Different types of clothing traveled between nations, too; trousers, which made horseback riding easier, originated in Mongolia, and various sorts of woven belts evolved throughout the era.

Paper

It’s easy to take paper for granted now, but in the early days of the Silk Road, it was a new technology for many cultures. Early writing appeared on clay, bone, wax, and parchment, which was made from animal skins and was labor-intensive to create. The first known paper, made from mulberry fibers and other discarded materials, appeared in China during the Han dynasty (25 to 220 CE). Buddhist monks started sharing religious writing on paper because it was durable and easy to transport. It spread through religious communities first and eventually hit trade routes.

Paper was extraordinarily useful — merchants both sold it and used it themselves for recordkeeping — so it spread quickly. It was a popular item in its own right, as well as a means to convey other valuable commodities, such as scientific ideas and literature. Many regions set up their own paper industries; Baghdad, for example, became known for producing stationery. Paper production eventually reached Europe via Sicily and Spain, but Chinese paper remained a valuable export because it was considered higher quality.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder is a carefully measured mix of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, designed to burn quickly and trap enough gas to propel an object, be it a firework or a cannonball. It was a later addition to Silk Road trade routes, and its exact history is unclear, though it’s believed to have originated in China, where it was in use by the 10th century CE — and possibly a few centuries earlier — for signaling and fireworks. Its use in weaponry originated in China, too, starting between the 10th and 12th centuries CE, with a precursor to a gun made out of a bamboo reed. Full-fledged guns evolved by the end of the 13th century, and soon moved westward. Guns and gunpowder reached the Middle East by 1304 CE, and were introduced to Europe, including England and France, by the end of the 14th century CE.

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Spices and Tea

Spices are among the oldest goods to make their way along the Silk Road; cinnamon was being traded throughout Asia as early as 2000 BCE. Many plants had limited distribution at that time, so specific seasonings became especially prized — nutmeg and cloves, for example, grew only in the Moluccas, a small group of Indonesian islands known at the time as the Spice Islands. Traders often made up dazzling stories about the origins of spices to drive up their intrigue and value. Spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger were so prized that the word “spice” is even derived from the Latin word for “special wares.” Around the turn of the second century CE, Alexandria, Egypt, then under Roman rule, became an important spice-trading hub, and soon the tasty goods spread northward to Greece. Spices reached northern Europe via Genoa and Venice starting around the 11th century.

The Silk Road saw a robust tea trade, too. Camellia sinensis, the plant that grows tea leaves, originated in Southeast Asia (roughly where China, India, and Myanmar meet today) and has been part of Chinese culture since at least as far back as the 10th century BCE. Its first trips on the Silk Road were eastward to Japan and Korea, where the plant began to be cultivated. Over the next several centuries, these East Asian nations developed a culture and ritual around both brewing and drinking tea. Associated pottery, such as teapots, followed tea as it spread to India, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

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Glass and Porcelain

If you’ve ever heard porcelain goods referred to as “china” — as in “china dolls” or “fine china” — it’s because porcelain was a distinctly Chinese art for many years. Sculpted from a special clay only available in a certain region of China at the time of the Silk Road, porcelain stood out from other ceramics for both its durability and its translucent white color. The form that became best known in the West was developed during the Yuan dynasty, which spanned the 13th and 14th centuries CE. The classic blue-and-white wares became prized collector’s items, especially in the Islamic world, and inspired similarly styled ceramics in other regions.

Glassware, meanwhile, traveled in the other direction. Glassblowing techniques, particularly with soda-lime glass, developed in the Mediterranean and Middle East starting around 3500 BCE, and examples of that work dating back to the first millennium BCE have been found in East Asia. Roman glass, such as purple glass mosaic bowls, was especially prevalent — Romans loved silk, so they may have swapped the glass for Chinese silk. While Chinese craftspeople produced glass beads in the first few centuries BCE, it was chemically distinct from Western imports. Romans worked with soda-lime glass, the most commonly made type of glass today, which isn’t particularly durable. Imagine keeping it intact for 5,000 miles!

Horses

Horses, originally traded by Mongolian nomadic peoples, were a boon along the Silk Road, enabling traders to expand their networks, even over difficult terrain. They were also, conveniently, both a practical and luxury good, showing both high status and military might, and if you were trading them, they literally transported themselves. Horses were very much in demand in China — they were often traded for silk — and “heavenly horses,” a large breed of horse from a region in Central Asia, were particularly culturally significant. A Han dynasty expedition to acquire these horses even opened up an eastern stretch of the Silk Road between 200 BCE and 200 CE.

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Knowledge

The global exchange of ideas was just as impactful as the exchange of physical goods along the Silk Road. Astronomy, used for navigation, spread from India and ancient Iran. The Islamic Golden Age from the eighth century through the 13th century CE marked innovations in mathematics that we take for granted today — including the base 10 number system and decimal fractions — and it drew heavily from Greek and Indian knowledge. Science scholarship in Baghdad and Cairo also led to major advancements in medicine, enabled by knowledge, materials, and traditions from other civilizations. Alchemy was a spiritual precursor to some very real modern science, and led to discoveries in chemistry that eventually spread westward to Europe from scholars in the Middle East and India.

As goods exchanged hands, so did the knowledge of how to use and create them. Some crops, such as grapes, traveled eastward, while others, such as rice, traveled westward, along with information on how to cultivate them. Different metalworking techniques, including types of armor, spread as craftspeople traveled to sell their wares. Bakers from Central Asia opened shops in China and became part of the evolution of Chinese cuisine. And religious traditions, including Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and local folk traditions, spread and influenced one another as missionaries traveled the vast Silk Road.

6 Amazing Breakthroughs Made by the Ancient Greeks

Aristotle

Author Darren Orf

July 19, 2023

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For more than two millennia, the ideas of the ancient Greeks have spurred some of humanity’s greatest achievements. Philosophy, drama, science, and mathematics sprung from that particular peninsula in the Mediterranean. The work of the Greek scholars propelled Muslim thinkers during the Islamic Golden Age, and the European rediscovery of their ancient texts ignited the Renaissance and sustained the Enlightenment, giving way to new scientific advancements and even new ways of living and governing. These are six amazing breakthroughs from ancient Greece, born from some of history’s greatest minds.

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Pythagoras’ Theorem Formed the Foundation of Geometry

Pythagoras of Samos is arguably the most famous mathematician from ancient Greece (and there were a lot of them), and that’s because nearly every person at some point in their educational journey is taught his eponymous theorem. Expressed as a² + b² = c², the Pythagorean theorem states that the sum of the squares of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. In ancient times, this proved the existence of irrational numbers and formed the cornerstone of what became Euclidean geometry (more on Euclid later), which plays a very real role in construction and navigation today. Some of the world’s smartest minds have set out to provide proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, including Albert Einstein (he was 12 at the time), and new proofs are still being discovered to this day. Simply put, the world would be a very different place without Pythagoras’ triangular insight.

Hippocrates Looked for a Scientific Cause of Illness

Watch any kind of medical drama, and it won’t be long before you hear the phrase “Hippocratic oath,” meaning a doctor’s sacred duty to “do no harm.” Although a bit of a myth in today’s hospitals, the oath is a lasting testament to the life and work of Hippocrates of Cos. Living in the fifth century BCE, Hippocrates was one of the world’s first physicians to explore the cause of illness beyond the usual divine explanations at the time (Zeus’ displeasure, for instance). He’s known as the “father of medicine” because he took a scientific approach to studying illness and tried devising treatments, as described in the 60 or so of his writings that survive to this day. Hippocrates influenced many future generations, but his most important student was arguably Galen of Pergamum in the second century CE, a Roman physician whose work became bedrock of European and Arabic medicine for more than a millennium, and who once claimed that all his knowledge originated with Hippocrates.

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Aristotle Devised a System for Classifying Animals

During Aristotle’s astounding life in the fourth century BCE, he wrote about a cornucopia of scientific subjects including physics, psychology, economics, ethics, government, and poetry. But what is often lost in that academic deluge is the fact that Aristotle was 2,200 years ahead of his time in the field of biology. Today, we classify animals using Latin names in a system devised by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century, but Aristotle created a classification system back in ancient Greece that was remarkably similar to our modern one. Aristotle separated animals into two groups: those with blood and those without blood (or at least red blood), and while Linnaeus didn’t use this particular distinction, it is similar to how the animal kingdom is separated into vertebrates (those with spines) and invertebrates. From there, the Greek thinker divided animals into “genera,” which were broader categories than the genus distinction we use today, and then by species. This groundbreaking foresight into ordering the natural world is why Aristotle is remembered today as the “father of zoology.”

Euclid Knew That Light Traveled in a Straight Line

Euclid, considered the “father of geometry,” was no slouch when it came to studying the nature of light and vision. Published in 300 BCE, his work Optics is considered the first time a scholar gave serious scientific thought to the nature of light. Euclid theorized that light propagated in rays and traveled in a straight line, a big departure from the Platonic idea of light as an “ethereal emanation.” The nature of light and human vision became a vast field of study, interesting Romans, Muslim astronomers, Renaissance thinkers, Enlightenment scientists, and even 20th-century minds. Albert Einstein, for example, won the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics not for his general theory of relativity (as often presumed) but for a discovery in the field of optics known as the photoelectric effect.

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Aristarchus Knew the Planets Orbited the Sun

The publication of Nicolaus Copernicus’ Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs in 1543 is a major moment in history, as the Polish scientist’s heliocentric theory directly challenged Catholic dogma proclaiming that the Earth was at the center of the solar system. In reality, Copernicus was mostly reiterating what some ancient Greeks knew nearly two thousand years before. In the third century BCE, Aristarchus of Samos (likely drawing from the work of another Greek astronomer, Philolaus of Croton) theorized that the sun was much more massive than the Earth, and he placed the planet in its rightful orbit around the star — the first heliocentric model of the solar system. Much like Copernicus’ work, Aristarchus’ theory was met with pushback (with one Stoic saying he should be indicted for “putting into motion the hearth of the universe”) and his ideas were ultimately rejected. This allowed geocentrism to flourish for far too long until Copernicus, citing both Philolaus and Aristarchus, eventually set the record straight.

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Eratosthenes Accurately Measured the Globe

Around the same time Aristarchus was configuring the solar system into its rightful arrangement, the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes of Cyrene pulled off one of the greatest calculations in world history. For nearly 300 years, the ancient Greeks had known the Earth was round — Pythagoras established as much back around 500 BCE — but understanding that the Earth was a globe and comprehending its precise proportions were two different things entirely, and Eratosthenes set out to solve the latter. On the summer equinox in 240 BCE, Eratosthenes measured a shadow cast by a stick in Alexandria, Egypt, that measured 7.12 degrees (roughly one-fiftieth of a circle). Meanwhile, in Syene (modern-day Aswan, Egypt), a particular well cast no shadow, meaning the sun was directly overhead. The mathematician then hired surveyors to measure the distance from Alexandria to Syene and came up with 5,000 stadia. This measurement enabled him to calculate the Earth’s circumference at 250,000 stadia, or somewhere between 24,000 and 29,000 miles (the exact length of a stadium is debated). Today, we know the Earth measures about 24,900 miles around the equator. In other words, even over 2,200 years ago, Eratosthenes just about got it right.

7 Facts That Reveal the Wonder of the Ancient Maya

Maya Archeological site

Author Darren Orf

July 11, 2023

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For thousands of years — beginning around 1800 BCE — the Maya flourished throughout Mexico and Central America, primarily calling modern-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador home. One of the great civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica (along with the Olmecs and Aztecs), the Maya created a sophisticated society with advanced mathematics, architecture, and writing. Today, the Maya peoples make up one of the largest Indigenous populations in the Americas. Here are seven facts that explore the complexity and wonder of this ancient culture.

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The Maya Were Skilled Mathematicians

The numerical system used by the Maya, as well as many other Mesoamerican cultures, was a vigesimal (or “base 20”) system. While our modern “base 10” system uses 1, 10, 100, 1,000, and so on, the Maya used 1, 20, 400, 8,000, etc. The Maya system was much more effective for counting than the confusing system of numerals used in the Roman Empire, and the Maya also devised the concept of zero (perhaps around the year 36 BCE), a major mathematical accomplishment. The Maya leveraged their mathematical skills to build impressive cities, chart astronomical movement (using little more than geometry and some sticks), and develop their famous calendar. Speaking of which…

The Maya Did Not Think the World Was Going to End in 2012

The Maya calendar is a complicated system — in fact, it’s three calendars in one. One of them, the Long Count calendar, which measures time in much longer stretches than the other calendars' 52-year cycle, garnered quite a bit of attention in 2012, as some doomsayers believed the ancient calendar marked December 21, 2012, as the end of the world. The Maya, however, did not believe that. The mostly U.S.-based hysteria grew from the fact that the Long Count calendar was about to reach a 13th “b’ak’tun,” which occurs around every 400 hundred years or so, and this particular b’ak’tun also completed what’s known as a Great Cycle or Grand Cycle, which lasts 5,125.366 solar years. The Maya believed that the end of the Great Cycle simply meant the beginning of a new one — not the apocalypse. But lacking any evidence to the contrary, some doomsday soothsayers in the U.S. believed that life on Earth would end with the cycle (it didn’t), or that the ancient Maya were somehow following extraterrestrial instructions (they weren’t). Instead, December 21, 2012, came and went like any other day, and a new Great Cycle began.

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The Maya Civilization Grew to Some 40 Cities at Its Peak

The first Maya cities formed in the Yucatán around 1800 BCE, around the same time as the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs, from whom the Maya inherited parts of their calendar and writing system. The Maya civilization began to flourish around 250 CE, entering a golden age known as the classic period. Much like the ancient Greeks who thrived centuries earlier, the Maya had no central authority during this period and were instead dominated by dozens of city-states. The Maya followed “kuhul ajaw,” or holy lords, who claimed to be descendants of gods and were seen as intermediaries between the Maya people and their deities. The city-states, of which there were about 40, held populations as small as 5,000 or as large as 50,000 to 120,000. The most famous examples were Palenque, Copán, and Tikal, the largest city in the southern Maya lowlands. During the classic period, anywhere from 2 million to 10 million Maya lived in Mesoamerica.

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Many Maya Cities Were Mysteriously Abandoned Around 900 CE

Around the year 750 CE, the fortunes of the Maya began to change. Artifacts show that by the middle of the eighth century, construction in some cities had drastically declined, and by 925 CE, many of the city-states that made up the heart of this Mesoamerican power were abandoned. So what happened? Well, it’s hard to know for sure, but it’s likely that a combination of factors led to the decline of the Maya civilization. Geologic records gathered from stalagmites in Belize show prolonged drought affected the area at the time. Environmental degradation, overpopulation, shifting trade routes, and warring city-states also likely contributed to the civilization’s decline. However, these ill fortunes mostly impacted the southern lowlands (southern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize), and between 900 CE and 1519 CE, cities in the northern lowlands and Guatemala’s highlands rose to prominence. (After all, the name “Maya” comes from the northern capital Mayapan.) Cites such as the highland city of Utatlán (also known as Qʼumarkaj) in modern-day Guatemala remained regional powers as late as the arrival of the Spanish in 1524.

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Only Three Maya Codices Still Exist

The first evidence of Maya writing, likely adopted from the Olmecs, dates to around 300 BCE, found in the murals at San Bartolo in Guatemala. Similar to the ancient Egyptians, the Maya used ornate hieroglyphics and pictographs to express themselves and record government and calendar events. Maya writing also graces myriad monuments (known as stelae), ceramics, and other objects, but for centuries scholars had no idea what they said. That’s because when the Maya were subjugated to Spanish rule in the 16th century, a zealous inquisitor named Diego de Landa tragically set fire to dozens of Maya codices — essentially accordion-style books made from the bark of a fig tree — that likely contained detailed writings about monuments and other important historical facts about the ancient civilization. Thankfully, three codices (and possibly a fourth, though it has yet to be confirmed) survived the conflagration. These three codices, named for the cities where they’re kept today — Paris, Dresden, and Madrid — along with Landa’s own account of how the Maya writing system worked, allowed scholars to decipher the glyphs in the 1950s and revolutionized our understanding of the culture. Today, some Maya are teaching this rediscovered script to future generations in an effort to preserve the ancient writing system.

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Nearly Half of Guatemala's Modern Population Is Ethnically Maya

Today millions of Maya still inhabit the same regions of their ancestors spread throughout southern Mexico and Central America, and one of the largest populations lives in Guatemala. Out of the county’s 15 million inhabitants, some 6.5 million identify as Maya, which today comprises a rich tapestry of peoples (there are 22 Mayan languages in the country alone). Along with large populations also living in Mexico, including the Yucatecs, the Tzotzil, and the Tzeltal, the Maya are one of the largest Indigenous groups in the Americas today. Despite being the original stewards of these lands, the Maya have endured incredible hardships both past and present. In recent years, the Mexican government, for example, has apologized to the Maya for historical mistreatment, but the group is still subjected to racism, poverty, and inequality. The Maya continue to fight for civil rights, such as bilingual education for the preservation of the Mayan language. In 1992, Maya activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum even received the Nobel Peace Prize for her lifetime of work in promoting the rights of the Maya throughout their ancestral homeland.

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Maya Ruins Are Still Being Discovered Today

In the 1840s, American archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens began clearing the jungle undergrowth that was covering sites such as Uxmal and Palenque in Mexico, kicking off a journey of discovery that continues to this day. Because the Maya occupied dense sections of rainforest, finding ruins can be extremely complex. However, modern laser technology, satellite imaging, and ground-penetrating radar have made the job much easier, and new discoveries are still illuminating aspects of this fascinating culture. In 2018, for example, archaeologists mapped 810 square miles in northern Guatemala by using laser technology to peer through the rainforest’s dense canopy. What they discovered was 60,000 previously unknown Maya ruins — Stephen Houston, a professor of archeology and anthropology at Brown University at the time called the discovery “one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology.” As recently as February 2023, a similar study revealed a “superhighway” of interconnected cities around 1000 to 350 BCE, showing just how sophisticated the ancient Maya were. As discoveries continue, it’s likely the full nature of this remarkable civilization will only become more clear over time.

7 Facts About the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Lighthouse of Alexandria

Author Adam Levine

July 11, 2023

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The first list of the wonders of the world was compiled by the ancient Greek writer and poet Antipater of Sidon in the second century BCE, and it included seven extraordinary landmarks around the Mediterranean and modern-day Middle East. Since then, these ancient marvels have been a subject of study, fascination, and awe. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were stunning achievements of sculpture and architecture, built with such intricacy and at such a massive scale that in some cases historians remain baffled as to how ancient civilizations were able to create them. Most of the wonders have been lost to time — only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains in any substantial form — but they still capture the imaginations of generations of people who look to them as a source of beauty and inspiration. Here, we take a brief tour around the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East with seven facts about the ancient wonders of the world.

The Great Pyramid of Giza Is the Largest Compass Ever Built

If you happen to find yourself lost in the deserts of Egypt, you might want to seek out the Great Pyramid of Giza to find your way home. The four corners of the Great Pyramid are aligned with the four cardinal directions, and with such a high degree of accuracy that experts are still trying to puzzle out how the ancient Egyptians pulled it off. The pyramid’s alignment is accurate within one-fifteenth of a degree, a measure that’s difficult to achieve even with modern technology, and especially for a structure so massive (in its prime, the Great Pyramid stood 481 feet tall). Historians theorize that ancient engineers may have used shadows cast by the sun or the location of stars in the night sky to orient the massive structure. However, to this day, the exact method the Egyptians used to pull off this stunning feat of architecture and engineering remains a mystery.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon May Have Relied on a Rooftop Irrigation System

Located in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon (in modern-day Iraq), the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are unique among the seven ancient wonders in that their historical existence remains a subject of debate among scholars. No definitive evidence of the gardens has ever been found, and our modern knowledge of them relies on a handful of detailed descriptions that have survived from antiquity. One common thread among many of these accounts is the ingenious irrigation system that kept the gardens vibrant and thriving. The gardens were said to grow on a series of rooftop terraces, and some historians believe that water was pumped through a complex system of pulleys, pipes, and water tanks from the Euphrates River up into the gardens.

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The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Was Almost Stolen by a Roman Emperor

The Statue of Zeus, a giant sculpture erected outside the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, was famous throughout the Mediterranean, and attracted tourists and religious pilgrims who came from all over Greece to marvel at its sheer scale and beauty. It was considered so amazing, in fact, that the Roman emperor Caligula once decided to add the creation to his personal art collection, and tried to have the entire 40-foot statue moved to Rome. (He also planned to remove the statue’s head and replace it with his own.) According to Roman historians, the plan was abandoned when the statue started laughing and frightened away the moving crew.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus Was Completely Rebuilt After Burning Down

The Temple of Artemis was one of the most famous structures of the ancient world. It was decorated with countless works of breathtaking art, and its massive size made it the most striking building in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). Unfortunately, the temple’s notability could sometimes draw negative attention, and in 356 BCE it was burned down by a man named Herostratus, who hoped his crime would earn him eternal fame. At great expense and difficulty, the Ephesians undertook the massive task of rebuilding the temple, and finally completed the reconstruction sometime after 323 BCE. Sadly, when the temple was destroyed a second time by invading Goths, it was never rebuilt again.

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The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Gave Us the Word “Mausoleum”

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, a gigantic monumental tomb built for the ancient ruler Mausolus of Caria (in modern-day Turkey), was a whopping 140 feet tall and decorated with sculptures by four of the most famous sculptors in ancient Greece. Its appearance was so awe-inspiring that ever since it was built, the word “mausoleum” has been used for any tomb built in a similar style — though most modern-day mausoleums are a fair bit smaller.

An Oracle Prevented the Reconstruction of the Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes, a towering statue of the Roman sun god Helios, stood for just 54 years in the harbor of the Greek city of Rhodes before it toppled in an earthquake around 226 BCE. The Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III offered to help pay for the reconstruction of the monument, but the project was quickly abandoned when the Oracle of Delphi (the Greek high priestess Pythia) delivered a prophetic warning that rebuilding the statue would provoke the wrath of Helios, and bring divine retribution to the city.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria’s Beacon Could Be Seen for 35 Miles

Constructed around 280 BCE, the Lighthouse of Alexandria in ancient Egypt wasn’t just for show; it played an essential role in guiding ships along the treacherous Egyptian coastline, and its light could be seen by ships up to 35 miles away. Part of the reason for the beacon’s impressive reach was the tower’s massive height. At the time it was built, it was the second-tallest building in the world after the Great Pyramid of Giza (at 350 feet and 481 feet, respectively). The strength of the beacon was further amplified by a gigantic mirror that was used to reflect the light out to sea.

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