Ancient Customs

Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Schmitt opens the door to the world behind the words of Scripture—bringing fresh understanding to familiar passages by exploring the cultural details that made Jesus’ teachings so vivid to His first listeners. Each chapter focuses on a single phrase, image, or action rooted in the daily life of the ancient world and draws out the spiritual depth we sometimes miss in modern readings. With warmth, clarity, and pastoral insight, Dr. Schmitt weaves together biblical teaching, personal reflection, poetry, and questions for study or discussion. Whether you’re reading alone...

Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder, Stein introduces listeners to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self.

Legends of Norse Mythology is your practical guide for navigating the Norse realms and revealing the origins of these mythical stories, ranging from the gripping narratives of revered gods to Viking sagas of the Scandinavian seafaring adventures with longships, to the timeless rituals of the Nordic people.

What if Halloween’s familiar traditions began with older fears? The Haunted History of Halloween: Creepy Origins, Ancient Beliefs, Forgotten Customs, and the Traditions That Shaped Spooky Season explores the eerie evolution of Halloween from ancient seasonal turning points to the modern celebration of costumes, candy, haunted houses, horror entertainment, and spooky nostalgia. Before Halloween became a night of porch pumpkins and trick-or-treating, it was shaped by harvest endings, winter darkness, firelight, wandering visitors, beliefs about the dead, household rituals, religious ...

Thomas Bulfinch introduces us to the gods of the Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies. We learn their stories and we also observe the similarities between the deities of yore. Comparing these stories and characters to those of some modern religions may produce some surprising results!

What makes a great ruler—and what makes a powerful state? In these two short works, Xenophon examines both questions through Sparta: the conduct of its celebrated king Agesilaus and the institutions that shaped its citizens. Agesilaus is a portrait of leadership written in praise of a man Xenophon admired. Campaigns in Asia and Greece give way to an account of courage, loyalty, self-command, generosity, and service. Xenophon measures his king not simply by victories, but by his treatment of enemies, his obligations to friends, and his willingness to submit to his city’s laws. The result...

This annotated edition includes: The complete Histories in nine books, unabridged, in the 1890 translation of G. C. Macaulay Macaulay's own scholarly apparatus — more than 1,400 notes on the Greek text, the manuscripts and the disputed readings A critical study of some 15,000 words, in eight parts, on the invention of inquiry and the ancient quarrel over Herodotus' honesty A biographical essay separating the little that is known about Herodotus from the much that is merely reported A note on the text recording the copy-text and the corrections made to it A live table of contents; the nine...

Hawaii is more than turquoise water, palm trees, and postcard sunsets. Long before tourists arrived on its shores, the islands were shaped by gods, prophecy, fire, and sacred tradition. Volcanoes were believed to carry the spirit of Pele, ancient chants preserved history across generations, and myths warned of great change long before foreign ships appeared on the horizon. In Hawaiian Gods, Myths, and Legends, Ocean Breeze Adventures takes listeners beyond the resorts and into the deeper spiritual and historical heart of Hawaii.

An empire divided by magic. A nation on the brink of rebellion. After losing their parents in the last doomed uprising, two siblings will find themselves at the center of an epic struggle for power. When Ella witnesses an enchanter saving her brother's life, she knows what she wants to be. But...

From a precious oral tradition rooted over 2,500 years in Ireland's past, John O'Donohue's Celtic Wisdom Trilogy brings you this vibrant spiritual legacy, unique in the Western world. A liberating feast of authentic blessings, insights, and teachings, brought to life by this acclaimed poet...

Under the order of King Pelias, Jason embarks on a perilous journey to steal the Golden Fleece from the Land of Colchis. Far from heroic, Jason is the typical everyman. Often compared with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts is the only surviving poem from the Hellenistic period and was hugely influential on later literature, especially the Roman poetry of Virgil and Ovid.

From bestselling novelist Nadia Hashimi—a gripping, occasionally terrifying, yet ultimately hopeful novel focusing on the women of Afghanistan in the years since the Taliban regained power. In February 2020 the US began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after nearly twenty years of...

Award-winning ancient historian, archaeologist, and social media sensation Dr. Jess Venner re-creates Pompeii’s final day before Mount Vesuvius’s eruption, revealing not just how its people died but how they lived. While today the ruins of Pompeii stand silent and preserved in ash and stone...

The book that invented history—retold for the modern reader. More than two thousand years ago, Herodotus of Halicarnassus set out to understand how the greatest empire of his age came to war with the fiercely independent cities of Greece. The result was The Histories: an extraordinary journey through war, politics, religion, geography, myth, custom, ambition, cruelty, courage, and the strange turns of human fortune. This edition from The Lyceum Press presents Herodotus in a radically compact, accessible prose retelling designed to preserve the movement, curiosity, and storytelling power ...

Delve into the mystical worlds of Celtic enchantment, the heroic sagas of Bulfinch's lore, the enigmatic tales of Slavic spirits, the celestial dances of Japanese deities, the profound fables of Turkish origins, the creation epics of Sumerian and Mesopotamian civilizations, the rich tapestry of Native American heritage, and the captivating chronicles from the Filipino archipelago.

What if the true story of humanity isn’t written in battles and crowns—but in bread ovens, weaving looms, whispered prayers, and firelit courtyards? Few people realize that history’s greatest legacy is not the monuments of kings, but the everyday lives of ordinary men and women. Farmers who rose with the dawn, mothers who guarded children through famine, craftsmen whose hands shaped survival—all left behind traces that tell us who we really are. In Lanterns in the Shadows, Eleanor Whitcombe carries a lantern into the forgotten corners of the past. What you’re about to discover are...

Are you fascinated by the myths and legends of ancient cultures? A lover of history who wants to learn more about China’s rich, unique past? This audiobook is for you. China was a major player in the ancient world, contributing to advancements across the globe. While the civilization is most known for the wise teachings of Confucius and the tenets of Taoism, Chinese culture has also relied heavily on its own mythology and folklore. From gods and goddesses to paranormal encounters with ordinary people, the stories in this book have been passed down from generation to generation for centuries.

What if the secrets of the ancient world still shaped every step you take today? Few people realize how much of modern life—our work, our families, our rituals, even our fun—was first lived on the forgotten streets of Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Beneath the ruins lies a story not of kings and conquests, but of ordinary people whose lives still echo in ours. In Shadows of the Ancient World, historian Eleanor Whitcombe takes you inside the marketplaces, kitchens, homes, and festivals that defined ancient civilization. You’ll discover how bakers, farmers, scribes, mothers, and children...

Dare to uncover the hidden truth of Halloween’s 2,000-year journey? For most, October 31st is a night of candy bowls, glowing pumpkins, and playful costumes. But few people know that behind the laughter and porch lights lies an extraordinary history stretching back to ancient bonfires on Celtic hillsides, Roman rituals for the dead, medieval prayers for souls, immigrant folklore, and billion-dollar industries. Halloween is not just a holiday—it is humanity’s oldest conversation with fear, death, and community. In The Real History of Halloween You Never Knew, Raven Blackwood takes you ...

Unveil the secrets of an ancient civilization renowned for its mystique and splendor through E.A. Wallis Budge’s unabridged collection. This expertly curated trilogy, featuring Legends of the Gods, Egyptian Magic, and The Book of the Dead, invites you to explore the depths of Egyptian mythology, magic, and the afterlife.