The Empusa

The Empusa is a shape-shifting monster in Greek myth who was often depicted as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a creature with sharp teeth, flaming hair, and (in some tales) bat wings. She hungers for male human flesh.

Empusa was said to be a demigoddess under the control of the goddess Hecate. The Empusa would often seduce young men traveling alone. Having taken the form of a woman, they would sleep with the man, sapping their strength. Once the unsuspecting youth was fast asleep, the creature would shift into her hideous form and devour his flesh and drink the blood for sustenance. The Empusa is probably best known for terrifying the god Dionysus as he travels to the underworld.

Mamertine Prison

The most famed prison of ancient Rome was damaged when the roof of a central Roman church fell in. The church was closed at the time. The vault of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (St Joseph of the Carpenters), at the Roman forum, caved in, damaging the Mamertine Prison beneath it.

According to tradition, Mamertine Prison was constructed around 640–616 BC, by Ancus Marcius.

It was created as a cistern for a spring in the floor of the second lower level. Prisoners were lowered through an opening into the dungeon. The Mamertine Prison was used to house Rome's defeated enemies. Many were executed there. Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls during the Gallic War, was executed at Caesar's Triumph in 46 BC; Jugurtha, King of Numidia, died of starvation there in 104 BC; St Paul; and St. Peter, who was imprisoned there before being crucified.

The Vespasianus Titus Tunnel

The 1,380-meter-long Vespasianus Titus Tunnel was built completely by man power during the Roman period in the town of Çevlik of Turkey's southern Hatay province. It was built to combat the constant threat posed by the floodwater from nearby mountains.

Construction of the tunnel began in the first century A.D. during the reign of Roman emperor Vespasianus and continued under his son Titus and his successor Antonius Pius.

The whole tunnel was carved through solid rock with hammers and chisels. The Vespasianus-Titus Tunnel has long claimed to be the longest tunnel in the world dug by hand.

The Vespasianus Titus Tunnel was submitted to UNESCO on April 15, 2014, and is currently on the Tentative List of its World Heritage Sites.

Battle of the Egadi Islands

The Battle of the Aegates was fought off the western coast of the island of Sicily on 10 March 241 BC. It was the final naval battle fought between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic during the First Punic War. A unique bronze helmet discovered in the deep by marine archaeologists off the Sicilian coast has been dated to the sea battle. The helmet is a Montefortino, a Celtic style-helmet that had been worn across Europe, also popularly known as a "Roman helmet".

Diving to 120 meters, archaeologists are surveying an area of about five square kilometers, littered with the relics of this decisive war. Bronze helmets, amphora, weapons and ancient battle rams cast in bronze, were salvaged from the seabed.

The first Punic War, with some of the largest naval battles of antiquity, would drag on for more than 20 years. The battle of Egadi, in 241 B.C.E. was a turning point: the Carthaginians were defeated and forced to abandon Sicily. Rome also snatched Corsica and Sardinia.

Reconstruction of a Hellenic trireme

Treasure of Zlatinitsa–Malomirovo

Gold and silver greave (knee-piece)

The Treasure of Zlatinitsa–Malomirovo is a rich ancient Thrace gold and silver treasure from the 4th century BC, the time of the Odrysian Kingdom. The Zlatinitsa–Malomirovo Treasure was discovered in 2005.

One of the two deer head-shaped gold-coated silver rhytons

A ring from the Zlatinitsa – Malomirovo Treasure depicts a scene from Ancient Thracian mythology

Famous Mythological Creatures

The Kraken. In Scandinavian mythology, the Kraken is a giant sea creature that attacks ships and is so huge that its body could be mistaken for an island. Accounts of the Kraken are believed to have originated from sightings of the giant squid, which can reach 18 meters in length.

The Griffin is a legendary creature with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body, tail, and hind legs of a lion. While griffins are common in the art and mythology of Ancient Greece, representations of griffins in ancient Persia and ancient Egypt date to as early as the 4th millennium BC. On Crete, archaeologists have uncovered depictions of griffins in the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos dating to the 15th century BC.

Medusa was a Greek monster. She had the face of an ugly woman with snakes instead of hair; anyone who looked into her eyes was immediately turned to stone. She was a priestess of Athena, devoted to a life of celibacy; however as punishment for marrying Poseidon she was cursed. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who used her head as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.

The Banshee is a spirit creature originating in Irish folklore. She is said to scream when someone is about to die. The foretelling of death was seen as both a blessing and a curse. The Bean Sidhe or Banshee haunts only the families of authentic noble stock and it is with great dread when her piercing "caoine" or keening is heard. The Banshee scream is always a death omen.

Mermaids. In ancient Syrian folklore there was a goddess named Atargatis. She was a fertility goddess whose cult eventually spread to Greece and Rome and was associated with water. Often depicted in mermaid form, Atargatis is perhaps the “original” mermaid. A Melusine, or siren, has two tails. This creature is from medieval legend. A Melusine was a beautiful woman that transformed into a serpent from the waist down while bathing. This always resulted in calamity.

Treasures of Ancient Nubia

Gilt-silver mummy mask of Queen Malakaye (664–653 BC)

An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, titled 'Gold and the Gods: Jewels of Ancient Nubia', provided insight into the meticulous craftsmanship of Ancient Nubia (located mostly in what’s now Sudan). The show included more than 100 treasures from the MFA’s collection of jewelry from Ancient Nubia. The MFA’s collection dates from 1700 BC to AD 300 and is considered the most comprehensive of any outside of Khartoum. Gold and the Gods showcases elaborate necklaces, amulets, stacked bracelets, and earrings discovered inside the tombs of Nubian kings and queens. Ancient Nubia ruled the entire Nile Valley during the apex of its power in the eighth century BC. Nubian artisans turned out some of the most sophisticated, finely crafted jewelry of the ancient world.

Hathor-headed crystal pendant (743–712 BC)

In addition to an array of gold objects, the exhibition shows jewelry made with lapis lazuli, blue chalcedony, amethystine quartz, and carnelian. Several pieces incorporate enamel and glass, rare and valuable materials at the time. Owners of these adornments valued them not only for their intrinsic beauty and as signs of wealth and status, but for magical powers that protected them in life and on their journey to the afterlife.

Nubian goldsmiths and jewelers employed methods that wouldn’t be reinvented in Europe for another thousand years.