Search Results: Minister of magic

In ancient Egypt, if a woman were having difficulty conceiving a child, she might spend an evening in a Bes Chamber (also known as an incubation chamber) located within a temple. Bes was the god of childbirth, sexuality, fertility, among...

William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), who served as prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, at which point he became the first prime minister of the United Kingdom until he left office in 1801. He returned...

For the Greeks magic (mageia or goeteia) was a wide-ranging topic which involved spells and evil prayers (epoidai), curse tablets (katadesmoi), enhancing drugs and deadly poisons (pharmaka), amulets (periapta) and powerful love potions (philtra...

In this interview, Ancient History Encyclopedia is talking to Wendy Orr about her first historical fiction novel set in the Aegean Bronze Age, Dragonfly Song. Kelly Macquire (AHE): Wendy, thank you for joining me! Do you want to start...

Dated to the 7th century BCE, the Arslan Tash amulet (AT1) was discovered in Arslan Tash, Syria and contains the writing of Phoenician, magic incantations. The limestone plaque includes a variety of features: incantations perceived to prevent...

A presentation on some aspects of Norse religion such as the importance of sorcery, its meanings and practitioners, as well as the role of gender. Important terms in the "lesson": seiðr - sorcery seiðmaðr - sorcerer seiðkona - sorceress...

Material Objects & Cultures Material objects convey volumes about the people who possessed them. Cultures and societies in every generation are in part classified - either correctly or incorrectly - by the objects or symbols they...

A map illustrating the journey home of the Achaean warrior-king Odysseus after the Trojan war. His travel from Troy to Ithaca (and his wife Penelope) took innumerable twists and turns and lasted ten years. Ever since Homer's Odyssey was written...

A 1943 photograph of Albert Speer (1905-81), German Minister of Armaments during the Second World War (1939-45). He is shown here inspecting the Atlantic defences. (German Federal Archives)

Manuel de Godoy (1767-1851), the "Prince of Peace", was First Minister of Spain during the reign of King Charles VI of Spain. Corrupt and extravagant, Godoy was hated by the Spanish nobility and commoners alike, and his tenure helped lead...