Hi :D

Hello!

Thank you for all this I can’t wait to dive in :D I’ve always found it interesting that Shakespeare was so similar to ancient theatre regarding tragedy. I know he was famously very inspired by ancient stories but I mean how past eras contrast to today where most people prefer happy endings (not me)

Never knew that!

This is generally thought to be a Euripidean invention, and could have been a step too far in terms of final act drama for Athenian audiences.

This aspect of the story has become one of, if not *the*, most well known.

It shows how myths were malleable and ever-adapting.

All we know is Sophocles came second, and Euphorion, son of the famed Aeschylus, won.

It’s also believed that one reason for its initial “poor” reception was Medea’s committing filicide at the end of the play.

In one variant or another, they were said to have been placed among the stars as constellations.

Καταστερισμοί (Katasterismoi) is Greek for “constellations”.

His veneration can be traced to within a century or so of his death, but the more fantastic aspects of his legend, such as his famous battle with the dragon, didn’t appear until much later, in the medieval period.

He was martyred during the last of the great Christian persecutions during the late third or early fourth centuries.

Twins fathered by Ares (Romulus & Remus were sons of Mars, Ares’ Roman equivalent), they were exposed in the wild, suckled by a she-wolf and raised by a shepherd. And went onto become kings in Arcadia.

Though mentioned during Ptolemaic Egypt in the 3rd century BCE, they seem to have been fairly obscure until their regular inclusion in medieval bestiaries.

An onocentaur was the upper body of a man with the rear end of a donkey - only without the donkey’s front legs.

Weird!

But in 217 while on campaign against Parthia he was assassinated aged 29, by a soldier under his command, and by several Praetorians, urged on by Macrinus, the prefect who would succeed him on the throne.

Caracalla was known as a soldier-emperor, heavily favouring the army over the disgruntled senatorial class. He built the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and passed an edict in 212 which gave Roman citizenship to all free men in the empire - a radical reform for the time.

In 209, Caracalla’s younger brother Geta was also made co-emperor, but shortly after their father’s death in 211, Caracalla had Geta killed, scrubbing his image from public record - a process known as damnatio memoriae.