Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives. There is a deep-seated fear, in most people, of the cold world and...
The Greek philosopher Proclus wrote of the fascination that Ptolemy I, Egypt's pharaoh in 300 B.C., had with geometry. He invited Euclid, the Greek mathematician called "the father of geometry," to Alexandria to teach him. After a week or so, Ptolemy told Euclid that the process...
A farmer’s favorite donkey falls into a deep precipice; He can’t pull it out no matter how hard he tries; The donkey is looking at him in the eyes waiting for help !But the farmer needs to be a realist. He decides that he can...
Pelops' father was Tantalus, king at Mount Sipylus in Anatolia. Wanting to test the Olympians, Tantalus cut Pelops into pieces and made his flesh into a stew, then served it to the gods. Demeter, deep in grief after the abduction of her daughter Persephone by...
Greek mythology and literature include the histories of several dynasties—those based in Thebes, Crete, Athens, and Mycenae—whose inveterate moral failures brought down retribution upon generation after generation. The curse placed upon the House of Atreus started before the time of Atreus himself, and was first brought...
ONE day Sun, Moon, and Wind went out to dine with their uncle and aunts Thunder and Lightning. Their mother (one of the most distant Stars you see far up in the sky) waited alone for her children's return. Now both Sun and Wind were greedy...
In the late 17th century, Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibniz were easily the greatest mathematicians of the era, both developing calculus on their own, though the notation we currently use is actually from Leibniz. In June 1696, the Swiss mathematician Johannes Bernoulli sent a letter to...
Medusa is one of the most recognizable pop culture and fashion icons! Her powerful image of a woman with a full head of snake hair is unforgettable. Her power to turn a mortal (or a man, depending on the myth) into stone by a single glance...
Croesus was the last king of Lydia, proverbial for his enormous fortune; even nowadays, many Romance languages use the expression “as rich as Croesus” to describe a fabulously wealthy person. Solon, on the other hand, was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, the philosopher-statesman...
The experience machine or pleasure machine is a thought experiment put forward by philosopher Robert Nozick in his 1974 book Anarchy, State and Utopia. It is an attempt to refute ethical hedonism by imagining a choice between everyday reality and an apparently preferable simulated reality. A primary thesis of...
