Norse Gods & Goddesses
Egyptian Alternate History
Mesopotamian Civilization
Greek Civilization
In 476 CE, Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, ending imperial rule by a western emperor in Italy. But the Western Roman Empire had been weakening for decades. It had lost control…
When Telipinu, the Hittite god associated with fertility and agriculture, vanished in anger, crops stopped growing, animals could no longer reproduce, and even the gods faced hunger. His disappearance brought…
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite kingdom and later empire for much of the second millennium BCE. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale in central Türkiye. In the seventeenth…
The Sun Goddess of Arinna was one of the principal deities of the Hittite kingdom and a protector of its rulers. Arinna was the sacred city at the centre of…
Thor received Mjölnir through a contest between two groups of dwarven craftsmen, set in motion when Loki cut off Sif’s hair. To escape Thor’s anger, Loki obtained a golden replacement…
If Ahmose I had failed to capture Avaris during his campaign against the Hyksos in the sixteenth century BCE, the Hyksos might have retained their kingdom in the Nile Delta…
Branwen, daughter of Llŷr, is the central figure of the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, a medieval Welsh tale about a royal marriage that ends in a devastating war between…
Epona was a Celtic goddess associated with horses, their protection, and fertility. Her worship was rooted in Gaul and spread across parts of the Roman Empire, where she became particularly…
Skadi (Old Norse: Skaði) is a jötunn who is also counted among the goddesses in Norse mythology. She hunts with a bow, travels on skis, and lives in the mountains….
Hittite mythology survives in cuneiform texts from ancient Anatolia, particularly the archives of Hattusa, the Hittite capital. Its stories tell of disappearing gods, monstrous creatures, and struggles for control of…
Tarhunna (Tarḫunna) was the Hittite storm god, associated with thunder, lightning, and the rain that sustained agriculture in ancient Anatolia. Alongside the Sun Goddess of Arinna, the Storm God of…
Rhiannon first appears in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, riding a pale white horse that no one can overtake. She has come to marry Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, rather…
Astragalomancy was a form of ancient divination in which people cast animal knucklebones to seek guidance from the gods. In the inscribed oracles of Roman-era southern Asia Minor, five bones…
In Norse mythology, Bifröst (also spelled Bifrost) is the bridge connecting Midgard, the human world, with Asgard, the realm of the gods. Heimdall guards its entrance to heaven, and the…
What if Hammurabi had conquered Mari but never destroyed it? The city might have remained an important administrative and trading center on the Euphrates under Babylonian rule. Its independence would…
What if Vercingetorix had defeated Julius Caesar at Alesia in 52 BCE? Breaking the Roman siege could have saved his army from surrender, shaken Caesar’s control over Gaul, and weakened…
The Hittites established a powerful kingdom in central Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, around 1650 BCE. From their capital at Hattusa, they built an empire that dominated much of Anatolia and…
Idunn (Old Norse Iðunn) is the Norse goddess who guards the apples that preserve the gods’ youth. According to the Prose Edda, the Æsir eat her apples when they begin…
Cernunnos was an antlered deity of ancient Gaul, commonly described as the Celtic god of nature, animals, and fertility. Yet no surviving ancient myth explains his powers, tells his story,…
Behbeit el-Hagar is a village and archaeological site in Egypt’s Nile Delta, near ancient Sebennytos. It is best known for the ruins of a monumental granite temple dedicated to Isis,…