The painter, sculptor, architect, and town planner Pierre Puget was born in Marseille in 1620. Although he worked for Louis XIV, he managed to preserve his independence from the Court and its...

The god Ea entrusted Adapa with divine knowledge and power. One day, Adapa cursed the fury of the South Wind, and in reprisal the latter ceased to blow. How could Adapa pacify the wind so that rain...

Hermes, the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, invented the lyre on the day he was born, and stole fifty cows from his half-brother Apollo. The latter forgave him for his theft—in exchange for the lyre....

King Cheops summoned the magician Djedi to his court to tell him a fabulous secret that would allow the king to build his pyramid. But the secret in question would put the king in great danger…

The inhabitants of a little Italian town lived in terror of the wolf that attacked both animals and people. Francis began to speak to the ferocious animal in God's name, and the wolf, touched by his...

The goddesses who leant over the young prince's cradle predicted that he would die from a dog or snake bite, or be swallowed by a crocodile. How can he avoid such a dreadful fate?

King Polydectes challenged Perseus to bring him the head of the dreaded monster Medusa, who turned to stone all who dared to look at her face. But it is dangerous to challenge a hero as clever as...

A milkmaid and a thresher—two pretty 18th-century porcelain ornaments in a beautiful drawing room—love each other dearly. Alas, the charming milkmaid is betrothed to the hideous "Goat Head" figure on...