Deep dives into world mythology and folklore, without the dumbing down
Elias Blackwood Elias Blackwood · May 10, 2026
About fifteen years into my research, I was working through Hesiod’s Works and Days in the original Greek when something stopped me cold. Hesiod wasn’t just telling farmers when to plant their crops — he was embedding an entire cosmological…
Elias Blackwood · May 7, 2026
I still remember the moment I realized how badly most people misunderstand Dionysus. I was sitting in a graduate seminar on Greek religion — this was back in the late 1990s — when a classmate confidently declared that Dionysus was…
Elias Blackwood · May 4, 2026
What Were Dionysus’ Worshippers Called? Maenads, Bacchants, and the Thiasus Few things get me more excited as a history buff than digging into the stranger, wilder corners of ancient religion — and nothing in the Greek world is stranger or wilder than the cult of Dionysus. If you’ve ever wondered exactly what Dionysus’ worshippers were … Read more
Elias Blackwood · April 30, 2026
Introduction: The God of a Thousand Faces — and Just as Many Creatures Most people envision Dionysus as a lounging figure cradling a goblet of wine—comfortable, domesticated, almost bourgeois in his leisure. The historical record suggests something far wilder, far more primal, and far more dangerous than that settled image allows. One of the sharpest … Read more
Elias Blackwood · April 24, 2026
I studied mythology and ancient history at university, and the one thing that struck me across every culture I examined was how consistently people encoded their deepest values, fears, and social structures into their legends — which is exactly why…
Elias Blackwood · April 20, 2026
When Rory pried up the loose floorboard in her grandmother’s cottage and found an old sword wrapped in oilcloth, she expected rust and cobwebs. What she found instead were three sets of engravings — names, dates, and battle crests she…
Elias Blackwood · April 17, 2026
I remember standing in front of a museum display on ancient ritual objects when I was about twelve, completely unable to move on, reading every label twice. That was the moment I understood that mythology isn’t just old stories —…
Elias Blackwood · April 14, 2026
Somewhere in the shimmering, impossible land of Legendaria, a boy named Ollie once stood in a mossy courtyard, pressed his palms together, and whispered an invocation with every ounce of concentration he possessed. What emerged was a small, sad puff…
Elias Blackwood · April 11, 2026
Deep in the vaulted lower corridors of the Magic Academy, behind a locked iron gate that most students never notice, rests a scroll so old its edges have turned the colour of ash. Young Ollie stumbled upon it on a…
Elias Blackwood · April 7, 2026
Before writing systems existed, oral tradition was the entire archive of human knowledge. Stories weren’t entertainment — they were encyclopedias, legal codes, religious texts, and historical records all at once. That’s the lens I always bring when I dig into legendary lore like this. What strikes me about a chapter titled “I Meant to Do … Read more