The stories everyone thinks they know, and the stranger truths underneath.
Gods, the origins of everyday things, and the wonders of the ancient and modern world, dug back to their oldest sources.
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What Was Loki the God Of? The Sources Give None
Quiz
Myth or Documented Fact?
Guess whether a claim from our own coverage is real, then read the sourced verdict and the full story behind it.
Mythology
All of mythologyGods, heroes, and monsters, told the way the oldest sources actually tell them.
What Was Loki the God Of? The Sources Give None
Was Loki the god of mischief or of fire? The Old Norse sources name no domain for him, and scholars find no sign of a cult. Here is where each popular title came from.
Why Did Zeus Punish Prometheus? Two Answers
Why did Zeus punish Prometheus? Hesiod blames a rigged sacrifice, Aeschylus blames the gift of fire. Here is what each ancient source says and where they split.
Demeter's Symbol: The Wheat Is Hers, the Cornucopia Isn't
Demeter's grain sheaf and torch go back to Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn. Her signature cornucopia began as someone else's myth, and the poppy may not be hers at all.
Invented History
All of invented historyWhere everyday things really come from, against the story printed on the box.
Who Invented the Telephone? Bell Beat a Rival by Hours
Bell's telephone patent beat a rival's filing by hours in 1876, survived a bribery scandal and 600 lawsuits, and still wasn't the first working telephone.
Invented Traditions Index: How Old Is “Ancient”?
We checked 16 customs and stories treated as centuries-old against their actual paper trail. 13 have a single dateable origin, and none predate 1798.
Who Invented Electricity? No Single Person Ever Did
No one invented electricity. Egyptians named it by 2750 BCE, Franklin's kite tale has no eyewitness, and Faraday's most famous quote turns out to be fake.
Wonders of the World
All of the wondersThe seven wonders and their successors, and what actually stood where.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: A Wonder in the Wrong City?
The Hanging Gardens are the only Wonder whose existence is disputed. No trace has been found in Babylon, and one Oxford scholar argues they stood in Nineveh.
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The last Seven Wonder still standing was built for Pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BCE, and over a century of excavation has not settled exactly how it was raised.
Christ the Redeemer: The Wonder UNESCO Never Actually Named
Christ the Redeemer is widely called a UNESCO World Wonder, but UNESCO went out of its way to disown the private vote that gave it that title in 2007.