Fighting Magic With Magic in Italy: The Good Walkers
The Benandanti were a surprising third party in the fight of good versus evil in Medieval Italy; one that not even the Holy Inquisition could make sense of.
Toil and Trouble? The Goddess Hekate in Ancient Greece
Hekate: goddess of witchcraft, ghosts and the restless dead, frequently represented as a triple deity, associated with dogs, crossroads and flaming torches.
Why Werewolves Eat People: Cannibalism in the Werewolf Narrative
The one constant throughout visual and literary representations of the werewolf is the willing – or unwilling – consumption of human flesh. This trope is drawn directly from the ancient origin of the werewolf myth.
The Winged Demoness of Death: Vanth and the Etruscan Underworld
On the walls of a 300 BCE Etruscan tomb, Vanth, a winged demoness of dark and stern gaze, flanks a door to the Great Unknown.
Past Anxieties: Defining the Folk Horror Narrative
‘Have you ever heard the term ‘folk horror’ before?’ I asked a colleague of mine: a classics professor. ‘In particular, when describing drama?’