Achilles' heel
Achilles' heel is the single weak spot of an invulnerable hero; for Achilles, it was the heel Thetis held while dipping him in the Styx.
Why every hero has a weak spotEvery term in one plain sentence. How it works is in the 2-minute article behind it.
A
Asphodel Meadows
The Asphodel Meadows are the place in Greek belief where most of the dead ended up, a gray existence without joy or pain.
What Are the Asphodel Fields?B
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is a Slavic fairy-tale figure who guards the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead; her name reached print in the 18th century.
Where Did Baba Yaga Come From?Berserker
A berserker was a warrior who, according to the sagas, fell into a rage in battle, stopped feeling pain and was left exhausted afterwards.
Who Were the BerserkersC
Culture hero
A culture hero is a mythic figure who obtains for people something they lacked, such as fire, writing, farming or laws, and usually pays a price for it.
What Is a Cultural HeroD
Domovoy
The domovoy is the invisible master of the house in Slavic belief, linked to the family's ancestors, who keeps order and helps the hardworking.
What the Slavs Believed About the DomovoyDragon
A dragon is a mythical monster shaped like a huge serpent; the Greek word drakon simply meant “big snake,” with no wings or fire.
Why every culture has dragonsG
Grave goods
Grave goods are objects buried with the dead, such as food, dishes, weapons or their images and models, that reveal how a society was organized.
What Different Peoples Put in Graves and WhyH
Hubris
Hubris, for the ancient Greeks, meant humiliating others to feel superior; in Athens it was grounds for a trial, and in myth the gods punished it.
What Did the Greek Gods Punish People For?I
Infinity symbol
The infinity symbol ∞ was introduced by English mathematician John Wallis in 1655 as shorthand for a quantity that grows without limit.
Where the infinity symbol came fromL
Loki
Loki is the trickster of Norse myth, a constant companion of the gods who creates their problems and solves them, turning enemy only at the end.
Why Loki Isn't Quite a VillainM
Magical thinking
Magical thinking is the habit of linking unrelated events, treating similar things as connected and believing that thoughts can influence the world.
What Is Magical ThinkingMedusa
Medusa is a monster of Greek myth, one of three sisters; the story of a beautiful girl turned into a monster as punishment came much later.
Who Medusa Was Before the CurseN
Narcissus
Narcissus is a youth of Greek myth punished with unrequited love for his own reflection, which he cannot leave even after recognizing himself.
Who Narcissus Really Fell in Love WithP
Prometheus
Prometheus is a figure of Greek myth who tricked the gods over a sacrifice, brought back the fire taken from people and taught them crafts.
What Prometheus Really DidR
Ragnarok
Ragnarok is the preordained death of the gods in Norse myth: they fight a final battle knowing they will lose, and then the earth rises again from the sea.
What Is RagnarokRusalka
A rusalka, in East Slavic belief, is a girl or woman who died an unnatural death and appears in fields and trees rather than in water.
What Mermaids Were Before Fairy TalesS
Slender Man
Slender Man is a faceless horror character created in 2009 for an online contest of fake scary photos, who quickly gathered a fake folklore.
Who Invented Slender ManT
Trickster
A trickster is a mythic character who breaks the rules and so drives the story; people often receive fire, crafts and language from him by theft.
Who Is the TricksterU
Urban legend
An urban legend is a story that passes itself off as recent news about a friend of a friend, so people believe it even though it can't be checked.
How an Urban Legend Differs from a MythV
Valkyrie
A Valkyrie is a being of Norse myth who decides who will fall in battle and leads fallen warriors to a hall where they feast until the final war.
Who Were the ValkyriesVanishing hitchhiker
The vanishing hitchhiker is an urban legend about a passenger who disappears from a car's back seat, told in nearly the same words in many countries.
Why We Believe in Vanishing HitchhikersW
Weighing of the heart
The weighing of the heart is the Egyptian judgment of the dead, where the heart was weighed against the feather of Ma'at, goddess of truth and order.
What Was Weighed at Osiris's Judgment