The State of Play
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John Flaxman's 1795 engraving of Thetis bringing armour to Achilles
Created in 1795, this engraving by the celebrated English artist and sculptor John Flaxman illustrates one of the most dramatic scenes of Homer's Iliad. Before us is the moment when the goddess Thetis brings her son Achilles the new armour forged by the god Hephaestus. The mother finds
Researchers find that Neanderthal birch tar could have served as an antibiotic
If an English actress takes the products of human combustion as a sedative, then the products of burning birch bark, scientists have found, may have been used by Neanderthals as an antibiotic. Researchers from the universities of Cologne, Oxford and Liège, and from Cape Breton University in Canada, have established
Rachel Sterling eats her mother Diana Rigg's ashes before every first night
Endocannibalism is the scientific name for the eating of the remains of deceased members of one's own social group or family. The Yanomami of the Amazon add the ashes of a dead relative's bones to banana soup and consume it so that the spirit of the
Edvard Munch painted “Summer Night on the Beach” in 1902 at Åsgårdstrand
Edvard Munch's painting Summer Night on the Beach, executed in 1902, is a profound immersion in the atmosphere of Scandinavian melancholy. The canvas shows a deserted shore at Åsgårdstrand, the place where the artist spent his summer months and found inspiration for his most emotional works. Instead of