"The ruins of the Andean labyrinth of Chavin hold the key to the hidden significance of the Greek myths."

In his Journey to the Mythological Inferno, author Enrico Mattievich, boldly ties the many loose ends-and proposes a novel theory-to, among other things, our understanding of the origin of pre-Columbian American civilization, to the origin of ancient Greek mythology, to the tantalizing mystery of ancient knowledge of America in the Old World, and to myths of ancient travelers to the 'Underworld' (Southern Hemisphere). With about 75 illustrations and maps, Dr. Mattievich 'reconstructs' a possible journey by ancient Greek to the heartland of South America, guided by the verses of Greek and Roman poets, and following the mighty Amazon river all the way to its source at the Peruvian Andes.

A Cyclops is popularly assumed to be nothing more than a flesh-eating, one-eyed monster. In an accessible, stylish, and academically authoritative investigation, this book seeks to demonstrate that there is far more to it than that - quite apart from the fact that in myths the Cyclopes are not always one-eyed! This book provides a detailed, innovative, and richly illustrated study of the myths relating to the Cyclopes from classical antiquity until the present day. The first part is organised thematically: after discussing various competing scholarly approaches to the myths, the authors analyse ancient accounts and images of the Cyclopes in relation to landscape, physique (especially eyes, monstrosity, and hairiness), lifestyle, gods, names, love, and song. While the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus, famous already in the Odyssey, plays a major part, so also do the Cyclopes who did monumental building work, as well as those who toiled as blacksmiths. The second part of the book concentrates on the post-classical reception of the myths, including medieval allegory, Renaissance grottoes, poetry, drama, the visual arts, contemporary painting and sculpture, film, and even a circus performance. This book aims to explore not just the perennial appeal of the Cyclopes as fearsome monsters, but the depth and subtlety of their mythology which raises complex issues of thought and emotion.

The subject presented in this book is the result of a long study and research upon the seamanship of the ancient and medieval world. It aims to investigate the ability of ancient exploration voyages to the great oceans and to present, in a simple and understandable manner, all those components that shed light on an ancient effort to explore the Atlantic Ocean and probably even the American continent.

Using Dante’s Inferno to draw out the reality behind the fantasy, author Kim Paffenroth tells the true events… During his lost wanderings, Dante came upon an infestation of the living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed —cannibalism, live burnings, evisceration, crucifixion, and dozens more—became the basis of all the horrors described in Inferno. At last, the real story can be told.

Turning to a region of South Italy associated with Greater Greece and the geographies of Homer's Odyssey, Marco Benoît Carbone delivers a historical and ethnographic treatment of how places defined in public imagination and media by their associated histories become sites of memory and identity, as their landscape and mythologies turn into insignia of a romanticised antiquity. For the ancient Greeks, Homer had set the marine monsters of the Odyssey in the Strait between Calabria and Sicily. Since then, this passage has been glowing with the aura of its mythological landmarks. Travellers and tourists have played Odysseus by re-enacting his journey. Scholars and explorers have explained the myths as metaphors of whirlpools and marine fauna. The iconic Strait and village of Scilla have turned into place-myths and playgrounds, defined by the region's heritage. Carbone observes the enduring impact of Hellas on the real Strait today. The continuous rekindling of cultural and visual traditions of place in the arts, media, travel, and tourism have intersected with philhellenic historiographies, shaping local policies, public histories, views of development, and forms of Hellenicist identitarianism. Elements of society have celebrated the landscape of the Odyssey, appropriated Homer as their imagined heirs, and purported themselves as the original Europeans–pandering to outdated ideological appropriations of 'classical' antiquity and exclusionary, West-centric views of the Mediterranean.

The Inferno is the first third of Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, originally written in the Tuscan dialect of Italian. It was written in the early years of the 14th century. In a time when all serious literary works invariably were written in Latin, Dante deliberately chose his native language to present his epic, hence the word comedy describing a subject that is far from light entertainment. The poem was published in Italy a full century before Gutenberg's press revolutionized the printing and publishing industry. Although there are no known copies in Dante's hand that have survived to the present day, there are several hundred in manuscript form, some dating back to a few years after Dante's death. The first known copy to appear in print dates from 1472, over one hundred and fifty after Dante first published the work.