1) First appearing in Assyrian mythology, the phoenix was thought to be a bird that fed itself on spices like frankincense. 2) After living for 500 years. 3) It was believed that the phoenix died and immediately regenerated itself. 4) In some versions of the legend, the phoenix set itself on fire only to rise from its own ashes and begin life anew, therefore it has come to be a symbol of rebirth and eternal life. 5) Even being seen as a symbol of Jesus Christ.

1) In Norse mythology, the Valkyrie were female warriors. 2) Under the command of Odin. 3) The king of the gods. 4) They carried spears and were dressed in armour serving as messengers for Odin, the Valkyrie, whose name means "choosers of the slain," were sent by the god onto the battlefield to select those who would be killed. 5) Their armour shone so brightly that it flashed in northern latitudes, people thought that the Valkyries were the sources of an astronomical phenomenon known as the aurora borealis, or the northern lights.

1) Greek mythology has it that Sisyphus was the king of the city of Corinth. 2) Who was condemned by the gods and sent to Tartarus. 3) Also called Hades, or hell. 4) There he was condemned to roll a heavy rock up an incline, only to have it roll down again then he would have to roll it back up the incline. 5) A futile task that would take an eternity to complete.

1) In Norse legend, Thor was the son of Odin, the king of the gods, and of Erda (Earth). 2) Second only to Odin in rank and known as the god of Thunder. 3) Thor was famous for his strength. 4) He was often pictured holding a hammer and wearing iron gloves. 5) Thor used his hammer as a weapon, which he threw at his enemies strangely, the hammer always returned to him after completing its work as if it were a boomerang. 6) Thor also wore a belt that increased his strength twofold, when he put it on he was invincible. 7) Thor's name persists today as Thor's day. 8) Or Thursday.

1) For the ancient Greeks, Hades (hell) contained five rivers. 2) Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Lethe. 3) Styx was known as the river of hate. 4) It circled Hades nine times Achilles' mother dipped him in this river when he was a baby. 5) An action that made him nearly invulnerable. 6) Acheron was the river of woe, Phlegethon was known as the river of fire. 7) Today, interestingly enough, phlegmatic people are thought of as calm and slow to anger. 8) Lethe is the river of forgetfulness of this stream dead people would drink before entering Hades so as to forget their lives on earth.

1) Hercules, who became the Greek god of physical strength, had to complete twelve enormously difficult tasks. 2) Before being deified. 3) Among these was the cleaning of the Augean stables. 4) King Augeas of Elis owned three thousand oxen. 5) Which he housed in a stable that had not been cleaned in thirty years. 6) Imagine the stench! 7) It took Hercules only one day to remedy the problem by simply diverting the Alpheus and Peneus rivers into the stalls, he was able to use their rushing waters to cleanse the place.

1) The last of Hercules' twelve great labours was to capture the three-headed dog, Cerberus. 2) The monster that guarded the gates of Hades, or hell. 3) Hercules was to take him to the upper world. 4) Then return him to Hades. 5) Pluto, the ruler of hell, permitted Hercules to kidnap Cerberus, the only condition was that Hercules would have to do so using only his bare hands. 6) Of course he succeeded while on this mission, Hercules was also able to secure the release from Hades of his friend Theseus. 7) Who had been taken prisoner by Pluto.

1) Persephone, also known as Proserpine, was a Greek goddess, she was the daughter of Demeter. 2) The goddess of the earth. 3) Demeter was also the goddess of agriculture and grain to the Romans, she was known as Ceres, from which we get the modern word cereal. 4) Persephone was kidnapped by Pluto, the god of the underworld, despite Ceres' protestations, only after the intervention of Jupiter, the king of the gods, was Persephone able to return to the upper world and rejoin her mother. 5) For six months of the year, at least. 6) During the other six months, she was to return to her husband, Pluto using this myth, the ancient Greeks explained the change in seasons. 7) While Persephone resided in the underworld, the earth experienced winter, when she returned to the upper world, summer returned with her.

1) Achilles was the hero of Homer's Iliad. 2) The epic poem that chronicles the attack on and destruction of Troy by a Greek army. 3) The son of Peleus, a mortal, and the Nereid Thetis, Achilles was dipped into the River Styx by his mother, that unusual baptism made him immune from all harm except in his heel. 4) The place where his mother had held him. 5) When he grew to manhood, Achilles came to symbolize the Greek ideal of courage and beauty. 6) Paris, prince of Troy, fired the arrow that killed Achilles, it was that fatal dart that struck him in the one vulnerable spot on his body. 7) Today an "Achilles' heel" is a metaphor for a significant personal weakness.

1) In 490 BC, the Persians went to war against Athens, they landed a huge army at Marathon. 2) A village on the coast of Attica, in an area of southeastern Greece over which Athens held sway. 3) When the Athenians learned of the invasion. 4) They sent a runner to Sparta and other Greek city states for help, however, only the tiny city of Palatea came to their aid. 5) Nevertheless, the small Greek army prevailed after their victory, the Athenians rushed back to their city. 6) Fearing that the Persians might renew their attack. 7) This time upon Athens itself. 8) The distance from Marathon to Athens is a little more than 40 kilometres, it is the distance of the marathon races in which hundreds of thousands of people participate today.