Resources for the Curious

Updated: 06/10/26

So! Here's the page to be if any of the things I talk about on this site pique your interest. This is a collection of resources and links I've collected on my quest to know everything. I'm not an expert or even a professional in any of these areas by any margin, so take these recs primarily as starting points for your own journeys of discovery. Some of these recs come straight from things I studied while getting my BA in History or my minor in Chemistry. Others are just random things I found one way or another.

History

Organized loosely by chronological order and then by subtopic.

Bronze Age & Antiquity

I've taken several fantastic courses on life in classical antiquity, so these resources are a combination of readings my professors assigned that I found interesting and things I found when researching for various homework assignments. It will be pretty apparent what areas I'm interested in.

Before I get any further into the woods on this topic I must of course mention the Perseus Digital Library. It is entirely online, completely free, and absolutely massive. It is a treasure trove of primary sources for all things antiquity from the odyssey and homeric hymn to Demeter to the legal proceedings of Demosthenes. There's little I love more than a free digital library.

Mythology

For those interested in delving into the myths and deities of the era, there are a few ways to go about it. If you want an entertaining abridged series to satisfy your personal curiosity I can't recommend OSP's Miscellaneous Myths enough. While they are certainly not an academic source, they many times manage a surprising level of depth and can point you in the right direction in terms of finding primary sources. In any case, the series is highly entertaining and wonderfully illustrated by Red.

In terms of reading, to get a general idea of the stories and characters there's Edith Hamilton's Mythology, which I read and enjoyed in my world myth course in high school. It includes myths from a few other cultures but dedicates a sizable section to Greek and Roman mythos. She does a good job of streamlining the often nebulous nature of these myths and stories into a more cohesive and approachable shape. It also helps to depict these myths in the way they are perceived by our current(-ish, its a little antiquated itself) cultural consciousness.

The next level of depth into this subject is probably Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is also included in its entirety in the Perseus Library. While technically a primary source, Ovid is a bit late to the game and has a tendency to prioritize cohesive narratives, entertainment factor, and making a Point over accurately preserving and enshrining his source material. This said, Metamorphoses as a source does have a lot going for it in that it centralizes what was previously a very scattered body of works and collects them into this work which has survived much longer than many of our other sources. This is the last level of depth at which the myths retain much cohesion or continuity.

This deep into the weeds we come to what might be considered the 'real' primary sources for the myths. Its important to remember at this point that essentially all written down myths provide us with is a single snapshot of the nebulous and constantly evolving presence in the cultural consciousness that can be called the real mythology. With that in mind, finding myth accounts written during their heyday often requires knowing what myth you are looking for. Want to know the story of Demeter and Persephone? Check out the Homeric Hymn to Demeter once again on Perseus. If you get lost looking for sources I don't think there's any shame in checking the works cited section of wikipedia for ideas and neither did my professors.

Some papers I found interesting on this topic include A Dark Dionysus, Myth and Gender Systems, Hermes the Transformer, and Did the Ancient Greeks Develop a “Happy Mythology” for Pastoral Gods?

Religion

This obviously bleeds into mythology a bit but I am putting it in its own section since I took an entire course on this specifically. Namely, what worship of the gods actually looked like and what it meant for daily life in the Mediterranean. These resources are more geared towards students and may be a little more dense/archaic/hard to access.

To start us off is the aptly titled Ancient Religions by Sarah Iles Johnston. It covers a lot including some Egyptian and Mesopotamian topics but also goes in depth on things like the Elusinian Mysteries. There was some fascinating stuff in there and I may go back and read it now that I have the time to not speed-read it.

My absolute favorite resource for this topic has to be Walter Burkert's Greek Religion. It is essentially a comprehensive breakdown of every aspect of Greek religion's nature within the culture and people's lives as it was understood in the 1970s, backed by a truly massive volume of archaeological analysis. It is technically outdated but it holds up surprisingly well thanks to the absolutely ludicrous size of its bibliography. I did a paper about one particular festival and there was an entire section in there detailing every single moment of the festival as indicated by artifact or literature. It goes into the origins of the religion including what little we know about Mycenaean gods, how religion wove into every day life, and how each god was worshipped and understood. It is an absolutely fascinating read and I have checked it out at my school library 3 times already. If I had money it would already be on my shelf.

Papers and book chapters relating to this include The Name of the Anthesteria, A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (chapter on Murder by Magic), and The (alleged) sacrifice and procession at Rural Dionysia in Aristophanes' "Acharnians"

Late Antiquity

I found the Texts of Synesius while researching the life of Hypatia of Alexandria and found his letters to be a really interesting and personal window into life in the Mediterranean during late antiquity. He has a sense of humor and a melodramatic personality that make these letters highly entertaining.

Currently I am reading The New Roman Empire by Anthony Kaldellis at the recommendation of Overly Sarcastic Productions' Blue on one of their podcasts. I am a very short way into what is probably the longest and densest book I have ever attempted so I will keep y'all posted.

Also on my TBR is a copy of the The Alexiad I was gifted for Christmas last year by my friend.

The Medieval World

This year I really want to dive into this subject, so look forward to more in this section coming soon!

The Decameron is a very unique primary source for many reasons. For one thing, the majority of the work is entirely fictional. This work is a series of short stories that range from hilarious to scandalous. I'm slowly working through the tales themselves, but much of the most valuable historical information comes from the introduction section. Boccaccio opens by explaining that he wrote these stories with a feminine audience in mind in order to provide for fair ladies the same reprieve men find in hunting, fishing, and sport. He is very Italian. This bit too is entertaining but the real window into history comes when he provides context for the setting of the tales. The characters exchanging stories are in hiding from a particularly lethal Florentine plague outbreak, and Boccaccio provides a vivid description of its effects and devastation. The social impacts he describes are particularly interesting, especially since these massive outbreaks occurred within his own lifetime and his account can be presumed to be rooted in contemporary accounts and his own memories.

The Rothschild Canticles is an illuminated manuscript which I cannot read yet it is the pictures and marginalia of this work that fascinates me. There are all sorts of goofy illustrations in it and I am so glad I found out about it from The Monastery of St. Blamensir.

Renaissance & Reformation

My knowledge on this topic is more limited, but I find the period fascinating so this section will no doubt be updated as time goes on.

Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King is an intimate window into the world of Renaissance Florence. It’s the first book by King I’ve encountered but not the only one I’ve enjoyed. Its focal point is the design and construction of the duomo atop the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. From there it extends into developments of economy, politics, religion, and the impacts of all three on daily life in this city. It puts the concept of Humanism so integral to this era into sharp relief.

Chemistry

Organic Chemistry

For drawing molecules and seeing them in 3d there is the free tool molview.

Free tables:

• ptable

Studying concepts:

• the organic chemistry tutor
• crash course

Free textbook:

• Openstax Organic Chemistry

Embroidery

Dedicated Embroidery page coming soon!