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Filk is a musical genre that grew out of the science-fiction and fantasy fan community. During the early days of science-fiction conventions, many participants would gather for late-night singing sessions. The phenomenon has since spread to include professional recordings and conventions devoted entirely to filk. Though filkers have been known to write songs about a variety of t...

The Piraeus Lion is a white marble statue that stood in the ancient Athenian harbor of Piraeus and served as a famous landmark from about 100 CE on. Looted by Venetian naval commander Francesco Morosini in 1687, it is today on display at Italy's Venetian Arsenal. The lion is most notable for the two lengthy runic inscriptions carved on its sides by Scandinavian mercenaries in th...

Bethlem Royal Hospital is the oldest institution for the care and confinement of the mentally ill in England and one of the oldest in Europe. First founded as a priory in 1247, the building was converted to a hospital around 1400. A distortion of the hospital's name gave rise to the word "bedlam," which was once used as a generic term for a psychiatric hospital and has since bee...

Bull-leaping is a motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative art depicting humans acrobatically leaping over bulls. It is thought by some to represent a ritual performance—perhaps connected with bull worship—in which an athlete literally vaulted over a bull by grasping its horns, causing the animal to reflexively jerk its head upward and giving the acrobat the momentum necessary to p...

Also known as hara-kiri, seppuku is a form of ritual suicide by disembowelment formerly practiced by members of Japan's samurai class. Favored because it was slow and painful—and therefore demonstrative of courage and strong resolve—voluntary seppuku was performed to avoid the dishonor of capture, show loyalty to one's lord, protest against a policy, or atone for failure. Over t...