The Sámi are an Indigenous people whose homeland, Sápmi, stretches across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that Sámi communities have long inhabited the same regions where many of their settlements remain today [1]. Currently, the Sámi population is estimated at around 50,000 – 60,000 in Norway, 20,000 in Sweden, 8,000 in Finland, and 2,000 in Russia [2]. Within this population are several

Mythology is science, or at least humanity’s earliest attempt at it. Both seek to answer all of the big How and Why questions that can only be asked by keen observers of the world around them. Both admit that their truth isn’t perfect—science through the error bars on its measurements and myth through the shifting otherworldly nature of the divine. Both are built on foundations of pattern recognition and communal cooperation. Myth and science have their superficial difference

As an eleven-year-old child, I was fascinated by Classical mythology, especially Edith Hamilton’s work which was required reading in my grade school at the time. As I grew older, I “forgot” about my interest in mythology and turned my attention and enthusiasm to history and archaeology instead. My renewed interest in mythology stems from my study of archaeomythology, and my use of archaeomythology as a methodology to investigate Bronze Age Crete (c. 3200-1070 BCE), a society

Perhaps defining myth is impossible. Unanimity on an exact definition cannot occur because it will leave out what someone, somewhere, considers important; too loose a definition will lack enough specificity to be useful. Also, a myth nailed down dies, like a pinned butterfly.

I need to begin with Wendy Doniger’s observation, “it's impossible to define myth, but cowardly not to try.” So here goes. Not with a definition – but, instead, with an appreciation.

Right now Homer’s epic poem is everywhere: from Uberto Pasolini’s The Return and Jorge Rivera-Herrans’s EPIC: The Musical to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey (2026) and literary retellings like Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. This isn’t new. Fascination with Homer’s homecoming epic is centuries—millennia!—old, and its influence so vast it’s impossible to list.

The International Society of Mythology (ISM) Call for Proposals for Mythologium 2026: Mythic Imagination