In ancient stories, including Homer’s Iliad, the Trojan prince Troilus is killed at a young age by the Greek champion Achilles. In the Middle Ages, he became the lead character in a love story that paired him up with a young woman called Cressida.

A Middle-English poem takes the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, gives it a contemporary, medieval setting, makes Orpheus a chivalrous king, and provides the story with a surprisingly happy ending.

A wealth of stories sprang up around the figure of Alexander the Great. One of these stories involved the Macedonian conqueror’s exploration of the world beneath the sea.

According to the Prose Edda, attributed to the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), the Norse gods were foreigners. They had made the trek northwards and westwards from their original home in Anatolia: the ancient city of Troy.