Almost every culture that ever told a story about the beginning of the world also had to count something: the days of creation, the cubits of an ark, the ages of mankind, the turning of the sky.
Math & Mythology sets those stories side by side. We take one mathematical thread — a shape, a number, a ratio, a cycle — and follow it through the Bible, Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Egypt, the Norse sagas and beyond. Each tradition is told on its own terms, from its own texts. Then we do the arithmetic, and ask what the comparison actually shows.
Our editorial standards
Side by side, never blended. Every tradition gets its own account, describing only what its own texts say. We don’t mix details between traditions or claim one story borrowed from another unless that is the mainstream scholarly view, and we say so when it is.
Real sources, named. Each account names the text it comes from, down to the chapter, tablet or line where we can. Quotations come from public-domain translations, word for word.
Respect for living faiths. The Bible and other scriptures are sacred to millions of people. We describe what the texts say, with care, and we don’t argue for or against anyone’s belief.
Math you can check. The math sections show their working and state their assumptions, so you can follow every step and redo it yourself.
How stories are made. Our stories are drafted with the help of AI (Claude, by Anthropic), working from primary-source passages we supply. Every draft then goes through a claim-by-claim fact-check and a human editorial review before it is published. When we get something wrong, we correct it.
Keeping the lights on
Some stories link to books on Amazon, and we may earn a commission if you buy through those links. Neither ever decides what we write.