Ghost of Tu-po
A 1,500-year-old winged Chinese tomb guardian, meant to protect the deceased against evil spirits, is now on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Tu-po was an ancient Chinese ghost with revenge on his mind. Before he died, Tu-Po served as a minister to Chinese Emperor Hsuan (lived 827-783 B.C.). The two had a disagreement, and Hsuan had Tu-Po killed in about 786 B.C., despite warnings that Tu-Po would come back and haunt him.
Tu-Po did a lot more than haunt the emperor: Three years later, in 783 B.C., "Hsuan was killed with an arrow fired by an apparition resembling Tu-Po in front of an assembly of feudal lords," wrote Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu (lived 470-391 B.C.). (Translation by Yi-pao Mei, from "The Complete Book of Ghosts" by Paul Roland.) (Image Credit: Public domain, courtesy Wikimedia)
Chained man in ancient Athens
Parthenon on Acropolis Hill of Athens by night with almost full moon
Roman senator Pliny the Younger, who died in A.D. 113, told a ghost tale so haunting that it survives to this day. "There was at Athens a large and roomy house, which had a bad name, so that no one could live there. In the dead of the night, a noise — resembling the clashing of iron — was frequently heard, which, if you listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of chains," disturbances that led to the appearance of a specter "form of an old man, of extremely emaciated and squalid appearance, with a long beard and dishevelled, hair, rattling the chains on his feet and hands."
Needless to say, the house was abandoned and had to be rented out for a cheap price. When a philosopher named Athenodorus heard the story, he reportedly rented the house and confronted the ghost. The ghost appeared, and rattled around before vanishing. Athenodorus calmly marked the spot where the ghost vanished and, in the morning, ordered that the spot be dug up, the story goes. (Image Credit: Nick Pavlakis | Shutterstock.com) [Americans' Beliefs in Paranormal Phenomena (Infographic)]
