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Historical Myths, Lies And Untruths
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PAGE CONTENTS:
Some Myths of American History
Other Historical Myths
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Addsress
Debunking Modern Myths About the Middle Ages
Davy Crockett's Death at the Alamo
Jesse James
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned
The Telephone
Betsy Ross and the First American Flag
Looking at Civil War Black History Myths
8 Myths About Ancient History
Historical Myth: The 300 Who Held Thermopylae
Some Myths of American History
There is no evidence that Betsy Ross sewed the first U.S. flag. The story
didn't even flutter forth from her relatives until 1870.
George Washington did not toss a dollar across the Potomac.
Even if he did toss something, the dollar didn't come into being until after the U.S. gained independence.
Francis
Scott Key did not write our national anthem. He penned the words then set them to an old English drinking song. It did not
become our national anthem until 1931.
Most of the midnight ride of Paul Revere was accomplished by other horsemen.
It was Samuel Prescott, in fact, who carried the warning to Concord.
The Declaration of Independence was not approved
on July 4, 1776. Only John Hancock, for the assembly, signed it that day. The other signatures were made on August 2.
George
Washington wasn't the first U.S. President. John Hanson was the president of the Congress of the Confederation and carried
the title of president of the U.S., as did eight men after him.
"Yankee Doodle" is not an American song. It was a
British ditty designed to harass ragtag colonists during the French and Indian War.
Other Historical Myths
Most of us learned in school that the Magna
Charter was signed in 1215by King John. But it was not – the monarch could not write his name.He granted the Magna Charter
by placing his seal on it.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Addsress
Abraham Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg Address on an
envelope, enroute by train, to Gettysburg. Lincoln wrote at least one page of the first draft of the speech in Washington,
on White House stationery, on November 17, 1863. He added the final nine and a half lines, in pencil, when he went to
his bedroom in the Gettysburg home of David Wills the following evening. On the morning of the address, November 19,
Lincoln wrote a new draft, copying the first, and making few changes. There were 239 words in the first and 269 words
in the second draft. Lincoln made a copy of the speech and sent it to the Metropolitan Fair in New York, to be sold for charity.
Lincoln inserted two words which every newspaper had quoted him as using, but which were not in the original draft: "under
God". It is uncertain whether Lincoln actually spoke these words when he gave the speech.
Debunking Modern Myths About the Middle Ages
by Melissa Snell
You've probably seen the email that's circulating around the
web, purporting to provide facts about the Middle Ages. In humorous terms it connects the origins of some modern phrases and
customs with life in sixteenth-century England. The most recent version I've seen has the subject heading "The Bad Old Days."
Just in case you didn't already know, let me make this perfectly clear:
This is a hoax. It has virtually no basis in fact, and if any of its contents happens to strike near the real origin
of an actual custom or phrase, it would be an astonishing coincidence.
Weddings and Hygeine (From the Hoax):
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to
hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
The Facts:
In the agricultural communities of medieval England, the most popular
months for weddings were January, November and October,1 when harvest was past and the time for planting had not
yet arrived. Late autumn and winter were also when animals were usually slaughtered for food, so freshly butchered beef, pork,
mutton and similar meats would be available for the wedding feast, which often coincided with annual festivals. Summer
weddings, which might also coincide with annual festivals, enjoyed some popularity, as well.
As for "yearly baths," the idea that medieval people rarely bathed is
a persistent but false one. Most people washed themselves on a regular basis. Going without washing was considered a
penance even in the early Middle Ages. Soap, possibly invented by the Gauls sometime before Christ, was in widespread use
throughout Europe by the end of the ninth century, and made its first appearance in cake form in the twelfth century. Public
bathhouses were not uncommon, although their ostensible purpose was often secondary to their clandestine use by prosititutes.
In short, there were numerous opportunities for medieval people to cleanse
their bodies. Thus, the prospect of going a full month without washing, and then appearing at her wedding with a bouquet of
flowers to hide her stench, is not something a medieval bride was likely to consider any more than a modern bride would.
Baths (From the Hoax):
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of
all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the
baby out with the bath water."
The Facts:
Most peasant folk could not afford a bathtub and used a barrel with the
top removed.1 The time and energy required to draw enough water from the well to fill a barrel was prohibitive
enough to make a full-body bath a rare occasion. However, it wasn't necessary to immerse oneself completely to get clean.
Think of what you can do with some cloths, soap, and a bucket of water.
There is no evidence to confirm that peasant families bathed serially
in the same bathwater, but they may have occasionally done so to save the extra labor. Contrary to popular belief, medieval
people were not entirely oblivious to matters of hygiene, and are unlikely to have blithely plunged themselves into filthy
water "to get clean."
For the most part, children were treated with the special care with
which they have been treated since the beginning of time. Rather than being submerged in a barrel full of water (filthy or
otherwise), an infant would be bathed in a smaller vessel like a basin. There is no reason to believe that the relatively
small amount of water needed would not be freshly drawn from the well or mildly heated over the fire in a kettle. There are
no known instances of a child being "thrown out" when his bathwater was disposed of.
The expression "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" is German
in origin and can be traced to the fifteenth century satire NarrenbeschwЖrung by Thomas Murner.
Thatched Roofs (From the Hoax):
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof-hence the saying "It's raining
cats and dogs."
The Facts:
Most peasant cottages and many town buildings had thatched roofs -- which,
rather than being simply "thick straw-piled high," were constructed of carefully, tightly woven straw, brom, heather, reeds
or rushes.1 When properly devised, thatch was (and still is) very good at keeping out the elements, including rain,
snow and hail.
Unfortunately, thatch could be an attractive abode for such uninvited
guests as small rodents, insects and birds, it was subject to rot relatively quickly in wet weather, and in dry weather it
posed a fire hazard.
On the other hand, it was cheap and easy to construct, so cottages could,
and did, get a new thatch roof when the old one ceased to provide adequate shelter. Most peasant housing was fairly impermanent
in any case, and cottages were usually completely rebuilt every generation or so.
While it is quite possible that a cat would jump up on the roof to hunt
vermin, he would not "live" there, nor would dogs or other small animals. This is simply one of the sillier claims of
the hoax.
Alas, the origin of the phrase "raining cats and dogs" is currently unknown.
Its first known use in print was in the seventeenth century, but it may go back a few hundred years before that.
Floors (From the Hoax):
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence
the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh
(straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened
the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway-hence, a "thresh hold."
The Facts:
Most peasant cottages did indeed have dirt floors. Some peasants lived
in homes that sheltered animals as well as themselves. When livestock was enclosed in a peasant home, it
was usually partitioned off in a separate room, sometimes at right angles to the family's living space.
Yet animals could still occasionally find their way into the house proper.
For this reason, an earthen floor was a practical choice.
However, there is no evidence that the term "dirt poor" was used in any
context before the 20th century. One theory suggests that its origins lie in the "Dust Bowl" of 1930s Oklahoma,
where drought and poverty combined to create some of the most horrific living conditions in American history; but direct evidence
is lacking.
In castles, the ground floor might be beaten earth, stone or plaster,
but upper stories almost invariably had wooden floors, and the same pattern likely held true in town dwellings. Straw was
not needed to keep people from slipping on wet slate, but it was used as a floor covering on all surfaces to provide a modicum
of warmth and cushioning. Reeds or rushes were sometimes supplemented with aromatic herbs like lavender, and the entire floor
would usually be swept clean and strewn with fresh straw and herbs on a regular basis. Old straw was not simply left down
when fresh straw was added.
If such were indeed the case, it might be logical to think of the little
raised strip in a doorway as an item intended to "hold" in "thresh," except for one significant detail. There's no such
thing as "thresh."
The word "thresh" is a verb which, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means
"to separate seed" or "to strike repeatedly." It is not, and never has been, a noun used to designate floor rushes. The word
"threshold," like "thresh," is Old English in origin and dates to before the twelfth century. Both OE words appear to relate
to the movement of one's feet; thresh (OE threscan) meaning to stamp or trample and threshold (OE therscwold)
being a place to step.
Tomatoes (From the Hoax):
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content
caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes,
so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
The Facts:
Pewter was used for plates, drinking vessels and other tableware in the
Middle Ages, but not exclusively. Wealthier folk used silver or gold for special occasions, and wooden plates evolved in the
later Middle Ages. It was quite true that the lead content (about 30% at most1) of pewter plates would leach out
upon contact with acidic foods. However, lead poisoning is not a quick process, but is a slow accumulation of toxins over
time,2 and its effects would not have been associated with any one particular food.
Furthermore, the tomato -- which originated in South America and was
evidently cultivated in Mexico long before the arrival of Europeans -- did not make an appearance in any European cuisine
until it came to Spain in the early 16th century.
The Spanish and Italian peoples adopted it wholeheartedly into many recipies,
and there are no known instances of any claims in either region that the fruit was poisonous.
However, in northern Europe, tomato plants remained purely decorative,
and they were rarely seen in Britain at all in the sixteenth century. There was indeed a belief that the plant was poisonous,
due in part to its resemblance to belladonna and deadly nightshade. As a member of the nightshade family, the tomato plant's
roots and leaves contain the neurotoxin solanine, and thus are indeed poisonous. This may explain the northern
Europeans' reluctance to use its fruit, as well as the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the English to experiment with it.
Porridge (From the Hoax):
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not
get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over
the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while -hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot,
peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
The Facts:
In peasant cottages there was no kitchen in which to cook. The poorest
families had only one room where they cooked, ate, worked and slept. It is also possible that most of these extremely poor
families owned only one kettle.
Poor town-dwellers usually didn't even have that, and obtained most of
their meals ready-made from shops and street vendors in the Medieval version of "fast-food."
Those who lived on the edge of starvation had to make use of every edible
item they could find, and just about everything could go into the pot (often a footed kettle that rested in the fire rather
than over it) for the evening meal. This included beans, grains, vegetables and sometimes meat -- often bacon.
Using a little meat in this manner would make it go farther as sustenance.
The resulting stew was called "pottage," and it was the basic element
of the peasant diet. And yes, sometimes the remains of one day's cooking would be used in the next day's fare. (This is true
in some modern "peasant stew" recipes.) But it was not common for food to remain there for nine days -- or for more than two
or three days, for that matter. People living on the edge of starvation were not likely to leave food on their plates or
in the pot.
Contaminating the carefully-gathered ingredients of a night's supper
with rotting nine-day-old remains, thus risking illness, is even more unlikely.
What is likely is that leftovers from the evening meal were incorporated
into a breakfast that would sustain the hard-working peasant family for much of the day.
The word "porridge" did not come into use until the 17th century.
Pork (From the Hoax):
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home
the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
The Facts:
Meat was indeed scarce for the poorest peasants, but the one type of
meat they were most likely to have was meat they could preserve for an extended period. This was done by smoking, curing or
salting. In medieval Europe, the most popular meat for smoking was pork. Smoked and cured ham or bacon would
be edible far longer than any other type of meat, and thus was a thrifty choice for a peasant on the edge of starvation.
Bacon was therefore no status symbol. Freshly-slaughtered meat was more
of a special treat among peasants.
Bacon (and just about every other foodstuff that was stored indoors)
was indeed hung from the rafters, but not for display. It was done simply to keep it off the floor, away from rats and other
vermin.
The food situation was much different in the homes of well-to-do townfolk
and castle-dwellers. The amount of food prepared on a daily basis in a castle kitchen was staggering, and included such items
as ale, wine, bread, orchard fruits, wild fruits, wild nuts, onions, peas, beans, garden vegetables, fresh fish, dried fish,
shellfish, beef, mutton, goose, wild game and -- yes! -- pork. This doesn't include the delicacies served on special occasions
or to very great lords, such as lamb, veal, suckling pig, hedgehog or swan, or imported items like almonds, dates, oranges,
raisins, figs, and pomegranates.
For these prosperous people and their households, "chewing the fat" was
not a common pastime. Nor was it a phrase used in the sixteenth century. Informal sources indicate that both "bringing home
the bacon" and "chewing the fat" originated in 19th-century North America, but currently I have no confirmation.
Bread (From the Hoax):
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."
The Facts:
This singularly ridiculous assertion appears to refer to households such
as castles or manor houses where workers, families and guests must all be provided for, as opposed to single-family peasant
dwellings or poor townfolk households. I wonder, but cannot discover, how large a loaf would have to be to feed dozens or
even hundreds of people. And how much time would the serving staff waste cutting it up "according to status"?
The fact is that in castles and manor houses, bread was baked in
manageable loaves and the individual loaves were distributed among the tables.
Generally, two kinds of bread were baked in the castle ovens: white bread
used with meals, and coarser bread used for trenchers. Workers ate in a separate area of the dining hall from the lord and
his family, and they may have received coarser bread than the finer variety provided to the nobles, or they too may have had
white bread with their meals.
Peasants, who didn't have ovens in their homes, didn't always have bread
with meals, but they could bring the loaves they had prepared to the village's communal oven. There the baker would
bake it for a fee, part of which would go to the lord. Peasant bread was usually coarse and brown. In towns, baking was an
industry with guildmembers, shops, and varieties of breads at various prices.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phrase "upper crust"
dates to the year 1836.
In conclusion, and that's the truth... (and whoever said that history
was boring)
Life in the 1500s is far more complex and fascinating, and far less ridiculous,
than the hoax suggests. The world was a very different place back then, but people -- foolish and sensible, filthy and
clean, cruel and kind -- were in some ways quite like we are today.
| ©2007 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All
rights reserved. |
Davy Crockett's Death at the Alamo
At 5:00 A. M.on Sunday, March 6, 1836, the epic Battle of the Alamo began.
By 6:30 A. M. the battle was over.
"It was but a small affair" Santa Ana reportedly said of the Alamo, but
Texans tend to think of it as a bit larger affair, contrasting it to the Persians and Spartans at Thermopylae.
The storming of the Alamo was not so much a battle as a melee and a slaughter.
The Mexican dead and wounded numbered about 600. Five or six prisoners were brought before the commanding general,
Santa Ana. He was furious that these men had been spared, even momentarily, and ordered them executed on the spot.
Among the captives was David Crockett. Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without humiliating
themselves before their torturers.
Santa Ana ordered the bodies of all the Texans burned. The Mexican
dead were either paced in trenches and covered over, or thrown into the San Antonio River.
Even the most Texan of Texas historians eventually abandoned the beloved
image of Davy clubbing the enemy with his rifle "Old Betsy" until overwhelmed and killed in the heat of battle.
Most with an interest in the unvarnished truth agree that we do not need
a rifle-swinging balm for our national psyche, and there is nothing dishonorable in the way Davy died at age 49. The
defenders of the Alamo died herically and David Crockett died as he lived - with courage.
Copyright 1997, by Dale L. Walker, "Legends and Lies, Great Mysteries
of the American West"
Jesse James
Jesse James was the equivalent of a modern-day Robin Hood.
He stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Robin Hood probably never really existed except in Middle English folklore.
Jesse James' role as Robin Hood is a similar myth. There is no evidence that any of the loot Jesse stole was distributed
anywhere except amoung his gang members. Jesse James stole from the rich, and the poor, and kept all of the proceeds.
Copyright 1997, by Dale L. Walker, "Legends and Lies,
Great Mysteries of the American West"
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned
We all know the story of mad Emperor Nero starting the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, then fiddling while the city burned.
However, this would have been impossible. For one thing, the violin wouldn't be invented for another 1,600 years. OK, some
versions of the story suggest that he played a lute or a lyre - but then, scholars place the emperor in his villa at Antium,
30 miles away, when the fire began. Though he was innocent of this disaster, however, there is much evidence to show that
he was ruthless and depraved.
The Telephone
Antonio Meucci invented the telephone, not Alexander Graham
Bell. On June 15, 2002, the United States Congress oficially recognized Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone.
Bell received the patent for a telephonic device mere hours before a patent for a similar device by an inventor named Elisha
Gray was filed. Bell most probably stole the idea for the telephone from designs and drawings by Antonio Meucci that
were stored in the laboratory where Bell Worked. The United States Supreme Court annulled Bell's patent in 1887 on the
grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. Between 1850 and 1862, Meucci developed at least 30 different models of working
telephones. He never profitted from his invention and died poor in 1889.
Excerpted from the book "American Firsts (Innovations, Discoveries,
and Gadgets Born in the U.S.A.)", by Stephen J. Spignesi, ©2004 by Stephen J. Spignesi. Used without permission, but
with the best of intentions.
Betsy Ross and the First American Flag
by Jone Johnson Lewis & Elizabeth Griscom Ross
Ashburn Claypoole
Betsy Ross made the first American flag after a visit in June
1776 by George Washington, Robert Morris, and her husband's uncle, George Ross. She demonstrated how to cut a 5-pointed star
with a single clip of the scissors,if the fabric were folded correctly.
So the story goes -- but this story was not told until 1870
by Betsy's grandson, and then even he claimed it was a story that needed confirmation. Most scholars agree that it was not
Betsy who made the first flag, though she was a flagmaker who, records show, was paid in 1777 by the Pennsylvania State Navy
Board for making "ship's colours, &c."
She was born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
to Samuel and Rebecca James Griscom. She was the great-granddaughter of a carpenter, Andrew Griscom, who had arrived in New
Jersey in 1680 from England.
Young Elizabeth probably attended Quaker schools and learned needlework
there and at home. When she married John Ross, an Anglican, in 1773, she was expelled from the Friends Meeting for marrying
outside the meeting. She eventually joined the Free Quakers, or "Fighting Quakers" because they did not adhere strictly to
the historic pacifism of the sect. John and Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross began an upholstery business together, drawing on her needlework
skills.
John was killed in January 1776 on militia duty when gunpowder exploded
at the Philadelphia waterfront. Betsy acquired property and kept up the upholstery business, beginning to make flags for Pennsylvania
as well.
In 1777 Betsy married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor, who had the misfortune
of being on a ship captured by the British in 1781. He died in prison the next year.
In 1783, Betsy married again -- this time, her husband was John Claypoole,
who had been in prison with Joseph Ashburn, and had met Betsy when he delivered Joseph's farewells to her. He died in 1817,
after a long disability.
Betsy lived until 1836, dying on January 30. She was reburied in the Free
Quaker Burying Ground in 1857.
When Betsy's grandson told his story of her involvement with the first
flag, it quickly became legend. published in Harper's Monthly in 1873, by the mid-1880's the story was included in
many school textbooks.
What made the story turn into legend so quickly? Probably three social
trends helped:
- changes in women's lives, and social recognition of such changes, made
discovering a "founding mother" to stand alongside "founding fathers" attractive to American imagination. Betsy Ross was not
only a widow making her own way in life with her young child -- widowed patriotically in the American Revolution not once,
but twice -- but she was earning a living by a traditionally women's occupation: seamstress. (Notice that her abilities to
buy and manage land never made it into her legend, and are ignored in many biographies.)
- A growing patriotic fever connected with the American flag required a
tale that was more than just a business transaction, such as the probably-true story of Francis Hopkinsin.
- The growing advertising industry made the woman with a flag a popular
image, used to sell a variety of products (even flags) - see a sample image at the right.
Ignoring many other stories of women's involvement in the American Revolution,
Betsy Ross became a prominent character in the telling of the story of America's founding.
Today, a tour of Betsy Ross' home in Philadelphia (there is some doubt
about its authenticity, too) is a "must-see" when visiting historical sites. The home, established with the aid of two million
ten-cent contributions by American schoolchildren, is still an interesting and informative tour. One can begin to see what
home life was like for families of the time, and to remember the disruption and inconvenience, even tragedy, that war brought
to women as well as to men.
Even if she did not make the first flag -- even if the visit by George
Washington never happened -- Betsy Ross was an example of what many women of her time found as the reality in time of war:
widowhood, single motherhood, managing household and property independently, quick remarriage for economic reasons (and, we
can hope, for companionship and even love, too).
Did Betsy Ross make the first flag or not? It seems unlikely that she did.
The first person to tell the story was her grandson, many years after her death.
I've received emails telling me that I should not be "unpatriotic"
by debunking this story, beloved of generations of schoolchildren and teachers.
But what's "unpatriotic" about telling the truth? Isn't history
about trying to get to the truth behind the stories that people tell?
Betsy Ross was, indeed, a flagmaker, a successful businesswoman
who transcended personal tragedy both during the American Revolution and after.
Like many women in times of war, she supported herself and
her child, managing a household and a business, and making the best of the circumstances of her life. What's unpatriotic
about that, even if she didn't make the first American flag?
| ©2007 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All
rights reserved. |
Looking at Civil War Black History Myths
by Eddie L. Johnson
I've never been a big fan of Black History Month. While the intent is
good, I'd like to see black history become a far more integral part of our national consciousness and educational system.
Relegating the celebration to the shortest month of the year gives short
meaning to the many contributions African Americans have made to this nation.
The often stated myth, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, is the first
one I shall mention.
The Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1863,
didn't free a single slave that Lincoln was in a position to set free. It ordered the release of slaves in "any state or designated
state" that was in rebellion against the federal government. Even worse, Lincoln exempted from his order slaves held in parts
of the south that were under control of the Union Army. He excluded 48 counties of Virginia that would later become West Virginia.
His order also left enslaved Africans Americans in New Orleans and twelve Louisiana parishes, as well as slaves in Portsmouth
and Norfolk, Virginia, and seven surrounding counties occupied by Union forces.
Slavery was actually ended on Dec. 18, 1865, eight months after Lincoln's
assassination, when the Constitution's 13th Amendment was ratified.
The second greatest myth about slavery is entitled "The Reason for
the Civil War." The Civil War was fought over states' rights, not slavery. In his famous speech, Confederate Vice
President Alexander Stephens acknowledged the central role slavery played in the Civil War. "Our government is founded upon
the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, and that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural
and normal condition."
Stephen was no off the wall loose cannon. He helped draft the Confederate
Constitution, and his words were backed up by a section of the document, which forbade the Confederate Congress from enacting
any law "denying or impairing" the right of white to own slaves.
© 1995-2007 Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the Local Media Group of Dow
Jones.
Any reproduction for other than personal use will be considered a violation of copyright.
8 Myths About Ancient History
by N. S. Gill
It's a little harder to prove that myths about ancient history are false
than it is to disprove myths about more modern eras, but the prevailing opinion is that the following ideas are wrong.
The following ideas about ancient history might more properly be called
"urban legends" to signify that they are mostly modern ideas about ancient history. In addition to the following, there are
also plenty of myths, especially about origins, that were woven into the stories the ancients told as history.
1) Caesar Was Born by Caesarean Section
The idea that Julius Caesar was born by Caesarean Section is old, but
since Caesar's mother, Aurelia, was involved in his upbringing, and the surgical techniques of the 1st (or 2nd) century B.C.
should have left her dead, it is unlikely that the story about Caesar's birth by C-section is true.
2) Judaism Borrowed Monotheism From Akhenaten
Akhenatenwas an Egyptian pharaoh who put aside the traditional Egyptian
pantheon of gods in favor of his own sun god, Aten. He did not deny the existence of other gods, as a monotheist would have,
but held his god above the others, as a henotheist.
The date of Akhenaten may make it impossible for the Hebrews to have
borrowed from him, since their monotheism could have preceded Akhenaten's birth or followed the return of traditional Egyptian
religion.
3) Jesus Was Born on December 25th
We don't even know for sure what year Jesus was born, but references
in the Gospels suggest Jesus was born in the spring. The god Mithras was born of a virgin on the winter solstice and was known
as the light of the world. It is likely that aspects of the worship of Mithras were adopted by early Christians.
4) Latin is the Most Logical Language and Superior to Others
This is a hard one for me since I tend to buy into this myth, but Latin
is not any more logical than any other language. However, our grammar rules were based on the grammar of Latin. Since English
is, but should not be put into a Latinate mold, English comes out looking awkward. The specialized vocabularies we use in
areas like law, medicine, and logic, tend to be Latin-based, too, which makes Latin seem superior.
5) Caesar Said "Beware the leader who
bangs the drums of war to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword."
The quote is anachronistic in detail and spirit. There were no drums
and all swords were double-edged. The idea that citizenry needed to be persuaded of the value of war is not from the first
century B.C.
6) Atlantis
Atlantis was used as a parable by Plato and possibly mentioned by Solon
of Athens. Whether there might possibly have been a real lost continent of Atlantis or not remains open to debate, mostly
among non-academics.
7) Thumbs Up! - End of a Fight Between Gladiators
It is believed that when the person in charge of a gladiatorial event
wanted one of the gladiators to be finished off, he turned his thumb down and that when he wanted the gladiator to live, he
pointed his thumb up. The editor's gesture signifying that a gladiator should be killed is not exactly thumbs down, but thumbs
turned. This motion is thought to represent the movement of a sword.
8) Amazons
The Amazons were probably not the one-breasted man-haters we think of
when we hear the word. They are more likely to have been fully-breasted Scythian horse-riding warriors, judging from artwork,
although Strabo does write that their right breasts were seared off in infancy.
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