As I became interested in mythology, I eventually began to outgrow misconceptions about world history...some of which even I once believed.
(It would seem unfair to call them "myths" since this is a mythology website)
Here are just some examples of how becoming a mythology fan changed my view of real human history (and how it can change yours too):
For example,...
I learned that some Roman myths do not actually have Greek counterparts.
And so, to avoid treating Ancient Greece and Rome as one in the same, uniquely Roman myths such as Romulus and Remus are separated from the Greek myths in the webpage on Greek and Roman mythology.
Norse mythical tales featuring drinking horns show that the Vikings did not actually drink out of the skulls of their fallen enemies.
They drank from animal horns instead, as in this cartoon representation of the trials of Utgard-Loki.
Once I learned the story of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)...as well as the Japanese deity Hotei (a.k.a. the "Laughing Buddha"), there went the misconception that Buddha was obese since Hotei and Siddhartha are two separate figures.
The misconception that most people died young in premodern times and that a person who lived to the ripe old age of thirty was "elderly" seems to apply to just about every society in the world in the days before modern medicine.
However, the big thing people are missing here is mortality rates.
That is, if a person managed to reach their 20th birthday, they could expect to live up to their 70s.
Also, consider the image of an elderly Medieval wizard.
Bathing scenes in mythical tales fly in the face of the misconception that people in Medieval times didn't bathe.
North American Native traditional stories about fearless warriors who fight monsters and other enemies challenge the misconception that North American Natives were peaceful before European invasion.
As an example, these are the twin boy heroes Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away from the mythology of the Crow Native people of Montana.
If you want to include other American Native peoples, this misconception completely falls apart when you get to Aztec mythology in all of its R-rated glory.
By looking at their myths, you can tell that they were first told by the civilization best known for human sacrifice.
Now that we have seen how mythology itself challenges misconceptions about human history, I would now like to cover some ways I myself challenge historical misconceptions in my own art on this website:
None of the Norse gods have horns on their helmets
Medieval European people are shown wearing colorful clothes
When I come across a scene involving food, I make sure not to draw American native foods in European, Asian, African, or Oceanian mythical art or vice versa, since the Columbian Exchange hadn't happened yet when these stories were first told.
That means...
No tomatoes in Roman myths
No potatoes in Irish myths
No turkey legs in Medieval European legends
No pineapples in Hawaiian myths, since pineapples were originally imported from South America
Corn and squash only in Native American mythical scenes
And, of course...
Absolutely no presentist agendas
This has been a long-winded run-down of how learning about mythology can help to clear up commonly-believed misinformation about the human past...as well as how I do it myself here on Mythology Worlds.
I hope that this blog post has made you wiser.
Happy holidays, and have a legendary day!
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