bizarre stories Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Tales of Times Forgotten

King Midas Was Actually a Real Person

We have no evidence whatsoever for the existence of the vast majority of figures that appear in classical mythology. For instance, we have no evidence for the existence of Perseus, Herakles, Theseus, Achilleus, or Odysseus. Nonetheless, there is at least one major figure from classical mythology who was definitely a real person: King Midas.

No, really. I am not kidding. Believe it or not, King Midas—the king who, according to legend, was so greedy and foolish that he wished for everything he touched to turn to gold—was actually a historical king of the ancient kingdom of Phrygia who ruled in the late eighth century BC.

We know Midas was a real king because he is mentioned in contemporary Assyrian records as having attacked King Sargon II of Assyria and there are surviving inscriptions from his reign. Nonetheless, even though King Midas was a real person, the famous story of the golden touch is undoubtedly ahistorical.

A Compilation of the Most Disturbing Stories from Classical Mythology

Classical mythology is absolutely filled with all sorts of bizarre and disturbing stories involving horrific deeds such as murder, cannibalism, rape, incest, bestiality, filicide, fratricide, self-cannibalism, and mutilation. Just for fun, here is a compilation of some of the most disturbing stories from classical mythology.

Why Do Fraternities and Sororities Have Greek Letters for Names?

Today I am going to answer one of the truly big questions. It is one of the questions everyone has been wondering for years but never learned the answer to: “Why do fraternities and sororities have Greek letters for names?” I mean, why? Who came up with that idea? Why did it continue? Well, today you are going to finally learn the answer—but it is far stranger and frankly far more hilariously silly than you possibly ever imagined before now.

No, Throwing Apples at People Was Not Considered a “Marriage Proposal” in Ancient Greece

Internet memes are a notoriously unreliable source of information about the historical past. It should therefore come as little surprise to most people that a popular meme in widespread circulation on the internet claiming that throwing apples at people was “considered a marriage proposal” in ancient Greece is largely inaccurate. It may come as a surprise, though, that this meme actually does have some remote grounding in factual reality and—as is often the case—the truth is far stranger and more fascinating than the fiction. While it is true that the ancient Greeks had no custom of proposing marriage by pelting someone with apples, throwing apples was really considered a ploy at seduction.

Most Bizarre Deaths from Classical History

Classical history is kind of notorious for its menagerie of stories about bizarre and humiliating deaths. Today we will hear stories about a philosopher who covered himself in cow manure and was devoured by wild dogs, a military leader who committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood, a playwright who was killed by a falling tortoiseshell, a poet who jumped into a volcano to make people think he was a god, a tragedian who was killed like a character in one of his tragedies, a tyrant who was assassinated with a poisoned toothpick, a Stoic philosopher who literally laughed himself to death, and even a Christian religious leader who pooped out his own internal organs. All of these stories are almost certainly apocryphal, but they are still interesting to retell!

Bizarre Ancient Greek Festivals

One thing that I am always fascinated by are ancient traditions and rituals. Traditions are highly culture-specific and, to anyone outside of the culture that practices them, they seem bizarre, foreign, and inexplicable. Just think how strange our modern holiday traditions here in the United States will undoubtedly seem to someone thousands of years from now! To us, the customs and traditions associated with various ancient Greek festivals seem baffling and bizarre. The ancient Greeks had hundreds of festivals that were celebrated in various regions throughout Greece and during different periods of their history. Here are just a few of the more peculiar ones by modern standards:

Three Bizarre Stories from Ancient Greece

Like many people, I am deeply fascinated by the obscure, the bizarre, and the perplexing. Thankfully, I happen to study the classics, which is a subject that is full of obscure, bizarre, and perplexing stories. There are so many such stories, in fact, that I cannot even count the number of them that I have read. Nonetheless, I thought I would share a few of my favorites here. Here are three stories I picked out as being among the most bizarre stories told by classical writers: a story of a dying man who allegedly stayed alive for three days by sniffing a loaf of bread, stories of a man with a golden thigh who could make rivers greet him by name, and a historical event in which an oligarchy was overthrown by conspirators disguised as prostitutes.

Did Pythagoras Discover the Pythagorean Theorem?

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (lived c. 570 – c. 495 BC) is most famous today for having allegedly discovered the Pythagorean theorem, but, historically speaking, he did not really discover this theorem and it is even questionable whether he ever engaged in any kind of mathematics at all. The historical Pythagoras of Samos seems to have been a sort of mystic sage and spiritual guru, who lived a far more bizarre and fascinating life than you ever would have guessed from what you learned in mathematics class.

Continue reading “Did Pythagoras Discover the Pythagorean Theorem?”

“Ring around the Rosie” Is Not about the Black Death, Nor Has It Ever Been

A popular urban legend that has been circulating for decades now claims that the beloved children’s nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosie” is actually about the Black Death. Although this may make for a good story, it is, in fact, totally false; the song “Ring around the Rosie” did not even first appear until centuries after the Black Death had been effectively eradicated in England.

No, Vomitoria Were Not Places for Vomiting

There is a popular story that has been circulating for a long time that claims that people in ancient Rome would routinely gorge themselves on food and then go to places called vomitoria, where they would deliberately vomit up everything they had eaten so they could gorge themselves some more. This fanciful tale has been referenced in popular culture, repeated on the internet, and even taught in schools. Unfortunately, it is completely false. We have no evidence that gorging and vomiting was ever a common practice in ancient Rome, vomitoria were not really places for vomiting, and the word vomitoria itself is not even attested in Roman sources until very late.