“History is written by the victors” is a saying so commonplace that it has become almost a platitude. It seems as though everyone has simply come to accept it and believe it. The problem is that it is not actually always true. Strictly speaking, history is not, in fact, written by the victors. History is written by the people who write history. These people are often the victors, but not always and not necessarily. There are examples throughout history of history being written by the people who lost. In this post, we will explore just a few of the occasions when the victors did not write history.
Continue reading “Three Times the Winners Did Not Write History”Category: Misconceptions
The Origins of the Christmas Tree
Decorating Christmas trees every December is a time-honored western holiday tradition, one that almost everyone has fond memories of. According to the USA Today, in December 2017, approximately 95 million households had Christmas trees in the United States alone. Strangely, though, few people actually know where this tradition originally comes from and most people who think they know where it comes from have been misinformed. Decorating Christmas trees is not nearly as old of a tradition as many accounts would lead one to believe.
Misconceptions about the Witch-Trials
Everyone is familiar with the concept of a witch-hunt. Witch-hunts appear in books, movies, television, and plays. The idea is so familiar that it has become metonymic for any situation in which a person is persecuted without evidence. But there is also a prodigious number of misconceptions about what witch-trials were, who led them, when they took place, and what they were really about.
Why Are We Still Celebrating “Columbus Day”?
October 12, 2018 marks the 526th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival on the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas in 1492. You have doubtlessly heard much about the controversy surrounding Columbus Day (which actually fell on October 8 this year), but, surprisingly, most people do not know the full reasons why so many people are opposed to it.
This is because, for over a century and half, students have been taught a thoroughly inaccurate and glamorized tale about who Columbus was and what he did. Even today as educators and activists work to disseminate the horrifying truth about Columbus, the legend remains strong. In this article, I want to debunk a few of the most popular misconceptions about Columbus and expose some of the atrocities he committed.
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Misunderstood Ancient Quotes
Modern people are obsessed with ancient quotes. People assume that, if an ancient philosopher said something, it must automatically have some sort of profound meaning or significance. This is part of the reason why there are so many quotations floating around on the internet that have been misattributed to famous people from ancient times. (I have written an article debunking a few of the more popular misattributed ancient quotes, but there are many others that I haven’t covered.)
Unfortunately, even many of the quotes people use today that genuinely come from ancient authors have been greatly misinterpreted or taken out of context. A few of the most popular misinterpreted ancient quotes include “Know yourself,” “Love conquers all,” “I fear the Danaans, even bearing gifts,” and “the face that launched a thousand ships.”
Continue reading “Misunderstood Ancient Quotes”Who Was Hypatia of Alexandria Really?
Alongside the venerable ranks of Cleopatra, Boudicca, and Olympias, the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (lived c. 350 x c. 375 – 415 AD) is one of the single most famous historical women of classical antiquity. Unfortunately, there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about her out there and, if you have read about her previously, there is a very high probability that the vast majority of what you have read about her is fiction. Join as we discover the real Hypatia of history, as well as how the myths surrounding her have accrued over the years.
Continue reading “Who Was Hypatia of Alexandria Really?”How the Ancients Greeted Each Other
In modern films and television shows, people from the ancient world are commonly shown greeting each other with a rather peculiar handshake in which, instead of merely clasping hands, each person grasps the other’s forearm. Films and television shows tend to most frequently associate this gesture with Roman men, but it has been portrayed in other contexts as well.
Many people will be disappointed to learn that the forearm handshake is not shown in any extant work of ancient art, nor is it ever referred to in any surviving work of ancient literature. We have no evidence that anyone ever used this handshake in antiquity and it appears to be purely a modern invention. This, however, raises a very interesting question: How did ancient people really greet each other?
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.
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Was Jesus a Historical Figure?
NOTE: I originally published this article on March 10, 2018, at which time I was still a senior in high school. Since then, this article has come under extremely heavy criticism. I could probably write this article better if I were writing it today, but I will leave this article as it is as a record of what I originally wrote.
No other figure has attracted nearly as much controversy as Jesus of Nazareth… but was he a historical figure? Well, people on the internet seem to say otherwise: these self-appointed debunkers (who are almost exclusively historically illiterate bloggers with no background in ancient history, or any history for that matter) have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate that Jesus is just a fictional character invented out of whole cloth by early Christians. Virtually all professional scholars who have studied the ancient world universally agree that Jesus of Nazareth was a real, historical Jewish teacher who lived in the first century AD and was crucified under the orders of Pontius Pilate. Here is an extremely abbreviated explanation of why they have come to that conclusion:
Debunking Common Myths and Misconceptions about William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is a legend in our culture. His plays are more often performed than those of any other playwright and his works have become defining hallmarks of English literature. Most students were required to read at least a few of them in high school and many of us lovers of literature have gone on to read many more of them. Shakespeare has a pop culture presence unlike that of any other writer; his image is instantly recognizable and he continues to appear in books, films, television, and even modern theatrical productions. Unfortunately, many of the things we think we “know” about William Shakespeare are wrong.
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