Around this time year, we always see images of Cupid showing up all over the place. In modern culture, Cupid is always portrayed as a rascally infant armed with a bow and quiver of arrows, but this has not always been how he has been imagined. In fact, his original portrayal was much, much darker…
Category: Origins
The Origins of the Zombie Legend
Since today is Halloween, we will probably be seeing lots of small children dressed as zombies wandering out and about later tonight. You may be surprised to learn, however, that zombie legends are nearly as ancient as writing itself and the earliest references to them come from some of the oldest literature known to man. Continue reading “The Origins of the Zombie Legend”
“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.
Continue reading ““Ring around the Rosie” Is Not about the Black Death, Nor Has It Ever Been”The Not-So-Pagan Origins of Easter
If you have been on the internet at all around this time of year, you have no doubt at some point encountered claims that Easter is actually a pre-Christian pagan holiday and that popular modern Easter traditions such as the Easter bunny and painting Easter eggs are actually thinly-veiled pagan customs. I am here to tell you that these claims are essentially bunk. Although the holiday of Easter takes its name in English from an obscure Anglo-Saxon dawn goddess, the holiday itself is of Christian origin and there is no evidence to support the notion that popular traditions such as the Easter bunny and the painting of Easter eggs were ever pagan.
No, Julius Caesar Was Not Born by Cesarean Section
Everyone knows that a cesarean section, also known as a “C-section,” is when a child is removed from the uterus via surgery rather than by the natural birthing process. The name of the procedure, however, is misleading. Although the term cesarean section most likely does indeed come from the name of the famous ancient Roman general and dictator Gaius Julius Caesar (lived 100 – 44 BC), this is not because Julius Caesar was actually born by cesarean section, but rather because of a later legend with no factual basis claiming that he was.
Continue reading “No, Julius Caesar Was Not Born by Cesarean Section”The Fascinating Evolution of the Word Silly
Some words seem to almost insinuate their meanings just by the very way they sound. I have always felt the word silly is one such word. There is something that seems almost inherently silly about the sound “illy” in English. Perhaps I only feel this way because I have heard comic expressions containing this sound, such as “silly billy” and “willy-nilly,” too many times. In any case, the word silly has quite an unusual and fascinating history. Indeed, of all the words in the English language, the word silly is perhaps the word with the strangest, most convoluted history of meanings.
Continue reading “The Fascinating Evolution of the Word Silly”The Ancient Greek Cinderella
The story of Cinderella is a classic European folk tale that almost everyone in the western world has known since childhood. Most people here in the United States were first introduced to the story through the classic Walt Disney animated film Cinderella (1950), which was based on a French version of the story published in 1697 by the French writer Charles Perrault in his book Histoires ou contes du temps passé (“Stories of Past Times with Morals”). The story of Cinderella itself, however, is far, far older than Perrault. In fact, the oldest known version of the story of Cinderella was actually first recorded by a Greek writer in Hellenistic Egypt during the early first century AD.
Continue reading “The Ancient Greek Cinderella”
The Bizarre Origins of the Word Idiot
The 2016 election cycle in the United States has been one of the most bitter and divisive in recent memory. Both of the candidates—Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and Donald J. Trump (R)—are regarded as so thoroughly unlikeable in every way that many people are outright refusing to vote for either of them. If you decide not to vote in this election, though, you are an idiot. I do not necessarily mean you are unintelligent or even ignorant for that matter; I merely mean that you are an idiot.