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Ten Common Historical Myths That Simply Refuse to Die
These are stubbornly persistent
“And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth.” — Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Myth and history have been intertwined for as long as humans have walked the earth. In ancient times they were often hard to separate, and in several persistent cases we’ve done no better in modern times. Sometimes it’s the result of laziness (on the part of both scholars and students) and sometimes it’s the result of people wanting to believe something so badly that they don’t let facts get in the way (as in the case of a recent American election).
Today I want to dispel ten common myths that have persistently endured, some for centuries and some for millennia. We’ve managed to correct other common myths, like young George Washington chopping down the cherry tree; let’s get rid of these as well.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte was short. This seems like a good place to start, as it’s the most enduring of the myths about the French emperor and general; even now we say that a short person with an overinflated ego has a “Napoleon complex.” In reality, Napoleon wasn’t short at all, at least not for the time in which he lived; at 5’7”, he was actually above average height…
