5 Historical Myths That Won’t Go Away
Part of the problem with examining history is the reliance on what can be scant documentation of famous figures, events, or civilizations. Whether culled from the writings of a royal scribe or an observer’s journal, these sources are often biased or misinformed, resulting in historical inaccuracies that can persist through the ages.
Thankfully, we live in an age when technology can help correct some of the fallacies, and easy access to information can both dispel misconceptions and foster further understanding of the events of yesteryear. But while some long-held myths have more recently been dismissed — we’re looking at you, Columbus — others continue to hold sway over the populace. Here are five historical myths that stubbornly persist despite the data that debunks them.
Myth: Stonehenge Was Built by Druids
So much about Stonehenge remains a mystery, from how its collection of bluestones were seemingly transported from hundreds of miles away to exactly why this famed monument was built. As such, it would seem appropriate that the druids, themselves a mysterious sect of Celtic priests, were responsible for the formation of what may have been a religious site. However, it’s likely a myth that the druids built Stonehenge. It turns out the idea was fostered by British antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley in the 17th and 18th centuries, leading to a modern-day revival of druidry and the annual gathering of its practitioners at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. While it’s unknown when the original druids first appeared, there are no records of their existence until around the first century BCE. Meanwhile, archaeological dating has shown that Stonehenge was constructed in several stages thousands of years earlier, between 3000 and 1500 BCE, making it highly unlikely that these shadowy shamans were involved.
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Myth: Nero Played the Fiddle While Rome Burned
Strictly speaking, the Roman Emperor Nero couldn't possibly have fiddled while a conflagration swept through much of the city in 64 CE, simply because the instrument wasn’t invented for another 1,000 years. Beyond that, there are other problems with the common narrative of Nero being indifferent to or even rejoicing in the suffering of his subjects. The myth largely stems from the writings of Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio, which describe how the theatrically inclined emperor recited a poem about the fall of Troy as he watched the flames from a safe distance. However, these accounts were all compiled well after the subject’s death, and Tacitus even acknowledges that this event was only alleged to have happened.
Meanwhile, records show that Nero responded to the emergency by providing food and shelter for the homeless and enacting new building codes, which hardly sounds like the acts of a callous tyrant. While the emperor didn't help his reputation by ordering the construction of a lavish palace across a large swath of the destroyed real estate, the characterization of his flippant reaction to the disaster is likely closer to exaggeration than truth.
Myth: The Vikings Wore Horned Helmets
As with many historical myths, we can thank Hollywood for this particular misconception, as popular films helped perpetuate the image of horned-helmet-clad Vikings looting and pillaging their way across Europe. And yet the common depiction of these seafaring Scandinavian troublemakers goes back even further, to the initial staged performances of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen operas in the late 19th century. In reality, the only extant helmet found in Scandinavia and confirmed to be from the Viking era, which covered the ninth through 11th centuries, has no protuberances. Two other horned helmets, unearthed from a bog in Denmark in 1942, have since been found to predate the Vikings by two millennia, and were more likely used for ceremonial purposes than for protection in combat.
Myth: Magellan Was the First Person to Circumnavigate the World
Ferdinand Magellan indeed changed the course of human history with his quest to find a westward route from Spain to Indonesia's Spice Islands (present-day Maluku Islands). Yet he didn't come close to completing the global odyssey he still gets credit for today. The Portuguese explorer only made it as far as the Philippines, where he was killed in April 1521 after an ill-fated attempt at the forced subjugation of a local tribal chief. Just over 17 months later, the largely forgotten Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano captained the expedition’s sole remaining ship, with a mere 18 of its original 260 sailors, back to Spain to complete the circumnavigation. And yet, even they may not have been the first to accomplish the task. Some historians believe that honor goes to an enslaved man named Enrique, who was either purchased or captured during Magellan's earlier trip to Malaysia, and possibly returned to his homeland, just 1,200 miles away, after abandoning the European crew in the nearby Philippines. If he indeed made it back to Malaysia, he would have circled the entire globe.
Myth: Enslaved People Built the Egyptian Pyramids
Thanks in large part to the writings of the fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus, and the influential imagery of Hollywood films such as The Ten Commandments, it's been widely accepted that enslaved people undertook the backbreaking task of constructing the Giza pyramids for the ancient pharaohs of Egypt. Yet a series of excavations begun in the late 20th century around the Giza plateau provided ample evidence that the scale of forced labor has been grossly exaggerated. Among the discoveries were the remains of vast quantities of meat and fish in a nearby port city; graffiti revealing nicknames for various labor crews; and the skeletons of workers buried with jars of beer and bread for the afterlife, all of which suggest they were treated as paid workers rather than enslaved labor. That said, questions remain about the social hierarchies that may have driven less privileged individuals to partake in what was unquestionably a difficult job.
