10 historical myths that are long overdue to debunk

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Another portion of misconceptions - about Captain Cook, the Battle of the Ice, the army of King Xerxes and an incandescent light bulb.

1. Captain James Cook was eaten by Hawaiian cannibals

In his humorous song, Vladimir Vysotsky explains the cause of the death of the British explorer and navigator very simply: the natives wanted to eat, so they ate him. Whoever you ask what happened to Captain Cook, you will hear the answer: "They were devoured by the savages-cannibals!"

But this is not the case. This is what actually happened.

Cook and his crew sailed to the shores of the Hawaiian archipelago on the ship "Resolution", where they had already been a year ago. The natives greeted him very cordially, because they just had a local fertility festival - the festival of the god Lono.

By the way, the assumptions that the Hawaiians confused Cook with this very god are wrong - just the rules of good form ordered them to show hospitality on such a momentous day. In general, the Europeans were warmly received.

However, Cook, as British captains often did during negotiations with the savages, took and ruined everything. He needed a tree for firewood and to repair the ship. And he offered the natives several iron axes in exchange for … totems from the cemetery, which depicted portraits of their ancestors. It was as if there were few orphan palm trees growing on the island.

The Hawaiians were a little at a loss from such impudence and, naturally, refused to exchange.

Cook quietly sent several sailors from the crew, and they simply stole the totems. Local residents, in revenge, hijacked a rescue boat moored off the coast from the Resolution. The captain decided to return her at all costs, and for this, he took Kalanipuu-a-Kayamamao, the king of the tribe, hostage.

At this point, the aborigines lost their patience and went on the warpath. The king was recaptured and returned to his native village, and Cook, in a mess, was killed with a baton by one of the monarch's close associates, the leader with the difficult-to-pronounce name Kalaymanokakho'owakha. The aborigines took the captain's body with them, but not for food, but to … bury it with honors as a defeated leader.

However, the Hawaiians then had very strange funeral customs. The bodies were buried, but only before that bones were removed from them and covered with patterns, turning them into amulets. And then they handed out these "souvenirs" to loved ones as a keepsake. It may seem strange to you, but the islanders were fine.

Naturally, when the aborigines respectfully returned the bones of their defeated captain to the British, those worries did not appreciate and thought that the unfortunate was brought to the table. However, the Hawaiian islanders are not fond of cannibalism and prefer fish. They didn’t aspire to make Cook’s lunch.

2. Livonian knights fell through the ice during the battle on Lake Peipsi

Traditionally, it is believed that the armor of a real knight should weigh at least half a centner. This is not counting the huge helmet, more like a bucket - it is more correct to call this thing "topfhelm", it is intended for cavalry combat. And therefore, a champion of the knightly order, dressed according to the latest fashion, must weigh very, very much.

It is not surprising that when the Livonians invaded the Russian land, our Alexander Nevsky (a prince, not a bodybuilder) showed them where the crayfish winter.

He allegedly lured the Germans onto thin ice, and there these walking cans fell into the water and drowned. And the Russian men at arms in light armor were like dancers-figure skaters - they were not afraid.

Perhaps the myth appeared because of the name of the battle - Battle of the Ice. But the knights of the Livonian Order did not fail anywhere. Some of them were surrounded and killed by the Russian squad, some retreated, but there were no drowned among them.

The soldiers who fell through the ice are mentioned in the descriptions of the battle on Omovzha in 1234, as well as in the stories about the battle of 1016 between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk in The Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of Boris and Gleb. On Lake Peipsi, no one was engaged in ice diving.

3. Columbus sought to prove that the world is round

If you ask the average person why the inquisitors burned Giordano Bruno, he will most likely answer: because he refused to believe that the Earth was flat. And when asked who proved that it is still round, a confident reply will follow: "Columbus!"

However, both of these beliefs are wrong. We have already talked about the fact that Giordano was persecuted not for the theory of a round earth, but for heretical reasoning. And Columbus set off on a voyage not to prove to someone that we live on a ball.

Strictly speaking, he went to look for a more convenient sea route to India, already knowing perfectly well that the Earth is round, and hoping to go around it.

Another thing is that he greatly underestimated the size of our long-suffering globe, believing that from Spain to Japan to swim 3,100 miles (about 5,000 km). In fact - 12,400 miles (20,000 km).

In addition, the navigator did not expect that he would stumble not on India, but on a couple of new continents. Actually, Christopher until the end of his life believed that the lands he discovered were just Indian shores. It is because of this confusion that Native Americans are called Indians.

The myth that the main mission of the traveler was to prove the sphericity of the Earth appeared 1.

2. Because of the book "The Story of the Life and Travels of Christopher Columbus" by Washington Irving. He is, for a second, an art writer, not a historian. And the dispute between the navigator and religious fanatics regarding the form of the world, he simply invented.

The sphericity of the Earth was experimentally established by the ancient scientist Eratosthenes in the third century BC, and for scientists of the late Middle Ages there was nothing innovative in this idea.

4. Aristotle believed that flies have eight legs

As you know, in the Middle Ages, scientists were mainly engaged in theology, and science was in stagnation (this is not entirely true, but let's assume). And instead of focusing on new research, the scribes simply repeated what they read in ancient works in Greek and Latin. And this is not exactly a highly reliable source of scientific information.

As a result, supposedly all of Europe for centuries sincerely believed that flies have eight limbs plus wings. Why? Namely, this is exactly how much Aristotle counted. And after him no one took the trouble to clarify the figure, although, it would seem, there are a lot of flies around - take it and count it.

The mistake was corrected only by the naturalist Karl Linnaeus already in the 18th century. Naturally, there were six legs.

This scientific curiosity is regularly cited as proof that you do not need to blindly trust authority, you need to check everything yourself.

So in the Middle Ages, the scholastics believed Aristotle, as if they themselves had not seen flies.

However, this is a bike. Yes, many of the beliefs of the ancient thinker turned out to be incorrect - for example, all chemistry in him was reduced to four elements: fire, water, earth and air. In combination with the theory of humors, this concept led medieval Europeans to the conclusion that any disease can be cured by bloodletting - we drain the excess elements from the body, and order.

But Aristotle was still not such a fool that he could not count the legs of a fly. And in his essay On Parts of Animals, he writes in black and white that these and other insects have "the total number of legs equal to six." Moreover, "the front paws are in some cases longer than the rest" - in order to clean the head with them.

But the ancient sage counted the wings and was really wrong. He indicated only two, and there are a couple more - halteres used to stabilize the fly in flight.

5. The Colossus of Rhodes was so great that the ships sailed between his legs

The Colossus of Rhodes is one of the seven wonders of the world. This is a statue of the Greek sun god Helios, which supposedly stood at the entrance to the harbor of the city of Rhodes (hence the name). The statue attracted travelers from all over the world until it fell, destroyed by an earthquake, in 226 BC. But even when lying down, the sculpture was impressive.

In 652, the Muslims under the command of the Caliph Mu'awiya ibn-abu-Sufyan captured Rhodes and destroyed the remains of the statue. Because it is not according to Sharia law to portray people and even more so pagan gods.

And the caliph loaded the fragments of bronze on 900 camels and sold them to the Jews to earn extra money. This is not prohibited by the Shariah.

And since nothing remains of the Colossus of Rhodes, contemporary artists are free to present it as they please. Therefore, the statue is often portrayed so huge that ships entering the harbor of a Greek city sailed between his legs. The idea, by the way, was adopted by the creators of "Game of Thrones" - their Braavosian Titan was copied from this wonder of the world.

Here are just the real Colossus, judging by the records, was a maximum of 36 m high, it took 13 tons of bronze and 7, 8 tons of iron. This is a lot, but the statue is not so hefty that flotillas floated under his feet. For comparison: the height of the Statue of Liberty is 46 m, and it took 31 tons of copper and as much as 125 tons of steel.

In addition, the Colossus did not stick out, legs apart, in the harbor, but stood in the city square, by the acropolis. And he was not the only such attraction. From him came the fashion for mega-constructions, and by the II century BC, about 100 of the same hefty statues were stuck all over Rhodes.

6. Incandescent light bulb invented by Thomas Edison

In the movie "National Treasure" Nicolas Cage (remember, he once starred in a good movie?) Tells the following story.

Thomas Edison has tried, almost two thousand times, unsuccessfully to create a filament for a lighting lamp by charring a piece of cotton yarn. And after that he said: "I have found two thousand wrong ways - all that remains is to find the right one."

Because of this, many are convinced that it was Edison who invented the incandescent lamp.

However, he is not really the creator of this technology. Designed by J. Levy first. Really Useful: The Origins of Everyday Things electric lamp by British astronomer and chemist Warren de la Rue. In 1840, he enclosed a platinum coil in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it, causing the piece to glow. However, due to the fact that this light bulb required platinum, it was unjustifiably expensive.

Only 40 years later, Edison was able to modify the already known design. And with no hesitation he patented it as his own invention - he often did this before.

7. In a duel between the Japanese ninja and the Don Cossack, the Cossack always wins

A story has been circulating on the Web for a long time, the events of which allegedly unfolded during the Russian-Japanese war.

On the third day, a hundred stood in the second line of protection, which is why it was allowed to cook food and make fires. At nine o'clock in the afternoon, a strange Japanese man stepped out onto the fires. All in black, twitching and hissing. Esaul Petrov (in another version - Krivoshlykov) this Japanese was hit in the ear, which soon died.

Internet folklore

Even the famous Cossack saber, which, as you know, is a thousand times stronger than the Japanese katana and cuts a tank at a gallop, did not have to get out. This is the skill.

The source of this funny story is usually called the report of a certain Cossack centurion, which is kept in the Novocherkassk Museum of the Don Cossacks.

But the museum does not know about any clashes between Cossacks and Shinobi, and the story, apparently, was invented by the musician and lover of "Russian traditional martial arts" Valery Butrov. He also talked about how Taoist monks learned hand-to-hand combat from Russian buffoons. So you can decide for yourself whether to believe in the confrontation between the Cossacks and the ninjas.

And yes, real shinobi didn't wear black on assignments. The image of the ninja clad in dark tights did not appear until the eighties, thanks to the boom of Hollywood films on the topic. The shinobi costume was inspired by the clothing of the bunraku theater workers - simply because they looked good and mysterious. But in reality, they simply should not have stood out against the background of the scenery, so they dressed up in black.

8. Radio play "War of the Worlds" caused mass hysteria

In October 1938 in the United States, the CBS radio station aired an audio performance performed by the famous Mercury Theater troupe. It was based on the novel War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. And the production was allegedly so compelling that over a million New Jersey residents believed the country had indeed been attacked by the Martians.

At least 300,000 Americans later claimed to have personally seen the aliens. The National Guard was raised on alarm. People claimed that they heard the roar of guns and smelled poisonous gases.

More rationally minded people assured that these were not Martians, but the Germans attacked. Or the Russians - who can take them apart.

This story has been described in many popular science articles. Its purpose is to illustrate how easy it is to manage a crowd, especially if you own radio or television.

There would already be to insert pictures with the late satirist Mikhail Zadornov, who doubted the intellectual abilities of our Western friends. But the story about the panic caused by the radio play "War of the Worlds" is just a joke.

The story was invented and described in his memoirs by the editor of the New York Daily News radio, Ben Gross, and the newspapermen picked it up. However, he greatly exaggerated the number of believers in the Martian attack.

The radio station did get a call from a few crazy people asking about the alien invasion, but that's all. And judging by the rating reports, only 2% of New Jersey residents listened to this program at all - not enough for mass panic.

9. The army of the Persian king Xerxes numbered a million soldiers

The size of the armies of the ancient world is a rather complex topic, because everyone tried to overestimate the numbers: both the winners and the vanquished. The former sought to show off how many of them were. The latter, with a huge number of enemies, tried to justify their defeat.

Take, for example, the army of the lord Xerxes - well, the one who fought with Tsar Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans. And in honor of him, copiers were named.

Herodotus writes that the tsar's personnel consisted of 2, 64 million soldiers, plus exactly the same number of service personnel - each soldier has a personal shoe shiner, something like that. The ancient Greek poet Simonides called the figure as much as 4 million people - well, poets are not always friends with mathematics, they are forgiven. The historian Ctesias of Cnidus said the number was more modest - 800 thousand people. But still a lot.

In the films of Zack Snyder, the average figure is called - a million soldiers.

The Achaemenid Empire possessed military forces unprecedented for its time. But no logistics of those years could have supported millions of armies. Modern historians estimate the Persian army at 120,000.

10. Polish cavalry fought with Wehrmacht tanks with spears

A popular bike from the Second World War says that the Poles fought with German tanks in a very original manner: they rode on them with spears and sabers at the ready and chopped them in close combat. Obviously, this story is intended to illustrate either the incredible bravery and dedication of the uhlans, or their equally fantastic stupidity.

In reality, this is a fiction: the Poles knew very well what tanks were and why it was pointless to fight them hand-to-hand. The story is German propaganda, and it was invented to ridicule opponents.

In the battle of Kroyanty on September 1, 1939, which served as the basis for the story of hand-to-hand combat with tanks, Pomeranian lancers really rode horses. The horse is a rather maneuverable creature, which was quite used for itself in the Second World War.

But they were armed not only with swords, but also with anti-tank guns of 37 mm caliber Bofors wz.36, and rifles of 7, 92 mm caliber wz.35. And these contraptions completely stopped the tanks. True, in the end, the Polish cavalry was still defeated.