(April 26, 2022 at 7:48 am)polymath257 Wrote: Exactly. It was *common* in the ancient world for the link between legend ad history to be blurry, at best. Part of the reason for this is that the study of history was regarded as a way of teaching moral lessons, not just as relating facts about the past. The important information was the moral story, not the details of events. Also, the further into the past, the more stories started to adhere.
For example, when Julius Caesar was contemplating crossing the Rubicon and starting a civil war, it is said that the God Pan appeared and lead the way across the river. In other words, the gods were giving their endorsement to his action.
To this day, I remember my middle school history book telling the story of Romulus and Remus, and only giving context clues that it was a legend at all. Tbh, it kinda bothered me.
It seems to me, unless you count rigorous academicians, most of us still confuse legend and history, even in contemporary times. I bet most of us know a handful of legends that we erroneously take to be historical fact.
