The story of Midas makes no sense

[polymath257]

Later, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot, but got so frustrated that he took out his sword and sliced through it. When he later conquered a good part of the known world, it was decided that he solved the knot in the right way.

What I find interesting is that a historical figure comes along and participates in a myth.

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.

[Pat Mustard]

I guess every (old) fairytale doesn't make sense. Snow White - a beautiful girl runs away from her stepmother and lives with dwarves but then her stepmom finds her and kills her until she resurrects when a handsome prince kisses her.
Red Riding Hood: a girl dressed in red visits her grandmother who is actually a wolf in drag so that girl doesn't recognize him and he can eat her.

They make so little sense that people today make whatever they want with them, like Freud and alike who tried to explain them as some subconscious sexual musings.

People were perhaps dumber in the past, or stories lose meaning with time, and the stories that we find interesting today will make no sense for people in thousands of years in the future.

Most of the Brothers Grimm stories were about one thing, sex. It's just that the Grimms came along and bowdlerised them to remove anything even remotely sexual and as a result most of the stories lost their meaning. The two boyos were Victorians displaced two hundred years back into the past.

[vulcanlogician]

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.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

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.

Too right. Some people still insist that George Washington threw a cherry tree across the Potomac.

Boru