History Myths Revisited
If there's one subject we can count on to provide us with abundant misperceptions, it's history -- which is why we're returned to take another look at history myths.
Why are there so many history myths? Probably because as kids, we tend to accept whatever our teachers tell us as gospel. While teachers don't usually mean us harm, they've been known to pass on the occasional, accidental morsel of misinformation. Some myths get passed down this way for centuries.
The upshot is that some things we know to be true simply aren't, and history seems to offer more examples than most fields of study. That's why we've come back to the subject for this episode of Mythbusters. Here are three more popular myths we've ferreted out, along with the truth about each.
Myth 1: A thumbs up gesture meant a Roman gladiator would live.
Here's one history myth we've got entirely backward, and it apparently stems from the modern interpretation of a thumbs up as a positive gesture. Well, in a Roman arena, a thumbs up from the audience typically meant disapproval for the gladiator's performance, especially if the thumb was jabbed at the chest.
In response, the arbiter or "editor" of the battle signaled death for the loser -- generally not by turning the thumb down but sideways, imitating the action of a killing sword. The editor (usually a politician of some sort) could signal mercy by gesturing with a closed fist, by shouting "Dismissed!" or by waving a scarf.
Myth 2: The term "rule of thumb" derives from an old wife-beating rule.
Some pundits claim that old British law said it was acceptable to beat your wife, as long as you didn't use a stick thicker than your thumb. Well...no. While you'll see this history myth repeated endlessly in email lists, there's no evidence that it's true. The "rule" appears nowhere in British common law of any era.
The truth is, "rule of thumb" is a term used in many types of measurement, in fields as diverse as woodworking, brewing, electronics, and moneychanging. How it got to be associated with domestic abuse is uncertain, but the association has become so ingrained in our society that the very term offends some people.
Myth 3: The Trojan War is a historically documented war.
No it isn't, despite the best efforts of Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Our best account of the Trojan War comes from the Homeric masterpiece The Iliad. While this poem is arguably the oldest work of Western literature (it dates from about 800 BC), there's little to indicate that it's anything but a fanciful history myth.
That said, it may have been based on oral tradition passed down for centuries; the real war, if it occurred, could have taken place as early as 1334 B.C. And in the 1870s, the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found a buried city of the right age in Anatolia that's often been identified as legendary Troy.
Even so, there's no indication that Schliemann's Troy was the actual city written about by Homer. The truth is lost in the mists of time; so while it can't categorically by stated that the Trojan War is a complete history myth, at least for the moment, there's no way to know if there's any truth to Homer's story.
