People Are Sharing The Most Common, Incorrect Myths About History They Can Think Of, And Reading Each One Is Validating Of My Own Annoyances

    Okay, I admit, some are more niche than others.

    Julia Corrigan
    by Julia Corrigan

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Recently, people over on Twitter were prompted by user @sewistwrites to share their (least) favorite historical myth pet peeves, and there was SUCH a variety.

    Tell me about a common historical myth that makes your hackles rise. I don't mean actual disinformation like Holocaust denial; I mean stuff like "Napoleon was short!"

    For me it's probably "corsets were torture devices for the rich" and "romantic love is a very modern concept."

    — Amy Colleen (@sewistwrites) December 7, 2023
    Twitter: @sewistwrites

    As someone who also gets mad at a lot of these, the responses were incredibly validating. So, here are some of the best:

    1.

    That the Irish famine was about potatoes https://t.co/CU40eOBH0d

    — lissa (@melissabreenx) December 10, 2023
    Twitter: @melissabreenx
    In reality, the so-called famine was perpetrated by the British Empire, which forcibly removed food from Ireland and stopped the United States from supplying aid. According to the New York Times, "The million-plus Irish who starved to death did not die from lack of potatoes. They died from lack of food; from the gunpoint removal and export of the abundant wheat, oats, barley, beef, mutton, pork, poultry, eggs, butter, milk, fruit, and vegetables that they themselves produced... The 'famine' ended in 1849, when British troops stopped removing the food."

    2.

    Twitter: @nfluger
    Man, I hate when children contradict their parents, chatter before company, and gobble up dainties at the table! Things totally didn't USED to be that way!

    But actually, the quote is not Socrates'. Rather, it was written by a young man named Kenneth Freeman, a student at Cambridge, and published in 1907 in an essay (over 300 pages long) entitled Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Greek Education. Mr. Freeman was writing about Hellenic education and attitudes toward the youth, but was not quoting Socrates in the passage in question.

    If you want to read some bitchy, contemporary stuff about the youth and Socrates, I recommend Aristophanes' Clouds!

    "Kids these days."
    Hulton Archive / Getty Images

    3.

    Twitter: @maggiekb1

    4.

    Twitter: @DallinStuart
    Greek philosopher Pythagoras first proposed the idea of a round earth around 500 B.C. According to NASA, a Greek named Anaxagoras in the 5th century B.C. figured that "the shape of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse [could be] used as evidence that the Earth was round."

    Diagram of the earth's curves
    Mikroman6 / Getty Images

    5.

    Twitter: @TechnocratGames
    Þe Olde Alphabetical Misconception. JUSTICE FOR THE THORN, my favorite out-of-date English letter. Icelandic still uses it, though!

    'Ye olde shoppe"
    Andrew Holt / Getty Images

    6.

    Twitter: @wannabesongbird
    ABC / Via media.giphy.com

    7.

    Twitter: @RhyminCarly
    Apparently, he died at the age of 70 after succumbing to a fever.

    Galileo
    Hulton Archive / Getty Images

    8.

    Twitter: @chrisnodima
    This is true, according to the Smithsonian, and pastel hues went through a number of weird rules in the decades leading up to the '40s, like "blue [being] for blue-eyed babies, [and] pink for brown-eyed babies." The moral of the story? Rules are fake, dress your kid how you want.

    9.

    Twitter: @SkeelMagnolia
    Fun fact: The US didn't have no-fault divorce until California adopted it in 1969; the last state to adopt it was New York in 2010.

    10.

    Twitter: @DavidZsutty
    The medieval world was much more colorful than it looks on TV!

    The second is true DEPENDING on your opinions of the Byzantine Empire. (But this writer says it counts.)

    An old image of a man on a horse in colorful garments
    Feng Wei Photography / Getty Images

    11.

    This one bugs me a lot! Yes, due to poor diet/stunted growth people 100-150 years ago were *often* (not always) smaller. But looking at clothing alone often employs survivorship bias. Medical records (like those of Civil War soldiers) are a better way of guessing averages.

    — Amy Colleen (@sewistwrites) December 7, 2023
    Twitter: @sewistwrites

    12.

    Samurai didn’t use guns which is a huge thing that comes up in a lot of western written stuff set after 1600 despite the Tokugawa Shogunate literally gaining its foothold due to the use of firearms. This is 100% not a thing in actual Japanese Jidai Geki. https://t.co/HcAp2m8OdL

    — Kevin Fox michigrim.bsky.social (@Michigrimk) December 10, 2023
    Twitter: @Michigrimk
    I didn't know this, but apparently, guns have "been part of samurai history almost as long as the katana." (Also for reference, jidaigeki are Japanese period dramas.)

    A Japanese Samurai rendering
    Heritage Images / Heritage Images via Getty Images

    13.

    Twitter: @therealkuri
    Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    No one told me Louis XIV could DRESS... (Just kidding. Yes they did. I want that robe.)

    14.

    salt has literally never been "worth its weight in gold" or anywhere close !!!! in medieval england, it was cheaper than wheat!!! https://t.co/rlev5fKIKw

    — weird medieval guys BOOK OUT NOW !! (@WeirdMedieval) December 9, 2023
    Twitter: @WeirdMedieval

    15.

    the idea that the Library of Alexandria burned down one day and half of human knowledge was instantly destroyed https://t.co/Vmv8DXVIX5

    — chocolate (@heyguysitsmecg) December 9, 2023
    Twitter: @heyguysitsmecg
    You guys, people had other libraries. Like, there were tons of other libraries. Over the centuries, the library in question saw multiple fires, was defunded as well as attacked, and now no longer exists. But I promise we did not lose any information that would have had us on Mars or curing cancer by now.

    Rendering of men in a library
    Clu / Getty Images

    16.

    Twitter: @KozlMarta

    17.

    Twitter: @a_broomstick
    Medieval Europeans took baths, people, regularly, and with soap!

    An old rendering of a woman in a bath being tended to by her servants
    Culture Club / Art Images via Getty Images

    18.

    The concept of the Dark Ages.
    Read Saint Benedict, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Pope Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, Aldhelm, the Venerable Bede, Alcuin of York, John Scotus Eriugena, etc, and try to tell me that this was a period of unmitigated barbarism. https://t.co/nZ7HEx5AZV

    — naD 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿✝️ (@PatrologyVotary) December 12, 2023
    Twitter: @PatrologyVotary

    19.

    Anne Boleyn wasn’t some temptress ruled by ambition. She didn’t even want Henry - he pursued her doggedly and wouldn’t accept no for an answer. She was a deeply religious intellectual who used her time as queen to improve the lives of women and the poor. https://t.co/ldHt7iOvwl

    — Sad Fuckers Club Chairman (Taylor’s Version) (@ohfortheloveof4) December 8, 2023
    Twitter: @ohfortheloveof4
    Anne Boleyn
    Robert Alexander / Getty Images

    20.

    Aztecs did NOT think Cortes was a prophesied return of Quetzalcoatl, or that the Spaniards were gods.
    Also, Cortes did NOT have a romantic relationship with his native teenage girl translator known as Malinche. https://t.co/Vz2BwiXcta

    — Aztec Empire (@AztecEmpire1520) December 9, 2023
    Twitter: @AztecEmpire1520
    According to JSTOR Daily, "Cortés' own letters during the conquest make no mention of being mistaken for or interpreted as a god." Rather, the story can be attributed to Cortés' secretary, Francisco López de Gómara, who had himself never been to Mexico but in 1552 asserted the idea that the Spaniards had been seen as gods.

    A rendering of the Spanish and the Indigenous peoples
    Hulton Archive / Getty Images

    21.

    "Armor disappeared shortly after gunpowder became common"
    It didn't. Armor was used extensively alongside gunpowder for 2 centuries. And even after that, some troops were still wearing armor, like sappers and cuirassiers.
    Heck, French cuirassiers wore armor in WW1 https://t.co/1vWPspkK3v

    — YoritomoArt - COMMISSIONS CLOSED (Slot 1/4) (@yoritomoart) December 12, 2023
    Twitter: @yoritomoart
    I didn't even know this was a misconception (nor had I heard the claim), but I love learning about things that I've never even thought about before. Cool to know!

    22.

    Twitter: @passienus
    You guys know I had to put at least one Rome tweet in here. And these are all so, so frustrating!

    An old Roman painting of men in a grand hall
    Leemage / Getty Images

    23.

    Twitter: @ozymomdias
    (For clarity, the tweet is saying that the myth is easily disproven due to the fact that we have church marriage records, not that records were falsified.)

    24.

    the 1950s. like in general every idea people have about the 1950s is so fucking wrong because they are getting those ideas from fuckawful family sitcoms. its like if all anybody knew about the 90s was from Full House reruns https://t.co/Jre19XNpRB

    — kalashnikaname 🇵🇸 (@ultrafuturist) December 9, 2023
    Twitter: @ultrafuturist
    "That's not funny!"
    ABC / Via giphy.com

    25.

    Twitter: @WJAlbers
    This started with people in the Enlightenment looking down on medieval Europeans; most of the things they believed about them simply aren't true.

    26.

    Twitter: @GryffEndora
    According to Vogue, "Laundering clothing was taxing in the 19th century, and white dresses were hard to maintain. Unlike today, wedding gowns were worn several times during a lifetime."

    A woman in a wedding dress
    Mondadori Portfolio / Mondadori via Getty Images

    27.

    Twitter: @hoorayheather
    From "Marie Antoinette" (2006): Marie, surrounded by 3 ladies, saying "That's such nonsense, I would never say that!
    Pathé, Columbia Pictures

    ...Many, many historical pet peeves here. Feel free to share your own down in the comments! I love to read them, LOL. They can be about people, places, things, battles, parties, textiles, or anything else your heart desires. Your pet peeve may be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post!