We know Christopher Columbus didn't discover America. Did you know that a guy named John Hanson was really the first President? Can you think of any other myths that we've been taught as fact?
Yes, Christopher Columbus got lost. He was searching for a passage to India and stumbled onto America instead. Not someone I would want for a navigator.
We need to remember that history itself comes from the term "his story." History implies that stories were written down. Hence: history happened late in the game. Pre-history, or prehistoric, is before things started to be written down. Early cave drawings were a kind of picture writing. Myth is the stuff of legends -- happening before writing. Legend and myth are so far back that we cannot determine the original facts. Much of legend and myth had a basis in history, although it was exaggerated and changed over the centuries.
I agree with that, OracleLady. We have no idea how stories have changed and been altered down through the ages. A lot of history was handed down by oral tradition so it's amazing we know anything at all.
