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There is a widespread belief that people did not bathe in the Middle Ages. This myth arises because bathing went out of practice during the Renaissance, when people worried that it was unhealthy and rich people could afford perfume. Since we have a tendency to regard the Renaissance as a period of improvement, we often ascribe anything about it that was unpleasant to the Middle Ages. During most of the Middle Ages, however, people regarded cleanliness as next to godliness, and kept themselves very clean.
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What is the purpose of art during the middle ages?
religion.
What did it mean if you had a long belt and you were in the middle ages?
There is a modern popular myth that belt length signified relative status (the longer the belt, the more important the person).This idea is total rubbish and is not supported by pictorial evidence from the period. Kings are often shown with very short belts, while knights often have long belt-ends - but some are shown as being short. Wealthy nobles, both male and female, are shown with belt-ends of different lengths from very short to very long. It was clearly a matter of personal choice and nothing at all to do with indicating social status.
How does history turn into myth?
when there is not enough evidence to support the history History turns into myth when people add in so much of their own opinions and ideas, that it's hard to find what truth was in it at the beginning.
What was good about the middle ages?
There were a lot of good things about the Middle Ages. And many of the things we think of as bad were not real.People of the middle ages were rather clean, for the most part. The idea that they were dirty and smelly might have come from Hollywood, or it might have been a self congratulatory myth created in the Renaissance, but the medieval people believed that the attention a person put into keeping his body clean was an indication of how he attended to the needs of his soul; cleanliness is next to godliness. They also believed that bad air spread disease, so it was important not to let things get smelly. (please see link on bathing below)Contrary to popular myth, medieval people were not particularly superstitious. Witch hunts, for example, did not really begin to happen a lot until the Renaissance and later times. The legal codes of Charlemagne and some of the Germanic tribes forbade even believing in witches, and made burning people for witchcraft a capital crime. (please see the link below on witch hunts)There were great advances in science and mathematics during the Middle Ages, and some of these must have been quite exciting. Some of them were simple matters of inventive engineering, such as the 11th century invention of the chimney, which made it possible for the first time in history to have a real fireplace (believe it or not). Arabic numerals came into use, so, for example, you could divide 247 by 19 to get 13, instead of dividing CCXLVII by XIX to get XIII. Advances in agriculture improved efficiency on farms enormously, making cities larger and more numerous than they could be under the Roman Empire. (please see the link on medieval technology, below)Some really great art and architecture was done in the Middle Ages. We have a myth that the Germanic tribes, for example, were made up of rude, destructive people, and seem to want to believe they had no culture of value. The artwork in the shoulder clasp found at Sutton Hoo is a magnificent example of jewelry that shows, by itself, how wrong this myth actually is. Gothic art and architecture is renowned. So is Byzantine art, and so is the Romanesque. (please see the link below on medieval art)The Middle Ages saw the development of musical styles and genres that were very advanced and very important culturally. The development of written music, taking into account relative pitch and timing, meant that for the first time, music could be composed in notation that we can decipher today. Polyphony developed into the richest form it had ever seen with medieval counterpoint. And the minstrels, troubadours, jongleurs, gleemen, and other bards, spread both the music and the culture behind it throughout Europe. Both for the musician, and for the listener, these were exciting times. (please see the link below on medieval music)The literature of the Middle Ages grew apace. There was always interest in theology, as people remain aware. But secular literature developed also. Taliesin, the Welsh poet, worked in the 6th century. Beowulf was an great Anglo-Saxon epic. Other literature developed, but in the High Middle Ages, there was a cultural blossoming that was quite remarkable. Fostered by such people as Duke William IX the Troubadour of Aquitaine, and his granddaughter, Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was also Queen of France and Queen of England, medieval literature took on new character. Stories that had already begun to be told were woven into cycles we still remember today, such as the stories of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, and Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, all in the Middle Ages. (please see the link below on medieval literature)Now, if you are quite attentive and knowledgeable, and if you check the reference below on medieval literature, you will notice something very puzzling. The reference says, "Since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Western and Central Europe, and since the Church was virtually the only source of education, Latin was a common language for Medieval writings, even in some parts of Europe that were never Romanized." Now this seems really strange in light of one thing; none of the works mentioned in the paragraph above was in Latin. And this points to a Great but Secret Truth about the Middle Ages: "Sometimes History is Wrong." The neat thing is that enough clues exist to tell us what the truth is, and why it is misunderstood. Education was not all from the Catholic Church. Secular education existed and was promoted by governments. Consider the following: First, in the year 700 AD, a school called the Beverley Grammar School was opened in Northumbria, supported by the state, not the church. The area it was in passed under control of Vikings for several decades, but the school remained open. When the Viking Danelaw was united with England, the school remained open, and it remains open to this day, as the sixth oldest school in England. (please see the link below to the list of the oldest schools in the world) Second, King Alfred the Great promoted education and started schools. His stated policy goal was to provide education to all who were free men (peasants not bound to the soil) or of higher rank in English. He subsidized the translation of great books into English, so ordinary people could read them. (please see the link below to an article on King Alfred the Great) The clear lesson is that there was a lot going on culturally that historians do not focus on much, and one such thing is that our ideas about medieval education are very much out of line with reality.Even if we focus on the lives of the poor serfs, we can find some good to discuss. It is true that serfs were not rich (at least not usually), and it is true that they lacked a right to move off the manorial estate on which they lived without permission of their lord. But the idea that they were abused slaves is not true, the idea that they had no rights is not true, and the idea that their lives were uniformly miserable is, obviously, not true. Consider this: in many places, in many times, a serf who ran off the manor was considered free, if he could stay away for a year. We might wonder why a person would not prefer freedom. The penalty, if one was caught, was not severe, and yet most serfs did not run away. The answer to this puzzle lies in the fact that the serf was not without rights, he had a right to a place to live, he had a right to fields to work, and he had a right to protection. These rights could not be alienated by a lord arbitrarily. If the manor was sold, the serfs still had a right to live there, and the new lord had to respect that. The serfs who ran away gave up those rights, and had to fend for himself. I know a few people today who might want to give up the right to move away with out permission, if it meant that they had a permanent job, a permanent place to live, and protection. (please see the link below on serfdom)Ultimately, in the Middle Ages, one thing could be relied on, and that was the Church. The Church provided more than just salvation for the soul. It also provided the best health care people could get, and even when that meant nothing more than a bed, meals, a prayer, and a kind word, it was much better than the common alternative. The Church provided ecclesiastical courts that were more merciful than secular courts, were not permitted to torture anyone, and could be appealed to by anyone who could read the 51st Psalm, the standard test for literacy. The Church provided sanctuary for fugitives, whether it was a serf woman fleeing her husband, a Queen fleeing her husband, or an ordinary felon (who might only get sanctuary for a period of a few weeks, but it gave him time to repent, and possibly to learn to read the 51st Psalm). (please see the link below on the medieval right of asylum)
Is the term feudalism still useful as a historical concept or has it become a misleading myth?
No
Is Robin Hood a myth or legant?
A bit of both, Robin Hood's ballads we know to have been around since the Middle Ages.
Do you really turn ages?
no we don't that's just a myth
What is the lesson learned in the myth Artemis and Actaeon?
Do not go looking for a goddess bathing, or don't be a peeping tom/pervert.
Does bathing in roman noddles seasoning reduce your body fat?
No that would be a myth. This isn't even close to being true.
What are some modern myth references?
goons
Which is considered the Great-Grandma of Modern Genre?
Myth
Where is the Fuse box on 07 plate transit?
been looking for ages, reckon its a myth
How do the people refer to Zeus in modern day society?
Myth
What is the style of the swimmer by cheever?
a modern myth with restrained poignancy
Who invented the iron maiden torture?
Although it is mostly associated with the middle ages, the iron maiden torture device was not invented until the 19th century. Most historians believe that its usage is a complete myth and was, in fact, a hoax.
What modern movies are related to ancient Greek myth?
Hercules is one
What are some myths about the middle ages?
¶ Perhaps one of the most common myths is that the Middle Ages had a lot of witch hunts. There were very few witch prosecutions, and possibly no witch hunts at all in the Middle Ages. Witch hunts happened, but after the Middle Ages ended. (See related link on Witch Hunts.)¶ One myth is that people were dirty. And another is that they lived in filthy environments. People of the Middle Ages were usually very clean and did not allow foul odors to persist because they believed bad air was a disease vector. (Please see related question on medieval people and being clean.)¶ There is the myth that women had no rights. Wrong. (Please see the related question on rights of women.)¶ Another related myth is that peoples marriages were arranged, and yet another is that they always married young. Most medieval women married after they had a chance to put together a dowry and chose their own husbands. (Please see related question on medieval marriage.)¶ One common myth is that punishments for crimes were invariably harsh. In many places, the primary goal of justice was to compensate victims. (Please the related question on crime and punishment.)¶ It is a myth that they heated with and cooked at fireplaces; since chimneys were not invented until the 12th century and were very expensive after that, most people of the middle ages never saw a fireplace. People used open hearths, and so they cooked outside, if they could. Ovens were very often communal and outdoors. (Please see the related question on medieval people cooking.)¶ There is the myth of a right of prima noctis (the idea that the lord got to sleep with a woman on her wedding night), which is complete rubbish. Can you imagine the Church putting up with that? Earliest evidence of the idea comes from the late Renaissance. (Please see the related link on prima noctis.)¶ It is a myth that the Church controlled all education. It is also a myth that women did not learn to read. There were secular schools, education in vernacular language. In fact we have a list of about 20 female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries who wrote music and lyrics in the Occitan language alone. Please see the related question on education.)¶ There is a myth that the pope was more powerful than any kings, or that the Church was more powerful than any state. The weaker popes were very often pushed around by kings and emperors. (Please see the related question on the power of popes.)¶ The idea that all society was made up of feudal monarchies is a myth. It was not. (Please see the related question on medieval republics.)¶ Somehow people have got the idea that medieval women never did anything but do the housework and have babies. These women rocked! (Please see the related question on what medieval women did.)¶ One huge myth was that there was no progress in science and technology in the middle ages. (Please see the related question on medieval inventions.)
