In the classical world, every ethnic group had a quasi-religious historical fiction origin story. The Greeks and Romans had founder king myths, for example, that have parallels with solar-hero myths found in the Bible. Aristocratic families in Rome and in the Greek world made claims to be descended from deities. Even today, a couple royal families claim divine descent.
Some religious people today buy into the claims of novelty and uniqueness of their religion. Many Christians buy into the millenarian/world remaking claims of their religion, and a handful stridently assert those claims. The whole concept of BC/AD for example epitomizes that notion. The idea is that Christianity sprang into the world ex nihilo like Athena popping fully formed out the head of Zeus instead of being a mishmash of philosophical and religious traditions of the classical world.
Some jewish people make similar claims to uniqueness, and various supremacist propaganda claims, like being the "oldest" this or that, even though everyone who's alive today has an equally ancient lineage and traditions that vanish into the mists of time.
It's pretty interesting to wonder why people are compelled to invent origin stories rather than embrace a more prosaic, and accurate historical version of events. The tendency to make these hyperbolic claims is probably why there's no memory of human origins. Apparently everyone would rather lie or believe glorious lies than remember what really happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment