Henke 2022bz

Separating Myths and Possible History with Hercules and Samson

Kevin R. Henke

September 15, 2022

Lundahl (2022L) makes the following comments about Hercules and a few other characters in ancient stories:

“Hercules having lived was believed to be a historic fact, making it at least a historic claim. That false explanations and fictions are involved in the overall story doesn't justify taking all of it as a fiction and somehow glossing over how it came to be taken as overall historic. And there is even less of that in Achilles or Romulus.”

Rather than anyone initially taking any story about Hercules, Achilles, Romulus, Samson, George Washington and the cherry tree, or any other claim as either entirely fiction or entirely history, it should be initially taken with skepticism. Unless there is external evidence that the event actually happened, the proper approach is skepticism; that is, to doubt the claim. As I discuss in Henke (2022dm), we know that George Washington was a real person. However, that does not mean that we should automatically believe every story about George Washington. History is not easy, but the historian has a duty to separate every story into likely history, plausible and likely fiction categories. If Mr. Lundahl thinks that Hercules might have actually existed, he needs to demonstrate that with good archeological or other external evidence. The similar stories about strong-man Samson in the book of Judges also needs to be taken with skepticism and supported with external evidence from outside the Bible.

In this section of Lundahl (2022L), Mr. Lundahl continues with this very rambling paragraph:

“Ouranos and Gaia may have been believed as a prophetic revelation, given to Hesiod, or it may be more like make-believe. Indeed, that is how Chesterton classes it. St. Hippolytus of Rome considers a materialistic and superstitious Zarathustra equalling Ham, grandfather of Nimrod, as the first, and Homer and Hesiod as the last of the philosophers - and the non-Homeric philosophies, if such before him, in that case survived him.”

I’m glad to see that Lundahl (2022L) recognizes that Hesiod’s “prophetic revelation” may be make-believe. Until we get evidence otherwise, skepticism demands that we doubt all prophetic claims.