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 Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:43 am
divineseraph I've heard that, but there's a problem with that theory. The ancient greeks spent a LOT of time dealing with bones and corpses. Not only were they a warrior culture in large part, but animal sacrifices were very common. Unlike modern people, EVERYONE back then knew where all the bones were and how they looked, especially on things like cows and goats and other herbavores with large, central nasal cavities and eyes on the side of the head. Why would a people who saw herbivore bones once a week or month or what have you suddenly flip s**t on seeing a slightly larger one and make such a wild assumption? And I'm sure they'd had dealings with elephants in the past. It doesn't add up. They weren't idiots. You would only need a few people, not necessarily Greeks, who didn't know what elephant skulls look like to start the myth.
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 1:26 pm
Why would it have to be another animal that started the myth, why not a bad roll of the human genetic dice.
It happens with cats, so why not humans too. I find it easier to imagine something like a human born with cyclops characteristics, than the misidentification of an elephant skull. Where there are elephant skulls there are elephants after all.
Dragons: What of those places there were no dinosaur bones until Europeans started digging for them? Here there is a draconic being known as the taniwha. They are water beings, who live in riverbends, deep pools, dark caves, and the sea. Their living places are regarded as tapu, and even the ministry of works (roading and such) cannot disturb them. There's one site up the Wanganui river road where the road has been specially designed so that the tapu site is not disturbed. I suppose an explanation for the oceanic kind could be mis-sighting of whale or shark (because they are whale-sized), but the inland explanation of mis-sighting native eel just doesn't wash with me.
Unicorns: I can believe the rhino part up to a point (heh), and that Unicorns aren't supposed to be horses, they have cloven hooves, a lions tail, and a beard, which horses do not. I find it more likely an antelope, goat, or similar ungulate was mistaken for a unicorn.
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 1:33 pm
I definitely agree with that. Have you not seen the children born with one eye? Or the mermaid girl? Or the girl with eight limbs? The pople who saw that girl either thought she was an incarnation of the Indian goddess (I forget her name!) or they thought she was an abomination. So there is proof (kind of) of how a myth could be started. And there is a cyclop pig. He's kind of scary too...
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 3:38 pm
Well, cyclops were giants. And the skull of an elephant could have been brought home as an odity, or they could have found the skull of a mammoth. Now, I'm not saying this is 100% correct, it just seems quite plausible. [click for more info]There were a lot of stories of strange beings from far away lands. The thing is, anywhere you went, those strange beings would still be from "far away lands".
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:23 pm
I remember Cyclops being giants, but I'm just saying modern "proof". The drugs and wine everybody took and drank back then could have had a great influence on size and the actual appearance.
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:25 am
Aakosir The drugs and wine everybody took and drank back then could have had a great influence on size and the actual appearance. I don't think people were taking any more drugs and wine than today. razz
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 7:09 pm
Artto Aakosir The drugs and wine everybody took and drank back then could have had a great influence on size and the actual appearance. I don't think people were taking any more drugs and wine than today. razz Depends on the culture and society that you are talking about. Really, I don't believe that dragons, elves, ghosts, or anything else people classify as myths and legends are totally the result of intoxication. I have a very good friend who can tell the most amazing stories in the fantastical realm that one would be excused for thinking she was tippling a bit too much of the "happy juice" if they did not know that she abstains from such. She won't even take cold medicines that contain alcohol.
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