History Main / Demythification

* ''Film/TheBounty'' from 1985 is a more historically accurate recounting of the mutiny on the ''Bounty'' than previous movie versions, both titled ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' and from [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty 1935]] and [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty1962 1962]]. These older movies were ultimately based on [[Literature/TheBountyTrilogy somewhat fictionalized novels]] and fictionalized the story further for the screen, which all contributed to the popular image of the events. In the 1985 movie however, instead of depicting Captain William Bligh as a corrupt ogreish tyrant, he is well-meaning but with poor "people skills" and probably more lenient than he needed to be in enforcing discipline when it mattered most. The mutineers' leader, the first mate Fletcher Christian, is less of a stock heroic rebellious authority figure and more like an unstable powder keg of a man who blows up screaming, stunning even his fellow mutineers speechless.

* ''Film/TheAlamo2004'' dips into this approach quite possibly in response to previous depictions of the historical events like ''Film/TheAlamo1960'', ''The Last Command'' and ''Series/DavyCrockett1954'', most notably with the figure of [[DoNotCallMePaul David]] Crockett, exploring what it means to be a LivingLegend.

* ''Film/TheMessengerTheStoryOfJoanOfArc''. This is a borderline case, however, as more than one interpretation is offered for the Visions, and indeed implied [[{{Satan}} for 'the Conscience']]. Of course, since Joan of Arc was definitely a real person, ''The Messenger'' might also be accused of going the opposite route and adding fantastic elements (though this gets into a tricky theological debate).

!!History
[[folder:General]]
* The legend of Queen Boudicea having spikes on the hubcaps of her chariots - which modern archaeologists and historians are absolutely sure never happened - turns out to be a Victorian invention, based on the Irish legend of the chariot of the hero Cu Chulain being festooned with hooks and rending spikes on all its outer surfaces, so as to make life difficult for opponents. Romantic Victorian thought reasoned that 'all'' Celtic chariots followed this model.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'' does not have Julius Caesar say his famous LastWords "EtTuBrute" or "You too, Brutus?" right before he dies, like how CommonKnowledge and pop culture has it (thanks to Shakespeare's play). This is following the ancient sources like Suetonius and Plutarch who assert that he said nothing, though Suetonius also says that it was ''rumored'' that he said "you too, my child/son" in Greek (''Kai su, teknon'') to Brutus. The show has Caesar convey the sentiment to Brutus wordlessly, through his facial expressions. The show also pointedly does not have Caesar saying one of his other famous quotes, "Alea iacta est" or "The die is cast" before crossing the Rubicon with his army. It just happens, with the common soldier viewpoint character Titus Pullo realizing the import of it - that the point of no return has been passed and this means civil war. In both cases it's left for the viewer to imply that the famous phrases were cooked up later.
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* The legend of Queen Boudicea having spikes on the hubcaps of her chariots - which archaeologists and historians are absolutely sure never happened - turns out to be a Victorian invention, based on the Irish legend of the chariot of the hero Cu Chulain being festooned with hooks and rending spikes on all its outer surfaces, so as to make life difficult for opponents. Romantic Victorian thought reasoned that 'all'' Celtic chariots followed this model.

* So many books and documentaries tried to find an all-encompassing scientific explanation for the story of [[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus]] that it's hard to trace it down to the first one that brought up the idea. Occurrences like the parting of the Red Sea and the red river are usually attributed to a natural disaster. Other biblical stories like the Flood get similar treatment.

* Joan Wolf's ''The Road to Avalon'' has no magical elements except for Arthur and Morgan (portrayed as Arthur's friend) sharing a telepathic link. Merlin is a Roman-trained engineer.

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly presents Gilgamesh as a bald brutish regular king and Enkidu as a similarly brutish but regular insane wild man he hung out with. While other kings at the time claimed to be half god, Gilgamesh outdoes them by claiming to be two-thirds god. When a bystander gasps and asks if that means he had ''three'' parents, Gilgamesh just guffaws. Other details of the Gilgamesh legends are also briefly presented mundanely: instead of Gilgamesh spurning the advances of the goddess Ishtar, he does the unthinkable by refusing to do the annual ritual fertility sex rites with the ''priestess'' of the goddess Inanna, and the monsters he defeats are just foreign tribes he raids and conquers for booty and slaves.

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly presents Gilgamesh as a bald brutish regular king and Enkidu as a similarly brutish but regular insane wild man he hung out with. While other kings at the time claimed to be half god, Gilgamesh outdoes them by claiming to be two-thirds god. When a bystander gasps and asks if that means he had ''three'' parents, Gilgamesh just guffaws.

** It's pointed out that secular historians think MosesInTheBulrushes is a myth, as other figures have had similar foundling origin stories, so the comic supposes that Moses was a half-Egyptian priest or noble who developed a neurotic streak due to his contrasting backgrounds, though at the same time it is acknowledged that unwanted babies were often exposed, so he could have been an exposed child who was lucky to be adopted. He's drawn as bald or shaved and darker-skinned like the Egyptians and unlike regular Hebrews. He has a temper due to his neuroses and his murder of the Egyptian overseer is his repressed rage snapping. He's influenced by the Pharaoh Akhenaten who promoted worship of the Sun Aten as the one and only god. The plagues of Egypt are simply natural disasters the comic doesn't dwell on much that Moses attributes to the Hebrew God, and the parting of the Red Sea is just said to be the Hebrews escaping after the pursuing Egyptian chariots got stuck in marshy ground, as "Red Sea" is argued to be a mistranslation of "Reed Sea".

** It's pointed out that secular historians think MosesInTheBulrushes is a myth, as other figures have had similar foundling origin stories, so the comic supposes that Moses was a half-Egyptian priest or noble who developed a neurotic streak due to his contrasting backgrounds. He's drawn as bald or shaved and darker-skinned like the Egyptians and unlike regular Hebrews. He has a temper due to his neuroses and his murder of the Egyptian overseer is his repressed rage snapping. He's influenced by the Pharaoh Akhenaten who promoted worship of the Sun Aten as the one and only god. The plagues of Egypt are simply natural disasters the comic doesn't dwell on much that Moses attributes to the Hebrew God, and the parting of the Red Sea is just said to be the Hebrews escaping after the pursuing Egyptian chariots got stuck in marshy ground, as "Red Sea" is argued to be a mistranslation of "Reed Sea".

* Stephen R. Lawhead's ''Pendragon Cycle'' series contains virtually no explicit magic, though Merlin is descended from Atlanteans (who are treated like Tolkien's Elves).

* The first album of ''ComicBook/{{Lilith}}'' has the titular enhanced time traveler go back to the Trojan War which is depicted with suitably archaic Bronze Age aesthetics and name spellings, with the "Greeks" being Achaian "sea people" facing the "Trojans" of Wilusa/Wilios. The Trojan Horse is a siege engine with s horse head which breaches the walls at the same time as an earthquake happens with both sides invoking the equivalent of Poseidon the god of horses and earthquakes (the engine is destroyed, but the walls fall). Lilith's uncanny appearance and superhuman abilities lead people to mistake her for a goddess or spirit, but she also pretends to be as an Amazon, from Sarmatia. As a final twist [[spoiler:she blinds and cripples Akireu (Achilles), who then survives to essentially become Homer]].

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly retells several Greek myths for its Greek ancient history section partly for flavor and partly for lack of archaic material, but mainly presented as beliefs, and played up for comedy.[[note]]Like Helen of Troy is drawn with a duck's head and called "my goosey" by Paris because her mother was ''said'' to have mated (but ''shown'' somewhat graphically mating) with Zeus in the form of a swan.[[/note]] In general, it's pointed out that the Heroic Age that culminated in the ''Iliad'' etc. was basically a violent age of piracy and warfare, so villagers are shown fleeing, screaming "the heroes are coming!" Then there's an aside about the Egyptian version of the Trojan War, presented as a possible, more anticlimactic version of what could have happened - that a Pharaoh kept Helen hostage all the while after she and Paris stopped over, and the Greeks never find out she never reached Troy.

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly retells several Greek myths for its Greek ancient history section partly for flavor and partly for lack of archaic material, but mainly presented as beliefs, and played up for comedy.[[note]Like Helen of Troy is drawn with a duck's head and called "my goosey" by Paris because her mother was ''said'' to have mated (but ''shown'' somewhat graphically mating) with Zeus in the form of a swan.[[/note]] In general, it's pointed out that the Heroic Age that culminated in the ''Iliad'' etc. was basically a violent age of piracy and warfare, so villagers are shown fleeing, screaming "the heroes are coming!" Then there's an aside about the Egyptian version of the Trojan War, presented as a possible, more anticlimactic version of what could have happened - that a Pharaoh kept Helen hostage all the while after she and Paris stopped over, and the Greeks never find out she never reached Troy.

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly retells several Greek myths for its Greek ancient history section partly for flavor and partly for lack of archaic material, but mainly presented as beliefs. It's pointed out that the Heroic Age that culminated in the ''Iliad'' etc. was basically a violent age of piracy and warfare, so villagers are shown fleeing, screaming "the heroes are coming!" Due to RuleOfFunny, Helen of Troy is drawn with a duck's head and called "my goosey" by Paris because her mother was said to have mated (and shown somewhat graphically mating) with Zeus in the form of a swan. Then there's an aside about the Egyptian version of the Trojan War where a Pharaoh kept Helen hostage all the while after she and Paris stopped over, and the Greeks never find out she never reached Troy. Then later, Oedipus blinding himself and "decorating his beard with his eyeballs" is shown by him having the two solid eyeballs on his beard to contrast his eyeless sockets.

* ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' briefly presents Gilgamesh as a bald [[TheBrute brutish]] regular king and Enkidu as a similarly brutish but regular insane wild man he hung out with. While other kings at the time claimed to be half god, Gilgamesh outdoes them by claiming to be two-thirds god. When a bystander gasps and asks if that means he had ''three'' parents, Gilgamesh just guffaws.

** The professor narrator says that we don't really knew how the Hebrew God's name YHWH was pronounced back then as it was forbidden under threat of getting struck by lightning. He says that it could be anything from Yahweh to Yehowah to Yahu-Wahu - at which point he gets fried. Later, Hebrews are shown yelling "Yahoo! Wahoo!" in battle.

* ''King Jesus'' by [[Literature/IClaudius Robert Graves]], which mixes the canonical and non-canonical Christian gospels with a great deal of his own innovations, presents Jesus not as the son of God but the secret grandson of Herod. Though he does perform miracles and is resurrected at the end.