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Articles on Myths
Displaying 1 - 20 of 113 articles
Judging this version against an apparent ‘original’ misunderstands both the ancient poem and how myth actually works.
The ‘Mother Road’ has long symbolized freedom and reinvention. But its history reveals a more complicated story shaped by migration, segregation and the highways that eventually circumvented it.
The idea of menstrual synchrony isn’t backed by science. So why does this myth still exist?
What’s the secret to being the most followed person on the planet on TikTok?
In this Q&A with the authors of a recent book about Bigfoot hunters, they admit these people are neither anti-science nor irrational.
The decades-long search for Amelia Earhart, her aircraft, and her navigator Fred Noonan, has been both controversial and costly.
There are lots of myths about autistic people who don’t talk. Here are three and why they’re so wrong.
Who gets to sleep, and for how long, is a complex mix of biology, psychology and society. Here’s what we know so far.
We still hear black mould in our homes described as toxic. But it’s the allergies and asthma they trigger we should be more worried about.
Tove Jansson’s gentle Moomin creatures reflect something ancient and ever-changing: a mythic rhythm of wandering, belonging and becoming.
There’s no firm evidence eating eggs causes constipation. In fact, eggs may have the opposite effect. Here’s what’s really going on in your gut.
Philly sports fans embrace a working-class ideology that thrives on being the underdog and emphasizes toughness, hard work and a combative defiance.
Famous musicians and artists aren’t necessarily more likely to die at 27. But the story that they do shapes how we perceive history and reality.
The message that blue light from screens stops you from falling asleep is essentially a myth, albeit a very convincing one. Here’s what’s really going on.
Several threads, including pre-Christian mythology, veneration of relics in Christian tradition, and medieval literature, have combined over the centuries into the Holy Grail metaphor of today.
In the ugly spectacle of American politics, it’s hard to keep humanity in sight. But literature, says a poet and scholar of the classics, can remind us of what we know about growing old.
Having asymptomatic flat feet is not a problem and does not require treatment. It’s important to debunk this common myth.
To truly appreciate the track, it’s important to go beyond the long shadow of the Beatles’ version.
Are romance novels all the same? Are their readers all bored housewives and BookTok girlies? Of course not! Romance experts Jodi McAlister and Jayashree Kamble debunk the myths and deliver the facts.
Top contributors
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Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
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Visiting Researcher in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University
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Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
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Senior Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Emeritus professor of biology, UCL
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Visiting Scholar of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
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Professor and Department of Psychology Chair, The University of Texas at Austin
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Senior Lecturer in English and Writing (children's literature), University of New England
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Emeritus Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University
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Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University
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Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, Sarah Lawrence College
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Professor of Educational Studies, University of South Carolina
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Reader in Gender Studies, Liverpool John Moores University
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Professor of Psychology, Wayne State University