I just read an incredible book while on vacation with the family in Hawaii last week. It's titled, A Little History of the World. Wait! Before you say, "Why is Graham reading a history book on the beach?" let me assure you that this is no ordinary history book. It was written in 1935 by a German author named E.H. Gombrich (pictured above, reading to his grand-children), and was intended for "younger readers". My own impression is that "younger readers" must have been a lot smarter than they are today, because this is college level reading, but composed in a delightful simple prose for a child, which makes it so enjoyable to read. And so, chapter one begins, "All stories must begin with once upon a time, and that's just what this story is about, what happened once upon a time...". But make no mistake about it, Gombrich packs in more interesting nuggets about history than I have gleaned in both my Masters Degree in Divinity or my Doctorate in Ministry. Here are some of my favorite takeaways:
* The Egyptians worshipped the Nile river as a God
* Pharaoh, Egyptians believed, was, "Son of the Sun God".
* The tombs (pyramids) were intended as dwelling places for the soul, for when the soul returned to visit the body.
* Egyptians were great glass blowers
* Ancient Christians were known to write a cross after a person's name to indicate they had died
* The Greek name for papyrus is where we get our modern word "paper"
* The Egyptians believed that poor people possessed more wisdom than rich, "Wise words are rated than emeralds, yet they come from the mouths of poor slave girls who turn the millstones,"
* Mesopotamia is Greek for "the land between two rivers"
* The game of chess (or some form of it) is around 5,000 years old
* Cuneiform writing means, "wedge shaped" (cone form)
* Baal was a sun God. Human sacrifices were sometimes made to Baal
* The word Saturday comes from the planet "Saturn", Sunday comes from "Sun", Monday comes from "Moon".
* Many of Hammurabi's strict and just laws turn up in the Bible
* Babel (in the Bible) is the same as Babylon
* The Greek heroes like Odysseus and Achilles were all fictional characters
* King Cyrus, a Persian, freed the Jews from Babylon. Years later, when the Magi, who were Persian sought a star in the east, they were reconnecting with their ancient Jewish friends in the Holy Land.
* The word, "oracular" (meaning enigmatic or vague) comes from the oracles of Delphi who were basically drunk on the fumes coming from the ground.
* The word "draconian" (meaning strict) is from the Greek general named Draco who was very harsh.
* The Greeks basically invented theater
* The Hindi word "pitar" which later became Latin "pater" is where we get our word "father"
* In India, even the shadow of an "untouchable" was considered defiling
* Buddha (Gautama) begins his quest for enlightenment by taking in all the sadness of the world for a period of 6-7 years
* The Chinese language (mandarin) has over 40,000 characters
* The center of Confucianism is the concept that, "outward appearances are more important than we think"
* The word "Philippics" (or crazy ideas) comes from Alexander the Great's father Philip who was known for crazy ideas
* Alexander the Great begins his campaign in the Biblical city of Corinth
* Alexander the Great's teacher was Aristotle
* Alexander the Great liked riding his horse (named Bucephalus) more than anything in the world
* Alexander the Great dies at the age of 32 in the year 323BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar
* The phrase, "Pyrrhic victory" comes from a Greek prince named Pyrrhus who fought against Rome. Pyrrhus won the battle, but he lost so many men that he is said to have cried out, "One more such victory and we are lost". To this day, people who win things at too high a cost are known to have "Pyrrhic victories"
* Romans didn't build roads to help the people, but to help them move troops from place to place
* Romans were accustomed to conquering, then leaving the management of the cities to slaves
* The month of July is named after Julius Caesar
* The month of August is named after Caesar Augustus
* Whenever Julius Caesar would start to lose his temper, he did the alphabet in his head slowly, by the end of it, he was calm again
* The punishment of "the cross" was only given to slaves and robbers
* Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned, but played his lyre and sang a song that he himself wrote about a city that was burning while Rome was burning
* The Colosseum held 50,000 people
* The Romans were said to have taken lions to Gaul (Germany) to scare the native tribes. But since the Romans had never seen a lion before, they weren't frightened off, they just killed what they thought were large dogs, and ate them
* Constantine may have used Christianity to conquer a nation, but he himself remained a pagan all his life, until he was baptized on his death bed
* It is said that Attila the Hun never laughed
* The last Roman emperor had an interesting name Romulus Augustus. This is ironic because Rome's founder was a king named Romulus, and it's first emperor was Augustus
And now, my blog reading friends, if you are still reading this blog-post after this long list of lesser known facts from history, well done!
Or as the teacher of young minds, E.H. Gombrich, might have said...
"Good for you girls and boys!"
All for Now,
GB
