Stories have been written about them, they are subjects of many legends, we celebrate them as heroes and wise men, but these historical people might have never existed. Thanks to urban legends, exaggeration of stories and using pseudonyms, there is a large number of people that managed to become famous, but didn’t have to endure the hardship of real life.
Some were used for suspicious marketing purposes, and other served as means to con people, and was even responsible to encourage medieval expeditions to Asia! In any case, clouded in mystery, they managed to build a fake fame. We present to you 10 famous people that really never existed.
10ROBIN HOOD
Historians have yet to give a real – life identity to the outlaw. Over a period of 140 years, varying accounts portray him either as a nobleman or a commoner.
09LAO TZU
Lao Tzu was seen as the father of Taoism and peer of Confucius. Said to have lived during the 6th Century BC, historians believe he is a combination of different philosophers.
08LYCURGUS
He credited with enacting a series of laws turning Sparta into a military force. As Spartans did not record their history in writing, historians are unsure he existed at all.
07WILLIAM TELL
Hooting an apple on top of his son’s head, he became a Swiss folk hero. There are no such names on record and the story may have been imported from Scandinavia.
06JOHN HENRY
He was famed in ballads as a former slave who beat a steam drill in a race to build a tunnel. A ‘John Henry’ did exist, but the race has never been proven to have happened.
05SHAKESPEARE
Records show that a William Shakespeare was born in Stratford and became an actor. With no university education, there are doubts that he wrote the famous plays.
04HOMER
Homer was the Greek writer is believed to have lied between 8th–12th Century BC. Uncertainty has led to the belief that he is a composite of authors responsible for ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’.
03SUN TZU
The ‘Art of war’ author turned a harem of courtesans into an elite fighting force by beheading 2 of them to set an example. He is believed to have lived in feudal China between 771 and 476 BC.
02PYTHAGORAS
Accounts of the thinker’s life have been attributed to a religious sect. Egyptians were also aware of the theorem that bears his name – 1000 years earlier.
01KIN ARTHUR
Said that he have a led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the 6th Century AD. He is only mentioned in accounts some 400 years later, with claims that he single-handedly killed 960 men.
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