Mythology with real places & people

Thanks for starting this up, Bluescat!Let me expand a bit on my statement you quoted. Troy was held to be as mythical as Helen or Aphrodite until the 1860's, when the ruins were excavated and a city turned up. Many other places mentioned in Homer's two books have been identified with "real" places. There's a fairly recent paper (free here ) that even correlates a real solar eclipse, known to have occurred through orbital mechanics, with Odysseus' homecoming.Does that body of data prove that the Iliad and Odyssey are accurate history in every particular? I say no, of course not! It proves that storytellers are darn good at weaving realistic, convincing detail into their stories. And I challenge Peg or any other person who claims that the stories in the Bible are somehow "different" to show even a smidgen of any basis for that "difference" beyond "because I want it to be so." You can't do it.

Where, exactly, is all this "evidence" of battles, and captivities in Egypt, and glorious temples that Solomon built? There isn't any, Peg! The Odyssey describes all sorts of places around the whole Mediterranean with as much accuracy as Genesis does - why is a comparison "ludicrous?"Only because Peg wants the Bible to be TRVTH, that's why.

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"The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness; things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe." - Agobard of Lyons, ca. 830 AD