I'm taking a mythology and folklore class, and in our first reading assignment the text makes the claim that Herakles is "almost certainly" a holdover from paleolithic mythology about hunting. They support this claim by saying "He is dressed in animal skins, and carries a club, like a caveman."

The footnote points to a book by Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, but I can't seem to find any relevant text excerpts, or even an academic assessment of Burkert's credibility.

Can someone shed some more light on this? I'm sorry if this isn't the right sub for this question.

Also, are three any other landmark books that changed the way we comprehend history?

Background: He's in his 60s, white, born-and-raised American. I've been getting to know him the last few weeks and recently asked about his injuries (permanent crutches and a limp).

He was hesitant to respond and finally said "I was shot back in 1984. It was a US government operation in Nicaragua." He didn't want to clarify further.

Does anyone know what events he may be referring to? Was this military, CIA, etc? I'm interested to know any information about this, thanks!

I asked a history professor this when I was in undergrad and the only answer he had for me is that in the classical system, medicine was taught only after someone had gone through the trivium and quadrivium and the US system was just a continuation of that. However, if that was the reason, wouldn't it mean that the UK should also have medicine as a graduate degree instead of an undergrad one?

African American slaves during the 17/1800s in case there's any confusion

My commute has a lot of trucks driving to and from and when I am stuck in traffic, I count the wheels of them (I don't only or always do this and this is when I'm dead stopped).

While I was watching schindler's list I realized that the jew's at the start of the movie were gathered up to be put in the ghetto's so easily, now I understand that once they had been put in the ghetto's they were registered and forced to wear the star of david. But my question is how were they so easily identified before that (other then methods such as hebrew surnames)? or was that just a hollywood exaggeration

I've heard that hygiene was very important in many medieval Islamic cultures, while Western Europe generally did not practice good personal cleaning methods. If so, what did official visitors from Islamic countries --> Western european countries think about the lack of bathing, underdeveloped medicine, etc?

(Sorry if this is a gross generalization! It's just something I've heard a lot)

So I'm wondering about a couple of things concerning the Vikings and Christianity. I want to compare the life of the 'Viking' during their time without Christianity and with it. With Viking I mean a Scandinavian who lived in Scandinavia, not a traveler, plunderer etc.

Other than what they believed, how did the rest of the 'Viking's life' change. Did they lose their version of the court, 'The Thing'? Did they stop plundering the rest of Europe? Did they lose other political parts like having 'Jarls'? Was slavery outlawed? Did they change their way of building houses, did they eat differently and did they start wearing different kinds of clothing? Were their views on alcohol changed?

If you have any extra information I would be extremely happy to hear it. I know I'm asking for quite a lot of things but I hope I'm not too demanding. Answering these questions would really help me out.

Sorry about my English, I'm Dutch.

I hope the question isn't too broad. If you could give me any sort of answer, go ahead and do it because that's what I'd like.

Nationalism was a very powerful current in the 19th century. Germany and Austria share a common history as well as a common language, architecture, art, etc. By all definitions of culture/ethnicity in the 19th century, they were one people.

After Germany defeated France during their unification was there ever plans to resume war with Austria to absorb it into Germany? Was there ever a deal being worked out between the two empires to unite? Did Austria's huge populations of minorities hold it back from unification with Germany? I'm sure the Hungarians might not be happy being a tiny fraction of a large German empire.

It seems strange to me that it takes 60 +/- years later for unification movement between these two countries to make momentum.

Pretty much it They are a huge part of many Japanese paintings, early Japanese art, and even anime today, but never the fruit itself. As far as I know I've never really seen much Japanese cuisine with cherries.

As the title says...my (British) grandfather was in the Merchant Marine during the Second World War, and spent 3 years in a Japanese POW camp after his ship was sunk by a U-Boat.

He currently lives in England, so I don't see him often, and he (unsurprisingly) doesn't like talking about it. I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find information on where he might have been held, and such. Not for any real reason, besides my own curiosity.

Thanks in advance for all your help. This sub is fucking awesome.

Some people say it was doing pretty well by Latin American standards while others say it was a shithole and the brothel of the Americans. What's the truth?

I am a little confused about how isolationist the USA were before World War II. Did the USA really back out of every European conflict or did they try to meddle in some way (like an almost World Police)?