Sidetrack: History Meets Myth

A quick sidetrack for those of you, like me, who enjoy history and mythology.

One of the things I love about Europe is its focus on history and fine forms of culture that relate to that history. I've been to two major art/history museums in the last week, and in both of them I noticed something interesting about the art from about the 1600s and earlier: it seemed like 90% of those paintings or sculptures were representations, not of "Still Life" or some random "Red Circle of Significance" (sorry if those are your favourites), but rather of stories either from classical (Greek/Roman) mythology OR from the Bible.

Now, I am interested in the former as a side study, and interested in the latter as the cornerstone of my life, so perhaps that explains why the two subjects were still close to my thoughts yesterday when I came across this passage in my homework reading:

"The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens-- at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate."
- C. S. Lewis (quoted in Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth).

If you're like me, you've read the old mythologies and sometimes wished, childlike, that those stories were true. I am so glad that the Greatest Story is true!