RE: The Greek Dark Age (c.1,150 - 800 BC)
I have so many questions as I'm in love with studying the historical rise and fall of empires like Babylon, Rome, Persia, England, maybe the USA someday, etc, and even Greece as seen here.
Hercules
I wonder if the Greek mythology of Hercules is based on this Herakles that you mention in this post. I would say yes in the same way as the Greek gods are. We can find some accurate and historical truth within fables, legends, myths, fairy tales, folk lore, etc. The hard part is sorting between what really happened and what may have been exaggerated, added, twisted, altered, changed, deformed, and removed.
THE DORIANS
I love that Dorian states were split into 3 tribes as you said because I like the number three for the trinity.
Ancient Cities
I would love to know the history of ancient cities and places. I would love to map out the timeline, the history, of how cities can die and how new cities rise in their place.
Saigon
For example, I was living in Vietnam for five years from 2012-2017, mostly in Saigon which is now called Ho Chi Minh City. Well, they say that Saigon was once called Gia Dinh which means like the forest, the swamp, or something like that. Before the 1800's, I think it had another name. So, in other words, this one area has had different names over the years. So, I would love to dig up what might be in the ruins of these places in Europe.
Greece
I love the philosophers who came out of Greece, people like Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, which I've learned about from people like @stefan.molyneux. I love the history of some of the ancient cities like Athena for example. Athena was named after Athena. Wasn't Athena the Greek god of like wisdom? Was there a historical person named Athena that the Greek god was based on? I should write articles about history like you are doing. Good work.
Thanks very much for the feedback!
Now that I've somewhat loosely covered Minoan, Mycenaean and Dark-Age Greece, I've got plans to do posts on Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece, as well as, much later, the Roman Kingdom, Republic and Empire(s). Ancient Near-Eastern history is another topic I may work on some day, but I consider Greco-Roman (military) history my specialty.
As for Herakles: Hercules is the Latinised (Roman) name for the Greek Demi-God Herakles - really, it's the same mythical figure. Sparta is a topic very close to my heart, especially the battle of Thermopylae. The Heraklid Myth is based on Hercules, and it is something else I'll definitely go more into detail on.
ALL history should be looked at with some scepticism - What actually happened? How much of a "legend" is really true, and even if it isn't, how did it impact the mindset and physical outcome of the peoples that believed in them? And what has been altered through time to fit someone else's agenda? Like how a lot of Egyptian history is lost to us because pharaohs liked to dismantle their predecessors accomplishments and re-write them as their own. Also, Rome's first emperor, Augustus, got the writer Virgil to partly alter the story of the Iliad, so he could link his own bloodline with that of the Trojan Aeneas, who fled the city and whos descendants, according to Virgil's Aeneid, would go on to found the city of Rome. It's all unlikely to be true, but should never be ruled out entirely - we never know how much of history we've yet to uncover!
If I just had more sources to go off of right now on the Greek Dark Ages, I'd've loved to talk about the Dorian invasion a little more. The Dorian city of Sparta originated from the merging of five small villages, for example. But yeah, I'm a fan of #3 for that reason as well!
As for cities - it's a little harder to talk as indepth about, for example, a Minoan city than it is an Archaic/Classical-age city, simply because Minoan culture is further from our own time today, and generally less things are preserved the further back in history you go. There will definitely be individul blogs on the key city-states, like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Delphi, Olympia etc. to come, and a timeline's something I should really work on for the blogs coming - good idea.
I've seen Saigon before - not been there personally but it looks an interesting place for sure. Interesting to know it's had many different names through time, much like Byzantium --> Constantinopolis --> Istanbul. I know Vietnam was under French rule for a while, so maybe its change in name once had something to do with the French?
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are probably worth several blogs EACH, and Stefan Molyneux is an internet God-Send! (His videos on the fall of Rome, the crusades, slavery and Hong Kong are others I'd recommend.)
Yeah, Athena was Athens' patron Goddess, and the Goddess of wisdom and war. Not sure how many deities are linked to people, if any - the origin of religion sure is a mysterious topic.
And yeah, if you've got blog ideas, go for it! Share your knowledge and passion with the world - I'll be sure to follow you. :)
Thanks very much man 👊🏼
Yes, I believe Saigon is what the French called that place going back to the 1800's and up until about 1975 and officially in 1976. Yeah, I've been watching Stefan Molyneux since like 2016. I have a daily blog and I linked to you in them already. Right now, I'm researching how the Internet works. Sometimes, I write about health, natural remedies. I'm always going back and forth between topics. So, I'm not currently writing anything about ancient world history at the moment. You mentioned a bunch of things here. I'll be back to talk more about some of these things. For example, Beowolf is interesting to talk about.