Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
The Nine Worthies (wikipedia.org)
20 points by brudgers on Dec 6, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 9 comments


Surprised there isn’t a movie franchise about this.


It would clash with the zeitgeist currently prevalent in Hollywood. If they decided to pursue it, it would be from a "subversive" angle, as they like to boast.


The 9 worthies 2: 2 Alexander 2 The Great.


I see Christians, Pagans, and Jews, but no Muslims. Funny, that. No Abbasids, no Osman I, Suleyman the Magnificent.


The list was made up by a medieval writer from what would now be northeastern France, so the oversight isn’t that unexpected, right?


Certainly the Abbasids wouldn't have had a great name in France at the time (*). And Suleyman hadn't even been born in the 14th century.

(*) because of the Crusades; the loss of the Holy Land was still recent.


I think there was a general sense the three wise men included people not of the jewish tradition. So although islam came along a few generations later it was implicitly baked into the birth scene, the prequel story. Kinda. I mean if you're a medieval artist, what're you going to go to, with a weird and wonderful magus boxing up some myrrh and frank, incensed cookies?

Archbish Hippo and Good old Augustine aside, I think most of the stone cutters in the gothic period didn't really get the idea of "people of colour" very well. Those black madonna generally started out white and .. age and fingerprints happened.


A few generations later? It was about 600 years later.


That's about 12 generations. Some people would call that a few.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: