10 Legendary People from History Who Didn’t Exist

You’ve heard these names for pretty much your whole life. You’ve been told tales about what these people supposedly did, how they acted, what they said, maybe even who they stood up to, and how they performed heroically under adversity. But, well, we have bad news for you: history now believes that some of your favorite heroes in these spaces likely never existed.

In this list, we’ll cover ten world-famous people whose profiles and life stories have risen to the level of inspirational myths and impressive retellings. Some of these people lived centuries ago (or even longer!), yet we still talk about them to this day. But they didn’t actually exist… or that is the current leaning. Historians have since come in and rained on our proverbial parade with their facts and logic. According to the experts, these ten people from the past are completely made up. Read on to hear the grisly details, but first, prepare mentally a bit to have your entire worldview upended!

Related: 10 Urban Legends That Might Be True

10 Mulan

Disney brought Mulan to the forefront when they animated a famous (and still well-regarded) movie about the ancient Chinese warrior. The inspiring young woman has been a revered and beloved folk hero in Chinese mythology for ages. Her folktale dates all the way back to the fifth century, and it’s been told for generations in China ever since.

Basically, the young girl was tasked with taking her father’s place as a warrior when he became too old to fight. It turned out that she was a very good warrior, against all odds. Though she was a girl (and a small one at that!), she was just as fierce and cunning as the boys. Love it!

There’s just one little problem: The whole thing is phony. Historians now know that there’s never been any definitive evidence that Mulan actually existed. More likely, her tale was used down through the ages as a tool to inspire young women to dream big and achieve great things. In that regard, it certainly worked. But there was definitely no real-life Mulan on which it is based.^[1]

9 Homer

The world’s most famous poet—the man who supposedly wrote some of the most iconic literary works in the history of all humanity—didn’t exist. That’s right, we’re not talking about Homer Simpson in this segment. (Although he also doesn’t actually exist, no matter how many episodes of The Simpsons you may have watched.)

Historians and scholars are very much at odds over the existence (or non-existence) of the incredible Greek poet Homer. While some people continue to dispute this, most experts have landed on a theory that holds Homer didn’t exist but rather was a mythical figure created out of a cultural need by other Greek scholars to drive their stories home.

For proof of this, scholars point to their near-certainty that Homer’s works, including The Iliad and The Odyssey, were likely written much earlier than the period in which he supposedly lived. In addition to that, the style of writing has suggested to linguistic experts that the stories were crafted by multiple different people and then combined into what we know today. As such, it would seem that Homer is a figment of our collective imagination. Boy, that made-up guy sure could tell a tale, though, couldn’t he?^[2]

8 William Tell

William Tell was the famous Swiss archer forced to shoot an apple off his son’s head after a crazy despot put him up to it… or else. Thankfully, Tell didn’t miss. The arrows sliced clean through the apple as opposed to, you know, lodging itself in the boy’s skull. Probably a fortunate thing, right? As such, ever since that event took place (supposedly in the year 1307), people have spent their time re-telling the story of Mr. Tell.

The reason the story has spread so far and wide makes quite a bit of sense. Not only was the act a plainly heroic (and lucky!) situation, but it also ushered in Switzerland’s movement to become an independent nation. Like many countries (cough, America, cough), the Swiss have founding myths they hold dearly. Tell’s tale is an example of that. It’s just, well, totally false.

Researchers and historians have never been able to find any evidence whatsoever that William Tell was a real person or that he ever shot an arrow through an apple off the top of his son’s head. Ah, well. It’s still a great story!^[3]

7 Sun Tzu

The bestselling and best-known book about strategy as it relates to battle and, well, everything else is The Art of War. And while a certain president might like to claim that The Art of the Deal sold more and/or has been more impactful, there’s no denying that Sun Tzu is the world’s most famous military strategist. His book was believed to have been written in the fourth or fifth century. Even though the Chinese tactician never could have conceptualized things like drones, fighter jets, and nuclear weapons, what he penned so many centuries ago has withstood the test of time. But as for Sun Tzu himself? Nope!

Nobody has ever been able to confirm in any way that Sun Tzu ever truly existed. Sure, he lived (or allegedly lived) a very long time ago. However, records even examined as far back as Chinese historians and researchers can find don’t indicate he was ever actually alive. What is more likely in the minds of researchers now is that Sun Tzu’s entire existence (and thus, his famous book) was likely a cobbled-together heap of ancient Chinese wisdom pulled from many different sources. It’s still fascinating, of course. But it wasn’t all written by one dude. Because that dude never actually existed in the first place!^[4]

6 Betty Crocker

With all due respect to Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker is definitely the most iconic and beloved kitchen goddess of all time. After all, Betty Crocker didn’t go to federal prison, now, did she? But there’s actually a reason that Betty didn’t wind up in the slammer—aside from the fact that she was never convicted of anything. That’s because Betty didn’t exist! She was (and still is) a completely made-up fabrication that bounced out of the mind of an executive at General Mills and turned into a fake but lucrative creation.

So, basically, General Mills was in the middle of creating a series of product lines for baking foods and ingredients a half-century ago. Customers kept questioning who was coming up with their recipes, their foods, and all their stuff. Someone in the company’s marketing department said they should create a fictitious person to whom they could ascribe General Mills’ ideas. And voila! Betty Crocker was born. Er, “born.”

Like any good suck-up, the marketing genius took the “Crocker” surname from one of the men who directed General Mills at the time. And “Betty” sounded like the perfect matronly name to tack on and make it seem like some down-home momma was making all the food. With that, a legend was created—completely out of thin air. Soon enough, she became an “expert” on all things cooking and recipes. And her expertise continues to this very day!^[5]

5 Robin Hood

Robin Hood is probably the most famous person to steal from the rich and give to the poor. His story is inspiring if you don’t have much money—and, perhaps, a terrifying one if you’re loaded. But there’s just one problem with Robin Hood’s supposedly inspiring underdog story: it’s (almost certainly) completely made up.

Medieval scholars have poured over every book there is to read again and again for several centuries now, and they’ve never been able to definitively find anyone who can lay claim to being Robin Hood. They’ve found various criminals in medieval records with names like “Robehod” and “Rabunhod.” And maybe one of those guys really is Robin Hood! But it’s not clear, and furthermore, their recorded crimes don’t involve stealing from the rich and dishing it out to those less fortunate.

Instead, what is most likely is that somewhere along the way, somebody came up with the (correct) idea that a story about a generous outlaw would appeal to people. That’s how myths get made, right? People begin telling stories; they take hold in the popular imagination, and the next thing you know, it becomes a meme! Well, a medieval meme, at least. But one that is certainly easy to root for. Who doesn’t want to see the rich get their comeuppance?^[6]

4 John Henry

One of the most famous railroadmen of all time was a strong and powerful guy named John Henry. Just after the Civil War, a host of very popular songs and ballads started popping up, extolling this railroad worker’s virtues. Railroads were being built like crazy all across America at the time. John Henry served as the image of the strong, tough, and physically durable man who was laying down those tracks and making those dreams come true.

As the story went, John Henry was supposedly a former slave who had spurned the shackles and went into the railroad business. He was even said to have once challenged a steam drill to a race and beat the machine to the finish line. Sadly, the ballads reported that John Henry died very shortly after winning that heroic race. From there, his incredibly inspiring tale sprung up to push other people to get into the railroad business and lay down the tracks.

Of course, the story was just a little too good to be true. While historians have suggested there could have actually been a former slave-turned-railroad worker on whom John Henry was based, he certainly wasn’t like the songs made him out to be. And he certainly didn’t beat a steam drill in a race. But the public didn’t care, and talk of John Henry sprang up everywhere! It also lasted a very long time; one of the world’s most famous and durable racehorses to ever run was a gelding named John Henry in the 1980s.^[7]

3 Pythagoras

Quick quiz: Do you remember what the Pythagorean Theorem is? We’ll give you a hint: It’s about triangles. You know, right angles, hypotenuse, and all that good stuff. Is it coming back to you yet? If you’re anything like us, you’re probably groaning at the thought of having to revisit the awfulness of high school math classes. And if you’re also anything like us, you’ll be shocked to know that the man for whom the Pythagorean Theorem is named didn’t actually exist! He was made up! Does that mean we can scrap his theorem and forget about math?

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who came up with the theorem about triangles with right angles in them, seems to have been a figment of that nation’s collective imagination long ago. Pythagoras lived from ca. 570 to ca. 490 BC. He wrote nothing, nor were there any detailed accounts of his thoughts written by contemporaries. While most people consider him a man of math and science, he was known during his lifetime for his ideas on the human soul after death, as an expert on religious rituals, and as the founder of a strict way of life that emphasized dietary restrictions, religious ritual and rigorous self discipline. No math there!

So, why do historians claim he is not the Pythagoras of the famed—and dreaded—theorem? For one, he wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea of a² + b² = c². Historians now believe the Egyptians were onto it long before the Greeks. But even more than that, nobody can find any records of the theorem-producing Pythagoras ever actually existing. It’s more likely that a group of (fairly unreliable, experts say) people concocted his “identity” out of thin air to make ancient Greece seem like it was on top of the math game.^[8]

2 Uncle Sam

We all know Uncle Sam. He’s the man with the big top hat, the white beard, and the patriotic outfit. He loves America, and he loves you—and he wants you to love America, too! But it should probably come as no surprise to you that “Uncle Sam” certainly wasn’t a real person. There was no random American walking around in the early 19th century, when Uncle Sam first popped up, who looked and acted like he did. However, there was a real, specific, authentic inspiration for the character that eventually became Uncle Sam, so that’s something!

During the War of 1812, there was a businessman named Sam who was very rich and very well-connected. He would spend massive amounts of money to supply soldiers fighting the war with food and other goods to sustain themselves. These soldiers appreciate that so much that they took to calling the guy “Uncle Sam.” In short order, their reference came to mean anything good that was coming from the military itself. The nickname spread, and it eventually got picked up in newspapers. Slowly but surely, it became a thing. By World War I—a full century later—the figure was recognized and beloved by all Americans.^[9]

1 King Arthur

If you’ve grown up anywhere in the English-speaking world, you know about King Arthur. He was there, in the kingdom of Camelot, alongside the wizard Merlin and his trusty Knights of the Round Table. However, while King Arthur’s story has been popularized by various folklorists since the 9th century, it is almost certainly fake. According to historians, it’s possible that King Arthur was actually based on a real British warrior who led his armies into battle in the fifth or sixth century. But “based on” is a pretty loose term here. Even if that supposed soldier (who we’re still not entirely sure existed) was real, he wasn’t King Arthur, he didn’t have his knights, and Merlin certainly wasn’t a wizard.

All this comes back to Alfred Tennyson’s epic poem on the subject. Tennyson was not the first person to come up with the tale of King Arthur when he did it in the 19th century—not by a longshot. But he was the most successful at doing so, at least in the modern(ish) era. People latched onto Tennyson’s writing, and the story of King Arthur spread like wildfire. Too bad it’s almost certainly made up, even if there was a very loosely held real-life inspiration. Ah, well. Turns out many things really are too good to be true!^[10]