It ’s not every twenty-four hours you move into a publishing that uses statistics to debate ancient epics were based on fact , judging by their social networks — yet here we are . “ Universal Properties of Mythological Networks ” is a newly published article in the daybook Europhysics Letters , and researchers Pádraig Mac Carron and Ralph Kenna have described and analyzed the direction characters interact in famous sagas , and compare them to real human high society .
The researchers analyze the Iliad , Beowulf , and the Irish epic , the Táin Bó Cuailnge — from each story , every theatrical role was identified , and their interactions with other characters were marked as friendly or hostile . There were 74 persona identified in Beowulf , 404 in the Táin and 716 in the Iliad , and the distributions and interactions were mapped .
What they found was that the web of interaction in these tale intimately resembles those of genuine web of somebody , especially when compare to employment of known fiction — they were mark against Hugo ’s Les Misérables ( N = 77 ) , Shakespeare ’s Richard III ( N = 70 ) , Tolkien ’s society of the Ring ( the first part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy , with N = 118 ) and Rowling ’s Harry Potter ( N = 72 ) . By a significant leeway , the epos portrayed a internet of people that seemed more exchangeable to fact than fiction , particularly as how complect all the characters are in the fictional works .
The researchers contend that this is evidence of some level of historical fact being the basis for the stories . Of the three , the Iliad appears to mirror existent social electronic internet the closest , then Beowulf . The Táin was slimly problematical , and had some feature that seemed more wonderful , but the authors traced these issues to just six characters of the 716 , and that this is most probable due to multiple other character being compound in oral tradition .
This is an incredibly interesting utilisation of statistical analysis . Generally , when people try and prove the historicity of myth , it ’s down to archaeological and diachronic evidence . But this ? Using statistical analytic thinking to compare how nigh to realness the graphic symbol fundamental interaction are ? That ’s pretty freaking cool .
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