Is there a term for the feeling that ancient and medieval history is not real?

Historiamnesia?

Hm. Cool question.
But it’s totally a thing. I mean if you look at something even less ancient—say early Anglo-Saxon England, that time is totally steeped in legend.

^^ “Lost in the mists of time” was a poetic phrase I once read.

I don’t feel that way. History is full of cycles of civilizations gradually acquiring power and then losing it. In recent times we have seen the same pattern. Power moved from Europe to the U.S. and is maybe starting to move to China. One could say that Western power kept moving to the west, from the Near East to Greece, to Rome to England to the U.S. It can’t go any further west, so it is preparing to move to China.

So you’re not talking about skepticism but more of an emotional disconnection. I don’t know if there is a word for this, but I think if you study these periods in the right way, you can develop an empathy for the people of those times even if it is hard to imagine what it was like to live under those conditions.

Many years ago I watched a popular series about ancient Rome on CD. The CD had interviews with the creators of the show, who commented on how they saw the ancient Romans after studying them intensely for the show. They said the picture that emerged was that the ancient Romans seemed just like us in some ways, but in others they seemed completely alien and incomprehensible.

Simone Weil’s essay, “The Iliad, or the Poem of Force”, is a masterpiece of critical interpretation. It may help readers recognize the reality and humanity of those ancient people and understand why Homer’s poem still has something to tell us today. It’s available online for free.

[Edit—TLDR: Read this https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/simone-weil-the-iliad]

Bullshit. Horseshit. Crap. Nonsense. Make believe.

I don’t know the term for it but it’s a feeling that comes from watching too many series on Netflix. Looking at original source material (or as close as you can get to it) makes history seem more real because after all it is real, (or was).

(I sometimes feel this way about the Covid pandemic. Did all that actually happen?)

Or Trump being elected president.?!?

It seems to me that history and legend were basically considered the same for long periods in history, and currently.

In Asia, many myths are still considered fact. Often linked to religion/superstition.
I have zero doubt that the history of Christianity, which shaped much of medieval times, the Renaissance era, and the Catholic church’s claim to power to this very day…

I mean, isn’t mythology religion?

I don’t know of any, but when we think of how quickly the historical record of our own time becomes blurred and distorted, even with more means of recording it than ever before, it’s easy to see how ancient fact gets lost in story.

No