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What, exactly, is a historical myth?

This is a phrase which gets bandied about a fair bit on this site, sometimes about both sides of an argument. But can you define it?

As I see it, a historical myth implies a 'popular misconception' of some sort, a widely held view which is in fact untrue. Greek myths were fairly well known in their day, after all.

By this definition, things like 'The Lee-Enfield Mk V Rifle was in fact popular with the troops' (see this thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=272679&page=2) is not a historical myth, as no one really knows about it apart from firearms experts and specialists in the small arms of the British Commonwealth. A historical myth would be something like 'Christopher Columbus set sail to prove that the world was round', whereas most educated people at the time actually thought it was round.

Discuss.
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