For mythology, it is used today in pop culture…see Harry Potter for example.
http://www.jaymansfield.com/words/Potter.htm
Maybe it would be good for someone like Donald Trump to be familiar with history…then he would know how horrible it was for the Japanese-Americans to be interred just like he wants to do to Muslims today.
Beowulf was written before 1660 and then recently made a movie about it.