What does the milky way look like from earth to the human eye without light pollution?
It is pretty obvious from a dark sky.



Sky and Telescope have a simulation (using stellarium) of the sky with a limiting magnitude of 6.5 (about the limit with excellent eyesight and a very dark sky). The Milky Way is very clear. Light and dark tracks are visible. It is clearly something that every person would know about and be able to see nightly. It is no surprise that it is mentioned in the myths of many ancient peoples.