Crash Course Mythology

Crash Course World Mythology Preview
Friday, September 29, 2017 2:04 PM
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta and this is going to be Crash Course World Mythology. We're going to
learn about the stories that explain life, the universe and almost everything. We'll explore the beginning
of the universe, the end of the universe, who exactly is running the said universe. We're going to
address a bunch of questions like where children come from, how we got death and disease, and what
exactly the deal is with unicorns and virgins. So, yeah, no big deal.
It probably does seem like a lot, and as it should. We really are going to try to emphasize the world part
of world mythology. We're going to get in to Zeus and Odin and they're terrible siblings and kids, but
we're also going to be looking at stories from Japan, Sumar, Egypt, Guinea, the Americas, India, and
more. By the time you're seeing this, we will have shot only seven episodes, and look at all of the spots
we've already visited. There's still a lot more to go. The point though, isn't to tick all of the mythological
locales off of a geographical list one by one. We want to zoom out and look at the entire world of myth
rather than one tradition at a time so we can see the similarities in the stories that different people tell
about the universe.
Even with the vast diversity of stories that humans have come up with to understand everything around
them, it turns out that we all have a lot in common. Many civilizations search for answers to the same
questions. And what they come up with always teaches us something about who the people of that
civilization are, and what they value. Our own included.
We're really excited to learn all this stuff with you; how the world was variously created, will eventually
be destroyed and why in the meantime we have the pleasure of gardening on it. It's gonna be epic...
literally.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/iRCVcuA6yZQ/>
Crash Course Mythology Page 1

What Is Myth? Crash Course Mythology #1
Hello, my name is Mike Rugnetta, and this is Crash Course Mythology. Mythology is a complicated subject: it
touches on literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, religion, and even science. How you ever tried to
make a Slurpee mixing all of the flavors together? Mythology is exactly like that, but it's a Slurpee of knowledge, with
no brain freeze and a lot to learn.
So maybe actually a tiny brain freeze, but a different kind of brain freeze. What I'm trying to say is that, don't be
surprised if some of what you hear in the next forty or so episodes echoes some of the things you may have heard
in other Crash Courses. And don't worry if what you hear in one episode reminds you of what you heard in another.
We do that on purpose and usually, we know what we're doing. Right, Thoth, ancient Egyptian god of knowledge
with an awesome ibis head? Right.
Do ibis-headed gods like bird seed? We have so much to learn ahead! [theme music] There are a couple of reason
mythology is a more difficult subject than some of the others we've tackled. One is that many myths are very, very
old, and often exist in many versions.
So just keep that in mind when we discuss a particular myth during the series. If you've heard the myth in a different
form, it doesn't mean that we've gotten it wrong, though that is always possible - just ask At, the Greek goddess of
folly. It just may be that we're working from a different version of the myth.
We'll try to put references to the versions that we're using in the show notes. Sometimes we'll even be presenting
composites of a number of different tellings of these myths. Another difficulty with mythology is that it's open to so
many interpretations.
Are myths records of historical fact? Deliberate fictions? Ways of understanding otherwise incomprehensible
events?
Misunderstandings? We...are not in a position to say. It's the kind of thing that scholars spend their entire lives
arguing about. WHAT IS A MYTH:
Along with the myths, we're gonna present possible interpretations, but let's be clear: these are interpretations, not
facts in the sense that their meanings can be confirmed by a weight of evidence. Myths are made up
stories that try to
Mythology has been argued about and theorized for over a hundred years, and many myths can be read, and
explain how our world
understood, in a number of ways. When presenting interpretations, we're gonna let you know that we're doing that,
so that you don't think that we're presenting an interpretation as a fact...because that will get us into arguments, and works and how we
we would love to avoid those. This is also probably a good time to point out that in many instances, the line between should treat each
myth and religion...is blurry. And, as we're gonna explain in a minute, we're working with a definition of myth that other. The stories are
focuses on story, rather than truth. usually set in times
long ago, before history
as we know it was
When one views myths primarily as stories or as literary artifacts, it allows you to enjoy them and think about them written.
apart from their value as structures of religious belief. So, when we recount stories from the Bible as myths, we're People have always
not definitively saying that they're either true or untrue, just that they're stories that people have used in a variety of asked questions like
ways over time. A third problem in discussing myth is that most myths don't have nameable authors, or even when How did our world
they do, like Homer or Virgil, it turns out these guys were really just recasting older stories into new language.
come to be? or Why
do tornadoes happen?
Some
Most of the time, we don't know who originated myths, or how, or why, but, luckily, for our purposes here, that
myths answered these
actually doesn't matter much. But the last problem we have to talk about does matter. And that's the difficulty of
finding a good, working definition for the word "myth." This is tricky, especially given the way we use the word in questions.
contemporary English. In other myths, gods or
super-beings used
their powers to make
Much of the time, when we say something is a "myth," what we mean is that it's not true. For example, the idea that events happen. Or the
you swallow eight spiders a year while you're sleeping - it's not true. It's a myth. stories were the
adventures of gods,
goddesses, men and
Not sure if this applies to Australians though; I would wager that you guys swallow at least eight spiders a year. women.
Everything I know about Australia I learned from the internet. Because we use the term "myth" to mean something These myths described
that isn't true, we can come away with the definition of "myth" as a story that is false and not to be taken the big things that
seriously. happened to people and
the choices they made.
They might be about
triumph (achieving
something), tragedy
But myths have been taken seriously. By scholars, sure, but more importantly, by generations and generations of (losing something),
people who've heard these stories, and found in them something worth telling again. Which is not to say people honour (doing the right
don't question their myths. Philosophers were writing about the absurdity of Greek myths as far back as the sixth thing), being brave
century B.C E., probably even earlier. So if a myth isn't just a story that someone made up or a word that we use to even when you are
label something as false, then what is it? frightened, or being
foolish and making

people who've heard these stories, and found in them something worth telling again. Which is not to say people honour (doing the right
don't question their myths. Philosophers were writing about the absurdity of Greek myths as far back as the sixth thing), being brave
century B.C E., probably even earlier. So if a myth isn't just a story that someone made up or a word that we use to even when you are
label something as false, then what is it? frightened, or being
foolish and making
mistakes. People might
Myth comes from the Greek word "mythos" - which means word or, more significantly, be heroes in these
story. That doesn't mean every myth, or even the most important ones are Greek, but those will probably be the stories and gods and
ones most familiar to our viewers in American and Europe. At least, until the new Rick Riordan series gets going. goddesses could use
their powers to help
them or make things
And honestly, if goddesses of love, Aphrodite and Freya, ever got into an arm wrestling competition, Aphrodite more difficult for them.
would TOTALLY dominate, because Freya cries golden tears, and Aphrodite kills people. BOOM. Sorry, I got Around the world,
sidetracked by Greek myths; that's gonna happen a lot. myths were shared
by groups of
people and became part
Just ask Hermes, Greek god of roads. So, we're gonna start by saying that a myth is a story, but it's a special of their culture.
kind of story, that for the purposes of this series has two primary characteristics: significance and staying Storytellers have
power. This means that the subject matter is about something important, something about how the world works or passed the stories on
how the world itself got going, how things came to be. from generation to
generation and through
families. Some myths
And then there's staying power. These are stories that have survived centuries, sometimes millennia and this is are told in many
testament to the deep meaning or functional importance of these stories to the people who hear and tell them. Now, cultures, but with
if I know Crash Course fans, there are probably some people right now saying, "Mike, it sounds like you might lump variations in the events
in folktales, and maybe even fairy tales, with your myths." I'm not gonna lie. or characters. For
example, most cultures,
tribes or groups of
There may be a folktale that creeps in from time to time, but we're gonna steer clear of fairy tales for the most part. people have their
For die hard folklorists - and yes, that is a thing - proper myths only deal with the creation or the world, or version of how our
maybe the universe, and thus, all real myths are religious...or quasi-religious. world came to be.
Mythology theorists who come at myths from a religious studies angle tend to say that the main characters of For early people, myths
myths must be gods, but this leaves out heroes, which I think are pretty important, and also, those are the ones were like science
with the sea monsters, so we're gonna include those too. There are also those myths that don't feature any because they explained
supernatural elements at all - what Professor Robert Segal calls "beliefs," or "credos." Most Americans will be how natural events
familiar with the "rags to riches" story of the American dream. Those stories are myths - not because they aren't true work. Today we dont
(sometimes poor people do become rich and successful in spite of tough upbringings, and largely because of grit always know if myths
and hard work), they're myths not because they have religious significance, they're mythic because of their staying
power and the tenacity with which proponents of the myth take them to be true. Because these types of stories fit
are true or not. Some of
into our broad definition of a significant story were personalities are the lead characters, we will be talking about the stories or characters
them - but only in a later episode. may seem impossible,
and science gives us
At this point, it might be a good idea to give an example of the kind of stories we'll be talking about in this series. different explanations
And, to do so, I'm gonna go to Greece. YAY!
for some of our
Greece! Wine-dark seas, delicious olives, beautiful ruins, anti-austerity protests, and the setting for the story of questions. But people
Persephone. Take us there, Thought Bubble. all over the world still
like to read myths and
Persephone was the daughter of the harvest goddess, Demeter, and supreme god, Zeus, who were brother we all like to think
and sister (we'll get into all that weird incest stuff later) and her original name was Kore, which can be translated as about what they might
"girl." One day, Kore was out picking flowers when she caught the eye of Zeus's brother, Hades, who rode up from mean.
the underworld (also confusingly called Hades) and kidnapped her to make her his wife and also probably raped Myth comes from the
her, but again we're gonna save the deeply uncomfortable sexual content for another episode except for this brief Greek word mythos
mention right here. Sorry. Kore was understandably...upset. which means word of
Demeter was full on enraged and threatened to make all mankind starve, so finally, Zeus had to go and ask his mouth.
brother to give Kore back.
In some versions of this myth, this was a problem for Zeus, because he had promised Kore to his brother as a wife
without telling Demeter first. Hades was not a dumb guy, and before he let Kore go, he offered her a snack. Kore
had been warned to never eat anything in the underworld, but she must've been extremely hungry by then, and WHAT ARE LEGENDS:
really, I mean, how much harm could six honey sweet pomegranate seeds really do? Well, turns out, a lot.
Legends are also stories that
In some versions, she eats them on purpose because she actually liked her husband. In others, she's tricked into it. have been made up, but they
Either way, even six seeds matter.
are different from myths.
Kore has to remain in the underworld for six months out of the one month for each seed that she ate and will spend Myths answer questions
the other six months on Olympus with her parents. During the six months in Olympus, Demeter would allow the about how the natural world
fruits and grains to flourish. The rest of the time, Demeter would mourn Kore, who had renamed herself works, and are set in a time
Persephone, and the ground would freeze, and nothing would grow and that is why we have winter. long-ago, before history was
Thanks, Thought Bubble! So, this is a story that is significant because of its explanatory power. The fancy term for written.
this is an "etiological narrative," or origin story. Legends are about people and
The Persephone myth explains the seasons, relating the cycle of planting and harvest to the actions of the
their actions or deeds. The
immortals. For some mythologists, like E. B.Tylor, this story is an example of myth as primitive science. Tylor and people lived in more recent
many other theorists drew a distinction between primitive people, who used myths to explain the world in which they times and are mentioned in
lived, and modern people, who use science for that purpose. For Tylor, myth and science can't really be history. The stories are told for
reconciled; science has taken the place of myth, so we don't need myths anymore. a purpose and are based on
facts, but they are not

This is a pretty hardcore theory, and since we like to view things complexly here at Crash Course, we're not gonna
facts, but they are not
subscribe to it, or any theory, wholeheartedly. But we are gonna introduce some of these theories to you so that you completely true.
can make up your own mind. Right now we're not gonna get too deep into the theory of myths - mythography, if you Either the person never really
wanna thrill your friends and impress people at parties, because I want to tell you where the series is planning to go, did what the story says, or the
but also because there are a lot of theories to mythology, and I don't want to include too many of them in this historical events were changed.
introduction. The purpose was to make the
As long time viewers know, it's easy to get lost in the weeds once we start talking about theory, which is part of the story more interesting or
reason we love theory so much. And it's one of the reasons we have eight Sanskrit deities who are guardians of the convincing, or to teach a
right direction. This series isn't going to be comprehensive. We can't present everything there is to know about lesson, like knowing right from
thousand-year-old stories in four hundred-odd minutes of video. wrong.
But we are gonna try to introduce you to some myths you might not know, from places that you might be less Examples of people in English
familiar with. This approach is gonna be comparative and thematic, rather than geographic. Here's what we're legends are King Arthur,
planning: The first theme we'll be covering is the most difficult: creation myths. Robin Hood and Queen
Boadicea. A man who may
Most cultures have some story of how the world and the people in it came to be and we're gonna spend a few
have been King Arthur is
weeks working through them. Be forewarned, creation myths are often mysterious, the language can tricky or
obscure, so expect a bit of confusion and a lot of interpretation...also some turtles for a significant distance in the known to have lived in the 5th
downward direction. It's turtles all the way down. or 6th century. But the stories
about the Knights of the Round
After we see how the world and, sometimes, the universe was created, we're gonna examine pantheons: the Table and Merlin the Magician
groups of gods that feature in stories from different cultures, and how they function in those cultures. And then we're
gonna take a look at how the universe was destroyed - looking at flood myths and the apocalypse. Now, obviously,
may not be true. The point of
this puts us in the realm of religion and the potential for challenging people's belief systems is high. the story was that the knights
and their king defended their
Like we said earlier, we're gonna try to focus on the stories, and leave questions of truth and belief up to you. In the people and helped them.
second half of the series, we'll come down from Olympus and Valhalla and all those various mountains; we're gonna The character and deeds of
do about ten episodes on heroes from all over the world, which should be really fun, maybe even super. See what I
did there?
Robin Hood may have been
based on someone else. Robin
After heroes, we're gonna talk about mythical places and creatures and objects like winged sandals, and we'll finish of Loxley lived in
up with a few episodes on myths in the modern world, which, for viewers of Crash Course Psychology and Nottinghamshire around the
Literature, might sound a bit familiar. time of the story, and he did
So, that is the broad outline of this series. We're really excited to be bringing this to you, really hope you enjoy it. help the poor. But did he live
Will it become the stuff of legend? Just ask Balder, Norse god of joy. in Nottingham forest with a
We'll see you next week. Crash Course mythology is filmed in the Chad & Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis,
band of robbers? Probably not,
Indiana and is produced with the help of all these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. but helping other people is
important and the legend
Crash Course exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary subscription hasnt been forgotten.
service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation and help keep Crash Course free Boadicea was first female
for everyone forever. Thanks for watching, and if you're ever in the underworld, DON'T EAT ANYTHING
queen in Britain. History tells
us she lived in the 1st century
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/HeX6CX5LEj0/> and led her people in their
fight against the Romans when
they invaded. The Romans
won and conquered Britain.
Boadicea was captured and
died in prison, but legends say
that she escaped and fought on.
This story was intended to
encourage people in countries
invaded by the Romans, to
resist and fight.
Like myths, legends are passed
down from generation to
generation.
How we use the word
'legend' today
Today people use the word
legend in a different way
when they talk about people
and their deeds. They may
describe a basketball player,
football player or runner as a
sporting legend, or an actor
as a film legend. What they
mean is the person is famous
because of their skills or things
they have done. This is similar
to the earlier use of the word,
and the legend stories.
From
<http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/w
hat-are-legends.htm>

WHAT IS A FABLE
A fable is another type of

story, also passed down from
generation to generation and
told to teach a lesson about
something.
Fables are about animals that
FOLK AND FAIRY TALES: can talk and act like people, or
Folk and fairy tales are stories written plants or forces of nature like
specially for children, often about thunder or wind. The plants
magical characters such as elves, fairies, may be able to move and also
goblins and giants. Sometimes the talk and the natural forces
characters are animals. cause things to happen in the
Hans Christian Andersen is famous for story because of their strength.
writing fairy tales. He was born in The most famous fables were
Denmark in 1805. Examples of his written by a man called Aesop.
stories are The Little Mermaid, We know them as Aesops
Thumbelina and The Red Shoes. Fables, and he wrote more than
In Copenhagen there is a statue of the 600 of them.
little mermaid, sitting on a rock on the Ive retold some of my
beach at the harbour, in memory of the favourite Aesops Fables for
writer. you. You can read about
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were the Fox who thought he was
brothers, born in Germany in 1785 and cleverer than the Cat, or how
1786. They are famous because they the Tortoise won a race against
collected together many old fairy tales the Hare.
from different parts of Germany and
From
wrote them down for people to read. We <http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/w
know them as the Brothers Grimm and hat-are-fables.htm>
their collection includes Cinderella
and The Frog Prince.
From <http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/what-
are-folk-tales.htm>

Creation from the Void: Crash Course Mythology #2
Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology and today Anansi, African spider god of stories
we're gonna talk about a small, easy topic...the creation of the
universe. Hephaestus, Greek god of technology
Ra, Egpytian sun god

This is the first of several episodes on creation stories and this one
will center on myths that imagine a universe created out of
nothing...or possibly something. Sometimes out of water, probably
water, but it's magical water, it's primordial water. Hey Thoth, do
Egyptian gods drink water?
[theme music]
Myths that describe creation as coming out of nothing are some of

the hardest to get our heads around. In Latin, the phrase ex
nihilo is used to describe this type of creation and it can cause
a bit of existential dread for people who are uncomfortable with the
idea of absolute nothing - no time, no space, just an infinite void.
Like when the wifi suddenly goes down, just much, much worse.
Just ask Hephaestus, Greek god of technology, that guy knows
about unstable router architecture...and hammers.
The ex nihilo creation story that's probably the best in the West
comes from the book of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of god
moved upon the face of the waters.
So, in this story, the main character is God. And hey, let's take just
a quick minute to remember that this is mythology not religious
studies, so we're going to be referring to the Judeo-Christian god as
a character. So take a second to just get comfortable with that...and
now let's move on.
So this character exists before anything we would call the world.
Where does God exist? It's unclear. There's a void, there's water,
which are handy if God needs storage space or is thirsty but that's
about it. Ex nihilo creation stories are common in the ancient Near
East. The Mediterranean world where the Abrahamic religions -
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - originated.
Egpyt was part of an interconnected Mediterreanean system and
one of it's creation myths also posits a universe coming from
nothing. As we can see in this fragment:
"I am the eternal spirit

I am the sun that rose from
the primeval waters.
My soul is god, I am the creator of the word.

My soul is god, I am the creator of the word.
Evil is my abomination, I see it not.
I am the creator of the order
Wherein I live,
I am the word, which will
Never be annihilated
In this my name of "soul.""
Take away the first person pronoun and the bold claims and you
can see the similarities to the Genesis story. There is an eternal
god who creates the world and then there are waters out of which
rise...well, in this case it's the sun, which is nice. Just ask Ra,
Egpytian sun god, cause eventually humans would realise...some
of us look better with a tan, me especially.
I don't know about you, but I have a hard time conceiving of

nothingness. I'm a lot more accustomed to thing...ness. I mean isn't
nothingness a thing, in and of itself? And hey, more importantly,
can we really even call it nothingness with all this water around?
Fortunately, for people like me, there's a word to describe the

condition before creation, Chaos. Which mythology David Leeming
defines as, "the primal void or state of uniform non-
differentiation that precedes the creation of the world in most
creation myths."
Chaos is something of a background in many of these myths, as it

is in the Greek version of creation found in the Theogony by
Hesiod, a poet and sheep farmer, who probably lived in the 8th
century BCE. According to this version, "verily at the first Chaos
came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth." Not much to go on
there, but as we can see, Chaos is what we have before a deity or
deities roll up and provide order...and also the earth apparently has
breasts. Mother Earth, I guess? Makes sense?
In many creation myths, an integral way to put things into order is to
bring light out of darkness.
In one creation myth from the Kono people of Guniea, the
darkness before creation is inhabited by Death, his wife, and his
daughter. In the beginning, there was darkness and in it lived Death
called Sa, with his wife and daughter. The three of them were all
that was. There was no where for them to live comfortably, so Sa
started it. He used his magic power and he made an endless mud
sea. In this mud place, Sa built is house. After that the
god Alatangana came to visit Sa. He found Sa's house dirty and
dark. Alatangana though Sa should do better than that, and he said
so. Nothing can live in such a place, the god told Sa. This house
needs fixing up. Everything is too dark. So Alatangana thought he
better take things in hand. He made the mud solid, we now know it
as Earth. The Earth feels sad, the god said. I will make plants and
animals to live on it. So he did.

And that...is how we got home renovation...just kidding. I love this
myth. I love that god thinks the earth is sad and so he gets the
earth a puppy to cheer it up. A puppy and some plants. You know,
spruce up the joint. But notice there are a lot of similarities between
this myth and the Egyptian myth. In that both describe a vast sea,
one of mud, one of water, and that there is a god who exists
previous to and outside of the void and the darkness. Though the
Kono myth differs in that it applies that death is the one
constant in the universe. Oh no, and now I'm worried about the
puppy.
But why are this talk about water? Well, we don't know exactly, but
if you're living in an ancient society and you try to think through
something as big as the creation of the universe, you probably
turned your thoughts to the vastest things you were around of - the
sky and the sea. Even if you only experience the ocean from the
relative safety of the shore, there is something unknowable and
eternal about it that makes it possible to imagine the sea existing
for all time and even before time itself.
And according to the theories of evolution, the idea that all life
came from the sea is fairly accurate. But let's not get into evolution
here. We'll leave that to Hank and the scientists over at Crash
Course Biology. Hey, fun facts though, the Western hemisphere
has water too. And we have some ex nihilo creation stories of our
own. One of the most difficult and fascinating comes from the
Mayans of Guatemala and is recorded in the Popul Vuh, or The
Book of the Community. (It's not as catchy in translation.)
In this complex story, creation occurs four times, but begins, like
the gospel of John in the New Testament, with the word. And just
because I think it's going to be fun to watch Thought Bubble
animate nothing, let's see this myth there. Hey, Thoth, pass me the
popcorn.
The word began long ago, in a place called Quich, where the
Quich people lived. There was no one, there was not one animal
yet and no birds fish or tree. There was no rock, or forest, no
canyon, no meadow. There was sky, separated from all things, the
face of the earth was invisible, there was nothing that could make a
sound. There was the sea, so calm and all alone. There was dark
and night and sea murmurings, ripplings. Yet within the dark and
night and sea, there was the Maker and there was the Feathered
serpent. And they brought their words together, joined them with
their thoughts, planned, creation. Their words and thoughts were so
clear that whatever they said came to be.
And the Serpent and the Maker thought about the nature of the
world: what would be light and dark, who would bring food, and
what everything should look like. And then by speaking their
thoughts, they brought the world into existence, starting with
earth and then moving onto its features, like mountains and trees,
followed by wild animals. But, there was a problem. The wild
animals were unable to speak the names of the Maker and the
Feathered Serpent, as well as the other gods who helped bring
about creation, and they were unable to praise the gods, thus the
first creation was a failure.
The Maker had to start over again. But not before explaining to all
wild animals there lot was to be brought low, which considering that

wild animals there lot was to be brought low, which considering that
the Maker and the Feather Serpent organized things this way is at
least a little unfair.
"You - bird, deer, you will stay where you are, where you sleep and
eat, in the forest and canyons, among the tree and bush. You will
be eaten. You will kill and be killed. You will stay low and serve,
since you cannot talk and praise your god."
Thanks, Thought Bubble.
This particular myth is fascinating for a number of reasons. First of

all, it reminds me of the story in Genesis, of Adam and Eve giving
names to all the animals and establishing humanity's domain over
all non speaking creatures, providing a single reason why humans
should be considered special among all animals. We have power
of speech and by extension, the power to invent and tell creation
stories of our own. Just ask Anansi, African spider god of
stories. Thoth, don't eat him! This is not Australia
Even though this myth doesn't focus on Chaos or the void or
nothingness, it does have the idea that before creation, there was
nothing, except god or the word. And like the creation myths we
looked at earlier, it includes an endless sea, a physical
manifestation of things unknown. But also, of the source of life,
since nothing we can see exists with water, especially people...but
especially fish.
We'll spend a little more time in the cosmic ocean next time when
we look at eggs, seeds, and earth divers. But this creation story is
elaborate. Since creation 1.0 doesn't go so well, the Maker and the
Feathered Serpent get back to work and they have to get all the
way to creation 4.0 before they resolved all of the major glitches.
And even then there are probably still some software updates, like
ancient, ancient software, like service packs before of existence.
Before we leave the realm of ex nihilo creation, I want to give one
more example.
The Big Bang. And a lot of you now staring at your screens in
confusion and horror and saying this isn't a myth at all. But
remember, we're talking about significant stories with staying
power, which the Big Bang certainly is. So let's try it out. Hank and
Phil Plait, in detail, over at Crash Course Astronomy and we've
talked about it on Big History. Here, we're gonna use a version
related by Brian Swimme in his book, The Universe is a Green
Dragon.
"Imagine that furnace out of which everything came forth. This was
a fire that filled the universe - that was the universe. There was no
place in the universe free from it. Every point of the cosmos was a
point of this explosion of light. And all the particles of the universe
churned in extremes of heat and pressure, all that we see about us
all that now exists was there at the beginning, in the great burning
explosion of light."
Hey, that sounds a lot like some of the most ancient myths, doesn't
it? Like all ex nihilo creation stories, the Big Bang starts in a time
before time and gives us an origin event, one that seems to conjure
light from darkness, heat from cold. And okay, unlike earlier myths,
it doesn't supply a god or water, but you can still appreciate the
structural similarities. And what's so great about fish anyways. Oh,

structural similarities. And what's so great about fish anyways. Oh,
sorry Thoth.
So, yes, ex nihilo creation myths are unsettling. They ask us to
imagine void, absence, chaos. But then we see how each tradition
brings some order to that. Order and light. And sometimes 'mud'.
Thanks for watching, see you next week.
We'll see you next week. Crash Course mythology is filmed in the
Chad & Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is
produced with the help of all these nice people. Our animation team
is Thought Cafe.
And Crash Course exists thanks to the generous support of our
patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary subscription service
where you can support the content you love through a monthly
donation, to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever.
Thanks for watching, and if you can help it, try not to eat any
spiders, especially Anansi.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/4eVFgfQ2694/>

Cosmic Sexy Time, Eggs, Seeds, and Water: Crash Course
Mythology #3
Hi I'm Mike, this is Crashcourse Mythology and today we're going to talk about something that is almost
impossible to avoid when discussing creation myths, Sex. Or more specifically, sexual reproduction, yeah
it's gonna be a little awkward, stop covering your ears Thoth you're gonna be fine! You can handle it, we
can all handle it, we're all adults and after all sexual reproduction is how all of us got to be here! Well
maybe not Thoth who was born of Set's skull euughh. But for the rest of us it probably makes sense that
a lot of cosmic creation myths often invoke sexual reproduction.
Still cosmic sexual reproduction a little different and sometimes a lot weirder than human sexual
reproduction. Well I mean depending upon what you're into of course.
(theme music)
So lets ease into this with a little Latin, sexy, sexy Latin. So you know how when you grow plants they
come from seeds? Well in Latin the word for seed is semen, which is why a man's seminal fluid is also
sometimes called his seed. The idea of something growing from a seed is a logical analogy to creation
but multiple godly fluids seem to be fertile as we'll see in an Eyptian creation myth.
In one of the many versions of the Eyptian creation story the creator god says 'I fulfilled all my desires
when I was alone, before there had appeared a second to be with me in this place; I assumed form as
that great soul wherein I started being creative while still in the primeval waters in a state of inertness...
so it was I who spat forth Shu and expectorated Tefnut..'
So honestly, that sounds a lot more like saliva, at least in translation, but the imagine becomes clear in a
later part of the myth when the god relates 'When I rubbed with my fist my heart came into my mouth
in that I spat forth Shu and expectorated Tefnut.'
Thankfully this myth isn't actually explicit in what the gods are doing and the anatomy is obviously a
little strange. But here's a god, alone, fulfilling his desires and rubbing with his fist with the result that
two new figures, also gods are created. It's not Shakespeare level body but neither is it Disney channel
material, right? Notice that the creator god here is alone and also presumably, male. This may suggest a
patrilineal culture since creation occurs without a female presence.
The story of Bumba's creation from the Bashongo Bantu people in Africa is remarkably similar including
water, a solitary creator and best of all, vomiting! Yeah, it's a banner day for bodily fluids here at
Crashcourse.
In the beginning, in the dark, there was nothing but water and Bumba was alone. One day Bumba was in
terrible pain, he retched and strained vomited up the sun, after that the light spread over everything.
The heat dried up the water until the black edges of the world began to show, the black sand banks and
reefs could be seen. But there were no living things. Bumba vomited up the moon and then the stars
and after that the night had its light also. Still Bumba was in pain, he strained again and nine living
creatures came forth. Last of all came man.
Again we have a solitary man creating the world using his body, and bringing it forth after being in
terrible pain, which is possibly an analog to female childbirth. And speaking of pain, few myths involve
more of it than the Greek creation story involving Aphrodidte, I mean this myth just has it all! Water,
genitals, violence, creation, armored giants, really just the whole completely horrifying magilla. Here's

genitals, violence, creation, armored giants, really just the whole completely horrifying magilla. Here's
the version found in Hesiod's Theogney. 'Great heaven came bringing on the night, and desirous of love
he spread himself over the earth.'
'Stretched out in every direction. His son Kronos reached out from the ambush with his left hand with
his right he took a huge sickle with its long row of sharp teeth and quickly cut off his fathers genitals and
flung them behind him to fly where they might. They were not released from his hand to no effect, for
all the drops of blood that flew off were received by the earth and ad the years went round she bore the
powerful Erinys and the great giants in gleaming armour with long spears in their hands. And the
nymphs who they called Meliai on the boundless earth.
As for the genitals, just as he first cut them off with his instrument of adamant and threw them from the
land into the surging sea even so they were carried on the waves for a long time. About them a white
foam grew from the immortal flesh, and in it a girl formed. First she approached holy Cythera and from
there she came to sea-girt Cyprus and out stepped a modest and beautiful goddess and the grass began
to grow all around beneath her slender feet. Gods and men call her Aphrodite because she was formed
in foam and Cytherea because she approached Cythera and Kypris-born because she was born in wave
washed Cyprus and genial because she appeared out of genitals.'
Side note: I need to stop using the word genial as an adjective. And there you have it ladies and
gentlemen, violent castration begets the word friendly or cheerful, and the goddess of love! Well one
goddess of love, there are lots others and we'll see more of them in later episodes on Pantheons. But
enough about saliva and vomit and bleeding testicles and other horrifying things that can potentially be
read as semen.
Lets turn to that other important part of sexual reproduction, the egg. A number of cultures have
creation myths that feature something called a Cosmic Egg. In one Indian creation myth found in the
Shatapatha Brahmana the creator god, in this story called Prajapati forms a Cosmic egg after creating
water. Out of which this egg come various creatures, but most importantly the earth and the rest of the
universe which, confusingly is also water one translation from the 19th century puts it this way. 'He
desired, May I be reproduced from these waters! He entered the waters with that triple science. Thence
an egg arose. He touched it. Let it exist! Let is exist and multiply! So he said. From is the Brahman was
first created. And that which was the shell became the earth... The juice which flowed from it became a
tortoise.. This whole (earth) dissolved itself all over the water: all this (universe) appeared as one form
only, namely, water.'
So that is..confusing and also.. wet. Also what is this 'triple science' that he enters the water with? What
we do understand is that water brings forth an egg and from that egg comes the earth, sky, a tortoise
and more water.
There's an early Persian creation story that is similar to the Indian one in that it also includes an egg. And
hey our old friend water is here too! According to this story the god of good Ahura Mazda, and lets
remember this is a god not a make and model of car hahaha! Ahura Mazda created a perfect
spiritual world before creating the tangible one. And this perfect world made the god of evil Angra
Mainju aka Ahriman, so angry that he burst through the Cosmic Egg causing such a disturbance that the
sun began to rotate through the sky instead of staying still. This is turn led to day, night, mountains,
valleys and most importantly the destruction of the perfect world. Which led to work, pain and death for
humanity. So nice goin evil. You know what they say, you can't create the universe without breaking a
few cosmic eggs. What too soon? And why are there no creation myths about cosmic bacon? I could
really go for a cosmic breakfast.
There's one more cosmic egg creation myth that I want to talk about, and it follows really nicely on from
the Zoroastrian one about Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainju because it features a duality as a
fundamental principal of creation. One of the many Chinese creation myths combines a cosmic egg

fundamental principal of creation. One of the many Chinese creation myths combines a cosmic egg
trope with a world parent myth. Lets go to the thought bubble.
In the beginning there was a huge egg containing chaos a mixture of yin yang, male female, passive
active, cold heat, dark light and wet dry. Within this yin yang was Pan ku, that which was not yet
anything but which broke forth from the egg as the giant which separated chaos into the many
opposites, including earth and sky, P'an Ku was covered with hair, horns sprung from his head and tusks
from his mouth. With a great chisel and a huge mallet he carved out the mountains, valleys, rivers and
oceans. He also made the sun, moon and stars. He taught the people what they know. When P'an Ku
finally died his skull became the top of the sky, his breath the wind, his voice the thunder, his legs and
arms the four directions, his flesh the soil, his blood the rivers and so forth. The people say that the fleas
in his hair became human beings, everything that is is P'an Ku and everything that P'an Ku is is Yin yang.
With P'an Ku's death a vacuum was created and in this vacuum pain and sin were able to flourish. In the
beginning was chaos from which light became the sky and darkness formed the earth, yang and yin are
contained in light and darkness and everything is made of these principals. Thanks thought bubble! Here
we see that many of the themes in creation myths overlap.
For example, last week we talked about chaos being a state of undifferentiation and here it appears
again, but this time it is a series of dualities a mixture of yin yang. Unlike the bible where God has to
come in and create the dualities as a way of imposing order.
Although this myth features a cosmic egg its also an example of what is referred to as 'World-parent
myths; where a creator god brings the universe into being, through actual or metaphorical sexual
reproduction, or as in this case, be being differentiated into aspects of the known world.'
Those of you who remember Crashcourse World History episode 6 on Vedic religions, Buddism and
Ashoka might recall the story of Purusha, who was also divided up into aspects of the human reality.
Although P'an Ku and Purusha are usually thought of as male if they are thought of having a gender at
all, often the world-parent is portrayed as maternal, an earth mother, as opposed to a sky father. But
that is a story for another day.
So that is our first take at creation stories that involve either explicitly or more symbolically sexual
reproduction. As you can tell, these myths are not always straight forward or biologically possible strictly
speaking. I also hope you don't come away thinking we're reading too much into these myths, that we
have dirty minds, which is what Thoth over here thinks. I'm not the dirty bird, you're the dirty bird!
But that's the exciting thing about myths they're open to various interpretations, try your own reading,
while noticing the broad commonalities in these stories taken from many different parts of the world.
And, thanks for watching, we'll see you next week.
Crashcourse mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is
produced with the help of all these very nice people. Our animation team is Thoughtcafe. Crashcourse
exists thanks to the support of our patrons at Patreon, Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where
you can support the content you love through a monthly donation and help keep Crashcourse free for
everyone, forever. And next time you sneeze, check the tissue, there might be a universe in there!
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/7fHDIiqLz9w/>

Earth Mothers and Rebellious Sons - Creation Part 3:
Crash Course Mythology #4
Hey there, I'm Mike. This is Crash Course Mythology, and today, we're gonna pick up where we left off last week, talking
about sex. Mythological sex. Legendary sex! Sex that results in the creation of the world. There's also gonna be more
castration, and also dwarfs. Stop hiding, Thoth! You can handle it.
This time, we'll focus, not only on sex itself, but on a common side effect: children. Mostly adorable mythological
babies, but there are also those who are self-begotten Like our own Thoth, and also like Athena, Greek goddess of
wisdom, who sprang fully-grown from the foreheads of their fathers. Long before epidurals were invented too.
Yeowch...
[Opening Theme]
Last week, we started with spitting, vomiting fathers, some of whom managed to pull of creation without any female
counterpart. In general, though, the world's creation myths include some kind of duality. Whether it's that separation of
male and female, light and dark, good and evil, or day and night.
The idea of "Mother Earth" is a pretty common one in the west, and it's been remarkably persistent. In fact, in the
1970s, British scientist James Lovelock updated the myth in a scientific hypothesis, defining "Mother Earth," Under her
Greek name, Gaia, as: a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soul; the totality
constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on
the planet."
So, let's begin with the mother of them all: Gaia(Greek term for Earth ). According to Hesiod : "First came the chasm;
and then the broad-breasted Earth, secure seat for ever of all the immortal who occupy the peak of snowy Olympus;
Earth bore first of all one equal to herself, starry Heaven, so that he should cover her all about, to be a secure seat for
ever for the blessed gods [...] but then, bedded with heaven, she bore up deep-swirling Oceans."
And a bunch of other supernatural beings, including Coeus, Crius, Theia, Rhea, Memory, Phoebe, Tethys, and most
important for us in this episode, Cronus, God of Time, and... future castrator. These beings are called the Titans.
Gaia also bore the one-eyed cyclopses, and the Hecatoncheires, who were giants with a hundred arms, and fifty heads
that were so scary, that Heaven (Uranus) hid them away in a cavern, inside of Earth (Gaia), called Tartarus, which made
Earth... angry. But really, can you blame Heaven? Those are fifty faces only a mother could love...
Before we get into all the incest and castration that follows, let's pause and think about why people might want to
characterize Earth as a mother, rather than a father.
One obvious answer is that, traditionally, mothers are the ones who give birth (unless we're talking about seahorses). So
it's not a huge stretch to think of creation as coming from mothers. And mothers are nurturing, in the biological sense:
that they provide physical food for infants. By the same token, in agricultural societies, and probably hunter-gatherer
and herding cultures too, the Earth provides the food that people and animals need to live, so the metaphor of "Mother
Earth" makes a lot of sense.
The mothers of myths aren't always the most doting, and they're often pretty powerful. In many myths, they love their
children a lot more than their husbands, who, to be fair, can be apocalyptically horrible. Let's go back to the Greeks.
We saw in a previous episode what happened when Earth, or Gaia, was ticked off that Sky, AKA Ouranos, had locked up
her fifty-headed children. She gave a sickle to her son Cronus, who castrated his dad, and as a result, Aphrodite was
born.
Surprisingly, Ouranos didn't harbor too many hard feelings, maybe because he and Gaia knew that it would soon be
curtains for Cronus. At the hands of his own children no less. We're gonna see this prophesy about a son overthrowing,
or possibly even killing, his father... a lot. And your parents were worried about your goth phase! Euuu
Cronus, knowing what he had done to his own father, was understandably nervous about HIS children, born to his sister
Rhea. Again, incest, pretty common in cosmologies and pantheons... Actually, maybe we can just have some kind of...
Incest Alert, instead of me mentioning it every time it comes up? Yeah. That's perfect. That's great.
So, as each of his children were born, Cronus took them up, and swallowed them. As Hesiod tells us: "His purpose was
that none but he of the lordly celestials should have the royal station among the immortals."
In the same way that Gaia was upset about Ouranos imprisoning the Hecatoncheires, Rhea was not thrilled about
Cronus eating all of her children. So with the help of her parents, she came up with a plan. When her son Zeus was about
to be born, Rhea snuck off to Crete to give birth, and handed baby Zeus off to his grandma, Gaia.
Rhea then wrapped a stone in a onesie, showed it to Cronus, who (no big surprise) grabbed the stone, and ate it.
Apparently he had very strong teeth, and also was somehow unfamiliar with the density of your standard baby, but hey,
okay.
Zeus grew up, and he set to work overthrowing his dad. and fulfilling the prophesy, 'cause that's how prophesies work.
Knowing that he needed help to unseat his father and the other Titans, and also to set his siblings free from daddy's
tummy, Zeus released those fifty-headed Hecatoncheires, and together, they went to war. He also freed Rhea's other
children, and together, they defeated the Titans, and Zeus and his fam became the Gods of the Greeks.
Like I said, this idea of the son rising up to supplant the father, causing a war in Heaven, is pretty common in a number

Knowing that he needed help to unseat his father and the other Titans, and also to set his siblings free from daddy's
tummy, Zeus released those fifty-headed Hecatoncheires, and together, they went to war. He also freed Rhea's other
children, and together, they defeated the Titans, and Zeus and his fam became the Gods of the Greeks.
Like I said, this idea of the son rising up to supplant the father, causing a war in Heaven, is pretty common in a number
of creation stories. For example, in the Norse creation myth from the Prose Edda, an old Norse text, we find the evil
frost giant Ymir Who not only created man and woman from his sweaty left armpit-- which explains a lot when you think
about it-- but also created a family of frost giants.
And also also, somehow, another man named Bri, who has a son named Borr, who in turn married Bestla, the daughter
of the frost giant Boelthor (because, I guess alliteration was in the style at the time). Bestla gave birth to three sons: Vili,
V, and Odin. So here's where the story gets really interesting. Thought Bubble?
The three brothers, Vili, V, and Odin, HATED Ymir and the other frost giants (even though they created them. Notice
the emerging theme here?) So then they battled and defeated them, killing Ymir, then the three gods used Ymir's body
to create the world.
His flesh became Earth. His bones became mountains and stones. His blood served well to make the lakes that dotted
the world, and the seas that surrounded it, and his skull was used for the sky. And, yes! This does sound a lot like the
Chinese creation myth of P'an Ku, with a skull, instead of a cosmic egg. But I guess god blood always turns into water...
Anyway.
A dwarf stood at each of the four corners of the sky. The dwarfs were named East, West, North, and South The gods
made the sun and moon from the sparks of Mspell. To the giants, they assigned a place called Jotunheim The brothers
then created a fertile land called Midgard from Ymir's eyebrows, and they created a man from a fallen ash tree, and a
woman from a fallen elm.
Odin gave them life, Vili gave them intelligence and emotions, and V gave them senses. Ask was the man, and Embla
was the woman. These were the parents of the human race.
And because the Norse gods were very into up-cycling, out of the maggots that had come from Ymir's rotting flesh, the
gods made dwarfs. More dwarfs! As for the sons of Borr, they formed a family of gods and goddesses called the sir, led
by the father god, Odin. They built a wondrous home over Midgard, and called it Asgard. The two zones were linked by
the rainbow bridge, Bifrst Thanks, Thought Bubble!
We'll be hearing more about these gods of Asgard later, but right now, I want to use this myth as a "rainbow bridge," my
favorite kind of bridge, to a similar creation story.
Fans of Crash Course World History know that we love the Epic of Gilgamesh, but there's another sacred text from that
part of the world: The Enuma Elish, from Babylonia, that gives us one of the worlds oldest creation stories And hey,
surprise, it features a war between younger gods and their parents. As a bonus, it also has: primordial waters, an angry
mother goddess, and a big bad creator dad.
Oh! Stan, could you just make a note to trademark "Angry Mother Goddess" and "Big Bad Creator Dad?" Band name,
game series, sandwich menu items; the possibilities are endless.
In the beginning of the Enuma Elish, the primordial freshwater, Aps, and the primordial saltwater, Tiamat, "get
together," (if you catch my drift) and produce the land, in the form of silt deposits Lahmu and Lahamu. The land then got
together, and created the first family of gods: Anshar, Kishar, and their son Anu who then created a second set of
deities, lead by Ea, not to be confused with the Greek Eos, which means "dawn."
Ea and his brothers were a WILD bunch of crazy kids who disturbed their grandparents, Aps and Tiamat. Before Aps
could carry out his plan to force Ea and his brothers to "turn down their music and go to their rooms!" Ea and Koh killed
Aps. Which does seem a little extreme.
Unsurprisingly, Tiamat was... none too happy, so she created a bunch of snakes, dragons, fishmen, bullmen, and other
horrors to teach those boys a lesson. Ea, Anshar, and Anu went to war against the monsters, but were unable to defeat
them without the help of Ea's son, Marduk Now, Marduk, whom Ea called the Great Sun (with a U), was no dummy, and
he saw his father's weakness as a chance to take over.
So he made a deal with Ea. Marduk would help defeat Tiamat if he could be named King of the Gods and also the
Universe. Ea agreed to Marduk's deal, and he went off to fight Tiamat, who, as sometimes happens, had transformed
herself into a sea monster. We made it! We made it to sea monsters.
Anyway, you probably know where this is going. Marduk defeated Tiamat, and became the king of the gods. But, hey,
surprise ending: Marduk took Tiamat and divided her like a shellfish, to create the world.
"Out of her head Marduk made a mountain. Her eyes became the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, her breasts hills, her
nostrils reservoirs. Marduk then established Babylon as his temple city and the unified home of the gods. Out of the
blood of Tiamat's son [...] Qingu, Marduk had EA create humans, who would do the work that the gods preferred not to
do."
Like weeding. And estate planning. Gods hate that stuff!
So, once again we see that a parent is divided up to create the physical world. Often, this division is described as a
sacrifice, and used to explain sacrifice rituals that we find in many religions.
Now, are these myths just a way of justifying existing religious rituals, or is there something else going on here? Maybe
these myths have a psychological dimension too. They illustrate the willingness parents may have to sacrifice ANYTHING
for their children.
But also, some of the messy, complicated, angry feelings that parents can feel towards their kids, and that kids can feel
towards their parents. Though, thankfully, that usually doesn't result in castration.

towards their parents. Though, thankfully, that usually doesn't result in castration.
These myths show us that these feelings are as old as, and are even maybe the source of, creation itself. Thanks for
watching! We'll see you next week.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad & Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is produced with the
help of all of these very nice people Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash Course exists thanks to the generous
support of our Patreons at Patreon.com Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support the content
you love through a monthly donation, to help keep Crash Course free, for everyone, forever.
Thanks for watching! And just 'cause I like to say it: Hecatoncheiries! People say they're ugly, but they sure sound great.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/TlFVFRkEfwo/>

Social Orders and Creation Stories: Crash Course
Mythology #5
Hi, Im Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today, rather than focus on how the Earth
and whats around it was created, were going to look specifically at whats on it. More specifically,
people, and even more specifically, men and women people. Also the occasional animal. No, not
you. Youre a god with an animal head. Its different.
Anyway, were going to see how myths explain our origins and our relationships with each other, or at
least how they try to explain them. Its couples therapy, myth style.
[Crash Course introduction]
Myths dont usually incorporate contemporary ideas of gender fluidity, although sometimes they
do. Tiresias, ancient seer, looking at you. As weve seen from the Chinese and Zoroastrian creation
stories, myths often tend to focus on dualities or binaries, and one of the key ones that we find is a
distinction between men and women, and this binary opposition frequently sets women as subordinate
to men at least on Earth. In the heavens, its a little bit more complicated, as it tends to be.
Lets start with a story that is probably well-known to many of our viewers: the creation of man and
woman from the Bible. Close readers of the book of Genesis will know that there are two or even three
creation stories within it which, according to Biblical scholars, reflect different writing traditions. Were
going to focus on the second one, found in Genesis 2.
As we join our story, God has already created the Earth and the heavens and man to till the Earth,
because as we established last time, gods dont like weeding. Unlike the first version of creation in
Genesis, man is created near the very beginning, which suggests that hes actually pretty important in
the grand scheme of things.
But apparently one man wasnt enough for all of that Edenic gardening. Genesis 2:21 begins, So the
Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed
up its place with flesh. And the rib the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and
brought her to the man. Then the man said, This is the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She
should be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Here we see an early justification for men being superior to women, and its kind of based on bad
wordplay. In the rest of the Genesis story, one of the things that marks mans dominion over other
creatures is that hes given the power to name them, just as he is permitted to name woman here. The
wordplay here also works in the original Hebrew, where the word for man is ish and the word for
woman is isha. So, get it? She was taken out of man, and so even her name was taken out of
man. Yup, its hilarious. Just ask Gelos, Greek god of laughter. Yeah, this is a tough crowd.
This passage also explains marriage, although only between a man and a woman, and describes a social
order in which men leave their parents household when they marry to have their own homes. Whether
this describes a family structure that already existed or it was written in order to encourage such a
family structure, we cant say for certain, but its likely that this was an after-the-fact
description. Providing a rationalization for what people encounter in their daily lives is an important
function of myths.

The Bible goes on to refine the natural relationship between men and women, and not in an especially
fun or feminist way. After they eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God is miffed and he punishes
them. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you should bring
forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he
said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and you have eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat of it
all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the
field. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread til you return to the ground, for out of it you were
taken. You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
There is just a lot going on here. One way to interpret this is that it provides justification for mans
dominance over women as punishment for what one woman did in disobeying God. The first
punishments directly affect the experiences of women, causing the pain of childbirth and the desire for
a husband that shall rule over her, establishing a patriarchal order that just really caught on. Men are
punished too, by having to work hard in order to eat, toiling, bringing food out of the ground, more
gardening, and whats the reward for all this hard work? Death and returning to the ground. Not even
dental benefits. Worse yet, as far as solidifying male dominance goes, all of this is because a man
listened to the voice of his wife, so that sets up a pretty nasty precedent.
Greek mythology creates a similar rationale for misogyny with the story of Pandora. Even before she
opened the jar bringing sorrows to all of the world, Zeus made her as a punishment for Prometheus who
stole fire and gave it to the humans. This is in addition to having his liver eaten by an eagle for all of
eternity. According to Hesiod, she would be another gift to men, an evil thing for their delight. Hermes
endowed Pandora with lies and persuasive words and cunning ways and probably also like the absolute
perfect shade of lipstick, but before we agree to this image of women as conniving and untrustworthy,
lets pause to remember that its Hermes, a male god and one of the great misogynists of the ancient
world who bestows these qualities on Pandora, so this is a dudes hateful vision of women.
Anyway, Zeus gave Pandora as a gift to Prometheuss brother Epimetheus who accepted her, even
though Prometheus had told him to never accept a gift from Zeus. Maybe Zeus gifted lots of
socks. According to Hesiod, heres what happened.
Before this time, men lived upon the Earth apart from sorrow and from painful work, free from disease
which brings the death gods in. But now the woman opened up the cask and scattered pains and evils
among men. Inside the casks hard walls remained one thing: hope only, which did not fly through the
door. The lid stopped her, but all the others flew, thousands of troubles wandering the earth.
Unfortunately, this concept that a social order of male dominance and female subordination resulting
from women acting out of turn is not unique to the Biblical or Greek tradition. We find a similar story in
Japan, just without an evil serpent or an all-powerful death chest. Lets go to the Thought Bubble.
One Japanese creation myth starts with a young, not fully formed Earth that looked something like a
jellyfish. Three invisible gods came into existence in Takamagahara, the high planes of heaven. These
three gods, called kami, were led by the Lord of the Center of Heaven, amanomi naka nushi no
kami. After them were seven more generations, followed finally by the primal couple Izanagi and his
wife Izanami, who was also his sister. Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by the gods to solidify the
drifting land, so they went to the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the soupy liquid below with a
spear. Drops congealed on the tip of the spear and formed the island of Onogoro, the first dry land. The
primal couple went down to Onogoro and built a heavenly pillar. Then they decided to procreate.
Izanagi asked his sister how her body was formed, and she told him that there was an unfinished part
between her legs. He replied that between his legs was an excess, and perhaps the two should join
there. They devised a marriage ritual whereby each would walk around the pillar and when they met,

there. They devised a marriage ritual whereby each would walk around the pillar and when they met,
they would exchange compliments and have intercourse. A child was born, but it was a deformed leech
child called Hiruko. His parents put Hiruko on a boat and set it out to sea. The gods determined that the
reason the first child was born deformed was that Isanami had spoken first. Izanagi and Izanami
returned to the heavenly pillar in Onogoro and repeated the ritual, only this time Izanagi spoke first. In
due time, Izanami gave birth to an abundant number of children, islands, gods, and goddesses.
Thank you, Thought Bubble.
This rationale established male precedence and female subservience in Japan. Not only does this myth
explain Japanese gender inequality, it may also explain an ancient Japanese ritual in which the birth of a
first child was celebrated by putting a clay figurine into a reed boat and floating it away. Theres often a
strong connection between myths and rituals.
Many creation stories begin with the idea that human beings are immortal until something or someone
intrudes. Biblical humans were immortal until Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, for
example. It was human error that brought death into the world. So, sorry about that everyone.
So we see another theme emerging here. The Biblical, Japanese, and Greek explanations place the
blame for human toil, pain, and disease on women. Its a pernicious idea and one that has had profound
consequences for gender relations. Perhaps what were seeing is a justification for a system in which
men feel it is their right to rule over women, and find stories to tell to support it. After all, theres no
logical reason why women should be blamed. Men make mistakes too! Were going to get to Phaethon
and the time that he almost burned down the entire Earth eventually, but until then, thanks for
watching. Well see you next week.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacy Emigholzs Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is
produced with the help of all these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Caf. Crash Course
exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary subscription
service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation and help keep Crash
Course free for everyone forever. Crash Course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the
description for a free trial.
Thanks for watching, and dont forget to be mythological.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/PBbTkzakiM8/>

Humans and Nature and Creation: Crash Course
Mythology #6
Hey there Im Mike Rugnetta, this is Crashcourse Mythology, and today were wrapping up creation
myths.
Over the past four episodes weve seen the universe created from nothing, via the actions of earth
mothers, sky fathers, and of course, vomiting supreme beings. Weve seen creation used to explore the
relationships between parents and children and between men and women. And snakes. And on that
note, today, were going to examine the earthly interconnection between humans and animals. High
five, Thoth! What? yeah, yeah I know humans are animals. You know what I'm saying.
INTRO
Before we get into the creation myths, lets start with a little scientific mythology about mans best
friend. Of course, I mean dogs. Sorry Thoth. Dogs were, if not the first, then among the first,
domesticated animals, and they play an important role in mythology. Romulus? Remus? Im looking in
your direction. One of the stories that we tell about the domestication of dogs is that it started when
early hunter gatherers chose to tame and then breed some of the less aggressive wolves in order to
increase the hunters capacity to capture game. Eventually, these cross and interbred wolves became
dogs. Whos a good boy? Whos a good boy? It's any canine that doesn't bite off your hand, that's who a
good boy is! Its a nice story and it seems to make sense, but there are some problems with it. In an
article in National Geographic, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods argue that some scientists are flipping
this narrative on its head and saying that it was wolves that sought out humans, rather than the other
way around. It doesnt make much sense for humans to try to capture wolves and get them to work for
us. Early hunter gatherers were pretty good at hunting, which is why they might have been to blame for
the destruction of megafauna in the prehistoric world. Also, why would humans want to share the spoils
of the hunt with a wolf? Theyre hungry. Like the wolf. Hare and Woods explain that scientists think it is
more likely that wolves approached humans, probably by scavenging around their garbage pits. These
would have been the friendliest wolves; aggressive ones would have been killed by anxious humans. So,
it was the friendly wolves that, over many generations, were bred into the lovable vacuum hating
rapscallions that we know and love. Dont ask me about cats, though. I got nothing there. Are cats even
really domesticated? I feel like theyre hiding something. Theres some plot. Theyre up to something.
Lets return, as we so often do, to the Judeo-Christian Biblical story of creation from Genesis. In Chapter
One, after creating the heavens and the earth and the stars and all the animals: God said, Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them. And God said, Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon
the face of all the earth and every tree with every seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to
every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth,
everything that has breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. Sounds like
more gardening to me, surprise surprise. In the second chapter of Genesis, God grants humans control
over the other earthly creatures in a slightly different way. In this version, God creates man before the
animals. Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit
for him.' So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and
brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. Isnt that nice? Giraffes and sharks and biting flies made just to help us.

Both creation stories set up a clear hierarchy in the animal world with human beings at the top, given
the power to do whatever they want with all animals below them. Basically, theyre our interns. The
second version of the story affirms human control over animals in two ways. First, by having man
created prior to the animal kingdom, humans are granted literal primacy. Then, their power is increased
over animals by the first man receiving the privilege of naming them. And, I mean, he did a pretty good
job. Especially with hippopotamus.
But not all myths about humans and animals employ this strict hierarchy. In a number of creation stories
from Native American tribes animals are partners in creation, often acting as guides or even as the key
participants in creating the earth. The tribes of what is now the Southwestern United States have
creation stories that follow a model we havent seen yet, the emergence myth. In these stories, humans
or creatures that become humans are led from an original underground world into a series of interim
worlds until they emerge into the surface world that is recognizably earth. In a Hopi version of this story,
various animals including the Spider Grandmother, and a chipmunk help to find the entry hole or
sipapuni, to the land beyond the sky. Apparently, there is one of these entry ways in the Grand Canyon.
In a Navajo version of the emergence story, the people, who are also sort of insects, fly through the
sipapuni into the higher world, assisted by swallows. I really like these myths. Humans working with
nature! Literally rising towards creation! Its a really nice breath of fresh air, almost literally, after all the
vomiting and death that weve had so far.
Another type of creation story featuring animal helpers is called the earth diver myth. A good example
comes from the Iroquois Indians of the Northeastern Woodlands of the United States. Lets dive into the
Thoughtbubble.
A long time ago, humans lived up in the sky in what we now consider heaven. The daughter of their
great chief became very sick, and they were unable to cure her. In the village was a great tree on which
grew the corn that had fed all the people. One of the chiefs friends had a dream in which he was told to
tell the chief to lay his daughter beside the tree and dig it up. The chief did as the dream said. While this
was going on an angry young man came along. The angry young man didnt have the best bedside
manner. He pointed out the tree provided the fruit which fed the people, and gave the sick daughter a
push with his foot. She fell through the hole that had been left when the tree had been dug up. The
young woman fell into this world, which at the time was all water. On this water floated ducks, and
geese and all the other water birds. As there was no earth on this water at the time, there was no place
for the falling woman to land, so the birds joined their bodies together into a sort of duck island, where
the falling woman landed. After some time, the birds grew tired and asked who would care for the
woman. The Great Turtle took the woman, and when he grew tired he asked who would take care of
her. They decided to prepare land on which she would live-- the earth. The Toad, after some convincing,
dove to the bottom of the primal sea, and collected soil which was placed on the broad carapace of the
Great Turtle. It increased in size until it provided the land to accommodate all the living creatures.
Thanks Thoughtbubble. And nice work, water birds. Also, Toad. Thoth, meet Toad. Toad, Thoth.
So theres a lot more to the myth than this, but it captures the key elements of the earth diver story.
Although it has some things in common with other creation myths weve seen, especially the idea that
the world began as water, the relationship between human beings and animals its quite different. For
one thing, far from being dumb creatures waiting to be named and tamed by a man, these animals can
talk, think, deliberate and plan. Animal empowerment! They also have emotions similar to the ones we
feel, especially getting tired and bored of a tedious task. Think about this the next time you watch a
horse pull a cart, or youre trying to entertain your cat by waving that feathery thing in front him. Im
telling you: theyre gettin fed up. Just as important as being given real agency in this creation story
though, its the animals who both save humans progenitors, and create our home. Without the helpful
turtle and the brave toad, there would be no land to live on, and also no earth to grow food. The
creation of the world requires animals and thus it is crucially important to be grateful to them. These
Native American myths are very intricate and when you read them and you should its important to

Native American myths are very intricate and when you read them and you should its important to
remember that they are very different from many of the other creation stories because they are living
stories, communicated by way of a constantly evolving oral tradition, unlike more or less stable literary
texts.
Still, one of the interpretive take-aways from these emergence and earth diver stories is that Native
Americans perceive a different relationship between animals and nature and humans than people from
other traditions. According to the biblical tradition, human beings have a special relationship with God
who prefers them to all other creatures. According to mythology professors Eva Thury and Margaret
Devinney, This privilege has been interpreted by some as giving believers the right to dispose of nature
as they please. On the other hand, according to these scholars, Native Americans view this world as
the place where their destinies will be fulfilled, not by domination but by maintaining a balance
achieved by living in harmony with themselves and other humans as well as with animals and the
exterior world.Now some of you might be saying, wait, this sounds like a stereotypical view of Native
Americans, like they have some mystical connection with nature and that we should look to them for a
way to understand how better to live in harmony with it. And you would be right, that is a cultural
stereotype, one that has often been uncritically linked with an idea of Native American peoples as being
primitive. But, I will say, maybe in comparison to the other stories weve heard so far, with all the
vomiting, and wars, and eating of children, its kind of nice think of the universe as a place of
collaboration, and not one of acrimony. Except of course for the jerk who kicked the daughter down the
hole.
Thanks for watching. We'l see you next week. Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bag
and poster available now at dftba.com
Crash Course Mythology is filmed at the Chad and Stacy Emigolz studio in Indianappolis, Indiana. It is
produced with the help of all of these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash
Course exists thanks to the generous support from our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary
subscription service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation to help
keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever.
Thanks for watching and, just for the record, I have a cat and that's precisely why I think they're up to
something.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/T6f1-nEjDdM/>

Pantheons of the Ancient Mediterranean: Crash Course
Mythology #7
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, and this is Crash Course Mythology.
Today we're going to start looking at pantheons. Pantheons are families of gods and those families are
complicated, really complicated. A whole tangle of grandparents, and parents, and uncles and aunts,
and nieces and nephews, and a couple of children of mortal women who were raped, and a pretty
staggering amount of violence and incest to just round everything off. They have amazing feasts but
honestly could you imagine thanksgiving dinner with these people, I mean Thoth, you had a mistress and
a wife and also somehow gave birth to yourself, how is that not awkward.
(Intro Song)
The pantheons we are going to examine are families of deities from cultures that are usually considered
polytheistic, meaning that they worshipped more than one god. In most mythological traditions the
gods are seen as immortal, and according to David Leeming they are, "personified projections of the
human mythmaker's dreams of overcoming the inevitable effects of the physical laws that require death
and disintegration." Yeah, we went dark pretty quick.
In creation stories and other myths, gods represent the creative force that brings and sustains life. In
many myths gods are personifications of aspects of nature and of human nature: the sun, the winds,
impatience, love. Pantheons, David Leeming argues, help us to explain how and why the world we know
came into being, and can tell us a lot about a culture. Leeming writes, "All pantheons are ontological and
teleological; that is they are metaphors for the human attempt to make sense of existence itself and to
assign ultimate cause. To 'read' a Pantheon is to read a culture's sense of itself and of the nature of the
cosmos." But can pantheons explain the naked mole rat...let's find out together.
If you thought I was going to start with the Greeks...ha, gotcha. Hi five Thoth, but we're not starting with
Egypt either, sorry. We're going to start with one of the oldest pantheons we have records for, the
family of gods from ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia.
Sumer's pantheon represents the most important natural forces in the lives of ancient Mesopotamians,
and there are a lot of deities here. So strap in. Try to pay attention to everyone's responsibilities, and
note what kinds of things don't have gods. Alright, here we go.
The first pair of deities are the earth goddess Ki and the sky god called An. An mates with Ki and
Nammu, goddess of primal waters. An and Nammu's children are Enki, the trickster god, and his sister,
Ningikuga, the goddess of the reeds. An and Ki, the more significant duo, begot Ninlil, the air goddess
and Enlil, the air god. Ninlil and Enlil give birth to Nanna, the moon god. Enki and his sister, Ningikuna,
create Ningal, the moon goddess. Ningal and Nanna then have three children, Utu the sun god, Inanna,
the great goddess of heaven and earth, and Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld. Ereshkigal's
husband is Gugalanna, the bull of heaven, and Inanna marries the shepherd Dumuzi. Dumuzi, it turns
out, was the son of Enki, the trickster god, and his consort, the sheep goddess Sirtur. It may be worth
noting that, yes, the sheep goddess did give birth to a shepherd.
So that is the basic pantheon of Sumer, but what does this tell us about Mesopotamia. First it suggests
that, at least in terms of their myths, natural phenomena, like the earth and sky, take precedence over
human actions and emotions, like love. I mean, only two of the original Mesopotamian gods, Enki the

human actions and emotions, like love. I mean, only two of the original Mesopotamian gods, Enki the
trickster and Inanna, also the goddess of love, are described as ruling over aspects of human nature. And
the sheep, well, we tend to think agriculture when we talk about the fertile crescent, but the fact that
their pantheon features sheep and a bull, rather than a harvest deity, might recall an earlier life as
herders. Or perhaps the bull is symbolic, not only of masculinity but also of farming.
This is the fun part of pantheons specifically, and mythology generally. You can read them in many,
many ways. No Thoth, that is not a joke about hieroglyphics, but it does get us to our next significantly
moe complex family of gods, the Egyptian pantheon.
Right off the bat I'm going to say that the Egyptian pantheon is even more confusing than your average
confusing pantheon, but surprise surprise, its also just as incestuous. First off there is no standard
version of the Egyptian pantheon. The myth changes depending upon who is writing it, and where, and
when. For example, in the story of Isis and Osiris, our most complete source isn't even Egyptian, its the
Greek biographer Plutarch who wrote in the first and second centuries C.E., well after Egypt had become
Helenized, and then Romanized. In his version of the Isis and Osiris myths, he gives Egyptian gods Greek
names. For example he refers to Thoth as Hermes. He does still give you credit for inventing
darts though, so.
There are also different versions of the pantheon depending upon where you are in Egypt. For the most
part we'll be sticking with the group of gods worshiped at the city of Heliopolis and headed by Atum or
Ra. But we'll give a nod the the fact that in Thebes, the pantheon was led by Amun. And we can't forget
the attempted monotheism of Akhenaten, that was classic. And just to make this even trickier, a lot of
the Egyptian sources we have for myths are fragmentary, and they're spread out over thousands of
years.
So for simplicity, we're going to settle on the nine god pantheon that forms the core of
Egyptian religious belief. And it doesn't include Thoth, sorry pal. The Aeniad or nine gods was in place in
Heliopolis by 2700 B.C.E. and is the one found in the pyramid texts, which might be the oldest
surviving set of religious texts in the world.
At the top of this pantheon is Atum, aka Re, aka Ra, aka Khepri, aka Amun, or sometimes Amun-Ra
depending upon where in Egypt you are, this is why we're trying to simplify things. Atum is the great eye
of the heavens and of creation. He was the spitter in our Egyptian creation story.
Atum's creative cough creates Shu, the life spirit, and Tefnut, the world order, or cosmos. This brother
and sister pair mate and give birth to Geb and Nut. Geb is the spirit of life and Nut is an Egyptian great
mother goddess. The two are separated by their father Shu, and Geb becomes earth while Nut becomes
the sky and the stars, which is a neat reversal of the whole earth-mother, sky-father thing.
Like their parents, brother and sister, Geb and Nut, become the mother and father of the rest of the
gods, in this pantheon. their children, Osiris and Isis, are probably the best known Egyptian gods, other
than hawk-headed Ra. Osiris, god of the underworld and grain, kinda like a Demeter slash Hades combo,
was probably the most popular of the Egyptian gods, because hey, who doesn't like food and death. He
dies and is revived which happens more than you would expect in myth, actually maybe exactly as much
as you would expect in myth. Isis is a goddess of the earth and the moon, and is married to Osiris. The
mystery cult od Isis was popular well beyond Egypt into Roman times. And if you're not sure what a
mystery cult is, guess what, that's the point.
The second son, and third child, from the Geb/Nut pairing is Seth. Seth is a god of evil and darkness and
is the nemesis of Isis and Osiris. He is married to his sister Nephthys, a goddess of death and dusk,
because you know, if you're going to be married for all of eternity it's nice to share interests.
And the final piece of this puzzle is young Horus, not to be confused with old Horus, or the guy from

And the final piece of this puzzle is young Horus, not to be confused with old Horus, or the guy from
Warhammer. He was conceived miraculously by Isis and Osiris after the latter's death, and he has
aspects of a sun god. He is a light that defeats Seth's darkness. Most important though, Horus, who is
also depicted with the head of a falcon, not a hawk, not an ibis, is the spiritual force behind the
pharaohs. I know that you're wondering when we're going to talk about Anubis, Bastet and Sekhmet,
but remember, for the sake of comparative simplicity, we're sticking with this nine-god pantheon.
So, what conclusions then can we draw from this basic pantheon. There are multiple versions of sun
gods, with Ra representing both he sun and creation, and Horus representing both the sun and kingship.
So we can infer that the sun was important to the Egyptians, probably as much for it's eternal cycle of
death and rebirth, as or it's providing life giving energy. Ancient Egyptian culture is commonly said to
focus on death, and that's not wrong. Although death to the Egyptians probably didn't hold the same
terror that it does for many in the modern world. I think the most distinct example of this necro-centric
ideal is the pyramids, and the mummified corpses and jars full of organs found within them, but also this
weeks featured myth, the story of Isis and Osiris. Take it away thought bubble.
Osiris was much beloved by the people of Egypt. He showed them how to cultivate grain, gave them
laws, and taught them to honour the gods. His brother Seth was envious but wouldn't try anything while
Osiris was away teaching civilization to the world. But when Osiris returned, Seth and 72
accomplices had a plan, a plan involving furniture. They had secretly measured Osiris's body and had
built a beautiful chest to his exact dimensions. At a party celebrating Osiris's return Seth suggested
that whoever fit in the chest would receive it as a gift. Osiris gave it a shot, and when he lay down in the
box the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed it with lead. They threw it in the river and it floated out to
sea. Isis, Osiris's wife, went looking for her husband and found the chest near the land of Biblos where a
great tree had grown up around it, encasing the coffin in it's trunk. She cut away the wood around the
coffin and lay upon it, wailing with such grief and power that the king's younger sons died of fear. Isis
soon left the chest to visit Horus and Seth found the coffin while boar hunting. He cut up Osiris's body
into 14 pieces and scattered them far and wide. Isis, discovering what Seth had done, set out to search
for the pieces. she found 13 of them but not what Izanagi might have described as his excess. She
buried the pieces where she found them, which is why there are so many graves for Osiris in Egypt. Seth
couldn't find the true grave of Osiris and Osiris would be worshipped throughout Egypt. Win-win, except
for the fact that he was dead. Or was he.
This is one version of the story, but in another version, upon finding the body of Osiris, Isis and her sister
Nephthys wept such a loud lamentation that Ra the sun god took pity on them and sent down
jackal headed Anubis to help Isis and Nephthys. The two sisters, with the help of Anubis Thoth and
Horus, pieced Osiris back together and wrapped him in linen bandages and performed the funeral rites.
Isis flapped her wings over the body and Osiris revived. From then on he became the king of the dead,
ruling in the underworld.
So this myth illustrated some central facets of Egyptian culture. One is the idea of Osiris as a king and a
god, much like the pharaohs. Another is the role of mummification in Egyptian life, or death, or well
actually both. The binding of Osiris and his revival is a promise to Egyptians of eternal life. According to
David Leeming, "Egyptians believed that every man would live eternal in the other world if only his
surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris; ...as Osiris dies and rose
again from the dead, so all men hoped to rise like him..."
This myth also suggests that in Egypt, the pantheon is somewhat fluid, with gods performing numerous
roles. Osiris goes from being the father of civilization to the ruler of the underworld, a role that in later
Egyptian mythology will be taken over by Anubis, while Seth is the source of evil and trouble, the jealous
younger brother always trying, and sometimes succeeding, to take the place of his older brother.
there's a tendency to view pantheons as explanations of natural phenomena that corresponds between
particular gods and particular aspects of nature, like the sun's rising and setting.

But often the gods resist falling into such restrictive roles and as myths like Isis and Osiris show, it's the
particular stories that matter to people, as much, if not more than, who is the goddess of what and why.
Just ask Saga, Norse goddess of storytelling. We're going to meet her really soon. But until then, thanks
for watching. We'll see you next week.
Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at dftba.com.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in Chad and Stacy Emigholz Studio in Inianappolis, Indiana and is
produced with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe and Crash
Course exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary
subscription service where you can support the content that you love through a monthly donation to
help keep Cash Course free for everyone forever.
Thanks for watching and Dont Forget to be Mythological!
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/EcQ-6Zd1638/>

Indian Pantheons: Crash Course Mythology #8
Hey there, Im Mike Rugnetta and this is Crashcourse mythology.
Today, were going to tackle one of the most difficult and fascinating pantheons in all of mythology. Its
got dancing dwarfs, buffalo demons, and some many armed folks.
Yessir theres a lot going on in this pantheon! Maybe even more than in the Egyptian pantheon. Sorry
Thoth.
In this episode, well talk about the pantheon of deities in Indian myths. Unlike myths from Egypt and
the Ancient Near East, there are living people for whom these stories have deep, personal, religious
meaning. Remember how it got a little uncomfortable when we discussed the Bibles creation story?
Well, its gonna be a bit like that. But were gonna try to minimize the awkwardness. Just ask--wait,
theres no god of awkwardness?!
Ruh roh. INTRO Discussing the Indian pantheon is tricky for two reasons: first because it remains a living
belief system for about a billion people. And second because Indian religious and mythic traditions are
not only abundant but also ancient.
As in Egypt, there are different sets of gods and goddesses that were worshipped at different points in
time. But unlike Egypt, India was and is home to many different languages, which means we have a lot
of different stories, each with many different versions. We are going to focus mostly on stories that have
been written in Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism.
Sanskrit first appears in written form around 150 CE in a series of rock inscriptions that look much more
complex than what Ive inscribed on rocks. This probably doesnt say Parvati wuz here! Vishnu +
Lakshmi 5eva. Lets remember that Sanskrit is a complex language and its poetry may sound unusual to
English ears.
But we can handle it. Lead the way, Bragi, Norse God of poetry. In the earliest Indian traditions, Dyaus
the sky father, and Prithvi the earth mother were central.
Hey, sky dad and earth mom! Nice to see you over here, too! Do you mind if I drop off some cosmic
laundry?
Later, however, Surya the sun god, Agni the fire god and Indra the warrior king of the gods took top God
Billing from mom and dad, who were arguing all the time! Sky dad, earth mom, knock it off! Just stop
the fighting!
We can all get along. Indra was the child of the sky and the earth, and was responsible for keeping them
separate, but had his own beef with another god, Varuna, who may once have been the ruler of the
gods, but was supplanted by Indra. Hey, even gods got beef, right?
Wonder if one of them recorded a diss track... Anyway, the most well-known myth about Indra is about
his battle with Vritra, a giant serpent or dragon, whom Indra kills, thus creating the sun, the dawn, and
they sky. 2:59(Yeah, I know you thought we had sky covered but, mythology is tricky.) The death of
Vritra also gave form to chaos. Which is nice.
So yup, its our old friend the creation story, but with violence instead of sex. In a number of stories,

So yup, its our old friend the creation story, but with violence instead of sex. In a number of stories,
Indra is described as battling and destroying hostile minor deities and demons. I mean, someone has to,
right?
And so maybe, youre thinking yay, Indra. He fights the good fight. But he also breaks oaths,kills family
members and commits adultery with Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gvautama.
For which he lost his testicles. Cherries emoji. Scissors emoji.
Face Screaming in emoji. But hey wait, its OK. in another myth he has them replaced with those of a
ram. Emoji.
So...um...guess that worked out. Indras weapon of choice is a thunderbolt, similar to Zeus, and by
Indias classical age he becomes a god of rain. And this changing function over time is generally
emblematic of Indian myth.
Like the Egyptian pantheon, its difficult to pin down one canonical set of myths or characters because
they appear in so many forms, often with multiple names. Heres another version of how things get
going: In the Vedas, which are the most ancient Hindu scriptures, Prajapati was the creator god, but
over time, and especially in the Upanishads, another collection of important Sanskrit texts, the less
anthropomorphic concept of Brahman developed. Brahman isnt a GOD so much as the all-
encompassing essence of reality, the supreme cosmic spirit.
Pretty cool, right Thoth? Its not something you can easily represent on a sandstone relief, but then
again its not that dissimilar from god in monotheistic religious traditions. Brahman has sometimes
been translated as the world soul and all individual souls are one with it.
Dont get too comfortable, though, because Brahman, in later classical Hindu mythology and religion, is
embodied and personified as three deities: Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the
destroyer. They are all distinct, with their own stories, and yet also represent aspects of the more
esoteric and universal idea of Brahman. This triumvirate?
Trifecta? Divine Hat Trick? Hindus call it the trimurti and Vishnu and Shiva loom largest in Indian myths.
So then, why is Brahma third banana? Well, once the universe is created, the work of the creator is
done. True, The concept of cyclical existence is central to the Hindu and Buddhist worldview, so youd
think a creator would be considered among the most important gods.
Still, Brahmas significance declined in comparison with that of Vishnu and Shiva, perhaps because,
according to John Brockington: Essentially he is a fusion of a creator deity with the impersonal Brahman
propounded in the Upanishads, which see the goal of religious endeavor as some kind of union with the
absolute, whereas the popular forms of religion attested to in the epics prefer a more personal and
devotional approach. In other words, Brahma doesnt really get involved in the juicy stuff-- battles and
quests and adultery. So lets turn to Vishnu, the preserver.
Stories of Vishnu often involve his consort Shri, also called Lakshmi, a goddess of prosperity and good
fortune, which is pretty terrific as dowries go. Vishnu protects the world from evil, and he often appears
in different forms called avatars. Avatars are the human or animal form of a god on earth and they are
very, very rad.
By the classical period, Vishnu had 10 or so avatars: Matsya, the fish, who well hear more about when
we talk about floods Kurma the tortoise, who played a role similar to the tortoise in the earth diver myth
that we saw Varaha, the boar who is a boar and does boar stuff Narasimha the man-lion who kills the
demon Hiranyakashipu Vamana, the dwarf who defeats the demon Bai through trickery Parashurama

demon Hiranyakashipu Vamana, the dwarf who defeats the demon Bai through trickery Parashurama
who kills the hundred-armed Arjuna with an ax and probably has amazing biceps Rama and Krishna who
are central to the Mahabaratha, one of the great Sanskrit epics The Buddha who is the Buddha. You
know. From Buddhism.
Kalkin who is a future avatar and a millennial figure that will establish a new era. But not like, a
millennial millennial. Kalkin is not on Snapchat.
Shiva, the destroyer, had his origins in the Vedic era as a storm god who was a wrathful avenger and a
herdsman of souls, which definitely sounds trickier than sheep. Shiva is also associated with yoga,
asceticism and erotic love. Which definitely sounds contradictory.
Or maybe just flexible. This erotic aspect manifests most concretely in Shivas symbolic form as a linga,
which is self-explanatory if you look at it, and might explain why Shiva has numerous female deities as
either wives or consorts, including Sati and Parvati, and sometimes Durga and Kali. Basically, Shiva has
game.
One of the best known images of Shiva is his depiction asl the lord of the danceno, definitely not, yes.
According to one scholar: His steps are intended to relieve by enlightenment the suffrage of his
devotees: hence he balances on the back of a dwarf who symbolizes ignorance. His gestures and the
attributes he is holding symbolize aspects of his divinity; the drum in his back right hand [symbolizes
creation], the tongue of flame in his back left hand [symbolizes destruction], the gesture of protection
[of his front right hand symbolizes] protection and his raised leg symboliz[es] release. Has Michael
Flatley ever balanced on the back of a dwarf?
I rest my case. Now weve spent most of the episode discussing the three key gods of the trimurti and
their amazing dance moves, but Indian pantheons feature goddesses, too, who usually have qualities
that complement their husbands powers. I mentioned Parvati and Uma and Sati, the wives of Shiva, and
Laskshmi, who is married to Vishnu.
But other traditions describe the goddess Devi, which translates to goddess or Mahadevi, the great
goddess, who is occasionally associated with these other consorts and sometimes seen as a world
creator in her own right. In some traditions Devi is essentially the same as Brahman. Like many of the
deities we discuss, Devi can be many things to many people.
We havent seen too many female warrior goddesses yet. So lets wrap up with a story that features
one: Durga, also known as Kali, who is unapproachable to her suitors and invincible in battle. Also she
rides a lion.
So clearly - no one is cool enough to date her. Thoughtbubble, do your thing. One of the main stories
about Durga is that of her killing the buffalo demon Mahisha.
Mahisha conquered the other lesser gods, the Devas, and then the Devas went to Vishnu and Shiva for
help, who listened and grew angry. And you wouldnt like Vishnu and Shiva when theyre angry, because
their anger takes the form of Durga, who confronted Mahisha and the other demons. 9:54The demons
rushed towards the goddess who killed them in hundreds, felling some with her club, catching others in
her noose, slicing others with her sword, and piercing others with her trident. Meanwhile, Mahisha
himself, in buffalo form, terrorized her troops.
Then he attacked her lion, and Durga became furious. She caught him in her noose, whereupon he
quitted his buffalo shape and became a lion himself. She cut off its head and he emerged as a man,
sword in hand.
As she pierced the man, he became a great elephant, seizing her lion with its trunk, but she cut off his

As she pierced the man, he became a great elephant, seizing her lion with its trunk, but she cut off his
trunk with her sword as he resumed his buffalo form. Lightly tossing aside the mountains he hurled at
her, she leaped on him, pinned his neck with one foot and pierced him with her trident. Then she cut off
his head with her mighty sword. Thanks, Thoughtbubble, that was... harrowing?
I guess its always the second beheading that sticks. CONCLUSION This episode could only scratch the
surface of the complexity of Indian mythology. Not only does it come from so many sources, but for
many people these are living myths, unlike the deeds of Egyptian gods that we saw last week.
These stories are complex because people associate one god with one or two attributes or phenomena,
like wisdom or storms. And these gods take many forms and are often seen as versions of each other, or
maybe of a single universal god. Hinduism is a fascinating religion and a rich source of myths, but its
also quite the web.
Emoji. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/V_NJAJGCKD8/>

The Greeks and Romans - Pantheons Part 3: Crash Course
World Mythology #9
Hey there, I am Mike Rugnetta and this is CrashCourse: Mythology and today, we're continuing with
Pantheons, and one that is likely to be a viewer favorite. Bring on the (?~0:09), pour out some
nectar, it's the Greeks. Oppa!
War, hunting, metalurgy, the complete inability to deal reasonably with even the smallest bit of
conflict, and also (?~0:20), and best of all, we already know the Greeks, from paintings and
sculptures to those really long books and The Clash of the Titans movie, and also, oppa!
(Intro)
You might be thinking, wait a minute. Didn't we already talk about Greek Gods in the epiosde on
creation stories, and you're right, we did, but that was the first set of Greek gods. Two whole
dynasties of divinities had to be overthrown before we get to the Olympians. But before we get into
all the sex, ambrosia, and petty conflict, let's define some terms.
We've been talking about Pantheons as groups of Gods, mainly because us classic nerds like to
show off our knowledge of Greek and Latin. National Latin Award Scholar, right here,
folks. Anyway, Pantheon means all the Gods, which is already a little weird. There are many Gods
and they change based upon which versions of the myths you're studying, and then there are
demigods and maybe even some heroes.
Gods, as we are using the term, are divine immortal beings, usually created out of the sexual union
between other immortal beings or sometimes out of some unorthodox nativity, like we saw with
Aphrodite and the bloody (?~1:39). Demigods are minor deities, or the offspring of Gods and
mortals. They usually have special powers and sometimes can become truly divine. Heroes are
exalted mortals, meaning they can die but they can also perform special feats on Earth. Sometimes
they're the offpsring of a God and a human, sometimes they're just lucky. You know, like pop stars.
(02:00) to (04:00)
Remember Gaia and Oranus and their offspring, the Titans? Let's refresh. These are the first and
second sets of Greek Gods. The Titans were led by Kronos who overthrew Oranus, and Kronos
was so worried about his own children overthrowing him that he swallowed them. That did not work
out very well. Whoops. Then, like father, like son, Zeus, son of Kronos and Rhea, decided to
overthrow his father. He and his siblings defeated the Titans and become the first Olympians. Roll
call! Hestia, the first child of Kronos and Rhea became the goddess of the hearth and home. She's
not in many myths, but was an important household deity honored with many sacrifices. Hades was
the God of the underworld, who you'll remember from the story of Persephone from episode one. (?
~2:46) mother was Demeter, another child of Kronos and Reah, and the goddess of
agriculture. That's right, she has amazing powers over wheat, figs, and olives, kind of a big deal in
an agrarian society. Poseidon became the Lord of the Seas after the Titans' defeat. He was
associated with earthquakes and horses and was even the father of a famous one--Pegasus, whose
mother was Medusa. Snake hair lady plus water king horse lover equals magic stallion, so yeah, it
checks out, Gods' DNA is weird.
Zeus was the last of the Olympians, born to Kronos and Rhea and became the most important. He

Zeus was the last of the Olympians, born to Kronos and Rhea and became the most important. He
is the Sky God, controlling storms and wielding a thunderbolt, which I think is pretty fair to say, is a
boss thing to wield, which makes sense, 'cause he's also the patriarch of the Olympians, despite
being the youngest. He was the leader of the revolt over the Titans, plus he was the baby daddy of
so many Gods and mortals, so he gets to wave his bolt around and tell everyone what to do, I guess.
Zeus was the father of the next generation of Olympians, with a variety of wives, consorts, and
depending upon how you read it, numerous one night stands or rape victims. His first wife was (?~
3:54), who was from the Titan generation. An older woman, the word (?~3:58) means 'skill' or
'cunning', and she was said to provide wise counsel to Zeus, and because wise counselors often
give advice that rulers don't wanna hear, Zeus swallowed her.
(04:00) to (06:00)
It's possible that Metis is the mother of Athena, although it's hard to know because of how she was
um, born? According to one version of Athena's birth, Zeus had a terrible headache and asked his
son Hephaestus to help cure it. Since this is pre-Motrin, Hephaestus literally cracked open Zeus'
skull and out popped Athena, a goddess of wisdom, war, and the arts, especially spinning and
weaving. She was wearing a full suit of armor, and Athena created the olive tree. So she's the
patroness of Athens and why we now have tapanade. Incidentally, this is also why Hephaestus is
not the God of doctors.
Zeus's second wife was Demeter, with whom he fathered Kore. Hey girl! Remember, because Kore
means girl? These are the jokes, people. Anyway, that relationship didn't last and Zeus married her
sister, Hera. Good thing that there's no God of awkward.
Hera was sometimes associated with childbirth, but mostly her thing was being miffed at Zeus. Hera
and Zeus had four children. Hebe, a goddess of youth and the cupbearer to the Olympians, who
married Hercules. Eileithyia, who was a goddess of childbirth. The other two children, Hephaestus
and Ares showed up in a number of myths.
Hephaestus, a smith who walks with a limp, is the God of fire and crafts. Ares is a God of war, more
about like, carnage than strategy, and they both have a thing for Aphrodite because everyone has a
thing for Aphrodite. Zeus's liasons resulted in other Olympians as well. For instance, with Leto,
whose parents were Titans, Zeus fathered the twins Apollo and Artemis. Apollo became the God of
the sun and music, also moderation, because that was something that Greeks needed a God
for. Artemis was associated with the moon and with the hunt. Like Athena, Artemis was a virgin
goddess, and she's sometimes tear apart the bodies of men who saw her naked. The final child of
Zeus to become a member of the Olympian Pantheon is his son with Maia, the daughter of the
demigod Atlas who holds up the world. This is Hermes, the God of the road and of travelers. He's
Zeus's messenger who also leads people to Hades.
(06:00) to (08:00)
Hermes had a winged hat and winged sandals way before Adidas JS Wings. He's a trickster who
often makes sharp deals, and he's a God of writing and magic, which basically makes him the
Helenized version of Toth. High five, Toth. Get you some feathered kicks, my dude.
The final member of the Olympian Pantheon we need to discuss is the one David Leman calls "At
once the most ambiguous and the most foreign" of the Greek Gods: Dionysus, the God of
wine. Dionysus had an unusual birth. After consorting with Zeus, his human mother (?~6:44) made
a wish to see Zeus in his true form. Regrettable. When Zeus revealed himself, his godly presence
burned (?~6:53) to a crisp. Zeus saved the embryonic Dionysus and sewed him up in his thigh from
which he was later born. Now, there's archeological evidence that Dionysus was worshipped in the
Ancient Greek city of Mycene as early as 1200 BCE, but many stories portray Dionysus as a
foreigner. A bunch of Greek Gods originated as dieties associated with cults from different

foreigner. A bunch of Greek Gods originated as dieties associated with cults from different
cities. Artemis was probably a great mother goddess in Anatolia, for instance, but Dionysus, home-
grown. Or home-sewn, I guess. So why is he considered foreign? Maybe it's because Dionysus
represents human traits that are very different from the idealized self-control of Apollo. Dionysus is
called the God of wine, but he's more a God of abandon or disinhibition. According to (?~7:39), "The
Greeks experienced the power of Dionysus not as drunkenness, but as a kind of fervent inspiration,
a religious experience in which the worshippers' instincts were liberated from the bondage of social
custom." The Romans called this the bacchanal, after their version of Dionysus, Bacchus. The
cultic rituals of Dionysus are performed by women called (?~7:58) who leave home, go into the
woods, drink and dance and hunt and tear wild animals to pieces as a sacrifice.
(08:00) to (10:00)
Yeah, it's all beer pong and keg stands until the ladies start devouring the flesh of still-living
beasts. No wonder that Dionysus was pyschologically challenging for the Greeks.
Before we finish up, I need to mention the Romans, who borrowed heavily from all of the people they
conquered. They imported some of the Greek Gods directly into their Pantheon. Others were native
Gods reimagined as Greek equivalents. So, Minerva, an Etruscan goddess and patron of craft
became Athena. Diana, an Italian woodwind goddess was transformed into Artemis, the huntress
and so on. So here's a handy chart of all the parallels between Greek and the Roman
Pantheons. The Romans did have some original Gods, like Janus, the God of doors and arches,
from whom we get January. So you can blame him for the bleak weather. Or Persephone. Or
Hades. Or just pomegranates. And in the imperial period, they started turning their emperors into
Gods, but the Romans didn't tend to develop their own myths around these borrowed Gods. Their
most important myth concerns the history of Rome itself. We'll talk about that in a future episode, so
for now, let's get back to Gods behaving badly. Take it away, Thought Bubble.
Olympian adultery was a lot like the trains in Europe: reliable and frequent. For example, Aphrodite
was often unfaithful to her husband, Hephaestus, but none of her affairs caused as much trouble as
the time she was caught with the God of war. As told in the Odyssey, Helios, the sun God, spotted
Aphrodite in bed with Ares and told Hephaestus. So Hephaestus created a magical net so fine that
it could hardly be seen but it was strong enough so that no one could escape it. He set his trap over
the bed and then pretended to go off to Lemnos, where he had his volcanic forge. Seeing him go,
Ares and Aphrodite went to bed.
(10:00) to (12:00)
As they lay together, Hephaestus's gossamer chains fell on them and bound them together. As
soon as Helios told Hephaestus that his wife and her lover were together, he rushed back to his
house. He cried out to all of the Gods, "Father Zeus and every other blessed immortal, hither to me
and see a jest which is unpardonable. Because I am crippled, Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, does me
dishonor, preferring Ares...beautiful and straight of limb while I was born crooked. And whose fault
is that, if not my parents? Would they had not brought me into this life! Look how these two are
clipped together in love's embrace, here, in my very bed. To watch them cuts me to the heart." The
rest of the Gods showed up and LOLed heartily, as Gods do, both at Ares and Aphrodite caught in
the net, but also at Hephaestus himself, with Hermes and Apollo joking that they "would be perfectly
happy to be caught in such a net with the goddess of love," because everyone has a thing for
Aphrodite.
Thank you, Thought Bubble.
So this brings us to a question that we haven't really looked at with our other Pantheons. What do
the Olympian Pantheon tell us about the Greeks? According to David (?~11:10), it suggests how
they understood themselves and their society. "More than any other Pantheon, the Greek hierarchy
of Gods and Goddesses...is modeled on human families. The official Olympican Gods, the family of
Mount Olympus, headed by Zeus, is simply the most powerful of Greek families. Like other

Mount Olympus, headed by Zeus, is simply the most powerful of Greek families. Like other
members of the rich and powerful classes, the Olympian family is marred by instances of immorality,
arrogance, and stubborness...They were not to be trusted and they could not be counted on for
mercy. They were an exaggerated version of what a human family might become if endowed with
infinite power. They were a mirror of human nature itself."
And it's a good thing, too. Mirrors are the only way you can even look at Medusa. Thanks for
watching, we'll see you next week.
Check out our CrashCourse: Mythology Thoth Tote bag and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
(12:00) to (12:46)
CrashCourse: Mythology is filmed in the Chad & Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and
is produced with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe and
CrashCourse exists thanks to the generous support of our Patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
voluntary subscription service where you can support the content that you love through a monthly
donation to help keep CrashCourse free for everyone, forever.
CrashCourse is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the description for a link to get a free
trial. Thanks for watching and remember, you reap what you sow, especially if you sew a baby God
into your life. You're gonna want to reap that pretty quick.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/XNCQ9w59I7M/>

The Norse Pantheon: Crash Course Mythology #10
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta and this is CrashCourse: Mythology. Today we're gonna try to do
justice to the Norse Pantheon, a very scary wolf, an amazing tree, a rainbow bridge, some frost
giants, and way more than what I learned from reading Thor comics. No, no, no, no, not you, Thoth,
your 'th' is (?~0:18), we're talking voiceless dental fricative here. Thor. You know this joke might
work better in print.
(Intro)
We met some of the Norse Gods when we looked at one of their creation stories. The source for
that myth and many other stories from Norse mythology is the (?~0:43), an Icelandic compendium
written by the amazingly named (?~0:49) around 1220 CE. This means that one of our main
sources for the tales of Germanic and Scandinavian Gods and Goddesses comes from the far edge
of their world. It's also important because the (?~1:01) is relatively new, so one rainbow bridge that
we're gonna have to cross here is the way that later Christian ideas influence the existing version of
these myths.
Partly because of (?~1:12), there's a tendency to think of Norse mythology as belonging to
Scandinavia, but that's not quite right. The Norse Pantheon has roots in the religion and mythology
of Germanic people who migrated into Europe. The Romans, especially (?~1:26) recorded what
they understood of the Germanic tribe's beliefs, but they translated Germanic Gods into their own
terms. So (?~1:34) who we're calling Odin, became associated with Mercury. (?~1:41), a warrior
God, became associated with the Roman God of war, Mars, and Thor was Jupiter, or (?~1:47). In
their own terms, these are two sets of Norse dieties. First, the Vanir, associated with the Earth and
fertility. They're the older set of Gods, and second, the Aesir, associated with the sky.
(02:00) to (04:00)
The Vanir were led by Freyr and Freya, brother and sister and also King and Queen. They were the
children of Njord, who also has a terrific name. According to Sturluson, "Freyr is an exceedingly
famous God. He decides when the sun shall shine and when the rain come down, and along with
that, the fruitfulness of the Earth, and he is good to invoke for peace and plenty. He also brings
about the prosperity of men." So he is definitely the God that you wanna honor if you're having a
picnic. Well, him and Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, and while we're at it, why not also
Aphrodite, because everyone has a thing for--you get it.
The Vanir and the Aesir warred, but eventually reconciled and the Vanir came to live in Asgard, one
of the nine mythical Norse worlds. Although they also had their own realm, Vanaheim, not to be
confused with Anaheim, the realm of Walt Disney, oranges, and online video conferences.
If you want the (?~2:58) opinion, or where we take mythology as an explanation of historical fact, this
war may reflect a time where there were two competing religions among the tribal people of the
North, which eventually teamed up. Vanir and Aesir, stronger together. Like Fultron--but gods.
Another Norse god is Heimdall, also called "the white god." He's associated with the sea, because
nine waves birthed him. It must have been a very chaotic day at the maternity ward. Heimdal was
the sentry of the gods, and the arch enemy of Loki, who you might know from his role as Tom
Hiddleston.

Accordind to Sturluson, "[Heimdall] needs less sleep than a bird and can see a hundred leagues in
front of him as well as by night as by day. He can hear the grass growing on the Earth and the wool
on the sheep and everything that makes noise."
Boy, poor Heimdall. Imagine going to a dinner party and listening to everyone chew...Some
traditions place Heimdall in the Aesir, some in the Vanir.
The Vanir are also associated with a golden boar, said to travel above and below the Earth like the
sun.
(04:00) to (06:00)
(?~4:05), as it was called, appeared on warriors' crests and helmets especially in (?~4:10). Just like
in Greece and Egypt, different gods in the Norse pantheon were worshipped in different regions.
Thor is probably the most famous of the Aesir. Probably the second most famous is Odin, Thor's
dad. Odin is the father god, who was associated with war, especially with the raw almost ecstatic
warrior rage of (?~4:31).
He was also a wizard who swayed battles through magic. Imagine like, Gandalf, but with one eye,
lots of muscles, and an unhealthy desire for archan wisdom and a bit of a mean streak.
Odin inherited his warrior-god nature from his Germanic predecessors (?~4:49) and (?~4:49). As
Kevin Crosley Holland (name?) remarked, "A culture finds the gods it needs and the Norse world
needed a god to justify the violence that [was] one of its hallmarks."
Basically, if you're a war-like society, a war god is pretty convenient. Odin inspired victory,
and forsaw defeat with his shamanistic precognition.
He was also the god of poetry, who traveled the the land of the giants, (?~5:13), to drink the mead of
poetry and bring it back to the Aesir and the Vanir. Mmmm..poetry mead.
Another part of Odin's story is his sacrifice and rebirth as a wiser god. According to one version, he
hung himself from the World Tree so he could drink the mead of wisdom. I guess Odin couldn't stop
himself at just one mead. This was when he sacrificed his eye, too.
Odin was married to Frigg, a goddess who could also see the future. Odin's children were Thor,
whose mother was the Earth itself, Baldr, the most beautiful of the gods, who was killed by Hodr, his
blind brother, and Tyr.
Although one source has Tyr's father as the giant(?~5:55). In some stories Baldr is a human warrior
favored by Odin.
(06:00) to (08:00)
Baldr is the wisest of the gods, and the sweetest spoken and the most merciful. But it is a
characteristic of his that once he has pronounced a judgement it can never be altered. Odin has
another son Hermod the Bold who was sent to retrieve Baldr from a city in the underworld, Niflheim,

another son Hermod the Bold who was sent to retrieve Baldr from a city in the underworld, Niflheim,
ruled by the goddess Hel. Yeah, that's Hel with one single hockey stick, and she was said to be the
daughter of Loki, who also helped kill Baldr.
Loki is confusing. It's never clear whether he's a god or a giant or even whether he's good or evil.
He's been called the son of two giants, but also the foster-brother of Odin. He's a trickster so maybe
his uncertain pedigree makes some sense. He's also a thief, but also also sometimes helps the
Aesir. He's the father of several monsters, including the world serpent - Jormungand, the wolf -
Fenrir, and Hel. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Loki is the worst, as we will see in our episode
on Ragnarok. The mythical event - not the comic book event, or the movie event, not even the Gwar
record, just the literal end of the world.
Tyr is identified with war and justice. In some traditions, he's also a son of Odin, but as you've
probably noticed, it's not exactly easy to pin down parentage in the Norse world. I blame those nine
waves. Tyr's position as a god of both war and justice is interesting, given what we learned about
Viking's in Crash Course World History. While known for their fearsome raiding Vikings also had a
strict legal code, with certain elements of democratic governance and they were also really into
skiing.
There are other gods in the Norse pantheon, but they don't really feature much. Bragi, a son of Odin,
was another god of poetry, while Ull was concerned mainly with archery and hittin' the slopes. Yeah,
that's right, there's a god of skiing. There's Vali, Odin's son who avenged Baldr's death and Vidar,
son of Odin and the giantess Grid, avenged Odin's death. I'm gonna need an info graphic. Oh, great!
The Norse goddesses are relatively minor figures in the myths.
(08:00) to (10:00)
Freja is the only one who seems to have personality. She's a goddess of love, faithfullness to her
husband, prayer is not her strong suit. Her strong suit is definitely her amazing feather jacket. She
also has a cat drawn chariot, that is not a joke. And like Freya, goddess Geifon is one of the (?~
8:20). She is associated with plowing and fertility. Eir is the goddess of healing, Siofn and Lofn are
goddesses of love, Var punishes those who betray their marriage oaths and nothing can be hidden
from her. Syn with a y is a goddess associated with justice, and who couldn't love a goddess named
Snotra, who is associated with wisdom and self-discipline and also head colds. I'll be here all
week. Snotra stands in contrast with Saga, a goddess of poetry whose main role seems to be
Odin's drinking companion. (?~8:48)
(?~8:50) is Odin's wife and a mother of multiple gods, but we don't know that much about her. She's
a maternal goddess who mourns the loss of her son Baldur and was invoked by women in
labor. Like Odin, she seems to be able to know the future.
Now, on to a myth. I'm gonna be honest--Norse myths are like the frat party of mythology. There's a
lot of fighting and drinking and laughing, though there's no beer pong. First, some quick
backstory. Odin championed warriors, picking his favorite and sending valkyries to bring them to
Valhalla. Seems like a pretty nifty way to travel. Thor was the god of farmers and there were a lot of
farmers in Scandinavia, but he was also a mighty warrior. Huge with a giant red beard. Not so
bright, but who needs smarts when you're the god of thunder and lightning? He protected (?~9:37)
from giants and in a stunning bit of surely coincidental wordplay, (?~9:42), his famous hammer, was
also a symbol of fertility. Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
One day, Thor woke up and couldn't find his hammer. He sent Loki to locate it. Loki borrowed

One day, Thor woke up and couldn't find his hammer. He sent Loki to locate it. Loki borrowed
Freya's sweet falcon jacket, turned it into an actual falcon, and went searching. He found his way to
the hall of the giant (?~10:00), who said that he had stolen Thor's hammer, wouldn't give it back
unless Freya agreed to marry him.
(10:00) to (12:00)
Freya said, "Over my dead body," so (?~10:10) came up with a brilliant idea. Put Thor in a wedding
dress and have him pretend to be Freya. The other gods laughed and Thor sulked, but Loki
prevailed on him because without his hammer, the gods were vulnerable to giants. So they found a
giant wedding dress and a thick veil and headed off to (?~10:28). Once there, (?~10:30) through his
new bride and her bridesmaid, Loki, a wedding fest. Thor ate an entire ox, eight salmon, all the
sweets, and three horns of(?~10:40). When (?~10:40) commented that he'd never seen a woman
eat so much, Loki explained that Freya was so excited to be married, she hadn't eaten in eight
days. (?~10:50) seemed satisfied but then, he peeked under her veil and saw his bride's glowing
red eyes. Loki again reassured (?~10:58) his bride was so excited that she hadn't slept for seven
days. Finally (?~11:02) offered Mjollnir as a wedding symbol, saying, "Put Mjollnir between her
knees so that Var will hear our marriage oath and give her blessing." Thor snatched it up, ripped off
his veil, and did what he does best--clobbered some giants. He crushed (?~11:18)'s skull and killed
every other giant at the wedding feast, including the women. The tale ends, "And so Thor, son of
Odin, won back his hammer."
Thanks, Thought Bubble, that was--awesome and disturbing and of course, soaked in mead and
blood. Norse Gods, like Greek ones, are all too human, and they seem to misbehave accordingly,
but unlike other mythic traditions, the Norse sagas seem to lean less heavily on metaphor. They're
rollicking adventure tales perfect for vikings, lusty warriors who like nothing more than a roasted ox,
a few horns of ale, and a good punch up. Oh, and also skiing. Thanks for watching. We'll see you
next time.
Check out our CrashCourse: Mythology Thoth Tote bag and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
(12:00) to (12:45)
CrashCourse: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana
and is produced with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe and
CrashCourse exists thanks to the generous support of our Patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
voluntary subscription service where you can support the content you love through a monthly
donation to help keep CrashCourse free for everyone forever.
CrashCourse is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the description for a link to a free trial.
Thanks for watching, and just because the world needs more Freya facts, she was also
accompanied by a boar named (?~12:41) which translates to 'battle swine'.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/CyU54gV_PWM/>

African Pantheons and the Orishas: Crash Course
Mythology #11
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're going to finish up our
look at pantheons with African gods.
Now, some Crash Course fans are already scratching their heads because they know that it's very hard
to speak of African-anything without drastically oversimplifying. It's enormous and filled with diverse
peoples.
Africa, as the saying goes, is not a country. It is however, a song by the 80's band, Toto. Maybe some
karaoke later, Tot--to? (sings) "bless the rains down in Africa!"
There is no one African mythology or pantheon, just like there's no single Native American or Asian
mythology. There are similarities in the stories of different groups, but no one consistent family of gods.
So this episode is gonna focus on an African people with a well-documented set of deities, the Yoruba of
Western Africa. In particular, we're gonna look at their pantheon of Orishas, and one very wise
chameleon.
(Crash Course theme music)
Yoruba is a language and a term used to describe the people who speak it. Yoruba people live in the
region around the Bight of Benin, in the countries that are now Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra
Leone.
These regions are important. They're home to millions of Africans, and were also centers of the African
slave trade, meaning Yoruba traditions traveled from Africa to the Caribbean, Latin America, and North
America.
Some of these traditions have been modified and translated into the set of practices called "vodou" in
Haiti. Probably you know them best as "voodoo." "Vodun" is a word in the Fon language that means
"spirit." Yoruba myths however, are not the equivalent of vodou. And most vodou cults are actually a lot
less intense than what you've seen in like, horror movies and stuff.
The Yoruba region is currently home to many religions, including Christianity and Islam. And the fact that
the Yoruba people have maintained their Orisha stories in the face of other religious traditions is a
testament to the power and importance of this cultural heritage. The Orisha stories are similar in this
way to the Native American myths.
Okay, now let's meet the teams. Orishas are the gods and semi-divine heroes of Yoruba culture.
According to Alex Cuoco, "There are countless deities in the Yoruba pantheon of Orishas, and each one
of them, in one way or another, has accomplished deeds whereby the ancestors thought it was
worthwhile to include them in their oral traditions of story-telling," know as "itan".
Out of the hundreds of Orishas, there are a dozen or so that feature prominently in the myths, not
unlike the twelve Olympians.
First, there's Olorun, AK Olodumare, sometimes hyphenated. He's the Great Sky Father--hey, Dad!--and
ultimately responsible for the creation of world order.

ultimately responsible for the creation of world order.
Then there's Eshu, the Trickster. He, like many tricksters represents accident and the uncertainty of life.
We'll look at him more closely in a later episode.
Ogun is the Giver of Iron, who is also a hunter and a warrior. Like in the Greek pantheon, not all gods
pair monogamously. Ogun had lovers, including Oya.
Oranyiman, a son of Ogun, another warrior, and is also a Fertility God of sorts, being the creator of dry
land, and the shaper of infants before their birth. So, if you know someone having a sonogram, tell them
about Oranmiyan; that's his handiwork.
Olookun is the god or goddess of Oceans, and Olosa is the Goddess of Lagoons. So, I imagine there were
some arguments over who has jurisdiction over inlets.
As with other pantheons, some Orishas have dominion over natural phenomena as well. The Orisha
Thunder God is Shango, who is also the same as Oramfe. Zeus, Thor, and Shango should meet up some
time, I bet the conversation would be Electra-fying. I'll just see myself out. (small crash off screen) Okay,
all right.
Onile-ile is the Goddess of Earth's Soil, and there's also Oko, God of Fields, Farms, and Agriculture. Oya is
the Goddess of Winds and the Niger River. She's one of Shango's wives.
Orungan is the God of Air, he's the son of Aganju, God of the Wilderness, and Yemoja, Goddess of the
River Ogun. And it's not all positive phenomena either. Obaluaye is the God of Smallpox, Disease, and
Death, so I bet he's a real treat at parties.
You might have noticed that there's some overlap in divine responsibility. When myths exist mostly as
oral traditions and come from such a huge and diverse geographic region, a certain amount of
redundancy is pretty normal. We saw this in the Egyptian pantheon too.
For instance, multiple Orishas are considered warrior gods, and others seem to control aspects of the
human condition. Ori is the God of Individuality and Fate, while Iwa is the Goddess of Character.
A number of Orishas relate to regional geography, like forests, particular rivers, and hunting. And some
represent seemingly hyper-specific but key aspects of African life, such as Ogiyan, the God of Crushed
Cassava. Now that is a god who I bet is a real treat at a party.
And just for you history fans out there, this shows that not all Orishas have ancient origins. Cassava was
introduced to Africa as part of the Columbian Exchange.
Other than Sky-Dad Olorun, the most important Orisha is his oldest son, Orunmila, the God of Wisdom
and Divination. According to Leonard and McClure, "Orunmila, by reading pine nuts and cowries,
communicates Olorun's irreversible intentions and therefore, personifies fate." So think of that the next
time you're having pesto.
Many of the Orisha myths feature Orunmila, including the one that explains how the Orishas got their
powers.
(Thought Bubble theme) Oh yeah! Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
The Orishas lived on Earth, and before they each had unique powers, they were equals. Whenever they
needed some special knowledge, they would ask Olorun, or Orunmila for help.

One day, an Orisha named Oko wondered why he should have to do that. He thought that if he had a
special knowledge of a certain thing, then people could ask him and not have to hassle Orunmila. So Oko
asked Orunmila for special powers to distinguish him from humans.
Ogun also asked Orunmila for special power to keep the world going. Soon, all the Orishas wanted
powers. Orunmila was distressed. He held all the Orishas in equal esteem. He thought, "there are many
powers to be shared. To whom should I give one power or another?"
One day, he went for a walk and met Agayma (?~6:13) the chameleon, who asked Orumila what was
wrong. Orumila explained and Agayma(?~6:19) responded, "Perhaps it would be best to leave the
distribution to chance. Return to the sky. Then send messengers to announce that on such and such a
day you will pour the powers down on the Earth. Let each Orisha catch what he can or retrieve it from
the place where it falls. Whatever powers an Orisha collects in this way will be his. By sending your
messengers you will have given everyone equal notice and no one can say 'Orunmila neglected me.'"
Orunmila followed this advice. When he sent out the messengers, the Orishas said, "Orunmila does a
good thing. Thank him for us. We will receive what he rains down on us."
Five days later, the powers fell from the sky. The Orishas waited in the fields, and ran to catch them.
They weren't all equally fast, strong, or persistent, so not all were able to get as large or desirable a
portion of Orunmila's bounty, but everyone got something.
Thanks, Thought Bubble. So, man, I love this origin story! It explains how the Orishas came to have their
roles. Unlike the Greek Olympians, who were seemingly born with their attributes, the Orishas, while
not exactly human, don't have have any special abilities or knowledge until Orunmila rains 'em down.
And after he does, they're not all equal in their abilities, explaining why some Orishas have a lot of
power, and why some just get to make really delicious side dishes.
Think about Orunmila for a second. He seems to be all-powerful. He could easily assign special
characteristics to Orishas as he sees fit, thus, increasing his influence over them, or he could just ignore
them all together. He's powerful, why help these noobs?
But no. Not only does he distribute divine favors, but attempts to be fair in the process, providing a
lesson for how humans, and especially rulers, should behave.
And despite his own power, Orunmila can't solve his problem without the help of a very wise
chameleon, demonstrating the fallibility of Orishas, and the connection between their world and the
world of animals. Animals play a big role in many African stories, and we're gonna see more on that in a
later episode.
This story echoes another Orisha myth, featuring Olorun, that explains the human condition. In this
story, Olorun responds to the humans of the first city (?~8:24) who demand inequality.
As one man claimed, "There is nothing that is unequal among us and there is nothing to differentiate us!
We speak the same language, we live in the same town and we each own equal amounts of possessions!
No one among us has more than any other and yet, no one has less than anyone else...There is
absolutely no variety in anything in our lives! Why is it that we are all the same?"
Like Orunmila, Olorun didn't want to give in to the humans' demands. He knew that differences
between people would lead to strife. He sent Eshu to explain this, but the people of (?~9:01) wouldn't
listen, and eventually, Olorun relented. He sent Eshu to hand out differences to people in the
marketplace, and woah, big surprise here, chaos ensued.

marketplace, and woah, big surprise here, chaos ensued.
People complained about their individual differences. One woman saying, "Why are men treating us so
badly," and another, "why are they acting superior to us?" So the next time someone makes a sexist
comment, blame Eshu. But also the person making the sexist comment too.
Chaos and war were bred from Olorun's inequality. Eventually, the people couldn't even get along with
each other, and they had to leave (?~9:36). This caused the formation of new nations, tribes, cities, and
kingdoms, and according to the story, "In this manner, inequality prevailed among the people of Earth."
This story is a direct echo of the origins of the Orishas powers, and shows just how similar the gods and
humans are. As with the other pantheons we've seen, gods in human form have human frailties, which
may make them more relatable as objects of worship, but also makes it easier to criticize them, or see
them as fallible.
Perhaps this helps explain why much of the world that worships a divine being has chosen to put its faith
in a power that, for the most part, (?~10:12) human form and human emotions. But, can they make
delicious cassava?
Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.
(Crash Course theme music) Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available
now at dftba.com
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacy (?~10:33) studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is
produced by the help of all these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Caf, and Crash Course
exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon.
Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support the content that you love through a
monthly donation to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever. Thanks for watching, and when
you've got a seemingly unsolvable problem, remember, just ask a chameleon.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/J2se_zimj40/>

Theories of Myth: Crash Course Mythology #12
Hey there Im (?~0:01)Mike Riginetta, this is Crash Course Mytholgy and in the first ep. of this series
we defined what we mean by myth. I also said that we weren't going to get too theoretical because
the theory of mythology gets complicated quickly.
But you all have asked for an episode on theories of mythology and if you know me and the other
things that I make, you know how I feel about talking theory. So, that's what we're going to do. And
ok, that ask might have just been some strong arming from (?~0:26)Toat, but who can say no to that
face. (theme song)
NewSection ():36)
So let's look at how people think about mythology and give you some ideas on how to analyze myths
yourself.
We're going to start with the definition of myth-ology. Unlike myths themselves, as we've already
pointed out are difficultly to define, mythology is pretty straight forward since in English -olgy
basically means the study of. Mythology is the systematic study of myths. A thing you have probably
already figured out for yourself at this point in the series.
The real question is how are myths studied and for that we are going to jump in our time machine
courtesy of (?~1:15) Zervon, the Zerastrian god of time. Check your divine flux capacitor and buckle
up.
So, we start in Ancient Greece In the first ep I mentioned that critical analysis of myths has been
around for a long time. As early as the mid-500s BCE, presocratic philosophers like Xenophanes
were criticizing (?~1:26)Hessiade and Homer for attributing all of the evil and shameful aspects of
humanity to the gods.
Plato was among the first to equate myths with lying. And as we discussed in ep 1, that idea has
stuck. But Plato further complicated this issue because he claimed that myths about gods, heroes,
and fantastical creatures were irrational, and therefore, false. Yet, philosophical myths, like the ones
he put forward in the Republic served a rational purpose and were true.
Sorry(?~1:58) Toat, your going to have to talk it over with Veritas, the Roman goddess of truth.
(02:00) to (04:00)
A little bit after Plato came an influential thinker (?~2:02)Euhermerous, he assumed that people who
lived before him were primitive with no concept of science, so they created fanciful versions of
historical events to explain things they didn't understand.
In (?~2:15)euhemerimous opinion Zeus was an early human king whose deeds became legendary,
and as those legends were retold he transformed into a god. Euhemerism has come to mean

and as those legends were retold he transformed into a god. Euhemerism has come to mean
interpreting "myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time-distorted accounts of
long past historic events." Although Euhmerrous wasn't particuarly influential in his own time, his
ideas were picked up later by Roman thinkers. Especially Christians.
Early Church thinkers like Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria took up the Platonic since of myth as
falsehood and upon it they based a new theory. The Greek and Roman myths were influenced by
demons, who wanted the story to prepare the listeners for the story of Jesus and to provide a
contrast between him and the pagan gods. So, I mean, those are some pretty helpful demons, I
guess.
These early mythologists set up a dichotomy between mythos, associated with falsehood, and logos,
which Christian thinkers associated with transcendent truth. This synthesis between Plato and
Christianity was the basis of western mythology until the (?~3:22)Renissance.
For many centuries Europian artist drew a great deal from classical Greek and Roman myths, but
mythology as a study didn't really take off until the 18th and 19th century. Drawing of the
linguistic discover of the languages of India, South-west Asia, and Europe are all related. The're all
derived from a single language, now know as (?~3:40)Proto-Endo Europiean.
The discovery of Proto-Endo European landed some to (?~3:46)posset that it was spoken by a
group called Ayrians. Whose myths were the bases for all European, Indian, and South-west Asian
myths. A purported explanation for their similarities.
In addition, to the Ayrian hypothesis, this discovery also gave way to a broadly
comparative mythology... (4:03)
(04:00) to (06:00)
.. a broadly comaparitive mytholgy that focused more on content than function. There is no real
evidence that the Ayrians ever existed, but that didn't stop Romantic thinkers like Johann Gottfried
Herder who believed that their myths, along with other things, embodied the simplicity and purity of
the German folk.
Now, that sounds (?~4:20) innocuous enough until we learn that the Nazies would later apprporiate
Herder's progerman ideas to justify their atrocotice (?~4:28) and legitimise their hateful ideology.
The study of myth changes again in the 20th century when it joins forces with the new dicipline of
Anthropology. Anthropologist wouldn't just read about myths in libraries, they would conduct field
work to discover how myths functioned in living societies. Although, in the early days of
Anthropology the object of study was still societies considered primitive, at least by those
anthropologists.
Thought bubble(4:54)
Let's go to the thought buble. One of the towering figures in this new way of studying myths was the
Scottish (?~5:01) anthropologist Sir James Fraiser, who could really rock a beard. His 12 volume
book the Golden (?~5:06) Vow centers on different versions of a myth in which sacred kings are
slaughtered in order to ensure a bountiful harvest.

Frasier supported the concept of myths as primitive science, which attribute to the will of dieties,
people, or animals that which modern science attributes to the impersonal functioning of various
physical laws and biological processes. That's another way of saying-Hey if you haven't quiet
mastered physics, blame a god. To be honest, that's what I do. Whooo... a god?
One of the mythologist to follow Fraiser (?~5:36) Branis Lawmonaski did field work in the Trobrland
islands and outlined the new anthropological of myth that grew out of working with living people.
Studied alive myth is not symbolic but a direct expression of its subject matter; ...a narrative
resurection of a primeval reality...Myth fufills in primitive cultures an indispensible function; it
expresses, enhances, and codifies belief; it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches for the
efficiency of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man. (6:11)
(06:00) to (08:00)
Yeah, that primative peoples part is a little hard to take. Early anthropology was pretty judgy but his
new approach had the advantage of focusing on what so-called primative people know, rather than
what they don't. Building on the work of anthropologists, recent mythologists have tried to connect
their work to the lived experiences of actual human beings.
(Thought Bubble theme) Thanks, Thought Bubble. At around the same time anthropology was
gaining prominence, the new field of psychology was also looking to myths for an explanation of
human experience. Two of the best known psychologists, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, (?~
6:44) that the source of myths is the human unconscious, and that mythical characters are
projections of that unconscious.
We're gonna return to these thinkers in a later episode, but for now, it's helpful to understand the
fundemental difference between the two.
For Freud, the unconscious is the true psychical reality, but our conscious minds, like Tom Cruise,
"can't handle the truth!" So we make these terrible realities palatable by creating imaginative works,
like myths, which are strategies for managing the internal forces that shape our thoughts, feelings,
and actions.
Jung similarly saw myths as a projection of the unconscious, but for him, the unconscious was
collective and universal, not individual. It's like a reservior from which we all drink. A reservior with
more dreams, and less flouride. They put that in the reservior itself, right?
Jung defined a number of archetypes that he saw as aspects of every person's psyche and in his
estimation, the characters that appear in myths are versions of these archetypes. The collective
nature of the human consciousness may be one reason we can find similar mythic characters from
stories originating in many parts of the world.
And of course, we couldn't do an episode on theories of mythology without mentioning the best
known mythologist of the twentieth century, let's hear it for Joseph Campbell!
(08:00) to (10:00)
Campbell became famous in the eighties for a television series, "The Power of Myth," also with Bill
Moyers. And George Lucas also credited Campbell with influencing Star Wars. Luc--as..he's your

Moyers. And George Lucas also credited Campbell with influencing Star Wars. Luc--as..he's your
father. More on that later.
Campbell's understanding of myth, and particularly, of hero stories is a reflection of the American
valorization of rugged individualists. For Campbell, "Mythology is untimately and always the vehicle
through which the individual finds a sense of identity and place in the world."
Campbell synthesized the idease of psychanalysts, comparative mythologists, and literary and
cultural critics to create his own thory of a single monomyth that underlies all mythical stories.
Meanwhile, French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, no relationship to the blue jeans, developed
a theory for describing myths by looking at their structure. Structuralism holds that specific instances
of culture, like myths, betray a much more complicated, underlying structure. What that structure is
and how it works depends upon which structuralist you're talking to. Levi-Strauss, arguably the first
structuralist, was all about binaries. Culture is built on the relationship between male and female,
hero and villain, even cooked and raw, among many others. For him, myths, like all units of culture,
sit atop these inescapable opposing binaries, and since many students of mythology will have heard
of him and his theories, we should also mention Romanian religious historian Mircea Eliade, even
though his personal politics have overshadowed his scholarship in many circles.
Eliade was a Romanian nationalist who associated with a pro-fascist group, and thus his reputation,
like that of (?~9:43) and Nietcze has suffered. Hey, mythologists, no more chilling with fascists,
okay? I feel like I shouldn't even have to ask this. Eliade was also a fan of binaries, particularly the
sacred and the profane as well as the archaic and the modern. For Eliade, archaic people were
more in touch with the sacred, and today, myths allow us to escape the profane, to travel back to the
past and re-encounter the sacred.
(10:00) to (12:00)
Structuralist theory was very popular at the end of the 20th century, but it also left a lot of people
wondering "So what? What do we gain by reducing all myths to a set of patterns or even to one
single pattern? What does that really tell us about why cultures use myth or how myth reveals
culture?" Contemporary approaches have pioneered some new methods of asking and answering
these questions.
William Doty proposes giving students a myth toolkit, which includes a series of questions to ask
when reading myths, centering on several concerns--the social, the psychological, the literary,
textual and performative, the structural, and finally, the political. These provide a broader way of
looking at myths.
Wendy Doniger provides an updated version of comparative mythology, asking myth readers to look
also at the context in which the myth is told, exploring difference. These more contemporary ways of
looking at myths fit well with the complex view of the world that we try to take here at CrashCourse,
but we're not gonna follow any one school of thought when it comes to how we -ology these here
myths. We like being eclectic and have no interest in forcing you to see myths in one particular
way. Hathor, Hungarian God of Force, got my eye on you. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next
time.
Check out our CrashCourse: Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
CrashCourse: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis,

CrashCourse: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis,
Indiana. It is produced with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought
Cafe and CrashCourse exists to the generous support of our Patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
donation to help keep CrashCourse free for everyone forever. CrashCourse is made with Adobe
Creative Cloud.
(12:00) to (12:15)
Check the description for a link for a free trial. Thanks for watching, and you know what, I've been
thinking about so I've gotta come clean, don't feel great about that Star Wars joke earlier. I'm real
sorry.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/blFaiB5kj6I/>

Great Goddesses: Crash Course Mythology #13
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is CrashCourse: Mythology, and today, we're gonna talk about
symbols and dreams and a couple of very busty figurines. It's the great mother goddess. You
excited, Thoth? Yeah, I know, you don't have a mother, you created yourself, but come on, she's
the best, unless, of course, she doesn't exist, and if that's the case, what do I do with all of these
great goddess Mother's Day cards?
(Intro)
The mother goddess is an archetype. Psychology fans will know about archetypes from the work of
Carl Jung, who saw the repeated patterns in myths as emanations of what he dubbed humanity's
collective unconscious, meaning the symbols and ideas that all humans share simply as a result of
being human.
Archetypes can be used to explain why the same patterns emerge in different myths from different
places throughout the world. Some of the archetypes that repeat all willy nilly are the dying god, the
destroyer god, the trickster, and the primordial pairing of the sky and the earth. Hey sky dad, hey
earth mom. The archetypes we'll be examining in the next few episodes are just those. The father
creator and the great mother. Ugh, cosmic parents. I'm gonna guess the upside is that if you have
to move back in with them after graduation, their basement is literally infinite. Downside being, of
course, that it is also literally Hades.
We're doing an episode on female divinity before archetypal male divinity because there are some
theories that earth mom actually did come first. As I pointed out, most human societies are
patriarchal and have been for a long, long time, but certain historians, sociologists, archaeologists,
literary critics, and mythologists have argued that in prehistoric times, human societies were more
matrifocal, less violent, and more cooperative. The idea that human societies began as matrifocal
and goddess oriented goes back a long, long way, with scholars asserting that many, if not most,
primitive societies featured a religion that was based around ideas of fertility and motherhood.
(02:00) to (04:00)
According to mythologists Scott Leonard and Michael LeCleur, "Throughout the 19th and 20th
centuries, the literature of several disciples took for granted the existence of primal mother or great
goddess and further assumed that her religion and the societies based upon it were part of the
primitive past from which man happily escaped through the logocentric power of intellect." Yeah,
that's right. We reasoned ourselves right out of peace, fertility, and harmony. Good going, human
mind.
A leading proponent of the great goddess theory was Marija Gimbutas, who connected archaeology
to the women's movement, and who probably would have liked it a lot if you put the (?~2:46) on your
sign at the women's march. Those involved with the goddess movement, of which Gimbutas was a
leader in, saw in this mother-centric religion "an appealing alternative to the brutality, materialism,
spiritual bankruptcy, and ecological shortsightedness of modern patriarchal social
systems." Whuh. Tell us what you really think.
The goddess movement is a very cool idea, but it does have a couple problems. For one, it's based
a lot on images like this one. Hey, there she is again, the (?~3:14). Sort of makes you feel more
fertile already, but here's the thing. The discovery of female figures like (?~3:20) was taken as

fertile already, but here's the thing. The discovery of female figures like (?~3:20) was taken as
evidence of religious practices that focused on the fertility aspects of the female, but there's no real
proof that figurines like these were part of any worship or ritual at all. Maybe they were just sexy
lawn ornaments. There are problems with creating a picture of female-centric social organizations
based on figures like this that signified fertility and magical desires for successful births. Also, we've
discovered lots of female figurines and not all of them have the attributes associated with fertility and
not all the figurines are female. Many of them are male, a lot of them were even androgynous. This
lack of gender specificity points to what might be the biggest challenge to the goddess school: it
relies on modern gender binaries and stereotyping.
(04:00) to (06:00)
"Supporters of the goddess movement reversed the values of male-dominated, Victorian-era
science, which saw women as primitive, natural beings separate from and inferior to, rational men,
never questioning whether our prehistoric forebears imposed the same male-female polarities upon
their world or held the same assumptions about the erotic and the symbolic as we do." This is a
good reminder that we always need to be aware of how we are of how we are imposing our own
beliefs and values on history and pre-history, and if I can pose my own values for a second, yes,
Victorian science is the worst.
So maybe you believe in a fertile peaceful paleolithic matriarchal world order that spawned great
goddess myths around the world. Maybe you don't. But there are stories of goddesses from
everywhere and all times, and they share some similarities. One of the most common literary ideas
is that of the triple goddess, which Robert Graves wrote about in his book The White Goddess. An
influential typology, the triple goddess sorts goddesses into one of three types: virgin, mother, and
crone. If you find this virgin/mother/cronen thing troubling, you are not alone. It's a system that sees
women through the eyes of men and basically categorizes them on whether they're sexy, since that
is uncomfortable-making, we're gonna look at the basic roles of goddesses in myths in the terms
used by (?~5:31), life, death, and regeneration.
Goddesses of life are materal, often associated with the life-giving Earth. The Greek Gaia is a prime
example, although there aren't a lot of myths about her specifically. She's often supplanted by
Demeter. Sometimes, these life-giving goddesses are associated with primeval creation, like (?~
5:50) the Sumerian creation stories or (?~5:52), the great goddess of Mexico who swam through the
primordial waters of chaos in the form of an enormous crocodile, which seems like a pretty sweet
way to travel.
(06:00) to (08:00)
Life-giving goddesses are occasionally seen as protectors as well as nurturers. An example is the
Persian goddess, Anahita, who is sometimes depicted in armor, sometimes as a nurturing mother,
and who is said to have power over the water. In dry as heck with two hockey sticks Persia, water
mom brings forth and preserves life and as moms often do, also probably reminds you to shower.
Goddesses of death were often seen as queens of the Underworld, like Persephone who we've met,
and Isis, who was able to resurrect her husband, Osiris. In these roles, great goddesses control the
cycles of growth, decay, and rebirth, the seasons. One of the goddesses we met in an earlier
episode is (?~6:41) died and went to the Underworld after giving birth to fire. Her husband, (?~6:46)
went to look for her but finding her as a rotting corpse was terrifying, so he ran way. Can you blame
him? (?~6:52) considered this a divorce, which also seems reasonable, and so she returns to the
Underworld. On occasion, goddesses associated with death are portrayed as witches or
seers. Often appearing as wise old women, like the Greek witch Hecate, who was sometimes said
to have three heads: a snake's, a horse's, and a dog's, making her a one-goddess petting
zoo. Dead goddesses are also often associated with fate, apportioning a person's life, ordaining
health, disease, prosperity, and suffering. The Greek (?~7:22) and the Norse (?~7:24) were the
goddesses of type.

And finally, goddesses of regeneration often relate to sexuality in myths. Appearing as virgins or
nymphs, sometimes they're also responsible for creativity. According to Leonard M. McClure, "Their
pulsing sexual energies impel mortal creation to renew itself, and thus their influence redeems
individual mortality through beauty, passion, and offspring." Pulsing sexual energy, is it getting hot in
here or is it just these mother goddesses?
One other interesting thing about goddesses of regeneration: they seem to have a tendency to
bestow their favors on mortal men, and that just does not seem to work out.
(08:00) to (10:00)
For example, we're gonna go somewhere we haven't visited yet, Ireland. Take us there, Thought
Bubble. One Irish regeneration goddess is (?~8:10) of the golden hair, whose name means
beauty. (?~8:14) was the daughter of the sea and Tir-nan-og, the land of the blessed. One day, (?~
8:19) stole the poet (?~8:20) away from his people and brought him to Tir-nan-og, where they lived
together as lovers for what turned out to be a very long time. While he was with her, (?~8:30)
remained young and virile. Enchanted as he was, (?~8:34) forgot about his people, who continued
to age and to die as mortals tend to do. He stayed in Tir-nan-og for centuries. Really, it's tough to
blame him. But (?~8:46) became homesick. Eventually, (?~8:48) grew tired of his complaining, so
she sent him home on a magical horse, with a warning not to dismount. But as soon as the magical
steed touched human soil, the saddle buckle broke and (?~8:59) fell to the ground. In an instant, all
of the centuries that (?~9:03) had spent on the isle of the blessed caught up with him and he grew
old and died.
Strangely, there's an almost identical story from Japan. In this one, the sea goddess Oto-Hime falls
in love with a mortal fisherman and takes him to her palace under the sea. After a few days of
romance, the fisherman starts to worry about the people he left at home. He begs Oto-Hime to let
him return and she agrees, but only if he promises to carry a tiny box to the surface and never open
it. So, you see where this is going? Hundreds of years had passed, not just a few days, guess
what, he opens the box. All of the years that had passed surrounded him like a mist and his body
withers into dust.
Thanks for that, Thought Bubble, that was uplifting? So great mother goddesses can create the
world and grant you fertility and peace and equality and all that other good stuff, or they can steal
you away from your home, ravish you for a couple centuries, and then turn your body into dust, and
that's part of what makes great goddesses so powerful.
(10:00) to (11:11)
No matter what form they take, usually multifaceted, unlike some gods I could
name. coughZeuscough. Great goddesses are almost always complex and contradictory, which is
the way we like it here at CrashCourse. I'm definitely sending that Mother's Day card now. Thanks
for watching, we'll see you next time.
Check out our CrashCourse: Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
CrashCourse: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis,
Indiana. It is produced with the help of all of these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought
Cafe. CrashCourse exists thanks to the generous support of our Patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
voluntary subscription service where you can support the content you love with a monthly donation
to keep CrashCourse free for everyone forever.
CrashCourse is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the description for a link to a free
trial. Thanks for watching, and if we've learned anything today, it's that those old mythic words ring

trial. Thanks for watching, and if we've learned anything today, it's that those old mythic words ring
true, "Don't look in the box, Chicago!"
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/cpM-pfh-WWo/>

Archetypes and Male Divinities: Crash Course Mythology
#15
I'm Mike Rugnetta. This is Crash Course Mythology and hey, Thoth, can we talk man-to-man? Man-to-
God? Man-to-Ibis-and-sometimes-Baboon because today's episode is about Mythological men and what
unites them among different cultures. We've been talking about gods for months But now we're going
to look at them more theoretically and divide them into groups based on their archetypal functions in
myth. Grab your Papyrus, Thoth, so you can take notes. I promise it won't be rote.
We examined female divinity archetypes in the last two episodes and mythologists have categorized
male divinities into a similar set of archetypes. Across countless myths when male gods appear It's
usually in one of six forms. Fathers and/or sons, kings and judges, saviors and sages, Shamans,
Tricksters, and the lords of destruction and just if you got excited about finally figuring out the name of
your new death metal band, I've got some bad news, it's already taken so. So let's begin at the beginning
with fathers and sons.
We've talked about creation myths and divine families, so you already know that in a lot of cases a son
overthrows his father to usurp his spot. This can get pretty bloody and, as is the case with Uranus and
Cronus and Zeus, can even involve castration. One reason god-sons might be eager to topple their divine
fathers is that these fathers are often aloof Especially in creation myths, it's common for all-Powerful
father figures to live in the sky being all unapproachable for their children.
According to Scott Leonard and Michael McClure in patrifocal myths, all seek the father's love and
approval; all long for even a glimpse of his face; and all live in terror of his wrath. You can just picture
Apollo asking Zeus if he'll come outside to like kick the soccer ball around - "Come on dad, please?"
Meanwhile Zeus is just lightning-bolting things - he's busy working. In other myths, sons become
symbols of their fathers attributes or conduits for their father's knowledge and abilities.
Take Odin and his sons Tyr and Balder; they epitomize their father's bravery and wisdom respectively
and Thor is a distillation of Odin's military and reproductive power. We see something similar in a
Korean myth about the heavenly ruler Hwaning. Before any people exist on Earth, Hwaning teaches his
son Hwanung the secrets of the heavenly kingdom and allows him to descend to Earth to create a new
society.
The advice allows Hwanung to rule more effectively over the earth, and later he passes the same
wisdom on to the first man, Dangun, so that he can recreate the heavenly order himself. Gods hate
weeding, but they love order. in Hwanung's transition from archetypal son to father, marked by passing
on knowledge to humans, he also embodies another male archetype: God as king or judge. There's no
clear reason why pantheons of gods would need to be organized like terrestrial governments but there
are countless myths where gods are in human leadership roles.
For instance, sky gods like Zeus are often described as reigning like Kings and also partying like kings, if
you ask Leticia, Roman goddess of festivity. Historically, myths featuring gods as kings have helped
justify monarchical power on Earth. They create an equivalence between the terrestrial kings' ability to
provide security and the gods' ability to do the same.
In some traditions male divinities also act as judges; often judges of human souls. In Egyptian myths,
Osiris and 42 other gods test the souls of the dead to see if they were Maat Kheru, or true of voice. At
times Osiris and Anubis are pictured weighing a soul in the form of a heart against a feather and Thoth
would record the results.

would record the results.
Nice work, pal. No matter how well a human has learned from their father figure, sometimes things get
out of hand. Mythology is brimming with stories of bailouts in the form of a savior god.
This salvation can be a sacrifice like the Aztec myth of Nanahuatl who throws himself onto a fire to
become the sun that will nourish humanity - more on that in our episode about dying gods. More often
though gods act as saviors by providing knowledge and guidance that humans need to thrive spiritually
and survive actually. Usually these saviors don't die, but instead impart some important, often sacred,
knowledge that if followed leads to salvation.
We can make a case for Prometheus, who gives people fire, as a kind of sage and maybe we can read
the biblical story of Jesus as a combination of savior and sage; just two great tastes that taste great
together. According to William Doty, the Shaman is a figure who can enter the world of spirits easily
because of the powers granted to her or him by such beings. Often a Shaman will travel to spiritual
realms, journeying on a road that puts him in contact with supernatural forces that most people cannot
see.
It can be tricky to see shamans as gods rather than human heroes because human Shamans exists in
many cultures, both historically and currently. It may be more helpful to think of some gods as having
the skills or attributes of Shamans, specifically the use of supernatural power to provide or find the
answers to pressing questions. For example, the Celtic deity the Dagda has a magic cauldron from which
he draws special items; messenger gods like Hermes sprint between the Earth, the Heavens and the
Underworld.
Hermes himself was the God of alchemists and magicians and, functionally similar to Hermes, is our
good friend Thoth. Thoth was also a heavenly messenger, often credited with special if not mystical
knowledge about things like mathematics, astronomy, the alphabet and writing: that's why Thoth here is
the patron god of Crash Course; not because his name is fun to say, but because he's awesome. High
five, pal.
Another important archetypal role for male gods is the trickster. This one is so fun that we're going to be
devoting a few episodes to it in the future. We've already seen tricksters like Eshu, who you may
remember from our episode on Orishas, and of course our old friend Loki, who you may remember from
him being the worst.
Trickster gods remind us that life's can be chaotic, and not just the creation from the void kind of
chaotic. There's plenty of mischief that we're going to talk about; you're going to have to wait. Our last
archetype of male divinity is the Lord of Destruction, or Lord of the Underworld.
We've met this type before: Hades, Osiris looking at y'all's. Often they have dogs or dog-headed gods as
helpers, like Cerberus and Anubis, and sometimes lords of the underworld are connected with greed:
Pluto gives us the word plutocrat: someone who derives their power from their wealth; possibly
because kings of the underworld never give up a soul once they get one. Another possible explanation
for the strange connection between death and abundance is that some of these gods are linked with
seasonal renewal and thus fertility, and it's not surprising that many gods of battle are archetypically
male.
A good example of a battle god who combines many masculine divine attributes is Perune, the chief
Slavic deity. He sometimes pictured as a huge man with a silver face, a golden moustache and who
wields an enormous club, a battle ax, a bow and arrow and thunderbolts; basically, you name it, he is
going to stab someone with it. And then there's Balor, the Celtic war god of the Fomorians.
His single eye has a lid so heavy that it required servants to hoist it open which is probably a good thing

His single eye has a lid so heavy that it required servants to hoist it open which is probably a good thing
because anyone who fell under Balor of the stout blow's gaze was crushed in an instant. Talk about a
death stare. So as you've probably figured out, there's a lot of overlap among these archetypes.
A male god can be a king and a sage and a father and a warrior all at the same time or he can fulfill
different roles in different stories. A great example of this is the god Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita. The
Bhagavad-Gita is the sixth book in the Indian epic poem the Mahabharata; in the West, it's probably the
most well known section of the poem.
It tells the story of the Prince Arjuna and his charioteer, who happens to be Krishna, deciding what to do
on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Thought bubble's is going to help us out. In the middle of battle, Prince
Arjuna is torn between his duty as a warrior and family loyalty.
He has family on the opposite side, so he might harm them if he fulfilled his warrior Dharma. He's
deciding whether to be a warrior or renounce his role as a Kshatriya: a member of the Hindu military
caste. He says to Krishna, "Krishna, I see my kinsmen gathered here, wanting war.
My limbs sink, my mouth is parched, my body trembles, the hair bristles on my flesh, the magic bow
slips from my hand, my skin burns, I cannot stand still, my mind reels. I see omens of chaos, Krishna; I
see no good in killing my kinsmen in battle." Krishna acts as a sage; he answers Arjuna's question then
gives him the secret to living a good life, achieving immortality, and even becoming a sage himself. He
says, "You must learn to endure fleeting things - they come and go!
When these cannot torment a man, when suffering and joy are equal for him and he has courage, he is
fit for immortality." Then Arjuna asks to see Krishna in his true form. He is duly terrified and amazed. He
says, "You are the gods of wind, death, fire and water; the moon; the lord of life; the great ancestor...
You are father of the world of animate and inanimate things, its venerable teacher, most worthy of
worship... I bow to you." Arjuna realizes he must fulfill his destiny to be a warrior. Krishna, by embodying
various archetypes, helps Arjuna to become the best and most destructive version of himself.
Thanks Thought bubble. So it's interesting that even while Krishna is ultimately encouraging Arjuna to
rejoin the battle, he's also offering a way to achieve peace and salvation within the religious tradition of
Hinduism. Krishna even provides more than one path, inspiring Arjuna to follow his dharma, practice the
disciplines of Yoga and worship Krishna himself, a devotion called Bhakti.
When Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna, he is both creator and lord of destruction, glorious and terrible
to behold. He represents the multiplicity and complexity of divinity, common in Indian religious texts
and myths. He is lord and father, but also provides comfort like a friend or a lover, and he's a sage too
when he provides a path to salvation.
So really Krishna's pretty much the full God package. The fact that Krishna occupies almost every
archetype we've talked about helps illustrate what's useful about identifying archetypes in the first
place. Knowing about these categories allows us to see patterns in stories and even whole traditions.
Realizing that father figures take different forms in different cultures or often take the same form helps
us ground the connections between myth, culture and our beliefs about everyday life and what it means
to be a dude. Thanks for watching we'll see you next week. Check out our Crash Course Mythology
Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at dftba.com Crash course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and
Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is produced with the help of all of these nice people.
Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash Course exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons
at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support the content you love
through a monthly donation to help keep Crash Course free for everyone for ever.

through a monthly donation to help keep Crash Course free for everyone for ever.
Crash course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud; check the description for a link to a free trial. Thanks
for watching. Don't worry - You're going to find a name for your metal band.
It's out there. Probably in an episode about Egyptian Mythology.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/ue2PPZnaaNc/>

Floods in the Ancient Near East: Crash Course Mythology
#16
Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta. This is Crash Course Mythology and we've spent a lot of this series on how
various gods created the earth but now, it's time to look at one way they destroy it. Today's topic: is
floods. Oh! Thot put his swim trunks on! All right, we're all ready, let's get started.
Introduction (0:28)
You're probably familiar with the story of the flood from the bible featuring Noah, the ark... but, it
turns out a lot of cultures have flood myths. One explanation for this is the belief that myths are
rooted in history. Remember Euhemerism? Plus, many of the earliest complex societies grew
around rivers: which flood.
Most of the time that flooding was neither predictable nor helpful, except the Nile River whose floods
were regular, provided water for irrigation, and were thought to be of divine significance. Just ask
Sobek, crocodile god of the Nile's floods. Despite his frightening teeth, he also has a reputation for
healing, or protection in some stories. Anyway, flood myths also reflect a common theme of the
myths we've examined: the idea that Creation's source is 'primordial waters'.
If water can bring life, it stands to reason it can also bring death. You can see this symbolism in
various purification rituals like baptisms, prenuptial cleansings, they serve as tiny reenactments of
floods where an old life is destroyed, and a new life begins. A tiny, made to order, single-serving
flood.
Adorable, and destructive.
Ancient Mesopotamia (1:33)

Let's begin in Ancient Mesopotamia with one of our favorite mythical sources: The Epic of
Gilgamesh. Thought Bubble, whatcha got? At the beginning of this particular story, the hero
Utnapishtim is talking to Gilgamesh about living in the city of Shuruppak on the banks of the
Euphrates. He explains that a group of gods: Anu, Enlil, Ninurta, Ennugi, and Ea, put their divine
heads together and decided to flood the place. Luckily for Utnapishtim, Ea has second thoughts and
sneaks over to spill the beans.
Ea secretly tells Utnapishtim what's going down and orders him to leave his home, all his
possessions and to build a boat which will carry the sed of all living things. Utnapishtim's boat is
massive; an acre in circumference with six enormous decks. Utnapishtim and his family loaded up
with everything there was: all the silver, gold, and seeds of every living thing. His kith and his kin,
and the wild beasts, and all kind of craftsmen and also shuffle board and a killer buffet, I assume.
When the hour of destruction arrives, the gods sent down a terrifying storm. So terrifying that even
the gods were afraid of the flood wipe out(?~2:36) and when they see what they've done to their
creation, the gods, humbled, sat there, weeping. Woops.

The storm rages for seven days before eventually blowing itself out. Utnapishtim looks out of a
porthole and sees that all of mankind has been destroyed and he weeps. He's just become the first
crew ship captain under very unfortunate circumstances. His boat comes around on Mount Nimush
and Utnapishtim sends out birds to search for dry land.
First, a dove comes back because there was no place to perch, then the swallow returns. Finally, he
sends out a raven, and when it doesn't return, he knows dry land is out there somewhere. He makes
a sacrifice to the gods and amscrays off that oatbay lickety split.
Thank you Thought Bubble. So the flood destroys mankind, but it doesn't end there. Enlil, the brains
behind the decision to destroy humanity, sees that Utnapishtim and his family, and also probably the
craftsmen, have survived and he can't believe his eyes. What sort of life survived?
No man should have lived through the destruction. Ea, who had told Utnapishtim to build the giant
boat, chimes in "You are the sage of the gods, warrior, so how, O how, could you fail to consult, and
impose the flood? Punish the sinner for his sin, punish the criminal for his crime, but ease off, let
work not cease, be patient".
Ea tries to instill some moderation in Enlil, and suggests that maybe, in the future, he could just
send, like, a lion or a wolf or a plague, you know, something mild. Like a plague. Apparently this
satisfies Enlil because he shrugs and pops on down to Utnapishtim's boat and touches him on the
forehead to make him immortal.
I guess it all works out in the end for Utnapishtim. You know what they say: All's well that end's
well... or doesn't end at all ever because it's immortal. So this all probably sounds familiar to those of
you who know the flood story from the bible.
I don't remember Noah having room for every piece of gold and silver, alongside all those animals
but both stories have angry divinities who order a chosen person to order a big boat and fill it with
wildlife. Then birds are sent to find land after the boat gets stuck on a mountain. There are a number
of important differences though too.
First of all, the reason the Babylonian gods decided to destroy humanity is, well, it's unclear. In one
version it's because humans are making too much noise, which... okay, fair. Keep it down you kids!
Don't make me send a deluge down there and literally destroy you.
The Old Testament (5:01)

In the Old Testament the flood is punishment for mankind's sinfulness. As the book tells it, "God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth, and it
grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of
the Earth; both man and beast, and creeping things and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I
have made them," which I mean, man, I don't love the creeping things but I don't want them
destroyed, what about Anansi?

Yahweh commands Noah to build a boat like Ea did with Utnapishtim but Yahweh gives Noah even
more detailed instructions. He's also less efficient when it comes to the rainstorm. It takes Yahweh
40 days to do what the Babylonian God did in 7.
Then again those Babylonians were working as a team. Like the Sumerian myth, Noah celebrates
his survival with a sacrifice. This seems to make Yahweh feel both relieved and sorry for destroying
the world.
He says I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. Whoops
again. Yahweh doesn't make Noah immortal like Utnapishtim but he does promise Noah that he and
his sons will replenish the earth and he gives them all the living things of the earth for food along
with some rules for how they should be eaten, which, I mean, that's got to be pretty disappointing for
those animals right.
Like, yeah, we survived the flo- you're going to do what?! Most important, at least for this episode, is
that Yahweh establishes a covenant with Noah and promises that he will never have another flood
destroy the earth again. Somewhere in between the inscrutable Babylonian flood and the sin-
cleansing biblical flood, is the Zoroastrian flood, this is a myth that comes to us from ancient Iran, it
also features a lone survivor named Yima who gathers two of each species to repopulate the earth,
but rather than building a boat Yima gathers the animals in his mountain castle, which is high
enough to survive the rising flood waters.
The creator god Ahura Mazda decides that the earth needs a new beginning not because of sin, but
because it's overwhelmed by the constant multiplication of its immortal beings. This suggests that
prior to the flood Earth's inhabitants were immortal and it's only after this cleansing that we have a
world in which stuff dies. In yet another flood myth this one from Ovid's metamorphoses, Jupiter
decides to destroy mortals for their sinfulness.
Jupiter seems to be worried that humans might contaminate other earthly beings, which, I mean,
yeah, same. The gods don't all agree with Jupiter but they assent to his decision because... he's the
boss. They're sad because they'll miss all the delicious sacrifices that humans gave them, but they
agree that a flood is better than a fire, because fires can get out of control and then reach up to
Olympus.
Remember gods, only you can prevent heaven fires. So Jupiter gets together with Neptune, who
pumps up the river and whips up some high winds and, flood. There's no chosen survivors for
Jupiter, he's trying to just wipe the slate clean.
But luckily for humanity, two people: Deucalion and Pyrrha are fortunate enough to survive and so
life carries on. Jupiter obviously notices that these two dodged his wrath but he's so impressed with
Deucalion and Pyrrha's piety that he spares them. Like Utnapishtim and Noah, they give thanks in
prayer and like Noah, they're tasked with repopulating the world.
They do that by throwing stones over their shoulders which become more humans, and that kids, is
how babies are made, no follow-up questions. Today we learned that gods in the ancient
Mediterranean world seemed highly ambivalent about their creations, especially humans, but
especially creeping things. But also there's enough similarity in these myths to suggest that they may
have influenced one another, and that seems likely given the amount of cultural transmission in the
region.

region.
And we also learned that a good way to survive a flood is to be reasonably righteous, that helps
Deucalion and Pyrrha, Noah, and Yima but maybe the best way to survive the destruction of
humanity is to listen to the gods. Especially when they give you detailed instructions on how to build
a boat. Sometime life, like a flood, is unpredictable and frightening so it makes sense for us to look
for meaning in tragedy wherever we can find it and one way that we can find meaning is to tell a
story, and then to change into some dry clothes.
Thanks for watching we'll see you next week. Check out our Crash Course mythology Toth tote bag
and poster available now at http://www.dftba.com.
Crash Course: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana
and is produced by these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash Course
service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation and helps keep
Crash Course free for everyone, forever. Crash Course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud check
the description for a link to a free trial. Thanks for watching. And just so you know, that thing with the
rocks, is totally how babies are made.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/VA3j5_vKQfc/>

Yu the Engineer and Flood Stories from China: Crash
Course Mythology #217
Hey there, I'm Mike Rugneta, and this is Crash Course Mythology. And today we are going to
continue to inundate you with myths about the floods, and as you can see Thoth isn't gonna be
caught without a raft this time around. Last week we looked at the many mythic traditions that
feature a story about a god or gods bringing a flood to destroy humanity or at least teach them a real
good lesson. Today we are headed to China. Anchors aweigh.
(theme music plays)
Yu the Engineer (0:35)

So before we get started for real, now is probably a good time to mention that I don't speak Chinese.
So I'm gonna do my best, but be forewarned pronunciation carnage is about to happen. Bao Qian.
Long time CrashCourse fans will remember some of today's main story since it was featured in the
first season of CrashCourse World History. I'm talking about our old friend Yu the Engineer. But first,
let's take a step back and remember that in China real non-mythical flooding is a big and actual deal.
Thousands of years of flood control projects have made sure that flooding - especially of China's two
main rivers, the Yellow or Huang He and Yangtze - don't wipe out food supplies. An inability to
control floods was seen as a major shortcoming for emperors and often caused social unrest. Many
people believe floods to be natural disasters brought by divine forces demonstrating their
displeasure with the emperor. And of course if the floods destroy the food supply, hungry folks are
gonna rebel. Just ask Limos, Greek goddess of hunger. I wonder if there's a Greek god of being
hangry?
So in China anyone who was able to prevents flood or ameliorate their effects would be considered,
at the very least, a hero, and at the most, possibly a god. In one version of the Chinese flood myth,
the mythical King Shen had lost Heaven's favor, and the rivers started to overflow.
Yu came to the rescue, taming the flood. Shen was so impressed, that he eventually handed his title
over to Yu. This is the mythical origin of the first Chinese dynasty, the Xia.
In another version of the flood myth, the flood just happens for no apparent reason. The high god,
Di, calls upon the demigod Gun to stop it. Gun tries his hardest for nine years, but eventually admits
defeat. After Gun gives up, his son Yu takes up the task, kinda like the family business. Fortunately
for China, Yu has better luck than his father. He works for thirteen years straight to end the flood and
save the world.
The entire time Yu is the model of diligence and selflessness. In thirteen years, he never once
returns home to his wife. According to one story, he passes his house three times and never goes in.
With his dedication, Yu became a model for future Chinese rulers, the world's first workaholic, and a
pretty bad husband, it seems.
During those thirteen years, Yu tried lots of different flood control methods, but he also called upon a

During those thirteen years, Yu tried lots of different flood control methods, but he also called upon a
number of mythical helpers. His main solution to the flooding was to redirect the flood waters out to
the sea, often by building levees, canals, and dikes.
One time, he asked for help from Yin Long, the responding dragon, who used his tail to create a
floodwater-shifting barricade, directing the water out to sea - very cooperative for a dragon. In
another version of this story, Yu and the dragon also get help from a giant black turtle. Yu also got
some help from Hebo, the God of the Yellow River. Previously, Hebo was a human who drowned
while ferrying across the Yellow River, but the supreme god took pity on him, and made him God of
the River.
Yu started his flood control efforts at the Yellow River when a god with the face of a man and the
body of a fish came out of the water and explained that he was Hebo. He gave Yu a detailed map of
the locations of China's rivers to help him get a better picture of what he was up against. Yay part
human, part animal gods! Right Thoth?
As part of his efforts, Yu also had to defeat a number of monsters. He had to kill Xiangliu, a nine-
headed monster with the habit of turning perfectly good land into uninhabitable marshes. Some of
the other monsters he managed to spare, and even tame, but one creature, Wuzhiqi, the Monster of
the Huai River, gave Yu particular trouble. Wuzhiqi and his followers made gales and storms
prevented Yu from controlling the flood. This made Yu mad, so he gathered all the gods together
and ordered them to clear out the monsters.
Wuzhiqi's monster-god followers were frightened, and they surrendered to Yu, who put them in
jail. Wuzhiqi himself then appeared in the form of a monkey with a green chest, white head, yellow
eyes, and white paws. Oh, and also the power to stretch his neck a hundred feet, and the strength of
nine elephants. So that's one scary monkey.
Yu, who is not only a diligent worker, but also a consummate manager, delegated the job to taming
Wuzhiqi to a number of subordinates. Most weren't up to the task until Gengchen, who chained up
Wuzhiqi by his long neck and put a golden bell through his nose. After that, the Huai river wasn't
trouble anymore.
But of all the assistance that Yu received over his 13-year battle with flooding, no one was more
helpful than this wife Tushan-shi. Yu was too busy to come home, but Tushan-shi didn't take that
sitting down. Understanding the importance of the flooding, she worked to find ways to help. This is
clear in one of our favorite Yu flood stories. Favorite because Yu - spoiler alert! - changes into a
bear.
Thought Bubble (5:30)

Let's go to the Thought Bubble. Yu is starting to excavate a mountain in order to channel the flood
waters into the sea. Before he leaves for work, he tells Tushan-shi, who's nine-months pregnant, to
bring him food whenever she hears a drum. Then, he goes off to the mountain and transforms into a
bear, because duh, betters are much better at tunneling through mountains than men.
While he's working, he steps on the drum by mistake. Tushan-shi hears the drum and brings food to
Yu. But Yu is busy controlling floods also, you know...bearing around, so he fails to notice his wife.
Tushan-shi is standing there, looking at this bear of a husband and she's filled with shame to see
him in this form. Because apparently it's a shameful thing. Bear etiquette was pretty strict back then,
I guess.

I guess.
Tushan-shi runs away, and as she reaches the mountains base she starts to change into stone.
When Yu finishes work for the day and turns back into a man, he finds her. But Tushan-shi has
already turned to rock. Yu politely asked the rock if she could give him the baby. Tushan-shi obliges,
splitting open on her north side. Out of this fissure, their son, Qi, is born. This is the same Qi that
would later become the first Xia emperor. Though it's unclear what Qi thought about having a rock
for a mom and a sometimes-bear for a dad... That must have been tough on Parent-Teacher
Conference night.
Thank you, Thought Bubble
Flood Myths in China versus Others (6:57)

So, stories involving the Great Yu are quite different from the Jewish and Mesopotamian flood myths
we looked at in the last episode. For one thing, these floods don't represent the gods' attempt to
wipe out humanity. In fact, they don't seem to kill many people at all, at least not in the way the
ancient, Near East El Nio did. The emperor survives, so doesn't Yu's wife/rock plus the giant turtle.
Go turtle!
Yu is righteous like Utanpishtim, who survives the flood in the epic of Gilgamesh. He's chosen to
save the world, and he does so, but more through his intellect and hard work than the intervention of
the gods. I imagine that Yu would have been really grateful for direction on how to build dams and
levees, but he had to figure it out for himself. For 13 years.
Yu's devotion to duty in working to save China, which, in myths, stands for the world world, makes
him a model human being, and because of the way the stories end, a model emperor. He does
everything he can to improve the lives of his people by saving their homes and fields. He works
tirelessly without fail and demonstrates what can be accomplished if we set our mind and energy to
a task.
This might be the most significant difference between Yu myths and other floods. Noah and
Utanpishtim make for, relatively, shallow role models. Sure they follow God's instructions, but they're
not always the epitome of virtue. Noah even hits the bottle after inventing vineyards post-flood. Yu,
on the other hand, is meant to be read as a pristine model. In terms of a myth providing guidance for
how to live and, especially, how to rule, it doesn't get much better than Yu, his helpful dragon friend,
and his legendarily patient wife.
Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week.
Credits (8:36)
Check out our CrashCourse Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
Crash Course: Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana
and is produced by these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash Course
service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation and helps keep
Crash Course free for everyone, forever. Thanks for watching and thanks for bearing with all of our

Crash Course free for everyone, forever. Thanks for watching and thanks for bearing with all of our
pronunciation issues. Rock.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/A90jB9WlvYY/>

American Floods: Crash Course World Mythology #18
Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today it's everybody back in the pool! Or
river, or storm drain overflow from divine rainstorms. That's right, it's our final flood episode, and we're
heading west to the Americas. Surf's up Thoth!
[theme music]
We've already talked about floods from the Ancient Near East, at the point between Europe, Africa, and
Asia, and last week we covered the floods of China in East Asia. But it turns out that essentially
anywhere there's a civilization, there's a story of that civilization being destroyed by water. One myth
from the Inca empire should sound familiar at this point.
Viracocha was the supreme god of the Incas, and considered the father of the other gods and creator of
the world. Viracocha eventually became tired of the race of giants he'd created to populate the earth.
He thought they were lazy and bad-tempered, and they always forgot his birthday. So, I bet you can get
how he decided to get rid of those forgetful behemoths. That's right, a flood. Viracocha's flood rose up
even higher than the Andes Mountains, high enough to drown the giants and, in some versions, all of
humanity along with them. A single lucky couple survived by floating in a box.
The box drifted to Tiahuanaco. When it came to rest, Viracocha made a new people with the surviving
couple. As a reminder of the flood, we have Lake Titicaca, and Lake Poop. The latter disappeared in
2016 as a result of climate change, and humans diverting its waters for mining. So, it's not just Viracocha
who can destroy life in the Andes.
No review of New World myths would be complete without a quick visit to the Popul Vuh. It's one of our
best sources for understanding the world of the Mayans before the arrival of Europeans. You might
remember from our creation myths episode that in Meso-America, the deities went through a number
of attempts at birthing the world before getting it right.
In the creation story, I recounted the animals that were created couldn't talk. No helpful dragons like
Yu the engineer had in China, so the gods started over. And as it turns out, the creator once messed up
humans, too. Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
In the beginning, the creator made humans out of wood. These wooden people could do a lot of things
we can--walk, talk, have children, build houses (let's not think too hard about out of what), but they
were dry and yellow and their faces had no expression because they had no minds, nor souls, nor hearts.
They beat their dogs and they burned the bottoms of their cooking pots. They had forgotten how they
were made, and couldn't remember any of the names of God. So he said, "These men will not do either.
I must destroy them also." And, really, can you blame him? Dog beaters, unbelievable.
So the creator sent - you guessed it - a great flood, knocking down the houses of the wooden men. The
wooden men tried to escape, but the animals they had starved and beaten and cooking pots they had
burned and the trees whose branches they had chopped off all turned against them and wouldn't help
them. Only a few of them escaped from their flood, and it is said that their descendants are the
monkeys. And this is why you should never let a monkey cook. No offense, Thoth.
After reflecting, the creator said, "It is time. I need men on the earth who will know my names, who will
obey me and love me, who will nourish and sustain me. So he made a man out of cornmeal, and used
nine kinds of liquor to give strength to his new creations. He made four men and four women, and they
were very happy. The creator was scared that these new creations might be too powerful, though. So

were very happy. The creator was scared that these new creations might be too powerful, though. So
the creator blew a mist over their eyes and clouded their vision. But the people were still thankful.
When the sun came up and the puma and the jaguar roared, the men and the women danced with joy
because they were alive. And possibly drunk.
Thanks, Thought Bubble. The Popul Vuh creation myth gives us insight into the troubling nature of
creation and humanity. As in many of the other myths we've seen, there's something not quite right
about mankind at first. The gods always want a big watery do-over. This myth differs from those we saw
in the Mediterranean world in a few ways. First off, Viracocha didn't find any human beings sinless
enough to spare. Also, apparently only humans are victims of this flood. That's a little bit weird since
those humans are made of wood, which usually floats. Wouldn't fire work better? I probably would have
gone with fire. Wait, am I a vengeful god?
Perhaps the reason the creator couldn't find a worthy survivor is that those wooden people were just a
bad idea to begin with. This failed creation was the fault of the creator himself, not "misbehaving
humans."
There's something humble about this myth. The god messes up, owns up, and tries again. You know that
old pithy saying, "If at first you don't succeed, wash that entire race of people away in a divine deluge
and try again."
Our last flood story is an Aztec tale from Oaxaca in Mexico, and probably predates Columbus. In this
myth, a god called The Old One tells one chosen man to abandon his chores because the world is gonna
be destroyed.
The Old One tells the man to plant a seeder tree, because - as we all know, gods don't garden - and to
find himself a carpenter who can make a canoe. The man does as he's told and miraculously a giant
seeder tree grows in a single night, and the man finds a carpenter to build a canoe. The carpenter does
fine work by the way, just not so fine that he gets to survive what's about to go down.
You know what happens next, the rain comes and the earth is destroyed, but the canoe floats on top of
the waters and the man and his family are spared. The rain stops, the earth dries up, and the man comes
out of his canoe, and catches some fish to eat. But then The Old One tells the man that he must not
make a fire.
Soon, The Old One smells something from the earth. He comes down, and he finds the man cooking the
fish on a fire, the nerve!
The Old One says,"Who gave you permission to catch fish? And you were told not to make fire, yet you
are doing it. I told you not to make fire, you fool. Now you will have to serve as an example for the new
people," and The Old One hits him over the head. "Because you did not listen, I am going to change you
into a howler monkey."
In another version of this myth, the man survives with a dog, and the dog is the one that cooks for him.
Eventually, he discovers that the dog is actually a woman, and they marry, and then they create a new
race of humans - Because mythology.
No matter which version we're talking about though, we have to wonder why the man who survived
was chosen. I mean yeah, he can plant a seeder seed, but there must have been better options.
These myths are fascinating for a number of reasons, on a number of fronts. Notice the monkey
transformation theme...coincidence? Maybe not. Even though the Mayan Empire and the Aztec Empire
didn't exist at the same time, they were pretty close geographically, and probably shared some stories.
They also probably both hung out with monkeys.

They also probably both hung out with monkeys.
When we compare these flood storied to the ones in Gilgamesh or the Bible, there are interesting
similarities and differences. After all, The Old One picks out a special individual to be the sole survivor of
his water reset button, but Noah and Utnapishtim were chosen because of their unfailing loyalty and
faith.
The survivor of The Old One's flood, and pretty much every version, is characterized by disobedience. It
makes one wonder about each cultures respective evaluation of loyalty versus independence, and
whether that Aztec survivor was meant as a disobedient role model, or a fish cooking cautionary tale.
No matter where they come from though, flood myths seem to be mainly about punishing humanity for
transgression. That's usually wickedness, but sometimes, as in Yu the engineer story, it's the poor
management of estate by the king. These stories tell people that when bad things like floods happen,
they happen because, well, we deserve them.
They also remind us that humanity is imperfect, but the gods who created us are as well. Again and
again, the gods in these stories feel like they've made a mistake in creating mankind and they wanna just
start over. No matter how hard they try, humans just kinda keep screwing up. Even when a god tries to
get it right, and want to start from scratch, they can't. Or maybe, we can't. Because after all, I guess
we're only human.
Thanks for watching, we'll see you next week.
[Closing music]
Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster, available now at dftba.com.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is
produced by the help of all of these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Caf. Crash Course
exists thanks to generous support from our patrons at Patreon.
Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support the content you love through a
monthly donation to help keep Crash Course free, for everyone, forever. Thanks for watching, and really,
deep down, aren't we all nine kinds of liquor?
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/GrTXHeSHGSE/>

The Dying God: Crash Course World Mythology #19
Hey there. I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're going to talk about the
dying god, a specific archetype of god that might seem counterintuitive considering lots of the myths
we've already talked about feature gods who are immortal. The dying god trope, though, is one found in
many regions throughout the world, but especially in the Greco Hellenistic Roman, which includes Egypt.
Don't worry though, Thoth is fine. He's just more of like a death secretary. Alright, let's go.
[theme music]
The dying god is - you guessed it - a god who dies, and is often, but not always, reborn. Sometimes gods
die for the benefit of their people, in which case they're a savior, as we discussed in a previous episode.
Other times the god is reborn, actually or symbolically, so these stories also have something in common
with the myths that represent regeneration or seasonal rebirth.
In the West, the most well-known story of a dying god is, of course, the crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus. We're not going to get into that one here because it's a widely studied story that y'all are likely
familiar with. Instead, let's start with an iconic dying god from ancient Greece, the story of Adonis.
Nowadays, calling some dude an Adonis is shorthand for saying that he is super hot, but originally,
Adonis was the Greco-Roman version of a Semitic god, sometimes identified with Osiris. In Semitic
languages like Hebrew, Adonis's name is Adonai, or Lord, so Adonis's significance goes way beyond killer
abs.
In some versions of the Adonis story, his mother was a virgin. In others, he's the result of incest between
his mother and her father, a king. Still other versions claim that Adonis may have been born out of a
myrrh tree. So for those of you keeping track at home, we've had several brain babies, a thigh baby, one
stone baby, and now, our first tree birth.
Probably the best known version of the Adonis myth comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which details
Venus's mad love for the beautiful young god. However, we can't give Adonis all the credit. Venus only
fell for him after one of Cupid's arrows grazed her breast. She leaves Olympus to chase Adonis around
the woods. She warns him not to be too risky in his hunting, but, as you can probably guess, Adonis does
not listen. He's killed by a boar that gores him in the groin. Yeowch!
When she finds him dying, Venus is distraught. Ovid writes that she ripped "her garments, tore her
lovely hair and bitterly beat her breast," and vowed, "memorials of my sorrow, Adonis, shall endure;
each passing year your death repeated in the hearts of men shall re-enact my grief and my lament. But
now your blood shall change into a flower." Brutal. Venus, history's first black metal lyricist.
She then sprinkles nectar on Adonis's blood and it transforms into a red anemone flower. This flower is
born, lives, dies, and is reborn again each year, like flowers do, so it's a symbolic reminder of the cyclical
nature of the seasons, and perhaps our grief. Thoth! You getting all misty-eyed? Or is it just allergies?
Seeing the same flower die every year might be kind of sad, but in another way, it's a hopeful symbol for
the idea that maybe death isn't final after all.
Now let's turn to one of the most famous dying gods, our friend Odin who hanged himself from the
world tree Yggdrasil as a sacrifice in order to gain the knowledge of runes. He doesn't really "die" in
most versions of the myth, but he does suffer, both from hanging and from being pierced in the side
with a sword. Note the parallels with the death of Jesus here. #dyinggods
There's also Baldur a Norse god who actually does die. Like Adonis, Baldur is often described as

There's also Baldur a Norse god who actually does die. Like Adonis, Baldur is often described as
beautiful an beloved by all the gods - except of course, for Lokie who as I may have mentioned is...the
worst.
Loki was jealous of Baldur's popularity and schemed to have him killed by the one thing he was
vulnerable to - you're not gonna guess what it is! - It's mistletoe. So think of that at the next office
Christmas party, hm?
His mother Frig had gotten every substance on earth to swear not to bring harm to Baldur, except for
mistletoe because she thought that it didn't matter. Loki crafted a dart from mistletoe and got the blind
god Hr to throw it at Baldur while everyone else was having fun throwing stuff at him, because he's
invulnerable. These gods sure do know how to party.
Baldur dies and goes down to single hockey stick Hel, the place. His mother asks for volunteers to try to
bring him back, and Baldur's brother Hermod steps up, saddles up, and rides down to Hel. Hel, the
person who minds hell , the place, isn't particularly moved, but as underworld gods are often want to
do. she decides to make a deal. she says that if everyone on earth will weep for Baldur, then she'll let
him return. Turns out, Baldur was so beloved that everyone and everything on earth did weep for him,
except for one giantess named Thokk, who says "Thokk will weep dry tears over Balder's funeral. I never
cared for the old man's son - alive or dead, I have no use for him. Let Hel hold what she has."
Harsh, Thokk. What did Baldur ever do to you? Geez. So Baldur doesn't come back from the dead, all
because of Thokk. Though, if you ask the other gods, they'll point out something very interesting: isn't
Loki (who's the worst) a shape-shifter? And have you ever seen him and Thokk in the same room? Just
saying, these are the reasons Loki is the worst.
far from bring a bittersweet reminder of life's impermanents, Baldur's death foreshadows Ragnarok; the
literal death and rebirth of everything.more on that in a few episodes, if the world doesn't end.
the story of the corn mother; a great goddess from native American mythology is one where the dying
god specifically makes sacrifices in order to bring salvation to her people.
thought bubble, this one's a little grisly but we think you can handle it .
the first mother was born from a drop of dew during the time where the all maker was creating all sort
of things. she was a beautiful young women who upon being born proclaimed:" I AM LOVE, A GIVER OF
STRENGTH. I WILL PROVIDE FOR PEOPLE AND ANIMALS AND THEY WILL ALL LOVE ME."
all maker certainly loved her, and together they born the first people. following all maker's instructions
the people learned to hunt. in time, they became so good at it that they exhausted all the game on the
earth. then, the people began to starve and this made the first mother sad because she had made the
people and now couldn't do anything to help them. her husband didn't want to see the first mother so
sad and asked what he could do to stop her weeping.the first mother replied wih the only thing he could
do; kill her. her husband refused at first, but eventually he relented and asked the first mother how he
should do it . the first mother told him that when the sun was at it highest point, he should kill her and
have two of her sons drag her by the hair over the barren earth until the all the flesh has been scraped
from her body.then they were to take her bones and bury them and wait seven mouths before
returning. at this time, the mother's flesh would feed the people.
the husband and sons did what the first mother said and waited sadly for seven months to return to the
place where the first mother's flesh had been stripped from her bones.there, they found plants with
tassels of hair; silky like the first mother's, and sweet fruit that they could eat.this was corn and as the
first mother promised, it fed the people from now on.her sacrifice being being repeated and renewed
every seven months.
thanks you thought bubble.
after the discovery of corn, the people of earth went back to the place where they'd buried her bones
and they found another plant; with sacred leaves that when burned would clear their minds and help
them with their prayers. this ws Tobacco, so thanks?
yeah that one is a lot more tricky. just ask , well we are gonna get to trickster gods in the nest episode.
so the first mother now called the Corn mother saved the Native American people from starvation.
there is an amazing blend of archetypes in this story; obviously there is the earth mother who gave birth

there is an amazing blend of archetypes in this story; obviously there is the earth mother who gave birth
for humanity and cares for them. like human mother, she weeps for her helplessness when her children
suffer and she is willing to sacrifice anything including her body so that her children can survive.
in this sacrifice she also plays the role of the savior; which is typically a role performed by male gods in
myths. the Corn mother is also a culture her, her sacrifice transforms a hunting people into an
agricultural people. though many Native Americans in North America pursued both hunting and
agriculture simultaneously, as a means of subsistence. the Corn mother providing an alternative form of
food enabled the animals to recover, providing game for thr people.and in addition to providing food,
the Corn mother gave the people Tobacco; which became an important part of their religious ritual and
other practices. many of the dying god stories involve cycles, whether it's Adonis and the annual flower
or the corn mother and the annual harvest. these stories remind us that birth is often twinned with
death; which may make the latter's inevitability easier to accept. and the corn mother story adds an
extra layer in reminding us that motherly sacrifices enable all life. we've seen the idea of gods
sacrificing themselves as the foundation of creation before;(?) body became the earth, the body and
bones of Ymir became the earth amd the mountain and his skull became the sky.Gaia gave birth to the
mountain and the oceans.it's not surprising that throughout most of human history, when child birth
was much more likely to end in the mother's death that we find stories where gods sacrifice themselves
so that humans can live.
thanks for watching, we will see you next time.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/iW7H1KfSJ8s/>

Tricksters: An Introduction: Crash Course World
Mythology 20
Hey there.
I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're gonna start the first of a few
episodes on a show favorite: trickster stories. But be warned, trickster myths can get sexy, a little gross
and they are filled with betrayal, but we should be able to handle it. Right Thoth ? Ooh Thoth, Stan just
texted me, you have been promoted to host. So I... I'm just gonna go and grab a coffee. See you later...
good luck.
[theme plays]
Just kidding, there is no way that Thoth could host this show. He's like, thousands of years old and he
only speaks ancient Egyptian, which literally nobody understands. But roping some sucker into doing my
work is exactly the sort of thing a trickster would do.
Trickster stories are traditionally very popular and for a good reason. In many trickster stories, the
underdogs come out on top, and not by virtue of their superior strength or immortal attributes either,
but because of their smarts. Another appealing thing about tricksters is that they are transgressive,
they're rebels, and who doesn't love a rebel? Just ask Ares, Greek god of war and rebellion, or
James Dean, the American god of pomade and leather jackets.
A good place to start is mythologist David Leeming's description of a tricksters: "The trickster is at once
wise and foolish, the perpetrator of tricks and the butt of his own jokes. Always male, he is promiscuous
and amoral; he is outrageous in his actions; he emphasizes the "lower" bodily functions; he often takes
animal form. Yet the trickster is profoundly inventive, creative by nature, and in some ways, a helper to
humanity." So, amoral and scatological, but otherwise a good guy. We all have that friend, I think.
Let's begin in Africa. African trickster stories remain popular and frequently have ambiguous or morally
dubious endings. According to Thury and Devinney, "Unlike European folktales, which usually have a
happy ending, trickster stories typically end in disharmony." So let's see exactly what they mean by
"disharmony" in the Thought Bubble.
Anansi the Spider and his son Kwakutsin are farmers having a bad year because of a drought. One
day Kwakutsin is out for a walk, lamenting the poor harvest, and he sees a hunchback dwarf by the side
of the road. The dwarf asks Kwakutsin what's wrong, and when he explains, the dwarf promises to help.
He tells Kwakutsin to find two small sticks and tap him lightly on his hump while singing. So tap tap and
it begins to rain. Soon the crops start growing.
Anansi thinks he can do better and goes to look for the dwarf himself, making sure to bring two big
sticks. The dwarf tells Anansi to tap him on his hump again, but Anansi ends up hitting the dwarf so hard
that he kills him. Now Anansi is scared because the dwarf was the king's favorite jester, so he puts the
dwarf's body in a kola tree and waits. When his son Kwakutsin comes by and asks his father if he has
seen the dwarf, Anansi tells him the dwarf is climbing the tree looking for a kola nut. As Kwakutsin
climbs up the tree, the dwarf's body falls down to the ground. Anansi cries out that his son has killed the
king's jester, but Kwakutsin knows Anansi's tricks and replies that the king was actually angry with
the dwarf, and now he could go to the king and collect a reward. Knowing there is a bounty, Anansi
exclaims that he had killed the dwarf.

Anansi arrives at the king's court and discovers, the king was not angry with the jester, but now he's
certainly angry with Anansi. The king orders the body of the dwarf to be put in a box, which Anansi must
carry on his head forever, unless he finds someone else to carry it. Eventually Anansi comes across Ant,
and asks him to hold the box while he goes to the market, and wouldn't you know it, Ant falls for it. This
is why, to this day, we see ants carrying great burdens. Thanks Thought Bubble. It's probably becoming
clear why a lot of us just don't trust spiders.
In a number of ways, this is a classical African trickster story; it features animals with human
characteristics interacting in a human world. The trickster is initially undone by his own greed. If Anansi
had just listened to his son and not tried to outdo him, he would have been okay. Also maybe he
shouldn't have tried to frame his son for a murder. But Anansi fails in his attempt to hide his crime
because his son knows his reputation for duplicity. Despite his cleverness, Anansi's greed gets the better
of him. His desire for the reward leads him to admit his bad deed and be punished for it. And if he did
end up carrying the coffin for eternity, the story might provide a lesson about justice, but Anansi being a
trickster, is able to convince someone else to bear his burden, so he gets off scot-free.
The ending of the story does explain a natural phenomenon, why ants are so industrious, but the story
isn't exactly a model for good behavior. In the end, Anansi gets away with killing the dwarf. His
comeuppance is brief and the only thing he learns is that ants are total suckers. It's really like a Quentin
Tarantino film of trickster myths.
The story of Anansi and the ant bears some resemblance to one of Hercules labors. We'll talk more
about Hercules when we get to our episode on heroes, but the long and short is that he had to do
twelve labors and completing them cemented his reputation. One of these labors, the eleventh, was to
gather Zeus's golden apples from the far end of the earth. These apples were guarded by a dragon and
the Hesperides, nymphs who were the daughters of Atlas; the Titan with the unenviable task of holding
the world of his shoulders. Talk about legendary back pain!
It took a long time and a number of adventures before Hercules even found out where the apples were,
but eventually he is told about them by another trickster, Prometheus. You remember him, he is the guy
who stole fire for the humans and was punished by being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten
daily by an eagle? Well, good news: eventually Hercules kills that eagle, and in return Prometheus tells
him that the way to get the apples isn't to fight a dragon, but to simply ask Atlas. Atlas can easily get
past his daughters and that Mr. Dragon, no sweat.
So Hercules makes a deal with Atlas. Hercules will hold up the world giving Atlas a much needed break
and in return: apples. Atlas is thrilled, because, I mean, think about it, how would you feel holding up
the literal world all the time? So he leaves, he goes and he grabs the apples. The problem is that when
he returns, he tells Hercules that he really doesn't want to hold up the earth and the sky anymore, so
like, maybe that's just your job now, Hercules? I don't know, just spit balling here. So here's Hercules, he
can't move; he's holding the world after all, but he does some quick tricky thinking. He tells Atlas sure,
he'll do it, but can Atlas take the earth and sky back for just a second while he gets some padding for his
shoulders? And when Atlas agrees, Hercules grabs the apples and vamooses. Tricksters
tricking tricksters. How do you like them apples?
In these stories, we see that it often doesn't take much for a trickster to figure out how to fool the
object of his tricks, sometimes called a dupe. Often the dupe doesn't really deserve it, although it's hard
to feel sorry for Atlas, who was attempting some minor league trickstering himself. While tricksters can
be seen as playful scamps, they also show us that play can be dangerous, especially when, like Anansi,
we let it go too far. in the Anansi story the trickster acts as what Leonard and McClure call a "moral
counterexample." "Tricksters are frequently greedy and lazy, dishonest and gluttonous, vain and
impulsive. Thus, they can be seen as agents of chaos, for society provides the greatest advantages to the
greatest number only if everyone restrains his or her impulses and cravings and makes allowances for

greatest number only if everyone restrains his or her impulses and cravings and makes allowances for
the needs of others."
We are usually better off when we don't lie or cheat each other, but that's exactly what tricksters do.
We're typically happy when they are punished for their tricks, but this doesn't always happen. Trickster
stories can be especially troubling because not only do they usually get away with their tricks, but are
often celebrated for it. Tricksters aren't all bad though. The trickster can provide a model for the
oppressed to reclaim some autonomy in the face of overwhelming power.
This is one of the main lessons of the Br'er Rabbit stories, which are descended from African trickster
stories, but transplanted into the context of chattel slavery in English-speaking North America. Br'er can
be seen as representing slaves who would use their ingenuity to thwart and outsmart cruel plantation
owners. Maybe then it's worth asking what would happen if the tricksters just always won. And the
truth is, while some tricksterism may be justified and a little bit of transgression here and there is fun, if
everyone decides that its okay to beat dwarfs to death in order to double the amount of rainfall,
metaphorically speaking, that wouldn't be great.
Trickster stories are often morally ambiguous in this way. Even Br'er Rabbit isn't always clearly the good
guy, and that's one part of why we like them so much, maybe. Sometimes it's simply a thrill to break the
rules. We as humans can see ourselves pretty clearly in the trickster myths. It's hard to identify with
someone who can hold the the world or who goes on errands for the father of creation, but we've all
at least tried our hand at bamboozling someone into taking over our responsibility. Sorry Thoth. You're a
good sport. Thanks for watching, we will see everyone next week.
[outro plays]
Check out our Crash Course Mythology "Thoth Tote Bag" and poster, available now at DFTBA.com.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana, and
is produced with the help of all of these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash
Course exists thanks to generous support by our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary subscription
service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation. Help keep Crash
Course free for everyone forever. Crash Course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the
description for a link to a free trial. Thanks for watching, and you know, if you ask me, that eagle also
came out ahead in this deal.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/RW1ChiWyiZQ/>

Hermes and Loki and Tricksters Part 2: Crash Course
World Mythology
I'm Mike Rugnetta. This is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're continuing with Tricksters.
We're going to look at tricksters as a culture hero, meaning someone whose creativity adds to the
culture of the mythological world they inhabit. We're going to focus on Europe in this episode,
looking specifically at Hermes, the Greek version of Thoth here and also Loki, who in today's myth
actually somehow isn't the worst...sorta. I mean, he does disguise himself as a biting fly so he's
definitely not like the best.
We haven't talked much about Hermes because there aren't too many myths where he's a main
character-usually he's a messenger, more than a central focus, but hey, fun fact, he has a big
presence in statuary. Hermes was a phallic God and all around Greece you could find square pillars
topped with a bust of his head and featuring a male member. These are called herms and were
frequently placed at crossroads.
Since Hermes was also the god of travellers and roads maybe these herms were meant to... point
travellers in the right direction? Tricksters like Hermes are often associated with extreme sexual
appetites and also with creativity-a connection which makes a lot of sense when we think back to our
stories about creation of the world. But instead of getting into all that, let's explore one of the famous
myths about Hermes which begins when he was just a wee little baby trickster.
Okay, so, baby Hermes sneaks out of his cradle and killed a tortoise. I don't know what you were
expecting; we're talking about tricksters. Anyway, he turns the tortoise shell into a lyre which he
starts to play, inventing lyrics to accompany his music; pretty creative for a baby. He probably went
to a Montessori school. Then Hermes gets hungry, but not for milk; he wants some meat. So he runs
to Pieria where his brother Apollo keeps his sacred cattle.
Hermes steals fifty cows and hides them in a nearby cave. To get them into
the cave, he makes them walk backwards so their footprints would be difficult
to follow. He also invents some backwards sandals that hide his own tracks-
again, clever baby. (02:00) to (04:00) Hermes whips up a fire, kills two of the
cows and roasts them but doesn't eat them, which is kind of strange since
he's supposedly so hungry.
Instead, he hides the meat and cow-skins in the cave, throws his sandals in the river and covers
over the fire. Then he just strolls on back to his cradle.
Apollo soon learns that some of his cattle are missing and he is furious. Despite all of Hermes'
stealth efforts, Apollo figures it all out and threatens to throw him into Tartarus. Hermes defends
himself saying he's only a baby, how could he steal fifty cows?
Apollo doesn't care how old his brother is but he can't punish Hermes without some judgment from
their dad. Zeus listens to Hermes' denials but doesn't believe him and orders the baby to bring back
all those poor cows. Afterwards, Hermes and Apollo make up and they exchange gifts.

all those poor cows. Afterwards, Hermes and Apollo make up and they exchange gifts.
Apollo gives Hermes a whip as a symbol of cattle tending and the caduceus as a symbol of heraldry,
indicating Hermes' position as messenger of the Gods. Hermes gives Apollo the lyre he had
invented and this becomes Apollo's symbol as a God of music. Although many tricksters seem more
human or more animal than divine, Hermes is definitely supernatural.
There's obviously something pretty special about this baby who's not only an able thief, but a smooth
talker and a tortoise murderer to boot. As David Leeming observes, in this myth, "Hermes has the
trickster qualities of deceitfulness, trickery, childishness, amorality, humor, extreme inventiveness,
and great charm." It's his inventiveness that makes him a culture hero, though; his creation of the
lyre is incredibly important. It becomes Apollo's main instrument and one of his symbols of his divine
attributes.
It's also significant because songs are one of the ways stories like this one
were passed down in the ancient Greek world. And there's also something
interesting about Hermes having to kill an animal to create the lyre. Perhaps,
it's a reminder that creation is often the flip-side of destruction- that the two
sometimes require each other. (04:00) to (06:00) Either way in this story,
Hermes' mischief is basically harmless unless you're a cow or that poor
tortoise.
So I guess not really harmless, just harmless by like normal deity standards. And it ultimately brings
about something positive for all involved.
Again, except the cows and tortoise. It also explains the origin of a mythical artifact that defines the
character of the God Apollo and the Greek culture that worshipped him. For our second story, we
have another myth where the trickster's mischief impacts a whole culture; as with many Norse myths
it begins and ends with Loki who is the worst(?~4:37).
One morning Thor wakes up next to his beautiful wife, Sif and sees that something is missing: her
beautiful blonde hair. Sif is understandably upset, and she begs her husband to fix the problem. Thor
has a sneaking suspicion and heads off to see Loki.
At first, Loki denies doing anything but when Thor threatens to break every bone in Loki's body, Loki
admits that yes, he'd stolen Sif's hair. He'd been hitting the mead and got to thinking wouldn't it be
funny, you know, disappearing hair?! Hlarious! Unsurprisingly, Thor doesn't appreciate the humor
and threatens him again with a most Norse undoing, so Loki offers to fix the problem saying that he
can get Sif even better hair.
Thor agrees and lets Loki venture to the land of the dwarfs. What is it with tricksters and dwarfs?
After that Anansi story from the last episode, I have a bad feeling about this.
His first stop- the sons of Ivaldi, three dwarfs known for their ability at the forge. Loki says that the
gods of Asgard know of their great ability but that really they're only the second best craftsmen
among the dwarfs, behind the brothers Brokk and Eitri. The sons of Ivaldi declare that they will not
be outdone and promise to make three treasures for the Gods-one of which Loki says must be
magical golden hair.

Then Loki goes off to see Brokk and Eitri- you can probably see where this is
headed- he tells them about what the sons of Ivaldi are going to do and Brokk,
the talker says that he and his brother can outdo those Ivaldis, no problem.
(06:00) to (08:00) Loki bets him he can't and Brokk takes the bet but says that
if the gods like his and Eitri's treasures best, Brokk gets to take Loki's head;
Loki accepts.
Eitri, the master craftsman amongst the two brothers, tells Brokk to man the bellows and to keep
pumping no matter what, so the temperature of their forge remains constant. Brokk keeps up his
pumping for the first two treasures despite being bitten on the hand and then the neck by a large
pesky fly who is, of course, Loki.
By the time Eitri is working on the third project, Loki the fly is really beginning to worry that he might
lose the best, so he starts biting Brokk's eyebrows. At one point, Brokk brushes the blood from his
eyes and just for a second breaks his rhythm. When Eitri finishes making the treasure, he chastises
his brother for the imperfections caused by his erratic oxygenating, but says that his gifts will have to
do.
Loki brings the Ivaldis treasures back to Asgard, Brokk brings his and his brother's. Loki reveals his
treasures first and we reveal the thought-bubble to see who wins.
The first treasure is Sif's new head of hair made from gold. When she puts the wig on, it fuses with
her scalp and behaves like real hair. She is ecstatic; the gods are impressed. Next, Loki presents
Odin with a spear-Gugnir. When thrown, it always hits its mark-useful for an old one-eyed God with
suspect aim. Also, any oath sworn on Gugnir is unbreakable. Odin is pleased but not effusive in his
praise-classic dad move.
The final treasure is for Freyr, brother of Freya, who we've discussed in the
past. This treasure looks like a handkerchief but when unfolded it becomes
Skidbladnir, a magic boat big enough to carry all of the Aesir and it will always
have a fair wind-pretty great for a sea-going people. (08:00) to (10:00) Loki is
pleased but Brokk is still confident that his gifts will be better.
First, he unveils a golden bristle boar, Gullinbursti. It glows in the dark, pulls Freyr's chariot, runs
over water, and goes faster than any horse. Freyr is pleased but Loki says it's nothing compared to a
folding ship which is just, I mean, come on! It's a glowing chariot boar!
The next gift is a golden armband called Draupnir which Odin wears. Draupnir multiplies itself-every
night eight identical rings drip from it greatly enriching its owner. Why gods need gold is a bit beyond
me, frankly, but hey, Odin? Psyched! The last gift is Eitri's third project, the one erratically
oxygenated.
It's a hammer and even Brokk has to admit that the handle is a little too short, but that doesn't really
matter once Thor gets his hands on it. This is Mjolnir, an unbreakable hammer-it always hits its mark
and always comes back to the hand that throws it and for Thor, it's love at first sight. The rest of the
Aesir agree because with Mjolnir, Thor always will be able to protect them from Giants.

The Aesir announce that Brokk and Eitri's gifts are the best and they're all happy, except for Loki,
who totally dumped on himself. Thanks thought-bubble! Now that he's lost the bet, Loki starts
sweating and making excuses to Brokk, but Brokk only pulls out his knife and starts talking about all
the stuff he and his brother are going to make out of Loki's head. Increasingly desperate, Loki starts
looking to the other gods for help but no one's buying it.
A bet's a bet and Loki lost, even after cheating. Loki thinks quick: he's got one more trick up his
sleeve. Loki explains that yes, Brokk does have a right to his head, but that the bet didn't include any
part of his neck, so he's welcome to the head, but only if he can get it without cutting the neck.
Brokk calls shenanigans and appeals directly to Odin, but in perhaps the
earliest example of getting off on a technicality, the one-eyed all-father agrees
with Loki and Brokk has to go home with his own head in his hands instead of
Loki's. (10:00) to (12:00) Classic trickster stories like these often
involve serious transgressions against society. In this case, it's stealing and
not just from humans, but from other gods. Neither Loki nor Hermes has a
good reason for their thefts either.
In fact, their excuses are downright immature: I was drunk and I'm a baby. Though to be fair, both do
end up presenting important gifts to their fellow Gods, ones that become foundations of the stories
told about them for millennia.
Loki, in particular, shows us that while tricksters often get away with their tricks, the result is not
always a foregone conclusion. Despite his best efforts, Loki is set to pay a stiff price for stealing Sif's
hair-first at Thor's hands and then at Brokk's. In both cases, it's only his wit that saves him. Like
Anansi, Loki can talk his way out of a pickle and in this way provide a model for human behaviour
that other gods who rely on their supernatural gifts simply can't. Most of us don't have super
strength or magic hammers but we all have brains and the ability to solve problems, even if we're the
ones who made those problems for ourselves in the first place.
Just don't go trying to grift any rubes. You might not get lucky like Loki and you could end up losing a
little bit too much off the top. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time!
Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth Tote bag and poster available now at dftba.com.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio in Indianapolis, Indiana,
and is produced with the help of these very nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe.
Crash Course exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
donation and help keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever. Crash Course was made with
Adobe Creative Clode, check the description for a link to a free trial.
Thanks for watching and if I were Brokk and Eitri, I would have given Loki's head to Samson. That's
a man who knows how to use the jawbone of an ass.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/udj1FReC2TI/>

Coyote and Raven, American Tricksters: Crash Course
World Mythology #22
Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta. This is Crash Course Mythology, and today, we're
finishing up our series on trickster stories by looking at two of the most famous
and popular of them all, Coyote and Raven.
There are many individual Native American mythological traditions from different tribes and in
different regions, and stories about coyotes and ravens as grand tricksters pop up in tales across the
whole continent. In many locations, these animals would have been known for making off with
livestock or picking at the bodies of dead animals.
While scavenging isn't exactly clever in the way tricksters often are, it is sort of devious which
explains the wealth of trickster myths about these two figures. We're gonna focus a few of the best of
them. And along the way, we'll see that sometimes playing a few tricks can really put a twinkle in
your eye. Or make it pink.
[Intro Music]
Before I get into the specific myths, I should explain something about the content and context of
some of these Coyote and Raven stories. We've already mentioned in many Native American myths
the line between the human world and animal world is blurry.
Humans live alongside mythological animals that help create the world and establish important
rituals. This handling of mythological animals is distinct from say the pantheon of gods and monsters
that we see in Norse, Greek, or Egyptian traditions. Those traditions have myths about animals; it's
true, but they aren't the stars of the show in the way that they are in Native American myths.
I also just wanna say upfront that the myths we're gonna discuss aren't exactly...umm...G rated.
Some scholars have pointed out that many Native American myths feature particularly frank
discussions of sexy time and the organs that are used to accomplish it.
Thoth, buddy, there's no need to blush.
And, also, they talk a lot about the elimination of bodily waste. So long story
short, we're gonna talk about poop. One (02:00) to (04:00) day, Coyote is out
walking and he sees some tasty-looking, bright red rose hips(?~3:53). He's
about to gobble them up when those rose hips(?~3:53), which can talk btw,
warn Coyote that if gobbled that they're gonna give him horrible flatulence.
But, Coyote doesn't listen so chopped!
And wouldn't you know it, soon Coyote is stumbling around doubled over in pain from a rather
intense and alarming build-up of gas. And about this time, Coyote happens across two crows picking
over a dead buffalo. Devising a plan, Coyote asks if they wanna play a game. Which, I mean, of
course, they do. Who doesn't love a game?

course, they do. Who doesn't love a game?
Coyote proposes a contest to see who can defecate from one side of the buffalo to the other.
Whoever is able to launch their poop over the buffalo gets to keep it and eat it. The buffalo, I mean,
not the poop. Not sure who gets that. Anyway.
The crows think that this is disgusting and hey samesies. But Coyote is very persuasive, and the
contest begins.
One of the crows goes first. He turns around, and he poops as hard as he can. But only manages to
poop shoot halfway. Coyote, now fit to burst with rose hip's(?~3:11) gas, turns around relaxes, and
let's just say he wins the contest easily. The crows cannot believe their eyes, and they beg Coyote to
let them have some of the buffalo meat.
In an uncharacteristic bit of trickster compassion, Coyote is no Anansi, he agrees to give them the
fat around the eye sockets and the joints and the ribs...hmm...Stan maybe cancel my lunch order.
Okay according to Leonard and McClure the moral of the story is:
"Some are not honest in playing games, and trick others. One must watch out for these people, for
they start trouble."
I might say the moral is also don't eat rose hips(?~3:53), don't poop
competitively, but maybe even with gastrointestinal crisis there could be found
great (04:00) to (06:00) opportunity? At least if you have your tricky cap on.
Aww Thoth. Is that your tricky cap? Looks good.
This story also shows an important similarity Coyote shares with the tricksters of other mythological
traditions. He is unable to resist giving into his out-sized hedonistic desires. Remember hungry
Hermes and greedy Anansi? The entire poop shot put is a result of Coyote munching down on tasty
looking rose hips(?~4:24) even though he knows it's a bad idea.
Not all of Coyote's desires are quite so digestion oriented of course. There are a number of stories
that involve his sexual appetites. And in many Native American stories, the tricksters desire for sex
is interpreted as a mirror for the rest of humanity. A recognition that most of us have similar drives as
our old friends Leonard and McClure put it:
"...The Native American's trickster reminds us like no other that humans, for all their pretensions to
intellectual and spiritual culture and all their moments of bravery, altruism, and generosity, are
nevertheless animals ruled by appetites and impulses that make them equally capable of cowardice,
selfishness, and cruelty."
We're not going to focus on those sexy stories though. This is a family friendly YouTube series...well
except for all the death...and the incest...oh and the castration. Okay, you know what? Let's just
move on.

Coyote, like other tricksters, is creative and on occasion even helpful. In one story from the Wasco
people of the Pacific Northwest, Coyote even helps place stars in the sky. Let's go to the Thought
Bubble.
One day, Coyote sees several of his wolf buddies looking up at the sky, so he asks what they're
looking at. "Nothing," they tell him. The next night, he sees them looking up at the sky again and
asks again. Finally, the youngest wolf says, "Ahh, let's tell him. He won't do anything." Which, I
mean, have they not met Coyote?
The wolves tell him they're watching two mysterious animals up in the sky.
Ever curious, Coyote suggests, "Let's go hang out with them." Coyote starts
(06:00) to (08:00) shooting arrows into the sky, and his aim is so good that
each arrow hits the last one, creating a ladder of arrows from Earth to sky.
Coyote and the wolves climb up the arrow ladder which takes many days and
nights.
But when the finally reach their destination, they find that the two animals are grizzly bears. Coyote
warns the wolves not go near the bears, but the two youngest wolves walk over and sit down. Then,
the two next youngest wolves do the same. Finally seeing that it's safe, the oldest wolf goes over
and takes a seat. I guess sky bears are pretty chill. Admiring the wolves and the bears, Coyote
says:
"I think I'll leave it that way for everyone to see. Then when people look at them in the sky, they will
say, 'There's a story about that picture,' and they will tell a story about me."
So, Coyote leaves taking the arrows with him as he returns to Earth. From there he admires his
handiwork. Which, you can still see today. Four wolves make up the handle of the Big Dipper; the
youngest two wolves and the bears make up its bowl. So, I guess Coyote was right. Here we are
telling his story. Thanks Thought Bubble.
This story is a great example of the trickster as creator. The wolves were probably pretty unhappy
about being stranded in the sky with bears, but people sure do love constellations.
In this story, there's also something we haven't really discussed about tricksters or myths generally.
The desire to be remembered. Coyote leaves no doubt. When he finishes stranding those wolves,
he calls to Meadow Lark, and says:
"My brother...when I gone, tell everyone that when they look up into the sky and see the stars
arranged this way, that I was the one who did that. That is my work."
Here at Crash Course, we define myths as stories that persist through time.
In our forthcoming episodes about heroes, we'll see that the desire for fame to
be remembered through timeless (08:00) to (10:00) tales, often motivates
heroic deeds.
We could tell stories about Coyote all day, but there's another famous trickster in Native American
myths, Raven. No, not that Raven. Not that one either. Come on you gu...Yeah that one. Bingo. You

myths, Raven. No, not that Raven. Not that one either. Come on you gu...Yeah that one. Bingo. You
got it.
Raven stories are common with the Native American peoples of the Pacific Northwest including
Canada and Alaska. This one was recorded in English at Sitka, a small city in Alaska. It starts like
so.
Have you ever wondered why ravens are black? A very long time ago, Raven, the trickster, was
actually stark white. And one day, he's journeying to see his brother-in-law Petrel, the seabird, who
has an everlasting spring of water.
At the time, there wasn't any water to drink because Petrel kept his spring for himself, and he
wouldn't share it. So, Raven comes to Petrel, and he tells him about all the marvelous things that
he's seen throughout the world trying to get Petrel to leave his home, so that Raven can steal some
of his water.
But, Petrel doesn't trust Raven, which is maybe a good call, and he won't budge. When the night
falls, Raven and Petrel go to bed. Once Raven is sure Petrel is asleep, he creeps outside and finds
some dog poo. Yeah, it's going to be that kind of story.
He sneaks back in, and he spreads the poo all over Petrel's clothing. And the next morning, Raven
wakes Petrel up by crying, "Wake up! Wake up, brother-in-law! Look what you've done to your
clothes!"
And just a real quick aside here. I wanna point out that we're super unsure about what bird clothes
are. Pants, a dicky maybe. Wait. Are these birds with arms?
Anyway. Petrel goes outside to clean himself up, and Raven goes over to the spring, uncovers it and
begins to drink. Just as Raven has slurped up almost all the water, Petrel returns, realizes he's been
tricked and angrily chases Raven away.
Raven flies through the smoke hole in Petrel's house with the water in his
mouth, and Petrel calls out to his spirits to catch him. (10:00) to (12:00) As
Raven is caught by the spirits, Petrel throws pitch-wood onto his fire to make
the smoke turn black. While Raven struggles to get away, the black smoke
soaks into his feathers-I bet, you can see where this is headed. Now turned
black, Raven struggles free without spilling a single drop of water but as he's
flying, he tries to brush off some of the char and spills some water over Nass,
making up the Nass river. He keeps flying and keeps fidgeting and keeps
spilling water over Stikine, Skeena, Chilkat, and all the other rivers. Even the
small drops become creeks. So after just one poop-related trick, the world
now has water and Raven has the pitch-black feathers that we know today.
As you can, Raven and Coyote definitely spend their time...getting up to no good. Sometimes their
tricks are premeditated but other times, it's a matter of circumstance, often poop-related
circumstance. And this reminds us that just because you are powerful, supernatural even, that
doesn't mean you can escape being an animal with all of the confusion and danger and bodily
functions that that entails. This sort of thing reiterates the specific relationship in native American

functions that that entails. This sort of thing reiterates the specific relationship in native American
culture between humans and the natural environment.
As Therry and Deviney(?~11:16) put it, "According to Native American mythology, all of nature
participates in creation as keepers of the Earth, resulting in a symbiotic relationship between
humans and their environment."
So even though Raven and Coyote pull tricks that might seem outrageous and a little gross, it's hard
to consider them evil or detrimental to society, especially when their tricks end up creating things
that the rest of get to enjoy.
Thanks for watching, we'll see you next week!
Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bags and poster available now at dftba.com.
[End Credits]
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey (?~11:54) studio in
Indianapolois, Indianna and is produced with the help of all of these very nice
people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe. (12:00) to (12:33) Crash Course
exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a
voluntary subscription service where you can support the content you love
through a monthly donation to help keep Crash Course free for everyone,
forever. Crash Course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud. Check the
description for a link to a free trial.
Thanks for watching and, insert poop joke here. We thought we had to make a poop joke so I hope
this suffices.
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/eAKHGe6x8n8/>

The Apocalyspe: Crash Course World Mythology #23
(00:00) to (02:00) Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta! This is Crash Course
Mythology and today we'll be talking about the moment that you've all been
waiting for, or perhaps dreading. That's right Thoth, it's the end of the world.
These days books and movies and video games are big on post-apocalypse stories: nuclear fallout,
zombies, robot uprisings, nuclear-powered robot zombie uprisings. But before there were post
apocalypse stories, there were plain old Apocalypse stories.
What's an Apocalypse? Well, it's a fancy way of saying 'The End of the World' but often with a
religious connotation. So yes, fair warning: the Apocalyptic visions we're discussing come from living
religious texts and as usual, we're not going to touch on their religious significance but these stories
do fit our definition of myth: 'significant stories that have been important to many people for a very
long time.' So, let's get started on all of these endings!
[Themes Music plays]
We can find stories of the end of the world in cultures around the globe and perhaps that's because
they reflect the uncomfortable fact that for individual people, the world does come to an end in a
sense when when we, you know, die but apocalypses are about more than any individual death.
They're about imagining how a supernatural power will eventually end all human life in its entirety.
According to our old pal, David Leeming: "Through their myths of the Apocalypse, human
societies express a sense that higher powers of the Universe must intervene definitively to put an
end to the failure of humanity."
This theme of divine punishment is similar to what we saw in all those flood
stories: China, Mesopotamia, the Inca Empire. But there's one significant
difference: flood stories are about the past but Apocalypse stories-
Apocalypse comes from a Greek word for uncovering by W (?~2:03)- always
reveal something yet to come. (02:00) to (04:00) This makes talking about
them a little strange because they're old stories rooted in the past which
discuss a distant glob-only-knows-when future.
What we'll see today is the flood story theme of judgment combined with focus on torment for those
harshly judged and in many cases, just like the flood stories, these end of everything tales actually
promise a new beginning. There's more than one tale of Apocalypse in the Hewbrew Bible foretold
by a number of prophets. In some of these prophecies, the end of the world is marked by two
events: first, general destruction, usually of the natural world, followed by (second) a judgment
punishing the enemies of God. We're going to see these themes repeated again and again.
The Book of Isaiah describes the promised destruction: "Behold, the Lord will strip the Earth bare
and lay it waste, and twist its surface, and scatter its inhabitants."
The Book of Zechariah has little more detail about how the judgment will work itself out. Amid the

The Book of Zechariah has little more detail about how the judgment will work itself out. Amid the
destruction of the world, the people of Jerusalem will be embroiled in a great battle but the Lord
Himself will go forth to sway the battle and save his righteous followers.
And those on th other side of the battle, the not-righteous, you might be wondering? Well: "Their
flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in
their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth." Anyone who manages to survive
the literal face-melting, the Lord will put a "great tumult" among them, leaving all of the non-believers
to fight each other as the world burns down around them.
For the true believers in Yahweh(?~3:46), the prophecy promises safety and survival in the Kingdom
of God. This is an apocalyptic attribute that we're going to see more than once today: "If you got
faith, you safe!"
For the ancient Persian Zoroastrians, the ultimate deity Ahura Mazda has a
destructive counterpart in Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, and in their apocalypse
prophecy, your faith is tied to which one you follow. (04:00) to (06:00) The
many followers of Ahriman will be punished while the few faithful to Ahura
Mazda will be rewarded. According to David Leeming, "Fire, the son of Ahura
Mazda, will flow like a river over the Universe, as an ultimate sacrifice,
destroying all before it-including even hell- and separating the good from the
evil as a "Last Judgment". Then, through ceremonies presided over by the
Savior, Saoshyant, the Resurrection of the bodies of the good will take place
and a new Golden Age will follow."
Saoshyant, who is referred to as a single figure, sometimes,and other times is a group of figures, is
a kind of Messiah who will help remake the world and redeem worthy human kind. In some
traditions, the Saoshyant is also a product of a virgin birth, but this story involves bathing in a lake
filled with sperm. Like a spermicide, maybe you are picking on some similarities. There was a great
deal of syncretism among the religions of the eastern Mediterranean, which brings us to the
Christian apocalypse.
The end of the world is described in the Book of Revelation. It portrays the coming of the Kingdom of
God to earth, the raising of the dead and the Last Judgment. We got angels and Antichrist, plagues,
this end of days has it all. Come on down to the thought bubble!
Amid all the chaos at the end of days, St. John the Divine describes in
particular detail the alchemical plagues of seven angels. He writes, "And I saw
another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven
last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God." The seven angels
appear, each holding their own vial of plague liquid.One by one they pour
them out across the land, the first angel pours their vial and there fell a
noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast,
and upon them which worshiped his image. (06:00) to (08:00) The second
angel pours their vial into the sea which turns into blood. The third angel pours
a vial on the rivers and the fountains, which also turn into blood. The fourth
angel pours their vial into the Sun, which flares up and scorches those on the
face of the Earth. Angel five pours on the seat of the Beast; this fills their
face of the Earth. Angel five pours on the seat of the Beast; this fills their
kingdom with darkness and causes their followers to gnaw their own tongues
in pain. The sixth angel pours their vial on the great river Euphrates, and in
kind of a twist, the river doesn't turn into blood but it does dry up entirely. The
final angel pours their liquid into the air which causes a great booming voice to
come from the Temple of Heaven saying, "It is done." Thunder, lightning, and
a terrible earthquake; all the remaining cities of all the nations of Earth
crumble and fall.
Thank you, Thought Bubble!
The Apocalypse story in Revelation has a lot in common with the older prophecy told by Zechariah:
plagues, war, the dissolving of terrestrial nations. But there's one very significant difference which is
that Revelation makes frequent reference to the Beast. Saint John has added a villain, similar to
what we saw in Zoroastrinism. Of course, the villain stuff gets complicated because there are
actually two beasts and a dragon-yes, there is also a dragon, so I guess that means that there are
then three beasts. Also, the dragon is the devil.
The last story of Apocalypse that we're going to talk about comes from Isalm
and since Islam is also an Abrahamic tradition, it's unsurprising that there are
similarities between Jewish, Christian, and Musilm accounts of the End of the
World. There's a long description of the Final Judgment in Sura 56 of the
Quran but there's also interesting additional information recorded in a
collection of Hadith, which are sayings and stories of the life of Muhammad.
It's worth nothing that while this is a religious text in Isalm, it's considered a
secondary text to Quran and not all collections of Hadith are equally
esteemed. (08:00) to (10:00) Muslims have a variety of relationships with the
Hadith, often depending upon their denomination and how well sourced a
given Hadith is. Here at Crash Course Mythology, we're interested in stories
which is why we're drawing on this particular Hadith but if you wanna know
more, you can check out the two episodes of Crash Course World History
about Islam that cover this very topic.
When asked about the Judgment that's mentioned in the Quran, Mohammed offers further
explanation. He says that at this terrible time people will forsake studying the Quran and indulge in
earthly pleasures. There will be famine and plague in Medina and Mecca, earthquakes throughout
North Africa, thunderstorms in Iran and Turkey, banditry in Iraq, and floods in the Far East. As
morality decays among all the people, the Dajjal or Antichrist will appear riding on a donkey and
subjecting all the people to his rule-the Dajjal's rule, not the donkey's rule.
The Dajjal will only rule for forty days, though, before God sends Jesus and an army of the faithful
from Heaven. Jesus will defeat and kill the Dajjal and then reign for forty years, but each of the these
years will hve twenty-six months so it'll be more like eighty-seven years. At that point, Jesus will
travel to Jerusalem, pray at the Dome of the rock and be taken up to Heaven. And this is where
things get intense.
Seven days after Jesus ascends, the monsters Ya'juj and Ma'juj, referred to
in the Old and New Testament as Gog and Magog, will escape from their
bondage and destroy civilization. Then the angel Israfil will blow the Horn of
Judgment. Mountains will crumble, there will be forty more years of
Judgment. Mountains will crumble, there will be forty more years of
earthquakes and terrible storms. Then Israfil will sound the horn again; the
souls and bodies of the faithful will be reunited, resurrected, and spent the
next forty years praising Allah. After this final forty year period, the trumpet will
sound again and Mohammad will return to earth for the Day of Judgment.
Everyone will have their secret sins measured against their good deeds on the
scales of judgment. The Allah will tip the scales if one of the Damned
sincerely calls for mercy. (10:00) to (12:00) And finally, all will walk to cross
the bridge into Paradise-easy and wide for the righteous, while the Damned
can't help but slip off and fall below into Hell. But even if they do fall into Hell,
if they really have a change of heart along the way they'll be able to scramble
out in time. There's always hope for things to turn around.
So these Apocalypse stories feature plagues and natural disasters-things far beyond mortal control.
And let's not forget the unnatural disasters like rivers of molten metal or the dragons-not nice ones
interested in responding or helping with floods either. And yet, these apocalypse stories mix terror
with hope. As in flood myths, apocalypse stories from the religious of the traditions of the Eastern
Mediterranean, all offer some sense of everlasting life beyond this world-at least for believers.
If they speak to the end of the world, they also speak to the faithful in the present moment, promising
great rewards or amnesty from everlasting torment if that faith continues. But let's hope the world
doesn't end too soon, at least not before we get to talk about Ragnarok.
Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time!
Check out our Crash Course Mythology Thoth tote bag and poster available now at dftba.com.
Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacy studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and is
produced with the help of all of these very nice people. Our animation is Thought Cafe. Crash
Course exists thanks to the generous support by our patrons at Patreon. Patreon is a voluntary
subscription service where you can support the content you love through a monthly donation to help
keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever. Crash Course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Check the description for a link to a free trial.
Thanks for watching, and the beware! The end of this video is nigh! (12:00) to
(12:03)
From <https://nerdfighteria.info/v/FyZFoa7Vu1o/>

Crash Course Mythology

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Crash Course World Mythology Preview

Friday, September 29, 2017 2:04 PM

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A fable is another type of

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Ra, Egpytian sun god

Myths that describe creation as coming out of nothing are some of

"I am the eternal spirit

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I don't know about you, but I have a hard time conceiving of

Fortunately, for people like me, there's a word to describe the

Chaos is something of a background in many of these myths, as it

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This particular myth is fascinating for a number of reasons. First of

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Like weeding. And estate planning. Gods hate that stuff!

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[Crash Course introduction]

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Thank you, Thought Bubble.

Thanks for watching, and dont forget to be mythological.

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Thanks for watching and Dont Forget to be Mythological!

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Hey there, Im Mike Rugnetta and this is Crashcourse mythology.

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For which he lost his testicles. Cherries emoji. Scissors emoji.

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Emoji. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week.

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Thank you, Thought Bubble.

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The Norse goddesses are relatively minor figures in the myths.

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(Crash Course theme music)

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(Thought Bubble theme) Oh yeah! Let's go to the Thought Bubble.

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Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.