Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Primordial Deities of Greek mythology: ancient gods, the first gods, gods older than Zeus and the Olympians, older than the Titans, gods who do not rule the world, though they once did in the primeval past, but who are the world, the universe, creation itself. Yes, the Olympians rule the world, but they aren't the world; yes, Zeus has supremacy over the sky, but he isn't the sky; and yes, Poseidon has sovereignty over the sea, but he isn't the sea. Conversely, Gaia is the earth, Uranus is the sky, and Pontus is the sea, and it is these sorts of gods we're going to focus on, not the later gods who came to rule these domains First, we're going to look at the first two generations of Gods in Greek mythology, beginning with Chaos. Following that, we're going to look at many third generation gods, the children of either Gaia and Nyx. Here, because we're now in the third generation, the term Primordial Deity loses some of its relevance. Regardless, though, we'll continue, first focusing on third-generation deities who also represent fundamental constructs of the material world and, second, focusing on third-generation deities who represent the forces and phenomena that define the human condition: our virtues and vices, our strengths and weaknesses, and in general, what our time on earth looks like. Let's get into it. In the beginning, the very beginning, before anything or anyone existed, before time, even, there wasn't even empty space, the unfathomable expanse of dark nothingness that envelops the specks of rock and fire we call planets and stars. The first being to emerge was Chaos. Self-engendered, he personified the great void, the empty space that necessarily had to exist to allow subsequent entities to emerge. Thought of another way, if you want to furnish a room, you first need a room to exist so that there's space for the furniture to be placed in. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to dive into some Egyptian mythology, specifically, the twin serpents of creation and destruction, Atum and Apophis - one to create the world, raising it out of the waters of chaos, the other to destroy it, returning it to the waters of chaos. To begin with, we're going to discuss the state of existence before creation; then, we're going to look at the creation of the world; and finally, we're going to look at the end of the universe and at the cyclical view of eternity held by ancient Egyptians. Let's get into it. Looked at linearly, the timeline of ancient Egyptian mythology can be segmented into seven stages: the oneness of pure chaos, the self-engenderment of the creator, the creation of the world and its denizens (gods, humans, animals), the rule of Ra, the sun god, the rule of other deities, the time of mortal Egyptian kings, and lastly, the inevitable return to chaos. In the beginning there was only chaos, and for the ancient Egyptians chaos wasn't conceptualized as a great void but by the primordial waters of Nun, which were dark, boundless, and infinite. In them was contained limitless potential, for the latent power of creation existed in them; yet alone nothing could come of them, for they were perfectly homogenous; in this uniform state, the elements of creation were unseparated, making them inert. It wasn't until opposites came to be, existing as a series of binaries - life and death, light and dark, male and female, and so on - that creation became possible, as is said in this passage from Egyptian Mythology: A guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt: "The origin of the universe was an intellectual problem that came to fascinate the Egyptians. Texts that allude to the unknowable era before creation define it as the time "before two things had developed". The cosmos was not yet divided into pairs of opposites." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Typhon, the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. This is a topic we made a short video on last year, and now we're going to examine it in greater detail. First we're going to look at what's told in The Library of Greek Mythology, a concise yet comprehensive compendium of Greek mythology written by Apollodorus. It describes a version of Typhon's battle with Zeus in which Typhon chases the gods out of Olympus, cuts the tendons from Zeus' hands and feet, and then imprisons the king of the gods in a cave. Following that, we're going to look at an alternative version of this battle, the one told in Hesiod's Theogony, which details a brief affair in which Typhon is thoroughly trounced and walloped by Zeus. And finally, we're going to look at the many monstrous children Typhon sired by Echidna, including: Orthos, Cerberus, the Hydra of Lerna, and the Chimera. Let's get into it. The Giants were a brutal and belligerent race of prodigious size and strength. They were born to Uranus, the personification of the sky, and Gaia, the personification of the earth, when droplets of blood from Uranus' severed genitals fell to the earth and impregnated Gaia. Led by Zeus and reinforced by the hero Hercules, the gods fought and killed the Giants, the war between them known as the Gigantomachy. Gaia was enraged by the destruction of her children, so she joined in a sexual union with Tartarus, the personification of the cavernous abyss that existed beneath the earth; and from their union was born Typhon, unequivocally the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. He was a nightmarish amalgamation of both man and beast, and in size and strength, he was unsurpassed; even the other monstrous children born to Gaia and Uranus, the trio of giant one-eyed cyclops, as well as the indomitable and behemoth trio of Hecatonchires, each of them with 50 heads surmounting their bodies and a tangle of 50 arms protruding from each shoulder, were eclipsed by Typhon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Satan, also known as the Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Prince of Darkness, the Great Adversary, and Lord of Hell. We're going to go through the Old and New Testament, examining Satan's role, character, and story throughout - his precipitous plummet from exalted hierarch of heaven, one of the foremost angels of the celestial realm, to the wicked and wily arch-nemesis of God, heaven, and goodness, to his eventual eternal banishment in the lake of fire. Let's get into it. In the Abrahamic religions, meaning Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Satan is either an agent of God, a malevolent entity, or an abstract force that tempts people towards evil and sin - though this video will focus on the conceptualization that portrays Satan as a malevolent entity, the chief evil of creation. In the Old Testament, Satan functions as an angel whose sin eliciting activities are sanctioned by God, testing humanity's resolve to stay on the righteous path, making him, thus, subservient to God in this capacity. Breaking away from this notion, Satan, in the New Testament, is viewed as a rogue entity, a fallen angel who operates in defiance of God, ceaselessly endeavoring to unravel the Lord's design by contriving the ruination of his great works, namely humanity, ever tempting people to stray from what is right and good, using evil and sin as his instruments of corruption. What's interesting here, though, is some of the discourse surrounding Satan's existence in defiance of God. When conceptualized as an entity of evil that works in opposition to God, on some level, it can be argued, Satan's existence as the arch-nemesis of heaven continues because of the sufferance of God, as God is all powerful - omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent - meaning, if he so desired, he could obliterate Satan with but a thought, expunging him from the fabric of reality, as is more or less what happens at the very end of the bible when God summons forth a storm of fire that rains down from the sky. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the number 666: it's inclusion in the New Testament, why it's considered an evil number, and the various explanations of its meaning; this last through two of the four lenses of eschatology, the branch of theology that's focused on death, final judgment, and the afterlife: specifically, at Preterism and Idealism. Let's get into it. There isn't any explanation given in the Old or New Testament that delineates why the number 666 is an evil number or why it is associated with the Beast of the Book of Revelation. Naturally, the conspicuous absence of any canonical explanation makes for fertile ground for competing theories to emerge. The theories we'll be considering in this video are that of the preterist, which holds the number 666 to be a numerical code that alludes to Emperor Nero, and that of the idealist, which believes the number 6 to be an affront to the number seven, the number of completeness and perfection, as based on God creating the universe in six days, then taking the seventh to rest. We're going to start things off with a passage from chapter 13, the chapter in which the number 666 is written, from the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. Here it is: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast ... And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name[, 666]." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to discuss a couple chapters from the Iliad that culminate in the gods attacking each other and play out with all the excitement of a tavern brawl and all the drama of a soap opera. The gods are summoned to Olympus, where Zeus bades them to descend to the mortal plane, to join the Trojan war directly, supporting each side, so that Achilles' frenzied killing spree doesn't result in the burning of Troy before the city's destruction is officially sanctioned by the fates. This ends in an all-out brawl in which the gods clash in a series of duels. Hephaestus uses his unquenchable fire to combat the raging rapids of Scamander, a river god. Ares and Athena meet in a viscous melee. Apollo is unmanned by Poseidon and slinks away with his tail between his legs. Hera humiliates Artemis, and Hermes yields to Leto, explaining that, even if he wins, Zeus won't look too kindly on him beating one of his lovers black and blue. Let's get into it. Beyond the various instances in which various gods support either the Trojans or the Greeks, we know for certain which gods fought for which side from a passage near the beginning of chapter 20 of the Iliad. Zeus instructs Themis to call the gods to council. Virtually every god answers the call, even the thousands of river gods and countless nymphs. You see, Achilles was a juggernaut of rage and wrath, and Zeus feared that the hero's impending onslaught would decimate the Trojans and raze the walls of Troy before the decree of the fates had officially been proclaimed. To ensure everything proceeded in accordance with fate, Zeus bade the gods to join the war and make certain that what unfolded stayed on script. Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus went to reinforce the Greeks, and Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite. Leto, and Scamander went to reinforce the Trojans. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Scientology - specifically, a portion of the scriptural narrative that was previously only known to higher-ranking Scientologists, but has since become public knowledge on account of former-adherents leaving the church and uploading secret information online. This information, which most people find outlandish and outrageous, has been the impetus for a great many Scientologists abandoning their faith, as what is learned is judged too far-fetched and ridiculous for the continuation of conviction in Scientology. The church of Scientology tried to have this information scrubbed from the internet, claiming it to be proprietary, but ultimately, none of the lawsuits were successful, as no suitable reason was identified to warrant the imposition of an injunction that would have removed the scriptural narrative of Scientology from the public sphere. As a secondary attempt at suppression, the church of Scientology claims that any leaked information is inauthentic, both fabricated and false. Let's get into it. Unlike other religions, religions that have been around for either hundreds or thousands of years, like Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, or Buddhism, the religion of Scientology doesn't make what is said in its own scripture freely available for anyone to read and consider; and by anyone, I don't just mean the uninitiated, as in people who don't subscribe to scientology, I mean most of the followers within the religion itself. You see, information and training are dolled out within the church of scientology depending on where you rank within the church's hierarchy. The purported reason behind this system is to protect people from information that would be harmful to them until they've gone through sufficient training and conditioning to fortify the mind, which is to say until they've ascended through the ranks, investing substantial amounts of money and countless hours of their time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, We're going to discuss what is most widely regarded as the most powerful weapon in Greek mythology, Zeus' lightning bolts. More specifically, where they came from, who made them, who transported them, and if their supply was limitless. Let's get into it. On the whole, Zeus' lightning bolts are presented as the most powerful weapon in Greek mythology. There are arguments to be made for others, such as the head of Medusa, which, in one version, Perseus used to turn the Titan Atlas to stone, and the entrails of the Ophiotaurus - a topic we just covered - which, if burned, bestowed the power to defeat the gods. Hades' helm of darkness and Poseidon's trident also come to mind, though, for these two, I think it's safe to say they're in the tier below. Zeus' lightning bolts allowed him to bring the universe under heel and to put down any and all threats to his rule, no matter how overwhelming or monstrous. They were instrumental in winning the Titanomachy, the war against the titans, in which Zeus supplanted his father, Cronus, to become the new ruler of the cosmos; they were indispensable in winning the Gigantomachy, the war against the giants, in which the giants were utterly destroyed; and unequivocally, without them, Zeus never would have defeated Typhon, the most powerful monster in all of Greek mythology and the last major threat that Olympus had to overcome. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, Welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Dionysus. Let's get into it. Known as Bacchus to the Romans, Dionysus was the god of wine. Both the Ivy, a plant symbol of eternal life, and the grapevine were sacred to him. He kept a raucous and motley entourage that included Satyrs, Silens, and Maenads. In art, he most commonly featured on alcohol paraphernalia, such as wine cups and pitchers. Dressed in fawn skin, wine cup in hand, he was depicted with long hair, a beard, and with ivy wreathed about him. Dionysus was closely tied to Demeter, the goddess of grain, the harvest, and agriculture, and he was also viewed as a god that brought earth's bounty to bloom, providing sustenance for humanity. He was the god of wine, but originally and more fundamentally, he was the god of liquid life, especially the sort in plant life that allowed nature to flourish. Plant growth was his province, which is why he was called Anthios ("Bloom-Producing"), Karpios ("Bringer of Fruit"), and Dendrites ("Tree God"). That the liquids made from plants - such as honey and wine - became subsumed into his sphere of influence was a natural progression. Dionysus became such a popular god, in part, because his favour was bestowed in egalitarian fashion. The classifications that culminated into the hierarchy that structured society were irrelevant to him. Free, slave, young, old, common, royal, man, woman, human, beast: all were equal in his eyes. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

TIMESTAMPS: 10:40 - end of events leading up to the Titanomachy Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to discuss the seven most devastating weapons in Greek mythology, weapons so powerful they won wars, structured the cosmos, and even dictated the destinies of Primordial Deities, Titans, and Gods. Let's get into it. Starting off our list is Medusa's head. Medusa is one of three Gorgon sisters, creatures of such overwhelming hideousness that one look turned a person to stone, though, in some accounts, it is Medusa alone who has this power, or curse, depending on how you look at it. Of the three, only Medusa was mortal, meaning she was the only one who could be killed, which is why she, not either of her two sisters, was chosen as the object of Perseus' quest. Depending on the version, Medusa was either transformed from the beautiful woman that she was into a snake-haired monster, or was born a Gorgon, the daughter of Phorcys and his sister Ceto, both of them sea deities, though perhaps Ceto, whose name was a generic term for sea monster, was more monster than goddess. Per the account of Apollodorus, the Gorgons had writhing nests of snakes for hair, golden wings, boar-like tusks that jut from their maws, and hands of bronze that could slash a person to pieces. Perseus did succeed in his quest to slay Medusa; however, in large part, this achievement can more so be attributed to the gifts he was leant than to his prowess as a monster slayer. Outfitted in winged sandals that granted flight and a helmet that bestowed invisibility, wielding an impossibly sharp sword and a shield so burnished it could be used as a mirror, he came upon Medusa unawares and decapitated her while she slept. Now, for the reason Medusa's head earned a spot on this list. Perseus had a run in with Atlas, the Titan holding up the sky, before he gave the head to Athena and had returned home. Atlas wouldn't grant the hero hospitality, telling him to move on, so Perseus, feeling slighted, unveiled the head and turned the Titan to stone. To be fair, this version of the myth was written by Ovid, a Roman poet notorious for thinking Greek myths nothing more than fanciful tales told in bygone time, this giving rise to much embellishment, but still, anything that can turn a Titan, which is just a name for a group of gods, to stone, indicating that it would have the same effect on other gods, is a weapon of superlative potency. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Cain: the first person to be born, as Adam and Eve were created by God, not born in the traditional sense; the first person to murder someone, his younger brother, Abel; a man cursed by God with the mark of Cain, which would visit sevenfold the retribution upon anyone who perpetrated violence against Cain; a man some versions claim is the son of Satan or another fallen angel; and a man who, in one version, the one given in the Book of Adam and Eve, kills his brother so that he can marry the more beautiful of their two sisters. We're going to begin by examining what is said about Cain in scripture, which, in this video, will be the King James version of the Old and New Testament. Following that, we'll get into a little discussion about God rejecting Cain's sacrifice and Cain murdering his own brother. Afterwards, we're going to dive into several apocryphal works, examining details from each, like demons and archons, that pertain to Cain. And finally, we're going to finish the video off with a more in-depth look at the Book of Adam and Eve, which goes into great detail about the lives of Cain and Abel. Let's get into it. After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they had two children together, two sons: Cain, their first born, and Abel. Cain worked the earth, a farmer, and Abel kept sheep, a shepherd. Both of them made offerings to God, but not both of their offerings were accepted. Cain offered up some of his harvest, and Abel offered up the first born lambs of his flock. Cain's offering was found wanting and rejected, while Abel's was graciously accepted. This put Cain, already a vessel for sin, in a dark mood, filling him with anger, to which God responded: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, Welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the five most powerful male Titans in Greek mythology. We'll make a separate video for female Titans later on. Let us know in the comments if you agree with our selection. Let's get into it. Beginning our list is Oceanus Oceanus was the eldest of the 12 first-generation Titans. He personified the river Oceanus, which was the great river that encircled the world. In this way, more so than his 11 siblings, he was similar to his parents, both of them primordial deities, for Uranus personified the sky and Gaia, the earth. Tethys, his sister and another of the 12 first-generation Titans, was his consort, and by her he sired the Oceanids, a group of 3,000 water nymphs. Also born to them were all the rivers of the world, which, with the exception of the river Styx, were exclusively male. As well, it was thought that Oceanus was the source from which all the rivers of the world fed and flowed. In appearance, Oceanus is depicted as bearded and mature, with more fantastical versions including horns and a fish tail. Because the earth was thought to be flat back in the time antiquity, Oceanus, by nature of him being the great river that encircled the earth, was thought of as the outer-boundary of the mortal world, thereby becoming a dividing line that separated opposites: known and unknown, what is prosaic and familiar from what is exoctic and mysterious, like civilization and chartered territory from remote tribes and monsters, even the realms of life and death. The Hesperides, the nymphs who guarded the golden apples gifted to Hera by Gaia, the Gorgons, the Hecatonchires, the hundred-armed giants who helped the gods defeat the Titans, Geryon, a triple-bodied giant killed by Hercules, and the Ethiopians, all of these nymphs, monsters, and people were thought to dwell near the waters of Oceanus - their proximity to him symbolizing the divide he embodied between the realm of mortality and the realm of magic, monsters, and divinity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Odin: how he constantly endeavored to expand his knowledge, deepened his wisdom, and develop his magical mastery; how he alone of the gods bore the burden of the future, knowing that Ragnarok, the great conflict that would end the current age, was not long in coming; and how one of Odin's primary motivations that catalyzed his travels and trials, the culmination of which was to enhance his knowledge, wisdom, and magic, was to discover a means of either forestalling Ragnarok or of mitigating the events of Ragnarok so that they played out with less loss on the part of the gods. Through this discussion, we will learn of the story in which Odin cuts out his own eye - why he did it and what he gained. Let's get into it. Odin was the most important Norse god. In the primordial past, he tore apart the proto-giant, Ymir, and, with the corpse, fashioned the world from blood, flesh, and bone. In the mythic present, he's the head of the pantheon, the king of the gods. And in the apocalyptic future, during the time in which the events of Ragnarok, the ever-looming cataclysmic conflict, will transpire, he will lead the gods and the heroic dead claimed by the Valkyrie against the hosts and monsters that rise up to assail Asgard, the divine dwelling of the gods. His sphere of influence is extensive and eclectic, including: poetry, wisdom, war, ecstasy, knowledge, mystic arts and trances, hosts, magic, runes, and the dead. His names were more numerous than the voices of the wind, and he was an unpredictable force, fickle and capricious. Even those most favored by him, kings, nobels, outlaws, warriors, and poets, could see their fortunes change in the blink of an eye, their chances for success, victory, or survival suddenly snatched away, abruptly crumbling underneath them like the undermined edge of a ravine. Of all his his deeds, past, present, and future, of his power and purview, one of the characteristics that defines Odin's personality and pursuits is his insatiable need to enhance his knowledge, wisdom, and magic; indeed, this need is catalyst for many of the best known stories comprised by the constellation of myths that is Norse mythology. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Antichrist. First we're going to dive into a treatise written in the 10th century that details the Antichrist's entire life; it was a seminal work, and though short, it's packed with information, taking from scripture, of course, but also from many other works written by philosophers and theologians in previous centuries. Second, we're going to spend a little time on eschatology, specifically, at the various lenses of interpretation comprised by it, and how one of them, futurism, is in large part the reason the Antichrist remained so relevant for so long, as people would attempt to prognosticate when he would return or would weaponize the name, labeling people they disliked or disagreed with it, much as women were called witches. Third, we're going to look at a second century work that features the Antichrist throughout, our purpose here being to show one of the first steps in the progression that would culminate in more elaborate writings of the middle ages that centered on the Antichrist. And finally, we're going to the source itself, scripture, namely, the Epistles of John, the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and, of course, the Book of Revelation, which details the apocalypse of the Christian Bible. Let's get into it. The Antichrist, as conceptualized as the son of the Devil and the archenemy of Jesus, has remained such a prominent figure today in large part because of the the many texts that discuss him, that supplement what's written in the bible with additional insight and explanation, written by philosophers and theologians over the last 2,000 years. In the 10th century, Adso of Montier-en-Der, a monk and abbot, wrote a treatise about the Antichrist in a letter he sent to Queen Gerberga of France. It became the standard medieval reference work on the Antichrist, and it's the perfect work to explore in this video because it covers the Antichrist's entire life, drawing on a number of other works: scripture, of course, but also other exegesis still extant from centuries past. For the next while, we're going to focus on what this treatise has to say. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Chiron. Let's get into it. Centaurs are mythical half-man, half-horse amalgamations. From the waist down their bodies are that of a horse, and their torso, arms, and head are that of a man; and in some less conventional portrayals, so too were the fronts of their legs. They live in mountains and forests, preferring by far the wild and rugged terrain of unfettered nature over so called civilized places where masonry and carpentry replace tree and crag. They subsist exclusively on raw food, especially raw meat, and they become entirely unmanageable when they indulge in alcohol, as well see. Chiron is a centaur, but as reckoned compared to his own species, he's quite the aberration. Generally speaking, centaurs, in Greek mythology, are raucous, rowdy, and prone to revelry. Yes, they have a passion for alcohol and boisterous feasting, but more disruptive is the tendency for those activities to devolve into raiding, marauding, and the abducting of comely women. There are several stories in which drunk and disorderly centaurs must be fought off by heroes, like at Pirithous wedding, where a group of centaurs were in attendance. At first, everything went as planned. Food and wine flowed, and there was much carousing and merriment; but when the centaurs became intoxicated, the celebration took an unhappy turn. They began seizing women. One galloped away with the bride in hand, and Theseus later killed him. A fierce battle ensued in which the centaurs were beaten, and this, in turn, fomented a larger-scale conflict whereby all of the centaurs were forced out of Thessaly. Juxtaposed with that image is Chiron: healer, sage, man of compassion and culture, and trainer of heroes. He was a prodigious healer, by some accounts the first to incorporate the use of herbs in medicine. Additionally, he was a singular talent in a broad array of other disciplines, like martial arts, ethics, hunting, acrobatics, music, and prophecy See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Baphomet, an entity worshipped as an idol, demon, and deity, depending on the group, particularly by pagans and gnostics, and depending on the time, as documentation of him goes back almost 1,000 years. Some modern conceptualizations present him as a nexus of opposites, comprising a network of dichotomies and thereby personifying balance. Also called the Goat of Mendes, the Judas Goat, and the Black Goat, Baphomet is, today, either portrayed as a half-human, half-goat figure, or as a goat head. These depictions largely stem from a French occult book written in the 19th century, as we'll see. In the middle ages, idols of Baphomet included: human heads carved of wood or wrought of metal, decorated with curly black hair, stuffed human heads, and human skulls. He became inextricably linked with the Knights Templar when several heinous accusations, such as the worship of Baphomet, were levelled against this order of monastic knights. Let's get into it. The first record of Baphomet comes from a letter written by Anselm of Ribemont in 1098 that describes the Siege of Antioch, which took place during the First Crusade. One line says the Turks "called loudly upon Baphomet". It has been suggested that the name could be a corruption of Muhammad or Mahomet. Another theory, this one from Montague Summers, an English occult historian, postulates that it could be the combination of two Greek words, baphe and metis, which, put together, would mean something like 'absorption of knowledge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if Atlas Dropped the Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYBx2CrbnWI Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss how Hades could usurp Zeus and rise to become the new king of Olympus. I'd like to preface this video by saying that Hades wasn't an Evil God. In fact, using a contemporary lens, Hades was downright chivalrous and honorable when you compare his romantic pursuits to those of his two brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, both of them prolific philanderers, cajoling, coaxing, and coercing men, women, magical creatures, and goddesses; both of them powerful and predatory gods who only take their own pleasures into account, disregarding notions like consent and virtues like restraint. As far as I can tell, the dichotomy of good and evil as represented by two diametrically opposed nexus points seems to have been retroactively applied to the Greek pantheon, shaping the portrayal of Greek mythology in popular culture; movies like Disney's 'Hercules' and 'Clash of the Titans' portray Zeus as a force for order and good, while Hades is portrayed as evil and covetous. This seems like a direct extension of how good and evil are portrayed in the Judeo-Christian tradition, whereby good and evil are largely conveyed through God and Satan. Anyway, completely disregarding how the ancient Greeks perceived the lord of the underworld, we're going to harness today's disparaging conceptualization of Hades and run through an elaborate scenario in which Hades overthrows Zeus and becomes the new Lord of the Cosmos. Let's get into it. There are three chief factors on which success is predicated: Zeus needs to be overcome, incapacitated, and deposed, the crux of the matter; Poseidon needs to be temporarily contained to preempt him from vying against Hades for the crown in Zeus' absence; and Hades needs to operate in complete secrecy to insulate himself from any culpability, which will keep the other gods from turning on him after he takes action. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to take a look at the Aesir-Vanir War, the war that took place in the mythic past between the two tribes of gods in Norse mythology, and following that, at how, ultimately, the Mead of Poetry, the mead that inspired gods and the greatest of skalds, bestowing mastery over verse and song, was created. Let's get into it. In Norse mythology, one of the major events that transpired in the mythic past was the Aesir-Vanir war. Though the two tribes eventually reconciled, for a time, relations between the two were beyond strained, defined by violence and rancour. Fierce fighting broke out as each tribe tried to destroy the other. They fought to a draw, as neither side could gain a winning advantage, allowing cooler heads to prevail before greater death and destruction could be dealt. Eventually, tempers subsided, wounds were tended, and a peace was brokered through prisoner exchange. Before we really dive into this, though, let's take a quick pause and do an overview of each tribe and highlight some of their differences. The Aesir were the more prominent and popular tribe. They dwelt in Asgard, one of the nine realms, and their number included gods like Odin, Thor, and Loki. By comparison, the Vanir were obscure. They made their home on Vanaheim, another of the nine realms. And beyond a handful of gods like Njord, Frejya and Freyr, not much is known about them. More so than the Aesir, the Vanir were associated with the bounty and fertility of the earth. Also, incest, which was forbidden amongst the Aesir, was common practice for the Vanir. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Uriel: regent of the sun, archangel, presider over Tartarus, flame of God, and angel of September. We're going to start off with some rapid fire information; following that we're going to explore Uriel's role in scripture, meaning the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Quran; and finally, we're going to look at Uriel's role in two apocryphal works: 2 Esdras and the Book of Enoch. Let's get into it. Uriel, whose name means 'fire of God', is one of the most important angels in non-scripture biblical lore. Depending on the source, he's been classified as either a Seraphim or Cherubim, the two angelic choirs closest to God's Throne, and as one of the seven archangels. Other aspects of his power and purview include: presider over Tartarus, archangel of salvation, flame of God, angel of the presence, and angel of the month of September. In Milton's Paradise Lost, he's described as the 'regent of the sun' and as 'the sharpest sighted spirit in all of Heaven'. According to Abbot Anscar Vonier, born near the end of the 19th century CE, Uriel is the angel who stands guard with a flaming sword at the entrance of Eden after Adam and Eve are expelled and its paradise becomes lost to humanity. Canonically speaking, Uriel is absent from scripture. In the Hebrew bible, known as the Old Testament to Christians, no angels are addressed by name. In the New Testament, which accounts for roughly the last quarter of the Christian Bible, only two angles, Michael and Gabriel, are addressed by name, and of those two, only Michael is actually referred to as an archangel, as can be seen in Jude 1:9: "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation ..." In Islam, Israfil is the archangel who will blow the trumpet from the holy rock in Jerusalem; though there is no clear Judeo-Christian counterpart, Uriel and Raphael are sometimes associated with him. Though Uriel doesn't feature in scripture by name, there are events that feature anonymous angels with whom he is sometimes identified. Lacking specificity, these events, by nature of their substance not being ascribed by name, are left open to theorizing and are, therefore, attributed to any one of a bevy of prominent and powerful angels, depending on the version. Examples include the unnamed angel who wrestles Jacob in Genesis 22:25, "Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn ...", and with the angel who annihilates the Assyrian army in II Kings 19:35, "That night an angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Cthulhu: a behemoth monster from far-flung space, a creature that has lived on earth for millions of years, a sight so overwhelming and incomprehensible to the human mind that one looks shatters sanity and binds the shards with madness. We're going to start off by taking a look at Cthulhu's family tree, something that Lovecraft delineated in one of his letters. Following that, we're going to look at some supplemental info given by Cthulhu's entry in The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, and finally we're going to spend most of the video going through what can be gleaned from 'The Call of Cthulhu', the story written by Lovecraft in which Cthulhu, the eponymous monster, most prominently features. Let's get into it. As we can see from the photo, the genealogy begins with Azathoth, and after him is the Nameless Mist, Darkness, Yog-sothoth, and Shub-Niggurath. These five entities are all Outer Gods, and though we're going to gloss over them right now, if people are interested in more Cthulhu Mythos content in the future, we'll definitely make more videos covering them. Little is known of Nug and Yeb, the spawn of Yog-sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, but they seem to be far less powerful than their forebears, a fact made plain by them not being counted among the outer gods. Similarly, Cthulhu, born to Nug, is also not classified as an Outer God; as we'll see, he's one of the Great Old Ones, an incredibly powerful category of being in Lovecraftian Lore, but still certainly outclassed by Outer God entities, which are monstrous cosmic forces that transcend time and space. Here's a passage from 'The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia' that explains how Cthulhu travelled to earth and on what his time there was like before the emergence of Humanity: See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Prometheus: a Titan who betrayed his own kind and joined the gods, the champion of humanity, the wily trickster who stole fire from Zeus, and the victim of one of the most truly diabolical punishments in all of Greek mythology: to have his ever-regenerating liver ripped out of his belly each day and devoured by an eagle for thousands of years. First we're going to explore the role Prometheus played in the creation of humanity, going through various versions from multiple works; following that, we're going to go through the escalating back and forth between Prometheus and Zeus, an exchange that results in a livid Zeus condemning his plucky, intrepid adversary to one of the worse punishments in all of Greek mythology; and finally, we're going to wrap up the video by looking at the story of Deucalion, Prometheus' son - specifically, at how he builds a boat to survive a world-consuming flood unleashed by Zeus to eradicate humanity. Let's get into it. Prometheus was the son of Iapetos, one of the 12 first-generation titans, and of Clymene, one of the Oceanid nymphs. Born to them were four sons: Atlas, strong and unyielding, condemned to an eternity of bearing the heavens on his shoulders, Menoitios, an obscure figure, smote by Zeus' lightning and thereby sent smoking down to Tartarus, Prometheus, wise and cunning, an ardent champion of humanity, and Epimetheus, dull and naive, whose susceptibility to temptation helped bring unspeakable suffering into the world. (An alternative genealogy claims that Iapetus' consort, the mother of these four second-generation titans, was Asia, another of the Oceanid nymphs descended from first-generation Titans Oceanus and Tethys.) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Nephilim: primordial giants of incredible size and strength, hybrid sons of fallen angels and mortal women, abominations despised by God, colossal corpses obliterated in the great flood that consumed the earth. We're going to start off by looking at two of the passages in which the Nephilim are mentioned in scripture. Following that, we're going to explore the Nephilim insofar as they are discussed in apocryphal works, specifically, The Book of Enoch and The Book of Jubilees. Let's get into it One understanding of the word Nephilim is to mean "the fallen ones", derived from the Hebrew Naphal, meaning "to fall". Frequently, though it is directly translated as "giants", a word used instead of Nephilim in Greek, Latin, and English versions of the Old Testament. One of the oldest translations of the Hebrew bible is the Septuagint, a Greek translation. The name Septuagint was given to this Greek translation on account of a story surrounding its creation. The word for 70 in Latin is septuaginta, so the name Septuagint was supposedly derived from there being 72 translators, six representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel. It is thought that the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew bible), was translated around the middle of the third century BCE, and that the subsequent two divisions of the Hebrew bible (the Nevi'im and the Ketuvim) were translated sometime in the second century BCE. In this translation, the word Nephilim was rendered to gigantes, the Greek word for giant, a change that was similarly embraced by some Latin translations (such as the Vulgate, which became the definitive Latin version used by the Catholic Church) that followed in the centuries to come. Continuing this trend were many of the English translations, these also favouring the word giant. However, as said, the adoption of the word giant as a substitute for Nephilim wasn't universal, as can be seen in the English Standard Version of the bible, which uses Nephilim, not giant. Furthermore, English translations of the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible) still use the word Nephilim, as well. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Lilith, the queen of hell, mother of demons, angel of prosti.tution, killer of pregnant women and infants, Adam's first wife, and seducer of men. We're going to start off by looking at a couple of allusions to her in the Old Testament. Following that, we're going to look at early influences that originated in Mesopotamia, and finally, we're going to look at the tide of information presented in various works published throughout the Middle Ages. Let's get into it. Lilith barely features in scripture: she's absent from the Quran and doesn't appear in the New Testament; it's only in the Old Testament that she's included, and even then, her inclusion depends either on the translation or on the interpretation. In the Book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Old Testament that describes the Cosmogony (the creation of the universe) and the anthropogony (the origination of humanity), the creation of women is described twice, each with different wording, which has led to some interesting theories and stories that endeavor to reconcile the two. The first instance reads as follows: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." One interpretation of this passage is that God created the first man and the first woman simultaneously, which, by this reckoning, places it at odds with the second instance in which the creation of the first woman is described. Here's the passage that describes the second instance: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, Made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss an interesting question: just how many angels, exactly, betrayed God, were cast out of heaven, and became demons. We're going to begin by looking at an earlier iteration of the Devil, one that portrays him as an instrument of God used to test humanity, not as the ruler of hell and king of demon kind; this will take us into the Book of Job, which demonstrates how the Devil was used in that capacity and wasn't always viewed as a fallen figure. Then, we're going to look at the Book of Revelation, which describes the fall of the angels, and finally, we're going to dive into the various theories that quantify the angel population and detail the proportion of them that fall from heaven and become demons; one hypothesis postulates there to be 133,306,668. Let's get into it. Satan, also known as Beelzebub, the Devil, Iblis, Mephistopheles, Lucifer, and numerous other infamous names and titles, wasn't always viewed through the same lens we use in contemporary times - which is to say perceiving him as the great defiler, the nemesis of God, the bane of man, the corruptor of hearts, the fallen one, the leader of Hell's hordes, the lord of infernal fire, and so on and so forth. In fact, the notion of fallen angels is entirely absent from the Old testament, which means accounts pertaining to the number of angels who forsook Heaven, replacing its light with the darkness of Hell, didn't exist until the advent of yet later works, like the New Testament and the Book of Enoch. But before we move our focus to that, Let's spend a little time looking at what could be called Satan's antecedent, which is the earlier conceptualization of him that's included in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, satan means adversary, and Satan, as an epithet for the Devil, is actually a truncated version of ha-satan, meaning the adversary, which, as originally conceived, referred to a post held or duty performed by an angel that served God, one unfallen. This angel, as directed by God, would oppose mankind, bringing strife and suffering to test resolve, to see if, even in the face of unbearable circumstances, people would keep their faith and remain true to God. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Adonis: one of the most - if not the most - handsome man in Greek mythology, a man who was born from a sappy womb encased in the trunk of a tree, a man with whom Aphrodite was infatuated, a man doomed to fall well before grey flecked his hair or the lines left by long years etched his skin. Let's get into it. Adonis' name has become synonymous with male beauty, but despite this and despite the fact that he had goddesses fighting over him, his life was one more so characterised by tragedy than by favour and fortune. His story can basically be boiled-down to three parts: his conception, his birth and his death. In short, his mother, after being impregnated by her father, is transformed into a tree; Adonis then emerges from her bark-crusted body, only to live a short while before a hunting mishap costs him his life. This, of course, is terribly truncated, but it does provide the bare bones and should function as a sort of guiding star for the longer version to come. Adonis was the son of the princess Smyrna, the beautiful daughter of king Theias, who ruled Assyria. Many suitors lined up in hopes of winning Smyrna's heart, but for one reason or another, none of them could. Rejection after rejection ensued, and they mounded up like love letters crumbled and discarded by some pining soul severed from its other half. They accumulated and then culminated - not in the finding of a husband - but in provoking Aphrodite's Wrath. You see, as the goddess of love, each rejection was an affront to her very being, and eventually, after so many suitors had been turned away, the goddess could not help but lash out, feeling so deeply scorned as she was. She cast a spell of love on Smyrna's mind, and in an especially cruel turn, it was none other than king Theias who was made the object of his own daughter's lustful love. Smyrna surreptitiously slipped into her father's chambers during the night, using the cover of darkness to hide her identity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.