Mythology Explained

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Oceanus, the very first Titan and, if allusion and shallow references are anything to go off of, perhaps, generally speaking, the very first god - including Primordials, Titans, and Olympians - in all of Greek mythology. This, in a broader sense, is indicative how complex Greek mythology was, there having been, the accounts that remain popular today notwithstanding, different versions of the creation myth, something evidenced by a multitude of allusions to Oceanus as a creator across an array of works, and by offshoots of what could be called 'orthodox Greek mythology', such as orphism, a religious movement that centered on the hero Orpheus, who was thought of as the seed from which Orphism grew, him having brought back secret knowledge when he returned from the underworld to the land of the living.

Oceanus was the personification of the great river that encircled the world, and in the context of his family (the other 11 first-generation Titans), he was somewhat of an aberration, partial to pacifism as he was.

He eschewed conflict, neither joining in the castration of his father nor fighting in the Titanomachy, the 10 year war between the Olympians and the Titans. I was going to say, "though he was undoubtedly one of the most powerful gods in Greek mythology, he seldom surfaces in any of its myths, more often existing as a piece of the stage on which Greek mythology unfolds than as an actor in the production", but after delving into his mythology more deeply, he actually does a have a nice little niche. He's mentioned a handful of times by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. In Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound", he visits Prometheus, now chained to a rock by Zeus, and offers the condemned god succor. One of the Orphic Hymns is dedicated to him, and generally, he is either mentioned or makes brief appearances in a number of other works. As well, the Iliad features several allusions to Oceanus, not Chaos, being the first god and thus the ultimate source of creation in Greek mythology.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss one of the most intriguing events from the life of Jesus Christ -- His temptation in the desert. We'll begin by unpacking the gospel accounts, illuminating the dramatic encounter between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness. From there, we'll venture into more contentious territory beyond the cartography of consensus and the compass of convention, intrepidly sailing with no regard for our own survival into the treacherous waters of conjecture, there delving into questions like: what motivated Satan to tempt Jesus, and did he truly believe he could sway the Son of God to sin; was Jesus, given his divine nature, even susceptible to sin or was he intrinsically impervious to the wicked wiles of evil, more so making the temptation akin to the enacting of a play rather than an engagement with peril; and had Satan succeeded, what could that have meant for the course of human history and salvation? Would it have precipitated a catastrophic shift in the cosmic balance, turning Jesus to the side of evil? If yes, what would this have meant for humanity and the universe at large?

Alright, let's get into it.

The four Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament in the Christian Bible. They are named after their traditional authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books are unique in their focus on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, together considered the primary source of information about the life and teachings of the Son of God.

While all four Gospels share this common focus, they each present a distinct perspective. The Gospel of Matthew, for example, emphasizes Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, presenting him as the long-awaited Messiah. Mark's Gospel, thought to be the first written of the four, portrays Jesus as a powerful yet suffering servant. Luke, the only Gospel written by a Gentile (meaning non-Jewish person), emphasizes Jesus's compassion for the poor and marginalized. John's Gospel, the most theological of the four, highlights Jesus's divine identity, presenting him as the incarnation of the Word, or Logos, of God. The four Gospels coalesce, conglomerating the individuality of each, to paint a comprehensive portrait of the life and teachings of Jesus.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Set, the Egyptian god of foreign lands, the desert, disasters, strength, storms, protective power, cunning, violence, war, confusion, and chaos, chaos being something he both embodied and combated. He was invoked by pharaohs and warriors so as to emulate him in battle and channel his strength; he murdered Osiris, the king of the gods, and usurped the throne, later vying with his Nephew Horus, the rightful king, in a decades long struggle for supremacy; and he was the Sun God's greatest protector, journeying with Ra each night through the underworld, fighting and felling, on a nightly-basis, the terrible serpent Apophis, the personification of chaos, thus ensuring the sun prevailed over the perils of the chthonic depths and survived to rise again each morning and bathe the world in life giving light.

Alright, let's get into it.

In ancient Egyptian iconography, Set (also spelled Seth) is depicted in a unique and unmistakable manner. Unlike many Egyptian deities whose appearances are recognizable from the natural world, Set's appearance (either zoomorphic, full-animal, or partly zoomorphic and partly anthropomorphic, human-animal hybrid) is based on an animal, usually referred to as the 'Set animal', that doesn't correspond to any known creature that actually exists. It is a composite creature with a curved snout, squared-off ears, and a forked tail. Some suggest it might be an amalgamation, possibly including elements of aardvarks, donkeys, jackals, or fennec foxes. Others have proposed more fantastical creatures like the griffin. Furthermore, while other features can be conceivably connected to other animals, the forked, tapering tail doesn't clearly match any known animal, adding even more to the mystery of Set's Iconography. He is often shown as this creature or as a man with the head of this creature. In terms of color, Set is often painted red, a color that has dual connotations in ancient Egyptian culture. It could be associated with chaos, storms, and the desert--elements that Set is the god of--but also with vitality and protection. His coloring, what it signifies, marks him as a deity of ambiguity, embodying both the power of disorder and the necessary force to quell that disorder.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Michael, unequivocally the most famous angel and widely regarded as the most powerful angel in Christianity, one of the few angels actually named in the bible and one of the only angels who features on every archangel list, of which there are many. Most notable are his martial triumphs, personally duelling the demon who presided over the Persian Empire, and leading the host of heaven against Satan and his rebel angels, the result of which was the precipitous expulsion of the insurgents down from heaven to earth, where prior to subsequent defeats, they would wreak havoc in the years leading up to God's final judgement.

We're going to begin with a miscellaneous assortment of information, then focusing on Michael's role in the bible, and finally, examining how he fits into the angelic hierarchy - this last discussing how he's considered the most powerful angel when the archangel choir is one of the lowest ranked angelic choirs in the celestial hierarchy.

Alright, let's get into it.

Discussed in either secular or religious works, in any of the three Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), Michael is generally viewed as the greatest of the angels. His honours, titles, and offices include: prince of the presence, head of the archangels, principal of the order of virtues, and angel of mercy, sanctification, righteousness, and repentance. Furthermore, he is the angelic prince of Israel, sovereign over the 4th heaven, the protector of Jacob, and the angel who leads the forces of heaven against Satan and his rebel angels, banishing Satan and those who follow him from heaven. In 2 Kings, the Assyrian army is described as mounting a campaign against the Jewish people, capturing city after city. When Jerusalem was finally assailed, becoming encircled and besieged, Hezekiah prayed to God for divine intervention. In answer, an angel later entered the Assyrian camp in the dead of night, smiting the army with his holy power.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the eradicating exploits of Zeus, perhaps the greatest monster slayer in all of mythology. We're going to begin with the Cosmology, delving into how the Greeks conceptualized the creation of the world and the emergence of the gods, and with that done, the fundamental framework of Greek mythology delineated to a basic degree, we're going to go over, in chronological order, the cataclysmic conflicts that begin with Zeus' ascension and end with Zeus supremacy over the universe, which will see him kill Campe, defeat the Titans, destroy the Giants, and finally, lay low Typhon, the most powerful monster in all of Greek mythology.

Alright let's get into it.

First there was Chaos, the great void, then emerged Gaia, earth, Tartarus, the abyss beneath the earth, and eros, sexual desire. Following these four, came a time of independent procreation: Chaos producing Nyx, night, and Erebus, darkness, and Gaia producing Uranus, the sky, Ourea, the mountains, and Pontus, the sea. And many more primordial deities were brought forth into creation that we will not name. The primordial deities, the first gods in Greek mythology, were the material manifestations of the universe, the very regions later gods would rule over. For example, Uranus was the sky itself while Zeus later came to rule the sky, and Pontus was the sea itself while Poseidon later came to rule the sea.

Gaia took Uranus as her consort, and together they had many children, first the three Hecatonchires, then the three Uranian Cyclopes, and then the 12 Titans. Here's the passage from 'The Library of Greek Mythology' that describes this:

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Apophis, the chaos serpent, the baleful bane of life itself, the most powerful monster in all of Egyptian mythology. So great was his power that it took the combined strength of many gods to overcome him, and so great was the threat he posed that his victory would unleash absolute destruction, bringing about the end of the Egyptian gods and, more broadly, of the universe itself, returning every mote of matter and particle of energy back to the infinite chaos from whence everything first came.

Alright, let's get into it.

Apophis was depicted as a great serpent and sometimes as a colossal crocodile. He was an incarnation of disorder and destruction - the supreme incarnation of disorder and destruction - and the arch-nemesis of Ra, whom Apophis fought ad nauseam, the two of them meeting in the underworld each night and battling for the fate of all creation. The eyes of Apophis were especially perilous, and his terrible roar was said to be deafening, able to resound throughout the entire underworld. The movement of his body shook the earth, causing earthquakes, and the hidden sandbanks in the Nile that were so treacherous to ships were equated with his coils. Medieval dragons are thought to perhaps be modeled after a hybrid representation of Apophis that conflated both his snake and crocodile forms, and the python, which could unhinge its jaw to swallow large prey whole, is thought to have been a principal inspiration for Apophis, in terms of both appearance and action, the latter being to symbolically swallow and destroy the world by killing Ra. There was a plethora of fierce and frightening phenomena associated with Apophis, including thunder, earthquakes, darkness, disorder, storms of every kind, and chaos. Depictions of Apophis varied, sometimes shown as a coiled serpent, but most often shown under attack by Ra and his supporters. Mau, the divine cat, the guardian of the tree of life, and one of the manifestations of Ra, was commonly shown, knife in paw, cutting Apophis to pieces.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the 14 presidents of hell.

Alright, let's get into it.

The "Lesser Key of Solomon" is an anonymous grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, primarily from materials created and circulated in the two centuries preceding its publication. It is divided into five books, and by far the most popular of the five is the first, the Ars Goetia, which contains descriptions of the 72 demons that Solomon is said to have evoked and confined in a bronze vessel sealed by magic symbols, and that he compelled to work for him. Each demon is described in detail, including its appearance, its rank, the powers it can confer upon the conjurer, and the ritual instructions for summoning it.

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (often shortened to S.L.M. Mathers) lived from 1854-1918 and was a prominent figure in late 19th and early 20th century occultism. He was a co-founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secretive organization dedicated to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities.

Mathers translated the 'Lesser Key of Solomon into English in 1904, making him the first person to do so. His translation was significant as it made one of the most famous grimoires accessible to English-speaking audiences for the first time. Before this, such works were typically only available to scholars or to lay enthusiasts well versed in Latin. Mathers' translation thus democratized access to the "Lesser Key of Solomon," significantly influencing Western occultism by contributing to the dissemination and development of magical practices in the English-speaking world.

In the Ars Goetia, as said before, there are 72 demons, each one ascribed a rank. There are 9 kings, 23 Dukes, 7 princes, 15 marquis, 14 presidents, 10 earls, or counts, and 1 knight. (The reason that the number totaled by adding all of these ranks is greater than 72 is that some demons hold more than one rank.) We will now, for the rest of the video, read directly from the 'Lesser Key of Solomon' (specifically, from Mather's English Translation of the Ars Goetia), going over each of the 14 entries that discuss the 14 demonic presidents.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In Today's video, we'll be discussing Tiamat, the primordial goddess of chaos who waged a war against the gods, a goddess so powerful that she brought an entire pantheon to its knees. Beyond her own incredible innate power, she fleshed out her forces by spawning a brood of terrible monsters, and she raised up a captain to lead her unholy host, taking him as her consort and giving him the Tablet of Destiny, which endowed him with mastery over destiny, thus making him virtually unstoppable.

Alright, let's get into it.

Most of what we know about Tiamat comes from the Enuma Elish, an ancient creation myth of Babylonian origin that describes the genesis of the world and the rise of the gods. It tells the story of how the god Marduk establishes his supremacy by defeating the primordial goddess Tiamat and creating the cosmos from her body. The text is written in the form of an epic poem and is one of the oldest recorded creation myths in human history. From here, we're going to go through the Enuma Elish, beginning with Chaos and the emergence of the gods and focusing on Tiamat throughout.

The Babylonians conceptualized chaos as a primordial body of water, made up of two primordial gods: Apsu, the god of freshwater, and Tiamat, the goddess of saltwater. They existed before anything else and are the ultimate source of everything in Babylonian mythology. Here's the passage from the Enuma Elish that describes this:

"When on high heaven was not yet named, nor was the hard ground below called by name - there was nothing but primordial Apsu, the begetter, and Mother Tiamat, she who gave birth to everything. The waters of Tiamat and Apsu were mingled together as a single body... It was a time before the gods had come into being, or were called by name, or their destinies determined - this was when the gods took form within them"

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the four of them sent forth by God to unleash conquest, war, famine, and death upon the world.

Alright, let's get into it.

The Four Horsemen make their appearance in the Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, a book that gives an account of the cataclysmic events that will transpire during the Apocalypse, a word derived from the Greek word apokalypsis, meaning to 'reveal' or uncover'. Scholars generally agree that the Book of Revelation was written towards the end of the first century AD, a time fraught with persecution for Christians under the hegemony of the Roman Empire. At this time, John, a Christian and thus a victim of said persecution, was living in exile in the Aegean Sea on the island of Patmos, and here, on this island, is where God reached out and imparted to him the revelation of the events that were to come.

To John, God revealed the future, all the death and destruction prophesied to afflict the world leading up to the final judgement, which will more or less be a divine sifting event in which the wheat will be winnowed from the chaff, basically an event where all the people of the world and all the spirits of the dead will be judged, the good forever living in God's light and the bad consigned to the lake of fire.

John was commanded to write down what he's shown and then to send what he's written to seven churches located in Asia Minor, a land we know today as Turkey. Jesus imparted a bespoke message for each church, which, without going into specifics, can be summed up as messages that caution against falling into moral pitfalls and encourage the mustering of fortitude and resilience to endure the adverse circumstances pervading that time. Afterwards, John continues by recounting what he bears witness to in the vision revealed to him by God.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Mammon, a demon Lord and the demon who rules over the
deadly sin of greed.

We'll start with his portrayal in John Milton's epic poem, 'Paradise Lost', before transitioning into an exploration of the historical and linguistic origins of the term 'Mammon' in the Biblical canon. We'll investigate how this term evolved from abstraction to personification, from a word denoting greed into a demonic entity, tracing this development from its Aramaic roots, then to Greek, Latin, and English. Following this, we'll examine the teachings on Mammon in the New Testament, specifically the Gospel of Matthew, illuminating how this term was initially used. Finally, we'll delve into notable historical texts that link Mammon to the seven deadly sins, showing him to be the deadly demon who presides over the deadly sin of Greed.

Alright, let's get into it.

"Paradise Lost' is an epic poem by John Milton, first published in 1667. This monumental work of literature is hailed as one of the greatest in the English language and is considered one of the crown jewels of the Western canon. It reimagines the Biblical story of humanity's fall, portraying the rebellion of Satan and his cohort of fallen angels, their banishment from Heaven, and their subsequent schemes to corrupt and ruin mankind. Through its exploration of profound themes such as free will, temptation, the nature of evil, and the consequences of defying the divine, 'Paradise Lost' delves into the complexities of human existence, the nature of God, and the eternal battle between good and evil.

Milton's poetic genius paints a vivid picture of the sublime celestial realms, the desolate depths of Hell, the untouched beauty of Eden, and the catastrophic consequences of human transgression. The grandeur of his verse, its rich symbolism, and vivid imagery lend depth to the narrative and its underlying themes.

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