Mythology Explained

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, we're discussing Typhon. The son of Gaia, the personification of the earth, and of Tartarus, the personification of the great abyss deep beneath the earth, Typhon was the most powerful monster in all of Greek mythology, even more powerful, perhaps - if you remove weapons from the equation - than all of the gods too.

In the Greek creation myth, there was a sequence of three great conflicts, each of which entailed a powerful enemy the gods had to overcome: there was the war against the titans; there was the war against the giants; and lastly, there was the battle against Typhon. As Apollodorus tells it, Gaia was the driving force behind most of these conflicts. She created the giants to attack the gods after the titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, and then after the giants were destroyed, she created Typhon to attack the gods. This version portrays Gaia as some wrathful brood mother that keeps pumping out new batches of monsters to avenge older batches of monsters. But I digress.

Typhon was, unequivocally, the gravest threat Olympus faced, and his appearance makes this easy to understand.

He was terrible to behold, even the boldest were stricken with fear by him, and his awesome strength was unmatched by any other. Even mighty Zeus, if not for the blazing bolts he wielded, likely would have fallen.

Typhon was half man and half beast. In size and strength he eclipsed all of Gaia's other children. 100 snakes twisted out of his shoulders where arms should have been, but aside from his arms, his body was human-like until his thighs, below which was a multitude of coiled vipers. Wings grew all over his body, and his eyes were two merciless pits of fire, almost like the mouths of two volcanoes. The sounds of every fierce animal thundered from him. Wings of every sort grew all over his body, and foul hair grew from his head and cheeks. He dwarfed the mountains as he strode across the land, and his head brushed the stars. It was said that if he extended his arms, he could grasp the farthest Western and Eastern points at the same time.

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Hey Everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to be discussing Tartarus. Tartarus was the great abyss, the bottomless chasm, the deep dark that existed beneath Gaia. It was one of the primordial deities, which meant that it was both person and place, simultaneously existing as a god and as the manifestation of one of the aspects of creation.

As a place, Tartarus was usually featured in Greek mythology as the infernal plane of the underworld, reserved for unforgivable sinners and dangerous enemies, such as the Titans and the monster Typhon.

Tartarus was one of the five first-generation primordial deities, which meant that he - along with Gaia, the personification of the earth, Eros, the personification of love and desire, Erebus, the personification of darkness, and Nyx, the personification of night - was one of five deities to emerge from Chaos, the great void that existed before all else.

According to Hesiod, earth existed equidistant between the heavens and Tartarus. He said that an anvil dropped from the heavens would take nine days and nine nights to plummet to earth, and that the same anvil would again take nine days and nine nights to plunge through the darkness from Earth to the depths of Tartarus.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to take a look at the Giants, a formidable race that challenged the gods, and at the Gigantomachy, which was the calamitous war fought between the gods and the giants. And to give you an idea of what's in store, here's apollodorus' description of the giants: "unsurpassed in size, unassailable in their strength, and fearful to behold because of the thick hair hanging down from their head and cheeks" The titans definitely get the lion's share of the attention, but the giants were also incredibly powerful and weren't to be trifled with.

Let's get into it.

In Greek mythology, there were two types of giants. The first type featured an array of characters, all unrelated to each other, who were of enormous size. Examples of this type include the giants Otus and Ephialtes, known for storming mount olympus and stuffing Ares in a bronze jar, Talos, a bronze giant, and Orion, a giant who was a master hunter. The other type of giants was the race of giants spawned from the droplets of blood that fell to the earth from Uranus' severed genitals after he was castrated and thereby Usurped by his youngest son Cronus. The Erinyes, commonly known as the furies, were created in the same way, also spawning from the earth after Uranus' blood saturated and impregnated the earth.

According to Apollodorus, Gaia was furious with the gods after the Titanomachy. All of the titans who fought against Zeus - except for Atlas who was sentenced to hold up the sky for eternity - were cast down into the depths of Tartarus. Gaia wished for her children to be free, so she absorbed the droplets of Uranus' blood, became impregnated, and then birthed a new race of beings, the giants, a race with god-like power. The war that ensued was called the Gigantomachy, and it was the penultimate conflict Olympus would have to content with: the last major threat Olympus was assailed by was the monster Typhon, a son of Gaia and Tartarus and the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. To put all the major conflicts in order, it went: Titanomachy, the war against the titans, then Gigantomachy, the war against the giants, and then the battle against Typhon.

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Every Norse God

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to take a look at every god in Norse mythology, covering all of the essentials.

Let's get into it.

Number 1:Buri

Buri was Thawed from a block of salty ice by the incessant licking of the cosmic cow, Audhumbla. He was the first god to exist in Norse mythology. All other gods were descended from him. He was described as being large, fair, and powerful.

Number 2:Bor

Very little is known of Bor. He was the only son of Buri, and by the giantess Bestla, he sired three sons, Odin, vili, and Ve

Number 3:Odin

Known as the All-father, Odin was the highest and the oldest of the gods. He was the god of the dead, poetry, wisdom, and war. Most of the myths that centered on him revolved around his pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and magic, often involving extreme self-sacrifice, like when he impaled himself with his spear and hung himself from the world tree for nine days, or when he sacrificed his eye to gain mystic visions from Mimirsbrun. With his two brothers, he tore apart the proto-giant Ymir and created the world, and he helped to create the first man and the first woman. He's fated to be devoured by the monstrous wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok.

Numbers 4 and 5:Vili and Ve

Vili and Ve were Odin's two younger brothers. With Odin they tore apart the proto-giant Ymir and created the world, helping to create the first man and the first woman. Once, when Odin was away on a long journey, they divided their absent older brother's inheritance between them, even Frigg, whom they each bedded.

Number 6 :Freyja

Freyja was an incredibly powerful sorceress, only Odin could rival her in mastery of the magic arts. Along with her brother and father, she was originally one of the Vanir, a tribe of gods at war with the Aesir gods in the mythic past. She rode in a chariot pulled by huge cats. She loved gold and fine jewelry, and she was lascivious, having reportedly shared the bed of every god and elf. Many myths involved giants wanting to bed her or win her as a wife. She presided over Folkvang, where half of those slain in battle were sent. Her husband was Od, another name for Odin, which makes her a version of the goddess Frigg, who also married Odin.

Number 7:Frigg

Aside from having different names, Frigg and Freya were nearly duplicates of each other. Frigg was married to Odin. She enjoyed the company of men, loved gold and jewelry, and was a powerful magic wielder; she could even foretell the future. Both Frigg and Freya owned Falcon feathers that allowed them to transform into birds and soar through the sky

Number 8:Frey

Frey was a fertility god, and he was strongly associated with peace; for fertility thrives where war is absent. However, Norse culture was so warlike that even gods like Frey were said to be formidable warriors. As Freyja's brother, Frey is also of the vanir. He is fated to be cut down by Surtur, the chief of the fire giants, during Ragnarok.

Number 9:Njord

Njord was Freyja and Frey's father. He could control the winds, soothe the seas, and quench fire. He was also extraordinarily wealthy. Those whose livelihoods depended on the bounty of the sea were wise to invoke him, and he could bestow people with abundance.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In this video, we're going to take a look at the unborn god who would have been the most powerful god in all of Greek mythology. Were he born, Zeus was fated to be overthrown by him. Like the rising sun bringing a new day, his coming would have been the inauguration of a new age. This god's power would have been supreme, unrivaled by any other. All other gods would have been forced to bend the knee or face destruction, Zeus most of all.

To understand this story, we have to take a look at the Greek creation myth, for which the driving force is a vicious cycle of son supplanting father, each generation more powerful than the one before.

From chaos, the great void, emerged five primordial deities. One of these, Gaia, the personification of the earth, independently produced three second generation primordial deities, aspects of the observable world. These were Ourea, the mountains, Pontus, the sea, and Uranus, the sky. Gaia took Uranus as her consort, and from their union came the Hecatonchires, the Cyclopes, and the first generation of Titans. Uranus thought the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes were abominations, so he kept them trapped inside of Gaia; but he allowed the titans to be born. Having many of her children trapped inside of her was excruciating for Gaia, so she beseeched her children to champion her and rebel against their father. Only Cronus, the youngest, was audacious and ambitious enough to answer his mother's plea. With a grey sickle of adamant, cronus hid. The next time Uranus went to envelope Gaia in a sexual embrace, cronus ambushed him and castrated him, casting the severed genitals into the sea. This act separated earth from sky and ushered in a new era, the rule of the titans, with Cronus as king of the cosmos, but he would not keep the crown forever.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to take a look at the Ennead, which was a group of nine gods the Heliopolitan creation myth revolved around.

Let's get into it.

In the beginning, before creation, before the first breath was drawn, before the inexorable flow of time, there existed only the primordial waters of Nun - dark, watery, and infinite. There was no end to them. In these primordial waters were all of the elements of creation, but in a boundless liquid state, they were almost inert; for nothing could be formed by them, combined as they were. It would take the touch of the divine for anything to happen.

Within the water of Nun, the god Atum created himself from the watery darkness that churned about him. He then impregnated himself by masterbating and ejacualting into his own mouth. Atum's mouth functioned as a womb, and through his will and thought, his seed quickened into the fetuses of his two children. After a period of gestation, the divine twins Shu and Teftnut were expelled from the surrogate womb in which they grew. One was spat out. The other was sneezed out. Shu was the god of dry, life-giving air and sunlight, and tefnut was the goddess of moisture.

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Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to be discussing Tyr, one of the Norse gods of war.

Here's what you can expect: a war between two tribes of gods that's settled by a prisoner exchange; a nearly invincible wolf imprisoned by a ribbon fashioned from the spittle of a bird, the beard of a woman, the breath of a fish, and the sound of a cat's footsteps; a cauldron that's a mile deep; someone who goes fishing and inadvertently hooks the World Serpent; and a god who fights the hound of hell to the death;

Let's get into it.

Tyr was one of the Aesir, which was the tribe of Norse gods who made their home in Asgard. The Vanir, the other tribe of Norse gods, dwelt on Vanaheim, another of the nine realms. These two tribes were at war in the mythic past. Neither tribe could gain a meaningful advantage over the other, so the war was eventually resolved through an exchange of prisoners.

Considered the boldest and most courageous of all the Norse gods, Tyr was a Norse god of war. The other two were Thor and Odin. Tyr was also among the wisest of the gods, so much so that exceedingly clever people were said to be Tyr wise.

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Welcome to Mythology Explained. In todays video we're discussing Chinese dragons. More specifically, their powers and abilities, their appearance, their hierarchy, and their associations with the full-spectrum of ancient Chinese society, from peasant to emperor.

Let's get into it.

Where dragons and fire have become synonymous in western culture, Chinese dragons break from this tradition, instead being associated with wind and water. Unlike dragons in other cultures, who were often depicted as destructive and as avaricious wealth-hoarders, Chinese dragons were incarnations of strength, intelligence and luck, attributes that would be bestowed on those worthy of them. Those venerated and wielding power - royalty, especially emperors, epitomizing this - were compared to dragons. Those incompetent and unimportant were held in contempt through comparisons to lesser creatures, such as worms.

Dragons were among the four smartest creatures in ancient Chinese culture. The other three were the unicorn, the phoenix, and the tortoise. This deep intelligence was one of the reasons emperors and dragons were so closely associated; strength, power, and good-fortune were others.

Dragons possessed many amazing abilities. They could shapeshift, vanish and materialize, and grow or shrink in size. Where their real power lay, though, was in their affinity for water. A dragon's power encompassed a wide-variety of weather phenomena centering on air and water, including floods, typhoons, rivers, rain, swift winds, hailstorms, and tornadoes. large bodies of water, great rivers, and cloud-covered skies, were their abodes. When they flew, lightning flashed and thunder boomed.

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Welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to be discussing Achilles vs Hercules. In this head-to-head, we're going to have each hero at their most powerful, meaning all weapons, armor, and enhancements are fair game - the only caveat being our version of Hercules will be his most powerful mortal version. Hercules ascends to godhood at the end of his life, and something about the god-version of Hercules going up against Achilles just doesn't seem sporting. Although, it may very turn out that any version of Hercules just isn't sporting when set against Achilles.

We're going to start off by taking a look at the armor and weapons each hero will be equipped with, as well as an important event for each that led to the development of their battle abilities; then we'll look at relevant feats each hero accomplished to get an idea of their respective powers; and finally, we'll have them face-off to see which hero will emerge victorious.

Let's get into it.

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Welcome to Mythology Explained- today we're going to be discussing Achilles. Achilles was the son of Peleus and Thetis. Pelus was the king of Phthia, which was either a city or district in Thessaly, and the grandson of Zeus, making Achilles the great-grandson of Zeus. Thetis was a sea-goddess and one of 50 Nereids, a group of sea-nymphs who were the daughters of Nereus, who was a sea-god and the son of Gaia, the personification of the earth, and of Pontus, the personification of the sea.

When Zeus found out that any children he sired by Thetis would be more powerful than himself, he decided to marry off Thetis to Peleus, a mortal man, to forestall any such eventuality. Another version has Zeus marry Thetis to a mortal after she rejects his advance. Thetis and Peleus' marriage is a very important piece of this story, for it was the impetus that catalyzed the Trojan War, the conflict that would claim Achilles' life. You could say that it was the marriage of Achilles' own parents that was the architect of the hero's own doom.

The wedding was a grand affair. All of the gods were in attendance. That is, all of the gods except for Eris, the goddess of strife, who was intentionally snubbed by not being extended an invitation. Being deliberately excluded didn't sit well with Eris, and so she devised a subtle and insidious plan. Her invitation be damned, she showed up at the wedding. She brought with her a golden apple inscribed with the words, "for the fairest". Three goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, strode forward to claim the gift for their own, each goddess asserting that it was she who was the most beautiful and, thus, the rightful recipient of the apple. This dispute was a matter of deep contention between the three, so it was decided that Paris, a prince of Troy, was to be the arbiter who would adjudicate. Each goddess attempted to bribe him. Hera offered an expansive kingdom, Athena, victory in war, and Aphrodite, the most beautiful woman in all the world. Paris was most seduced by Aphrodite's offer, and so it was she who was declared most beautiful. The prince promptly set sail for Sparta where he took Helen back to Troy with him, either willingly or unwillingly, depending on the version. This theft precipitated the Trojan war. Menelaus, Helen's husband, and Agamemnon rallied all of Greece's armies, setting sail with a thousand ships to assail the walls of Troy. And it would be this war that would prove the defining chapter of Achilles' life.

When Achilles was but an infant, his mother contrived to make him immortal. There are two versions of this. The first is that she placed him atop fiery embers at night and then anointed him with ambrosia during the day. Peleus, fearing that his son would be burned to death, put an end to this process before the transformation was complete, leaving Achilles mortal. The second version is perhaps the better known of the two. It entails Achilles' mother holding him by his heels and dipping him into the river Styx, one of the rivers of the underworld. This was done successfully, but the process was ultimately flawed; for it left Achilles with two vulnerable areas, two chinks in his otherwise impervious body: his heels.

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