Mythology Explained

By Mythology ExplainedHistory

Mythology Explained episodes

July 10, 2021 Ares VS Athena: Who Is More POWERFUL? - Mythology Wars
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, we're going to take a look at both Ares and Athena, both Olympians and children of Zeus, to determine which of them is more powerful and, ultimately, which of them would defeat the other.

We're going to start things off with a quick overview of the capacity in which both Ares and Athena function as gods of war; then we're going to take a look at a few myths that Ares features in; following that we're going to examine how both gods factor into the three great conflicts fought by the Olympians - the Titanomachy, the Gigantomachy, and Zeus' battle against Typhon; next we'll look at how Ares and Athena perform when they face each other during the events of the Trojan war; we're going to wrap the video up with a quick summary of each god's position, crowning a winner.

Let's get into it.

Both Ares and Athena number among the 12 olympians, and though they are both gods of war, they represent very different aspects of warfare. Ares embodied the brutal aspects of warfare - the carnage, its bloodshed, unrestrained violence, the blood-curdling screams of the dying, and the panic that gripped men's hearts when the shadow of death fell on them. Two of his children, Phobos, meaning fear, and Deimos, meaning dread, attended him, sharing his chariot. By contrast, Athena was the incarnation of the more defensive and strategic elements of warfare. Slaughter wasn't under her purview. She's a deity you would want to invoke when planning how to repel an assault on your city or in deciding which tactics to employ to outsmart and outmatch your enemy. Athena was also the goddess of wisdom and of crafts. Ares was an aggressor, and he was emblematic of unprovoked, wanton violence; Athena was more of a protector and personified necessary warfare, that of a last-resort nature.

With that quick comparison covered, Let's dive into a few myths that star Ares but exclude Athena. The reason for this is that all of the myths about Athena pertinent to this discussion are also relevant to Ares, involving him in some manner, so we're going to get the Ares-exclusives out of the way first.
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15 min
June 30, 2021 Can You Actually KILL a GOD? - Greek Mythology Explained
Welcome to Mythology Explained.

Today, we're going to be looking at Greek mythology and exploring whether or not an immortal life can be snuffed out- whether or not you really can kill a god-whether or not Kratos would actually have been able to rampage up the slopes of Olympus and destroy every divine being who crossed his path.

We're going to start things off by taking a look at a couple of monster myths, and then we'll go through a miscellaneous assortment of injuries and predicaments that several immortal beings must contend with, finishing with those that were most life threatening, or, perhaps, even life ending.
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15 min
June 18, 2021 Zeus VS Odin: Who Is More POWERFUL? - Mythology Wars
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, we're discussing Zeus and Odin. More specifically- we're going to be answering one big question: who is the ultimate all-father?

Let's begin by looking at their many similarities:

Both All-fathers and heads of their pantheons, Zeus and Odin are divine kings. Odin's high seat resides in Asgard, the dwelling place of the aesir gods, and Zeus' high seat resides on Mt. Olympus, the dwelling of the Olympians. They're each depicted as older men, with long white hair and long white beards. Odin is often portrayed wielding his spear, Gungnir in his right hand, and Zeus is often portrayed with a crackling bolt of lightning in his right hand. Zeus is strongly associated with the eagle, which is one of his sacred animals, and Odin is strongly associated with the raven, of which two, Huginn and Muninn, are his companions. And unlike the gods of monetheistic religions, neither Zeus nor Odin is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. These two gods are linked by many parallels, and naturally, because of this, we, as inquisitive primates, are filled with a need to know, unequivocally, who the more powerful of the two truly is, and who, if pitted against one another in an all-out, tooth-and-nail, fang-and-claw rock-fight to the bitter end, would emerge victorious.

This head to head is perhaps more interesting for the reasons these two gods differ than for the reasons they're similar.

Zeus is largely defined by the wake of destroyed enemies he's left in his path. He led the olympians in a successful war against the titans; he defeated Typhon, the king of monsters in single combat; and he successfully led the olympians against the giant uprising. Zeus boasts an unblemished record when it comes to matters of battle and war. The same, however, cannot not be said about Odin. In the mythic past when the Aesir gods and the Vanir gods were at war, Odin was not able to lead the Aesir to victory. The two tribes of gods fought to a draw, and the fires of war were quenched by a hostage exchange in which members of each tribe went to live with the other. The second time Odin's battle prowess is called into question is in the mythic future, during the events of Ragnarok. In this apocalyptic battle, Odin will be devoured by Fenrir, a monstrous wolf and one of Loki's offspring.
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13 min
June 04, 2021 Perseus VS Hercules: Who Is More Powerful? - Greek Mythology Explained
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Perseus and Hercules are two of Greek mythology's A-list Heroes. They were iconic in ancient times, and their fame endured to modern times in which they both enjoy respected positions in pop culture. Who is more powerful?
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8 min
May 19, 2021 Thoth: Creator of the Moon - Egyptian Mythology Explained
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, discussing the Egyptian God Thoth. Here's what's in store: a god who called out to the semen of two other gods; a god who recorded if the heart of each and every dead person was lighter than the feather of truth; a god who created the moon to illuminate the night; and finally, a god who summoned ingested semen to a god's forehead where said semen gains the appearance of the sun.

Let's get into it.

Thoth was depicted as having the head of an ibis, which is a long-beaked, wading bird. He came to be the god of learning, wisdom, and all vocations that centered on either the pursuit of knowledge or record keeping, but originally, he was a lunar deity; and as such, his sphere of influence included the passage of time (for which the waxing and waning of the moon was a key marker) and the cyclical passage of the seasons. The part of divine judge was another of his responsibilities, and throughout the entire ancient Egyptian mythos, Thoth is shown to be a staunch supporter of both Horus and Osiris, advocating for them on numerous occasions.

Like many gods from long-defunct pantheons, Thoth's lineage, or genesis, is more than a little ambiguous, meaning that there are a multitude of competition origin stories. Here are the more salient versions that have survived through to today: Thoth being the son of RA, the sun god; Thoth being born out of the side of set's head after set was tricked into eating some of Horus' semen; and Thoth being the first god to emerge from the primordial mound and, thus, the primary figure in one version of the Egyptian creation myth.

Thoth's province was the entire spectrum of human knowledge. Scribes especially maintained a deep affinity for Thoth. All scientific knowledge was said to be held in the sacred books in the house of life, and included in them, was the book of Thoth, which comprised 42 papyrus scrolls and was written by the god himself.

One of the main parts that Thoth played in the myths of ancient Egypt was his maintaining of law and order when night fell. Ra, the sun god and the first king, had grown old and tired. He relinquished his crown and ascended into the sky, but up high, now ensconced on his celestial boat, what Ra observed below troubled him. People had turned on each other; fighting had broken out; and everyone was looking for someone else to blame for the departure of the sun. To stop the chaos below, Ra did two things: he installed a successor, his first born, the god Shu (air), to rule in his stead, and secondly, Ra deputized Thoth to act with his own authority during the night. Thoth was tasked with upholding law and order, bestowing mankind with the gift of writing, and illuminating the night sky, the last of which he accomplished by creating the moon.

Thoth was a stalwart defender of Horus, and he remained so throughout Horus' decades-long conflict with set, in which they relentlessly competed for the throne. His most notable contribution was in the events that followed set's rape of Horus. set forced himself upon Horus while he slept, and then, the following day, set rushed off to the divine council to boast to the other gods about what he had done. But in the intervening time, many things happened of which set was not apprised. Horus was not actually filled with set's seed. He caught it in his hand, which Isis then chopped off and cast into the nile. (Don't worry, though: Isis used her magic to later restore Horus' hand.) The second thing that happened was that some of Horus' own seed was put on the favourite lettuce plants that set ate each morning, impregnating him.
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7 min
May 17, 2021 Isis: the Goddess Who Poisoned the Sun - Egyptian Mythology Explained
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, we're discussing Isis.

Of all the ancient Egyptian goddesses, Isis' cult was the most widespread and the longest lasting. Such was her popularity that it far exceeded the boundaries of the ancient Egyptian empire. She was revered by both Greeks and Romans, and her influence reached all the way to Britain, where there are, purportedly, bridges adorned with her image along the River Thames. At her height during Graeco-Roman times, her popularity transcended borders, gained an international following, and later, even rivaled the popularity of the burgeoning Christian religion.
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8 min
May 11, 2021 Fenrir: the GIANT Wolf Even Gods Feared - Norse Mythology Explained
Welcome to Mythology Explained. Today, we're discussing Fenrir: the biggest, baddest wolf in all of Norse mythology. And there were many mighty wolves in Norse Mythology: there was Geri and Freki, Odin's wolves; There was Skoll and Hati, the two wolves locked in a perpetual chase of the sun and the moon across the sky; but none was as ferocious or indomitable as Fenrir, who was fated to break free of his bonds and wreak havoc during Ragnarok.
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7 min
May 03, 2021 Set: Ancient Egypt's DARK God - Egyptian Mythology Explained
Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained, in today's video we're going to be discussing Set, the Egyptian god of war. Here's what's in store: a god impregnated by eating lettuce leaves; a god who travels through the underworld and fights a giant hell-serpent every night; a god who murders his brother and chops the body into pieces; and a god who surprise attacks his nephew in the desert, gouging out his eyes and leaving him for dead.

Let's get into it.

Set was one of the Ennead, a Greek word that refers to the first nine gods to come into existence in one of the main versions of the creation myth. In this version, Atum was the first deity to rise from the primordial mound. He was self-created, and after his genesis, he rose a second time, as Atum Re, making him both the chief creator and the embodiment of the sun. He independently sired two gods, shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). These two, in turn, begot Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), whose union produced the final four gods of this group, Osiris, the lord of the underworld, set, we'll get to him in just a moment, Isis, the goddess of healing and magic, and Nepthys, who was associated with many things, mourning, child bearing, and protection among them.

set was the younger brother of Osiris, and he took Nephtys, his sister, as his consort, just as Osiris took Isis to be his. set was the god of many phenomena and abstractions associated with strength and destruction. Among these were violence, chaos, eclipses, earthquakes, the untamed desert, and storms of all natures. He and Osiris combined into a sort of dichotomy whereby Osiris was lord over the ancient Egyptian empire - civilized lands - and set was the lord over lands either populated by foreign countries or covered by rugged wilderness - uncivilized lands.

In keeping with the divine aesthetic in ancient Egypt, set was depicted with the head of an animal. However, his appearance is unique in that, unlike the other gods with hybrid appearances, the animal whose likeness set's head was modeled after was never definitively identified. It looked to be dog-like in appearance, yet it possessed a vague similarity to an ant-eater; and today, it is hypothesized that the animal that inspired the appearance of set's head is likely a mythical amalgamation of many animals.

Though never the most popular god, he was revered for his physical strength in earlier years. "The beloved of set" was a title taken by many pharaohs, equating their strength to that of the mighty god. This is exemplified by the depiction of set teaching Pharaoh Thutmose III how to shoot a bow.

Later, around the eighth century BC, set ceased to be a deity honored by worship. He came to be the incarnation of evil and, as such, became a dark god, feared and reviled.

I would guess that a primary contributing factor for the decline of set's image in the eye of the public was the role he played in the succession myth, which was, unequivocally, the part of the villain. Because Osiris was the older brother, he was made king, and to say that being subordinate to his older brother never sat well with set would be an extreme understatement. set coveted the throne, and his mind was consumed by machinations spawned from jealousy and rage. Eventually, brooding turned into action, and dark thoughts escalated to dark actions. set struck down his brother, chopped the body into pieces, and hid them across egypt. With Osiris gone, the other gods accepted set's rule, crystallizing the success of the usurpation. However, this victory was not to last.

Many events ensue that I'm going to gloss over because set isn't directly involved in them, but here they are expressed as succinctly as possible: Osiris is resurrected for just enough time to impregnates isis with a son, Horus; Horus is born in secret; Isis brings Horus before the divine council to claim the throne, his birthright.
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8 min
April 30, 2021 Hathor: Goddess of LOVE - Egyptian Mythology Explained
Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to be discussing Hathor. Here's what's in store: a goddess dancing sexually before the sun; a goddess transforming into a lioness and unleashing slaughter upon mankind; a goddess who heals a deity's bleeding eye sockets with gazelle milk, and a goddess who transforms into a cow and weens an infant deity on her udders.

Let's get into it.
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7 min
April 03, 2021 How Zeus Became KING of Gods - Greek Mythology Explained
Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained. In today's video- we're going to be covering almost certainly the best known deity in all of Greek mythology. This deity is, of course, Zeus, the lighting-bolt-wielding, titan-destroying king of the gods. More specifically, this video is going to take a look at Zeus as he pertains to the Greek creation myth. More videos about Zeus that cover other aspects of his life are to come. But for now, let's get into it.
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9 min

About Mythology Explained

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On Mythology Explained we will be diving deep in to all kinds of Mythology: Greek, Roman, Norse, Chinese, Egyptian - you name it. If you've always been curious about the beginnings of Hercules or how…