Mythology Explained

By Mythology Explained

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 ... more

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How many episodes does Mythology Explained have?

The podcast currently has 217 episodes available.

Mythology Explained episodes:

May 23, 2023 Why Does Satan Have 7 Heads & 10 Horns?
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to answer an interesting and deceptively complicated question: Why does Satan Have 7 heads and 10 horns.

First, we're going to look at what the Book of Revelation is, especially at the passage that pertains to the Red Dragon, a monstrous creature with seven heads and 10 horns who is thought to be Satan. Second, we'll quickly look at what Eschatology is (eschatology being the aspect of theology that focuses on death, judgment, the transcendence of the soul, and the destiny of humanity.) Third, we're going to look at the four lenses of Eschatology (preterism, historicism, futurism, and idealism), delving into each of them in turn and using each of them to understand the significance of Satan, as the Red Dragon of Revelation, having seven heads and 10 horns.

Alright, let's get into it.

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the bible. It is an apocalyptic and highly symbolic work that describes a vision received by the apostle John, revealing divine messages about the future, the final judgment, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. It speaks of cosmic battles, the return of Jesus Christ, the establishment of a new heaven and earth, and the ultimate victory of God's Kingdom.

Most germane to this video is the passage from the Book of Revelation that describes Satan as a Red Dragon and details the battle in heaven. In it, Satan and his angels fight against the angels who remain faithful to God.The battle is punctuated by the defeat of Satan and the expulsion of him and the angels he led astray from heaven. We'll begin with this passage, and then we'll spend the rest of the video examining what eschatology - its various branches - has to say about Satan's monstrous appearance. Here's the passage:

"Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days."
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15min
May 20, 2023 The 9 Most Powerful Giants in Norse Mythology
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss nine of the most powerful giants in Norse mythology, especially those who contribute to defeating the Gods and Destroying the world during the fire and flood of Ragnarok, the great age-ending conflict that looms near in the mythic future.

Alright, Let's get into it.

Starting off our list is Ymir

To speak of Ymir is to speak of the beginning of the universe, for he drew breath before any of the gods.

First, there was only Ginnungagap, the great void. In it, two realms emerged: Niflheim, a world of ice in the North, and Muspelheim, a world of fire in the South. The Northern cold of Niflheim spread into the heart of Ginnungagap, and the heat from Muspelheim emanated from the south. Fire and frost met; droplets of water formed, and in these droplets there was a quickening. Ymir, whom the giants called Aurgelmir, was given form and life. He was the very first giant, and all the giants who dwell in Jotunheim, the realm of the giants, are his descendants. Later, Ymir began to sweat profusely in his sleep, a sweat of procreation. Two giants, one male and one female, grew underneath his left arm, and his legs came together, coupling to produce a second son.

Another being emerged, Audhumbla, the cosmic cow. Four rivers of milk flowed from her udders, and it was from these rivers that Ymir drank and nourished himself. Though Audhumbla provided sustenance, it was she who would unearth the sire of Ymir's doom. She subsisted on salty blocks of ice, and her incessant licking eventually thawed out and freed Buri, the first god. He sired a son, Bor, who took the giantess Bestla as his wife, and they, in turn, had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve, who attacked Ymir, killing him, then tearing apart his body into the material from which they made the world.
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20min
May 18, 2023 The Man Who Killed 1,000 Soldiers With a Donkey's Jawbone
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Samson, one of the judges appointed by God to champion the Israelites. He's a man characterized by prodigious strength and ungovernable impulsivity, a man who could fairly be dubbed the biblical Hercules.

We'll begin by going over who exactly the judges were and who the Philistines were, and then with that covered, we'll spend the rest of the video going over Samson's story in its entirety.

Alright, let's get into it.

The judges are a series of leaders who guided and governed the Israelites before the establishment of the monarchy. Their stories are primarily recounted in the Book of Judges, which is the seventh book of the Old Testament.

The judges were not judges in the modern sense of the word; they were more like tribal leaders, military commanders, and deliverers chosen by God to rescue the Israelites from their enemies and to govern the people during times of crisis. The judges were seen as instruments of God's will, and their authority was believed to be divinely ordained.

The period of the judges lasted several centuries, from the time of Joshua's death until the rise of the monarchy with the anointing of King Saul. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelites would often fall into a cycle of disobedience and idolatry, prompting God to allow their enemies to oppress them. Then, when the Israelites cried out to God for help, He would raise up a judge to deliver them from their enemies, restoring peace and order for a time. However, once the judge died, the Israelites would often fall back into disobedience, and the cycle would repeat.

The Philistines were an ancient people who lived in the southern coastal region of Canaan, along the eastern Mediterranean coast, in what is now modern-day Israel and the Gaza Strip. Their territory, known as Philistia, comprised five main city-states: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. The Philistines emerged as a distinct culture around the 12th century BC and persisted until the Babylonian conquest in the 6th century BC.
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13min
May 14, 2023 A King of Hell & God's Angel of Death
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Samael, also known as Satan, Samil, Seir, Salmael, and Satanil, an enigmatic and ambiguous figure in that, depending on the source, he's portrayed as a either a champion of the light or as an entity of profound evil, comprising two diametrically opposed aspects.

Samael is the angel of the planet Mars and of one of the days of the week, Tuesday. He's the angel of death, for which he is known to stand near the heads of those for whom the end draws near, holding up a sword from which a single drop of poison falls into their mouths, ending life. He's described as the angel of Rome, an epithet with negative connotations given Rome's invasion of Israel; he's described as a great 12 winged serpent, and he's described as the serpent who tempts Eve, tempting her to sin, seducing her, and siring Cain, the world's first murderer.

Alright, let's get into it.

In some Jewish astrological works, Samael was thought to be the angel who presided over mars. Samael is said to either be the chief of the fifth heaven or to reside in the seventh. In the Talmud, He's presented as Esau's, the twin brother of Jacob's, guardian angel. Samael is described as the angelic prince guardian of Edom, an ancient name for the land - what is now southwestern Jordan - that borders Israel. In the Holy Kabbalah, he's designated as "the severity of God '' and features as the 5th archangel in Beri'ah: the world of creation, an angelological realm that exists next to Atzilut, the plane of divine emanation.
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9min
May 12, 2023 Why Doesn't God Kill Satan & End All Evil?
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In Today's video, we're going to dive into a question that has been debated by theologians since the inception - or close to it - of Christianity, which is why does God allow Satan to exist instead of just expunging him from creation. This dove-tails into the implicit overarching question of why God suffers the existence of evil to mar his grand design, for as an omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent being, he could simply extirpate evil, yanking it out root and stem with nothing more than a thought.

We're going to begin with a quick overview of Satan: who he was as angel, why he was cast out of heaven, and what he became after his precipitous expulsion, banished from the divine plane and plummeting like a lump of celestial rock burning through the atmosphere. After that, we'll spend the rest of the video going over four theological theories that explain why Satan - and more broadly, evil - are allowed to endure, including: free will, soul-making theodicy, the limitations of human understanding, and the greater good. Free will argues that God allows Satan to exist to preserve human moral agency, enabling meaningful choices between good and evil. Soul-making theodicy posits that Satan and evil serve as necessary challenges for humans to grow morally and spiritually. The limitations of human understanding suggest that humans cannot fully grasp God's reasons for allowing evil and Satan to exist, and the greater good theory asserts that God permits evil and Satan to achieve a higher purpose, such as developing virtues or fulfilling God's plan.

Alright, Let's get into it.

Before his fall, Satan held a high-ranking position among the angels in heaven; often it is inferred that he was formerly the highest ranking. Although the Bible does not provide explicit details about his pre-fall status, passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel are often interpreted as referring to Satan's fall due to pride.
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13min
May 10, 2023 The Greek Lightning God More Powerful Than Zeus
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Zagreus, the son of Zeus. He was destined to become the next king of the Cosmos, eventually replacing his father, this evidenced by Zeus seating Zagreus on his throne and arming him with lightning, the most powerful weapon in all of Greek mythology, Zeus having laid low countless foes with the searing destruction of his smoking bolts.

Zagreus is not a prominent figure in mainstream Greek mythology, and his existence is predominantly associated with Orphism, a religious movement that provided an alternative belief system in Ancient Greece. While some aspects of Zagreus' story occasionally overlap with traditional Greek myths, his importance is almost entirely exclusive to Orphic beliefs and texts.

First, we're going to get into what Orphism is: when it started, why Orpheus is the primary prophet, and what the core beliefs are. Second, we're going to explore the story of Zagreus: his birth, the lofty aspirations his father had for him, and his horrific death. And finally, we're going to wrap the video up with the birth of Dionysus, the God Zagreus became after his heart was saved and used to impregnate a mortal woman.

Alright, let's get into it.

Orphism is a religious movement and belief system that emerged in ancient Greece around the sixth century BC, offering its followers hope for salvation and the prospect of an afterlife that was more paradisiacal than the gloom of Hades' realm. It is named after the mythical musician and poet Orpheus, who was said to have ventured into the underworld and returned to the mortal plane, thus piercing the veil and coming back changed, now endowed with profound knowledge about the spiritual essence of humans and the path to salvation. The Orphic teachings, which are preserved in fragments and referenced by ancient authors such as Plato, provide a unique perspective on the nature of the human soul and its relationship with the divine, emphasizing the need for inner transformation and purification in order to achieve spiritual liberation.
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13min
May 06, 2023 The Fallen Angels Who Created Demons & Destroyed the World
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video we're going to discuss the Watchers, a group of 200 fallen angels who unleashed evil into the world, triggering a chain of events that saw the world savaged by giants and later inundated by a world-consuming flood, saw the creation of the first demons (this coming from a more esoteric and marginally-endorsed origin story of how demons came to be), and saw the Watchers fall prey to ruination when the consequences of their actions finally caught up with them in the form of divine retribution.

We're going to begin by looking at what the Book of Enoch is, then looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls, a cache of religious texts found in the 1940s that forced people to rethink the importance of the Book of Enoch, now shown to be thousands of years old. After that, we'll go through the story of The Watchers, cover to cover, beginning with their departure from heaven and ending with their incarceration in the abyss.

Lastly, we'll examine an intriguing, lesser-known origin story of demons. While the mainstream belief holds that demons are fallen angels, this alternative account suggests that demons are the restless souls of the Nephilim, a race of fierce giants who were driven to extinction through deadly conflict orchestrated by the machinations of a cunning archangel.

Alright, Let's get into it.

The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. Although it is not part of the biblical canon for most Christian denominations and is not considered part of the Hebrew Bible, the text has been influential in Christian eschatology and apocryphal literature. Composed during the Second Temple period (around 300 BC to 70 AD), it consists of five distinct sections, each addressing unique themes and purposes.
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14min
May 04, 2023 The 8 Primordial Gods of Chaos Who Created the Universe
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Ogdoad, the group of 8 primordial gods who embody the qualities of chaos in Egyptian mythology - a group of 8 self-created gods so ancient they existed for years uncounted before creation even began.

We're going to begin with the Waters of Nun and at how the ancient Egyptians conceptualized the universe. Then we're going to discuss the Ogdoad: where they came from, who they were, and what their purpose was. And finally, we're going to wrap up by taking a quick look at the complementary nature of different creation myths in Ancient Egyptian mythology

Alright, let's get into it.

The Waters of Nun, also known as the Primordial Waters, are a fundamental concept in ancient Egyptian cosmology, referring to the formless, chaotic, and boundless expanse of water that existed before creation. In ancient Egyptian beliefs, the universe emerged from this watery abyss, with the primeval mound, or Benben, rising from the waters to become the first dry land and the site of creation. This process of emergence from the chaos of the Waters of Nun is often referred to as the "Zep Tepi," or the "First Time," which marked the beginning of time and heralded the beginning of life on Earth.

Similar concepts of an infinite chaos preceding creation can be found in other mythologies. In Greek mythology, Chaos is the primordial deity representing the void or formless state from which the cosmos emerged (Hesiod, 2006). In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap is the primordial void that existed before the creation of the cosmos. It is described as a vast abyss, lying between the realms of fire (Muspelheim) and ice (Niflheim). When the fire and ice met in Ginnungagap, they formed the first giant, Ymir, marking the beginning of creation.
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12min
May 02, 2023 Seraphim: God's Most Powerful Angels
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss Seraphim, the angels closest to God's throne and the highest order of angels in the celestial hierarchy. Because of this, Seraphim can be viewed as the most powerful order of angels - the most powerful demons sometimes said to have been Seraphim before they fell from grace and became malevolent entities. However, it is important to note that certain named archangels, especially Michael, are often considered the most powerful angels. Michael, for example, is seen as a warrior and protector, and in the Bible, he is depicted as leading the heavenly host in the battle against Satan and the forces of evil. One reason that explains this is that the word 'archangel' has multiple meanings. In angelology, it usually refers to the second lowest angelic order. However, in the bible, the word 'archangel' has a more general meaning that simply denotes superior angelic beings.

The word Seraphim is derived from the Hebrew word "saraph," which means "to burn," and reflects their intense, fiery nature, usually associated with their burning love for God. They are mentioned explicitly in the Bible only in the Book of Isaiah, where they appear in a vision experienced by the prophet Isaiah. In this vision, the Seraphim are described as having six wings: two covering their faces, two covering their feet, and two for flying.

Seraphim are considered the highest order of angels in the Christian angelic hierarchy, this based on the classification system developed by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in his work "The Celestial Hierarchy." Thomas Aquinas, in his "Summa Theologica," further developed the understanding of Seraphim, emphasizing their unmatched love for God and their superior knowledge of divine truths. As part of the first triad in the angelic hierarchy (along with Cherubim and Thrones), Seraphim serve as intermediaries between God and the lower orders of angels, transmitting divine wisdom throughout the cosmos.
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10min
April 30, 2023 The 9 Circles of Hell & How Satan Is Trapped in a Frozen Lake
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the nine circles of Hell as they are presented in the Divine Comedy.

Alright, let's get into it.

The Divine Comedy is a 14th-century epic poem written by Italian poet Dante Alighieri, consisting of three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. It is an allegorical journey through the realms of the afterlife - Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven - serving as a reflection on human sin, morality, and redemption.

The protagonist, Dante, finds himself lost in a dark forest, symbolizing spiritual confusion. The Roman poet Virgil, sent by Dante's beloved Beatrice, guides him through Hell and Purgatory, while Beatrice herself leads him through Heaven. The narrative explores the various punishments and rewards experienced by souls based on their earthly deeds and spiritual growth.

In Inferno, Dante and Virgil journey through nine circles of Hell, each representing different categories of sin, with punishments tailored to the severity of the sins committed. Dante encounters historical and mythological figures, using their stories to explore themes of divine justice and the consequences of human actions and behavior.

Purgatorio, the second part of the poem, is set on Mount Purgatory, a seven-terraced mountain representing the seven deadly sins. As souls ascend the mountain, they undergo purification through penance and spiritual growth. Dante's journey through Purgatory serves as a metaphor for the process of overcoming sin and embracing virtue.

Finally, Paradiso depicts Dante's ascent through the celestial spheres of Heaven. Guided by Beatrice, Dante encounters various saints and theologians, exploring the nature of divine love and wisdom. The journey culminates in a vision of God, emphasizing the ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment and union with the divine.
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16min

FAQs about Mythology Explained:

How many episodes does Mythology Explained have?

The podcast currently has 217 episodes available.

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