Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology #12

[@bogeaqYT]

You were afraid viewers would find Theory boring, and yet, that was one of the most interesting episodes. P.S. Crash Course Linguistics Please!

[@wcropp1]

Austin B ^ This!

[@MissLexiL00]

Austin B Yes, yes, yes! CC Linguistics NEEDS to happen!

[@kyaberryman7367]

Linguistics!

[@anortemoeller9893]

YES linguistics!!!

[@rowandebeaufort5193]

linguistics please

[@santiagolinares3905]

I want an episode focused on Aztec mythology

[@Laura-qp9iw]

Is there a possibility of Crash Course Anthropology? I'm starting college next year and hope to major in Anthropology so it would be pretty cool.

[@amarisanford-williams7447]

Did you Major in Anthropology? My minor is Anthro.

[@choodledoodlers]

This series is absolutely fantastic. You all should be very proud.

[@kislayparashar]

He is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe

[@binnieb173]

The best episode of any of the CrashCourse's yet. Comparative Mythology should be part of a class in every single school. Probably given multiple times during different age spikes for increasingly advanced cognitive thought. Like 3rd, 5th and 8th grade.

[@cloudtail605]

Suggestion: Crash Course Linguistics!!!

[@zhongliangcai602]

you copied a comment…………………

[@SatyaVenugopal]

I'ts impressive how much you manage to cover in this super succinct overview, Mike and Crash Course team! Clearly, you guys did not forget to be awesome. :D Can't wait for your next episode!

[@charlotteaakerman7711]

As an anthropologist, it was lovely to see this and very well communicated :)

[@punkrockrebel3412]

i love the way mike keeps the subject light and funny! certainly a fan of him!!

[@vimukthifernando8772]

Mike my man you are really keeping the show interesting... cheers for more

[@KMFerguson]

man, this video is a life saver. I have to write a paper on transcendental truth, and this gave me ideas for new angles I can add to the paper.

[@tristanroberts8016]

This is what I came for, to learn how myths themselves work. Not just the different myths from all around the world (though those are super interesting to me too), but structure, patterns, and reasoning behind them and how they come to be.

[@Jackie-nt6tq]

Mike, please, please, please do more series on Crash Course. You're amazing!

[@jackgrossman9542]

Next year in ap physics c: "OOOH, A GOOOOOD!"

[@jackgrossman9542]

Haha my dog thanks you

[@violetmoon1587]

Really nice series, you can get a nice sense of appreciation for what myths there are. Also Thoth is fricking adorable

[@thecutecat22]

The best CC series that has not yet finished :)

[@pancreasnostalgia]

In ninth grade my English class read The Hero With 1000 Faces. We read it with The Odyssey.

[@Varatho]

FYI: fluoride isn't typically added to drinking water until it is processed and just before it is pumped into the pipes. However, some reservoirs naturally contain fluoride, depending on the local rocks.

[@andysartz]

Yay! Joseph Campbell! =D This episode was fascinating! Really, I loved it! Theory is very interesting. I'm gonna read more on it later. Thanks, Crash Course! You guys make learning even more fun than it already is. =)

[@photosinensis]

Hey now. Nietzsche was no fascist, and would have been horrified by how the Nazis appropriated his work.

[@IamMissPronounced]

photosinensis you don't know if he would've been "horrified" or not

[@davidallan2244]

Obviously never read any of his works then, have you?

[@ravenn2631]

david mckeon Honestly from what I read from his works some people do dislike him due to his atheism, but by what I think he did a wonderful job on arguing against fundamentalist Christians. Something I appreciate considering that even with our disagreements on the existence of God, I am also rather fond of the idea that he at least calls on to those who force religion on to other people. In his book, “The Geneology of Morals,” he did manage to explain his ideas on how Christianity was misunderstood. The irony is that a lot of Christians believe that suffering means “good” and pleasure means “bad”. The horrible idea with this misunderstanding is that many false Christians volunteer to make people they help dependent on them as the weak, rather than encouraging the weak to become strong. This also manifests an unfair kind of situation with how much money, power and fame “good” people are allowed to have. It’s not a very good thing when it’s those with bad intentions who have all the money, power and fame, is it? That’s why most of the bad people are in places of power and the good people have become powerless to fight back due to this, which is the complete opposite of what we need. The Nazis claimed that he meant that the strong should have power over the weak, but in reality it was the radical philosophy (it shouldn’t be) that the strong should provide for the weak to be stronger. The weak should become stronger to allow others to be stronger. The stronger who does not ally and serve for others is true weakness. Jesus said to teach a man how to fish, not to just hand him some fish. Same idea. But many Christians and people of other faiths seem to forget about this. He is also the one known to quote God is dead. Not that God has literally died, but God has lost importance in the time and place he was in. That in a way, God is practically dead to a lot of His people who should be faithful. It’s not literal, of course. Why do people seem to expect all ancient texts to be taken strictly literal? Do we blink an eye if we treat metaphorically a lot of today’s films? Do we treat Shakespeare’s metaphors from his poems literally and do we take Greek plays literally? They invented metaphors back then a long time ago. They also invented wit, jokes, puns, paradoxes, irony, similies and all kinds of figures and speech thousands of years ago. So surprise, surprise. They don’t always talk literally. I’ve read enough of the Conversations with God book series to know about stuff like this recently, you know?

[@Karinaortiz343pickle]

Ravenn be my friend! That was so well written and I agree

[@universe36]

@@davidallan2244 nietzsche despised nationalism and anti-semitism

[@IceMetalPunk]

The irony of the Romans claiming myths must be false... because of demons. I just... how did they not...? *Sigh* Mirrors are important, everyone.

[@Albinojackrussel]

This is christian romans, not pagan one's

[@jean-lucwalker3690]

IceMetalPunk "No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons." 1 Corinthians 10:20 NIV

[@Glayshard]

The Christian Romans held on to pagan beliefs way up to 500 Ad. The word "demon" comes from the word "daemon" which means "divine spirit" often of which, were gods that act in between mortal and divine, such as Cupid. In anycase, they used to believe that the gods were real, but must have existed in some way out side christian beliefs. This often happened with old pagan religions, in which deities were demoted from their divine position and then later given some lesser function, like that of a demon or fairy. The daemons that lived or possed idols were part of the reason why some early christians didnt destroy idols. Also it was part of their heritage. Pagan belief was well rooted into the culture of Rome, so the stories lingered. Hercules himself was believed to be a historic figure well into the Renaissance.

[@htoodoh5770]

Jonathan Daye Your point?

[@IceMetalPunk]

+Albinojackrussel Yes, and? My point was that it's ironic for them to claim that the reason other peoples' myths are false is because of their own myths about demons.

[@alanardominim]

As a Romanian, I was surprised to see Mircea Eliade here.

[@AlexDWing]

I was not, but thumbs up for mentioning Eliade.

[@KenterU2010]

You really shouldn't be. His work regarding the history of the religious cults was very good for the time and is still influential, although outdated. However besides the analogy between the sacred and profane, I found it very interesting the link between the religion type and the society, which I believe should have been mentioned. Good job on the video nonetheless

[@cvrsedscvm]

The pronunciation tho

[@thekoldrex]

indeed...

[@jlupus8804]

Și eu!

[@verdatum]

What an odd time of day to post a vid. And yeah, thanks for making a video on this! This is the stuff that interests me.

[@rachaelcarlson1714]

I'm glad you guys did this overview of theory--it puts into perspective the history of myth and how they may have been understood by peoples throughout history. Very good stuff! Keep making them!

[@jacobdriscoll8276]

I like this ep. I've been a little frustrated with the lack of BELIEVERS from the Pantheon summaries. Like, Zeus isn't just a character in a story, he's got a function and a meaning to the people who worshiped him in their lived experience and lives. Myth and folklore and even religious ritual aren't codified in a never-changing canon, they're living, breathing things, with effects in the world on the people who believe(d) in them.

[@vinialvesx]

Oh how nice we have this, I thought it would be just that messy myths presentation. As an anthropologist myself I'm really happy! Thanks

[@serenarotaru4405]

I was watching this episode and was wondering "how come you didn`t mention Mircea Eliade?" and then .... tananaaaa! Great job and GREAT series. You should add this episode to your Mythology playlist, I almost missed it!! Btw, it`s spelled "Mirtscha" :D

[@lunarpark3781]

- Plato thought the myths were false, but the gods were true. That last part deserves a mention, he wasn't an Atheist. - Nietzsche wasn't a fascist. - The Aryans existed, under the name of Proto Indo Eruopeans. They have been proven to exist, wtf are you doing saying they didn't. - Could do better than Bronislaw Malinowski with bringing up the fact that many people believed in these myths. These used to be religions. They deserve mention too. Could fix this by doing a theology video.

[@eruyommo]

Lunar Park He never said Nietzsche was fascist, but that his image was modeled by fascist interpretations.

[@elderlyoogway]

He never claimed Nietzsche as a fascist. Easy to misinterpret like you did, though. And I've heard Plato believed in some myths, not all those and not the way others were told, but i dunno. Heres the link: askphilosophers.org/question/4976 Finally, my guess is that Mike knows the existence of Proto Indo Europeans (not difficult) but rather used the word Aryan with the mixed meaning, which is false, hence the strange presentation.

[@vinialvesx]

nope, myths are not religions...

[@myusername6595]

i think if he really understood the distinction between aryan and protoindoeuropean he would have explained the distinction clearly, rather than using the terminology in such a confused way.

[@myusername6595]

also he said "hey mythologists no more chilling with fascists" after just listing herder and nietzsche.

[@williamdragon9415]

I'd love to see you do a video on "Journey to the West" and how it influences and is influenced by Asian mythology.

[@araghav3921]

William Dragon is it the Chinese epic about a Buddhist visiting India?

[@eruyommo]

Aditya Raghav Indeed. However, don't confuse the India he visits with the historically accurate India. In that story, India is more of a mythical place.

[@williamdragon9415]

Aditya Raghav That is the basic gist of it. It's an enjoyable classic that combines monster magic and all three of China's major religions. I feel it's a great way to become interested in eastern mythology, even if it's not always myth accurate.

[@92alexmaster]

Well, it is the epic that inspired Dragon Ball...

[@williamdragon9415]

Yes yes it is

[@alyssalitowsky9814]

I find this Crash Course series very informative and entertaining. Thank you

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

Oh man, I legitimately am looking forward to studying Zoroastrian myths.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

Yes! I am so glad that you mentioned James Frazier. He's awesome & I love his influence on T.S. Eliot :)

[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Frazer, Malinowski, and Freud...glad to see some foundational thinkers in the study of religion, even if their research has been reworked over the past century. Malinowski's "Magic, Science, and Religion" was influential in my own research.

[@d-dh2143]

Now you just need some Alan Watts. Begin with Psychotherapy: East & West, where Watts compares Eastern philosophies and religions like Taoism and Buddhism to western psychoanalysis.

[@obrien92]

I love when I'm early enough to see the original titles

[@Entropic_Alloy]

I was hoping for a tiny Thought Bubble Philemon when you guys were talking about Collective Unconscious.

[@hannages7719]

CrashCourse Anthropology, anybody? And CC Mythology IS AMAZING!!! 😍 can't wait for the next episode 😊

[@GrandPrizeFitnesAJAY]

I love his videos. He's so knowledgeable as well as adorable.

[@jimmyfaxel3898]

There should be episodes on comparative mythology as well as more on this

[@mythology2467]

An extra episode? How Toteful of you :D

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

YEEEEAAAAH JOSEPH CAMPBELL!!!! The Hero with A Thousand Faces strikes again :)

[@maldito_sudaka]

That's one of the reasons I want to be an anthropologist :) You shouldn't worry about us not liking this, this was one of the best episodes!

[@vladstoinescu7524]

Thanks for crediting Eliade. His history of religions give me the first insite to mithologie.

[@TheAgavi]

Everything Mike does is awesome.

[@FlamingAngel2000]

Been watching several of these mythology crash course episodes and loving the series entirely. Mostly clicked on the first one due to a love of all things myth. The series has not disappointed. Though it will be sad when the series ends...

[@2bitgirly007]

Jordan B. Peterson is the best man out there today who's attempting to work out the importance of myths. Super intriguing.

[@breadmoneymusic]

Is there going to be a video on Pagan myths and Wicca?

[@UltraViolet666]

PLEASE omg

[@lunarpark3781]

If they do Wicca I'd also like them to do reconstructionist religions like Hellenismos too. Not all modern pagans are witches.

[@breadmoneymusic]

Adam Weishaupt Well, that. It would be nice to see a video about how certain practices came to be called "pagan" and how Neopaganism and Wicca have become much more popular in recent years, as well as talking about Wiccan myths and goddesses.

[@dezaraefreise6499]

I think you are referring to many gypsy myths in Europe, Asia, and Africa (someone please check me on this). Modern pagans don't always follow the same stories or traditions that are attributed to them anymore; and like someone else mentioned paganism is often confused with general minority religions.

[@mephostopheles3752]

"Pagan" just means "not-Abrahamic," as far as I know. Could be wrong.

[@bogdanescu86]

This week on "How to pronounce romanian names": Mircea = Meer-Cha. Eliade was spot on.

[@jballenger9240]

I was among the students at Sarah Lawrence College, who were privileged to take the last class Joseph Campbell taught on Mythology. Emoji transcendence. 💫

[@benkom22]

Could somebody please tell me the name of the hungarian god mentioned at 11:20 ? I think I am really well read in the topic (being a hungarian), but I have no recollection of him.

[@cracker8150]

I'd absolutely love it if someone mentioned Rene Girard. If you haven't heard of him, Mike or anyone otherwise, I'd highly recommend his work on mimetic desire and scapegoating as a mechanism for mythogenesis.

[@gabrielveleanu3771]

Fun and informative videos. Here's some helping info. Everybody on youtube seems to pronounce Eliade's first name wrongly. "Mircea" is pronounced like you would say "Mircha", or even Meertcha". You nailed the Last name, through.

[@cherylrajewski3390]

Really good episode. Helps pull together myths with other disciplines of study.

[@charliecastillo2011]

Would you mind putting on captions? I love these Crash Course videos and I would appreciate it, as I am Deaf. Thanks!

[@maria-lz3he]

from all the courses that i watched on crashcourse this is by far my favourite!

[@matanesku]

Hungarian god of force? More Hungarian stuff please! and Tengrism too!

[@idawoodhouse1755]

yes! I am hungarian and I have no idea what he was talking about.

[@istvanczap3004]

@@idawoodhouse1755 probably Hadúr (Warlord), a proposed god of War in ancient Hungarian religion.

[@conorb6281]

best episode yet

[@jonathaneby1440]

Could you guys talk about Polynesian myths?

[@khnum7998]

make a video about small pantheons like aboriginal,philipino,finnish,turco-mongolian and mostly slavic pls.

[@micahcorominas]

Khnum From Egypt do you mean Filipino? We spell Philippines with a Ph but the nationality/language is Filipino, with an F

[@jackgrossman9542]

I love this series but honestly it seems like a quarter of every video is some variation on "we'll get to this in a later episode". How many episodes does he plan to have, because by now at least 70 should be in the works

[@superdark336]

I dont see this as a bad thing

[@jackgrossman9542]

Who said I did?

[@TeaRex]

" I love this series but honestly it seems..." Your phrasing indicated you thought the videos' use of "we'll get to this in a later episode" was a bad thing.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

Nice take on the stuff!

[@pmcrimson]

I know babies aren't supposed to get "screen time," but whenever I watch one of these my five month old wants to watch too -- and, as a sign of curiosity and love, also expresses interest in eating Mike Rugnetta's face. ;-) He smiles the whole time. Perhaps he's the youngest fan?

[@Kimm134Saya]

I love this video series. It reminds me so much of my Mythology and Folklore course in college, except broader in scope.

[@nerdlife6676]

Veritas is the Roman god of truth? That's why that book was called 'The Veritas' on 'Doctor Who'!

[@RosesAndIvy]

Veritas means truth in Latin

[@firozbakhtahmed4428]

nerd life Veritas is also on Harvard's logo. Makes sense.

[@wanderingrandomer]

The Doctor says it's Latin for 'truth' in the episode

[@varana]

The Romans had a habit of making abstract concepts into deities. Basically any noun could theoretically become a god - there's temples for Concordia (concord, unity), Pax (peace), and so on. These gods didn't need to feature in any mythological stories; that was not a prerequisite for Roman gods, anyway.

[@douglasphillips5870]

Taking these ideas and looking at modern religions gives you an interesting perspective into their beliefs.

[@FuZandy]

This was been one of the most interesting episodes so far!

[@pipe0819]

As a fellow anthropologist, I feel admiration.

[@trepulpen]

UTTERLY WONDERFUL VIDEO! thank you!

[@d-dh2143]

Book recommendation: The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought by David Gelernter. No, I won't spoil it except to say it's VERY relevant to this topic despite it sounding nothing alike at first glance.

[@contentiouscritic]

Jordan B Peterson's Maps of Meaning is also a great work on myth and psychology. Highly recommend it.

[@jlupus8804]

Hands down the best storyteller at crash course.

[@OPiONShouter]

It's been some time since this series has ended, but there should have been SOME reference to the celtic mustard goddess...

[@floppy_keyboard]

Did he just call Nietzsche a fascist? Nietzsche hated nationalism, and argued for individuality, he was anti-anti-semitic, the Nazi's just simply took him out of context. His sister was affiliated with the Nazi's not Nietzsche, although his sister took care of him when he went crazy, and she put her own messages in his later work to push the Nazi agenda.

[@Wolfman6999]

Andres Martinez I think he was referring to how Nietzsche is associated with Nazism because the Nazis founded some of their ideas on his work; not that he himself was a Nazi. It's easy to miss the intention there.

[@nithingr4359]

Well that and his early association with proto-fascist like Wagner, who he later became disenfranchised with. Consider Nietzsche contra Wagner, one of nietzsche's last lucid works, a damning critique of Wagner's use of music as emotive influencer, the entire work is (rather comically) directed for the reading of non-germans ("daß dies ein Essay für Psychologen ist, aber nicht für Deutsche": that this is an essay for psychologists, but not for germans.), whilst containing the gravest insult possible between two germans - he accuses Wagner of being a French romanticist!

[@CESSKAR]

Yes and Nietzsche was all about equality and peace, right?

[@xidarian]

Nithingr Your use of a scharfes S in dass (the appropriate spelling at the time it was written) really threw me for a loop, took me too long to translate the title. Then I immediately noticed you translated it for us.

[@AtticusHimself]

Nothing wrong with affiliating oneself with Nazism anyway. Just kidding.

[@ca922]

thank you, this is interesting. But can you please add resources too? I want to know more about Levi Strauss's approach and it would be great to see where you took this information from. Also, it would increase the credibility of the content as well.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

What the heck is up with the title? I'm interested.

[@mysteryperson4295]

Probably defaulted to the actual video file name, and they just forgot to change it.

[@drpsychonaut]

This happens to be my current favorite CC series so I would've clicked the video when the notification came up, but i'd be lying if I said I didn't click cuz of that wacked title lol

[@BlackRose-px2iw]

I loved the episodes on pantheons - there should have been more of those!

[@visarathiel]

Oh my god, this was very eye opening. Thank you so much!!!!!

[@gurmeet0108]

Aryan is pronounced as /ˈɛəriən/, i.e., with first vowel and 'r' sounds as in 'are', derived from Sanskrit word आर्य (romanization : 'ārya', meaning : 'noble') and as Sanskrit is pronounced as it's written, it's known with high certainty that this pronunciation is correct.

[@nathanmaynard686]

Always of the greatest quality!

[@Satyr45]

will you be doing an episode on reconstructionist polytheistic religions eg. hellenism, asatru, etc?

[@cgarrand08]

You should do an episode on joseh Campbell and the hero circle/ momomyth thing with like different myths like the odyssey

[@Kanagaloosh12]

Wooot Anthropology about time!!! hey where is Crash Course Anthropology and Crash Course Folklore?

[@letopizdetz]

Good job on pronouncing Eliade. It's just that Micrea is pronounced more like Meer-cha not Mir-ka It was interesting to see there was another culture that had the idea of sacrificing royalty for a better communion with nature.

[@dasmysteryman12]

Is this a video break from the Pantheons section? Because there are a whole lot of other major pantheons out there that I would like to be explored by you guys.

[@blaine2998]

10:53 Anthony Fantano your time is over. There is a new "best teeth in the game" now

[@ismireghal68]

best video so far !It's kind inspiring

[@TreeHairedGingerAle]

SO enjoying this series! n_n Keep it up!

[@Jalalex]

Loved this episode

[@hyugalubbok7770]

Hellow again. About the comporative myrhology, you maby know about the conection between irihsh brigid- voodo godess mamman brigitte and athena? (And amatherasu) so what thats mean about barown samedi and bacchus? And the black chiken of briggite somehow conected to the divine bird like shimurgh?

[@Navesblue]

5:04 #1 & 5 are both the same book :/ So aside from that, what I've gleaned from this episode is that myths within culture serve as a method of identifying with the natural world in a personal way, whereas scientific methodology focuses on the elements of said natural world in an objective non-personal way. Truly fascinating.

[@daipayanghosh8025]

Please made a video on the analysis of The Savage Mind

[@pipe0819]

I think that a wonderful subject for Mythology Crash Course would be the solar religion developped by the andean civilizations, the spread of these solar mythologies (Inti) contributed to the transition from hunter-gatherers to propperly agriculture and commerce societies all along the Andes. Just a sugestion, now that South America is left.

[@salairoluk]

There should be CC Linguistics!

[@lachlanbuckley554]

that was so good!! do more

[@ahobbitstail7022]

You're my favorite crash course host bar none. I enjoy learning from you. Thank you and the whole crash course team for your work.

[@Whisprify]

Mike you are a brave man. "tips hat"

[@ryanmart5434]

This was great. Do more of this

[@Ankit.Sethi.]

You can apply Jaynes's Bicameral theory and understand Plato's conundrum.

[@goodleshoes]

Have you heard of the thunderbolts project's electric universe theory? It's a pretty interesting theory to cover.

[@CountBrennuvarg]

I heavily subscribe to Euhemerism. To me, it's the hypothesis that makes the most sense.