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hey there I'm Mike Rugnetta this is

crash course mythology and today we're

gonna put on our mythical coats grab our

mythical hats hop on a mythical mode of

public transportation and get ourselves

into the hustle and bustle of mythical

cities some of these cities are real

some are fictional and some are even

metaphorical but all of them are

Metropolitan come on tote the Bifrost

bus only runs once an hour

[Music]

city myths can be tricky they're not

like other mythical places we've looked

at like Gardens caves or mountains

because they don't belong to the natural

world they're man-made or sometimes God

made and this means that the stories we

tell about them can be a little

different a lot of the stories we have

about cities are closer to tall tales

which are fun but they don't really meet

our criteria for myth mostly because

they're well a little unserious a good

example of a tall tale city is El Dorado

the City of Gold said to exist somewhere

in South America that really tended to

be more of a metaphor for some ultimate

prize that one may search for endlessly

but likely never actually attain and

some urban tales are almost too serious

there are places that really existed

with archaeological evidence and

complicated histories that transcend the

stories we tell about them probably the

best known of these is Troy whose siege

is described in the Iliad the

archaeological history of Troy is

fascinating but I want to leave that for

crash course archaeology just kidding

there's no crash course archaeology or

maybe we just haven't discovered it yet

another significant archaeological city

that has a mythical story attached to it

is Jericho Jericho is one of the oldest

cities in human history but is probably

best known for the story of its

destruction at the hands of Joshua in

the Old Testament according to the story

the Lord tells Joshua to march around

the city walls for six days with seven

priests blowing ram's horns as they

carry the Ark of the Covenant chest that

contains the Ten Commandments on the

seventh day following the Lord's

instructions Joshua has the army march

around the city seven times and on the

Seventh Circuit he has the trumpets

sound and the army shout it's war cry

according to the Book of Joshua chapter

6 verse 20 when the trumpets sounded the

army shouted and at the sound of the

trumpet when the men gave a loud shout

the wall collapsed so everyone charged

straight in and they took the city it's

a great story but archeologists are

still arguing over whether or not a

walled city even existed at the time of

Joshua

even if it did exist trumpets probably

didn't bring it down looking at things

at tea illogically as we sometimes do is

fun but it isn't always possible to

reconcile myths and historical remains

this is especially true of living cities

which have to go about their business

while also existing as a repository of

stories about them let's start with a

holy site mentioned in the Bible but

still standing today a holy site common

to all three Abrahamic religions

Jerusalem it might be an understatement

to say that Jerusalem has been the

subject of many stories and the imagery

used to describe at Jerusalem it changes

dramatically depending upon who's doing

the describing and when sometimes the

city is beautiful sometimes ugly

sometimes Jerusalem is personified as a

not especially reputable mythic woman

this is particularly true during the

Babylonian captivity a time in the sixth

century BCE when the babylonian emperor

nebuchadnezzar kept sacking jerusalem

and sending Jews into exile this all led

to some complicated feelings about

Jerusalem the lamentations of Jeremiah

begin how doth the city sit solitary

that was full of people

she is become as a widow that was great

among the nations she that was a

princess among the provinces is become

tributary okay a tributary not so bad

but then it starts to get unpleasant

Jeremiah continues Jerusalem hath

grievously sinned therefore she is

become as an unclean thing all that

honored her despised her because they

have seen her nakedness yay

she saya 'the and turneth backwards her

filthiness was in her skirts she

remembered not her letter end therefore

is she come down wonderfully she hath no

comforter yeah I mean Jeremiah's

ambivalences maybe understandable it's

hard to see your sacred city conquered

and destroyed though as for Jeremiah

comparing the city to allude an unclean

woman it's not the only time the Bible

deploys the female image unfairly but

maybe

we can read it as a lamentation for a

city that was supposed to nurture him

but is now taunting him and other Jews

by harboring their conquerors the Jews

eventually go back and rebuild Jerusalem

so hopefully some of these feelings

abate in the New Testament Jerusalem is

described as a woman again but this

woman is more well clean in the book of

Revelation John invents an idealized

Jerusalem a New Jerusalem intended as a

new spiritual home in chapter 12 he says

and I saw the holy city the New

Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from

God prepared as a bride adorned for her

husband so which is it bride or harlot

covered in filth both some cities in the

Bible are often classed as places of sin

Sodom and Gomorrah being the most

obvious example but let's not forget

cities also provide opportunities for

humankind to unite for the early

Christians the ideal city wasn't

Jerusalem but Rome we haven't talked a

great deal about Roman mythology in this

series largely because it draws heavily

on Greek sources but Romans did create

their own mythological history

particularly for their city we're gonna

look at two important myths surrounding

the founding of Rome involving you might

be shocked to learn families and

violence one story of the foundation of

Rome comes from Virgil's epic poem the

Aeneid this is the story of the Trojan

hero Aeneas who escapes the sack of Troy

with his aged father his young son and

statues of his household gods eventually

he makes his way to Italy where he and

his group of Trojans settle there Aeneas

marries Lavinia the daughter of the king

of Latium and Kai sees Aeneas his dad

dies during the journey but in book six

of the Aeneid Aeneas goes to the

underworld and his father explains to

him the future history of Rome and Kai

sees mentions a future descendant called

Romulus of him my son great

Rome shall rise and favored of his star

have power worldwide and men of godlike

mind she clasps her seven hills in

single-wall proud

mother of the brave that's right it's

not Aeneas who founds Rome it's his son

who settles at Alba longa and a later

descendant Romulus who builds the city

of Seven Hills but hold the mythical

phone for just a moment who is this

Romulus the story of Romulus and his

twin brother Remus begins in Alba longa

where a woman named Rhea Silvia lives

unfortunately for Rhea Mars the God of

War is obsessed with her and after

cornering her in a sacred grove he

seduces her which I mean let's be real

probably he rapes her now pregnant Rhea

goes to her uncle King Amulius for help

but emelius is furious instead of

helping his niece he imprisons her when

she finally gives birth he orders her

twin sons to be left to die on the bank

of the Tiber River abandoned the twins

are suckled by a gentle she-wolf until

they're found by a shepherd named Faust

ulis who raises them probably because of

their early troubled life but also

because they were sort of raised by a

wolf the boys turn to crime eventually

stealing some of Amelia's sheep

Remus is captured and taken before

Amulius for trial at this point Faust

ulis reveals to Romulus the brothers

true identities Romulus in good criminal

hero fashion sets off for alba longa to

get revenge on his great-uncle the king

Romulus kills Amulius and rescues Remus

he gives the vacant throne to Amulius

his grandfather Numa tor and then the

twins go off to found their own City

brings us to the thought-bubble Romulus

and Remus decide where they were

abandoned on the banks of the Tiber

would be a great place for a new city

but they can't agree on the exact

location

Romulus receives a sign from the gods

telling him to choose the palantine hill

as the

site so he sets out to mark the

boundaries by digging a ditch Remus

sets up camp opposite him on the

Aventine hill

Remus the more headstrong of the two

brothers jumps over the ditch to show

Romulus it's not exactly invasion proof

Romulus seeing this as sacrilege kills

his brother and becomes the sole ruler

of the new city that's why it's called

Rome and not Reid I think we're all

thankful for that imagine being a

riemann instead of a Roman bull so

Romulus has a spot for his city and no

rival twin but he still has one big

problem not enough people so he puts out

the word that the hill will be a refuge

for the criminals and Runaways of Italy

and that's exactly who shows up Roman

historian Livy calls them a

miscellaneous rabble without distinction

of bond or free but that rabble is

almost entirely male and in order to

populate the city Romulus and the city

leaders invite visitors from neighboring

cities to celebrate a harvest festival

with them after the visitors arrive at a

pre-arranged signal the Romans seize all

the young women and to grow the Roman

population through mass rape thanks

thought-bubble these stories like the

ones in the Bible remind us how easily

myths can gloss over sometimes even

glamorize terribly violent actions the

founding and conquering and defending of

cities can get really ugly some myths

reflect this other choose to pretty up

their origin stories with magic and

stuff the story of Rome's founding

highlights some of the complexity to be

found in mythical cities many cities

have origin stories some more

historically grounded than others when

we're dealing with actual cities that

have archaeological and written

histories we often find that the myths

surrounding the city jibe with that

history Jericho was besieged and

conquered at some point though it's

unlikely trumpet blasts were responsible

Rome was built on the Palantine and

became the seat of one of the most

expansive empires in the world one

empire that relied on

and violence characteristics that we

might easily ascribe to its Pro Wolf Pro

rape Pro conquest brother murderer of a

founder cities are ambivalent morally

ambiguous places kind of like everywhere

else people live and with that we've

reached the border of our final mythical

place next episode we move on to the

first examination of mythical beasts

thanks for watching and I'll see you

next time check out our crash course

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