Original subtitles

hey there i'm mike rignetta this is

crash course mythology and today

we're moving on from the scary monsters

of the last episode

to nice mythical horses well

some of them are nice some of them are

terrible it's shocking i know

[Music]

horses are domestic animals that have

been inextricable from human life in

many cultures

for a long time so it makes sense that

there are a ton of

mythical horses if you're apollo your

mythical horses can even fly and i will

take that over a tesla

any day but the beginning of our

mythical horse history doesn't

end at the greeks and romans oh no no

according to plutarch the egyptian god

osiris once asked his son horus

which animal would be most useful in

battle

horus chooses the horses

when osiris asks why he doesn't go for

something more fierce like the lion

horus answers that a lion is good for

saving a man

in danger but a horse is best

for cutting off the flight of the enemy

and

annihilating him this answer convinces

osiris that horus is ready

to become a warrior svalfati is a famous

mythical horse from norse

mythology that's right this horse is a

norse

of course of course he is a true power

horse which i guess

means he's got lots of horse power

and he helps a mysterious builder

complete a wall

around asgard almost you see the wall is

being built because if the builder

completes it

he gets to marry freyja the goddess of

love

and sex and beauty and war

and death the acer don't want some rando

marrying freya though so they give this

dude

an impossible task he has a single

season

to complete his labor when it looks like

the builder is going to complete his

task with the help of sfafelfadi

loki transforms himself into a beautiful

mayor and distracts fossil fatty without

his magic horse friend

the builder fails and freya escapes

also they kill the builder and horse

loki gives birth to an eight-legged baby

they name this horse sleipnir and odin

takes it as his personal steed there are

myths about real

historical horses as well like

bucephalus the 4th century bce steed

of alexander the great initially

becephalous was

untameable but even as a 13 year old

alexander figured it out he realized

that pocephalus lost it

when he saw his shadow so he turned the

horse toward the sun

and his shadow was behind him clever

another famous equine is al-burak

muhammad's horse according to a tale

from the hadith aburak carried muhammad

on his journey

from mecca to jerusalem and back in a

single

evening including a stop in the heaven

in persian imagery alberock is often

pictured with wings

and a human face and speaking of horses

with human features

let's take our own mythical journey back

to the greco-roman tradition

and talk about centaurs centaurs have

the body of a horse

and the head and torso of a person most

myths describe

centaurs as more animal than human

often they personify human lust and

their

manimal hybridity puts them in the same

monstrous category as werewolves

or fawns or tote

who was also monstrously handsome i mean

come on look at this guy

one of the most famous centaur stories

revolves around a lot

of monstrous lust it's the wedding of

king

pirithous of the lapis to hipponemaya

extra foreshadowing hepatomaya means

tamer of horses pirithos and hipponomia

invite a number of centaurs to come

celebrate

and when they show up they hit the open

bar pretty hard

the centaurs get wasted and one of them

eurytheon

tries to rape hippotomia a brawl ensues

which goes to a

full-scale battle that becomes known as

the centaurmaki

the whole story is immortalized in the

metaphase of the parthenon

and also in a relief by michelangelo his

final work while we're confident saying

drunk centaurs come from

sober centaurs this leaves unanswered

the question

where do sober centaurs come from in one

myth apollo's son

centauros mates with a horse another

myth claims that centaurs are the

offspring of cronus

and phileras cronus and feliris had been

horsing around for a while when reya

cronus's titan wife

burst in on them cronus gets so spooked

that he transforms into a horse

and gallops out of bed all's well that

ends well

except nine months later philirus gives

birth to chiron who is you guessed it

a centaur chiron is less aggressive than

other centaurs and becomes famous

for his wisdom he goes on to teach

achilles and asclepius the healer

and in one set of very important

mythological stories is also

the director of activities at camp

half-blood centaurs have a rather

ambivalent reputation but there's one

greek horse who is a real

fly companion our favorite winged steed

pegasus pegasus is born when the hero

perseus decapitates the gorgon medusa

he has a whole plan mirrored shield very

sharp sword and it is

off with her head as perseus stuffs

medusa's head into a magic sack blood

pours from the monster's neck and

creates a magnificent

winged white horse in some versions of

the story pegasus lets perseus jump

right on

and the two escape the rest of the

gorgons in other versions pegasus

behaves like a wild horse

and flies away perseus has to chase

after him with his winged sandals

eventually athena

catches and tames pegasus and then lends

him back to perseus

the two go rescue the princess andromeda

who's been stripped naked

chained to a rock and molested by a sea

monster

all because her mother boasted about how

beautiful she is don't

boast when there are gods around they

just always take it

super personal after the rescue perseus

gives pegasus back to athena

and the horse becomes a friend of the

muses but

to be fair having pegasus on your side

doesn't necessarily guarantee

success that bubble take us to the dark

side

of the horse the warrior bellerophon

decides that he wants to tame

pegasus he spends the night at athena's

temple receives a golden bridle

and some instruction and everything goes

according to plan

pegasus tamed huh that was easy thanks

stop bubbling

i'm just kidding because things get real

for real when bolerophen who has been

falsely accused of adultery

is sent on a quest to kill a chimera

with pegasus help bellerophon

stabs the chimera in the mouth the fire

breath

melts his sword and the monster chokes

on the molten metal

after the chimera pegasus and

bellerophon manage a couple other heroic

buddy victories iobates the king who

sent him on his quest

realizes that this guy is probably

innocent and awards bolerophen his

daughter filo noe's hand

in marriage then stuff starts to get

real

for real for real instead of enjoying

domestic bliss

bellerophan decides that he deserves to

be on olympus

alongside other heroes like heracles and

now that he's tamed pegasus he's just

gonna hop on

and fly up to olympus to take what he

feels is his rightful place and i am

sure

that out of all the ambitious dudes in

all of mythology bellerophon will be the

one

that this works out for right wrong

zeus overhears bellerophan's bragging

about his plan what did i just say

about boasting the god sends a gadfly to

bite pegasus on the butt

the horse rears up and throws

bellerophon

the arrogant hero falls to his death

while pegasus flies on to olympus alone

there zeus makes him his pack horse

where he carries zeus's thunderbolts

around

the horse will be with zeus always

thanks stop bubble and finally we can't

do an episode on mythical horses without

talking about unicorns the greeks and

romans thought unicorns

were real animals with a horse's body a

stag's head

elephant's feet a boar's tail and a

three and a half foot horn elephant feet

really man what a mess in medieval

europe unicorns became an important

symbol in art and allegory by this point

unicorns had

lost many of their original features and

were represented mostly as majestic

horses with a single horn protruding

from their foreheads now it's easy to

see the phallic symbolism of such horns

but unicorns were also symbols

of chastity it was believed that they

couldn't be captured through

force but would willingly lay their

heads

in the lap of a young virgin so when

unicorns appear alongside

virgins in medieval art like the famous

unicorn tapestries

the virgin is meant to symbolize mary

this is how the unicorn became a symbol

of jesus as well

with images of unicorn killing acting as

an allegory

for the crucifixion there are unicorns

in east asian mythology too

qi lin the chinese unicorn has the body

of an antelope

an ox's tail and a 12 foot long horn

its appearance portends momentous

changes

like the birth or death of a king

according to one myth chilin appeared on

the banks of a river

to give legendary emperor fushi magical

signs

that would inspire chinese writing

horses and their mythical relatives have

a complicated relationship to humans

they can represent our

worst impulses as centaurs do or a boon

companion like the monster fighting

pegasus

the wide range of their symbolism makes

sense

given the wide range of a horse's place

in the history of human life horses have

been important human companions for a

long long time they've been

transportation

pack animals laborers and even

friends horses helped so many cultures

experience

and understand their landscape so it

makes sense that we'd want to tell

stories about them sort of actually how

we do with cars today

when you think about it i think i'm fine

with calling the fast and the furious

franchise a modern epic

next time we're going to continue our

survey of mythical monsters with that

rowdy lot that you should

never make a deal with dragons

thanks for watching we'll see you then

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and for putting up with all of our horse

puns we're just horsing around

nay but seriously we hope you got a kick

out of this episode

you