Original subtitles

hey there I'm Mike Rugnetta and this is

crash course mythology today we're going

to start looking at Pantheon Pantheon's

are families of gods and those families

are complicated really complicated a

whole tangle of grandparents and parents

and uncles and aunts and nieces and

nephews and a couple of children of

mortal women who were raped in a pretty

staggering amount of violence and incest

to just round everything off they have

amazing feasts but honestly can you

imagine Thanksgiving dinner with these

people I mean so you had a mistress and

a wife and also somehow gave birth to

yourself how is it not awkward

[Music]

the pantheon we are going to examine our

families of deities from cultures that

are usually considered polytheistic

meaning that they worshiped more than

one God in most mythological traditions

the gods are seen as immortal and

according to David Leeming they are

personified projections of the human

mythmakers dreams of overcoming the

inevitable effects of the physical laws

that require deaths and disintegration

yeah we went dark pretty quick in

creation stories and other myths God

represent the creative force that brings

and sustains life in many myths gods are

personifications of aspects of nature

and of human nature the Sun the wind

impatient love Pantheon's David leaving

argues help us to explain how and why

the world we know came into being and

can tell us a lot about a culture

leaving rites all pantheon our

ontological and teleological that is

they are metaphors for the human attempt

to make sense of existence itself and to

assign ultimate cause to read a pantheon

is to read a culture sense of itself and

of the nature of the cosmos but can

Pantheon's explain the naked mole rat

let's find out together

if you thought I was going to start with

the Greek ha gotcha

high five Thoth but we're not starting

with Egypt either sorry we're going to

start with one of the oldest Pantheon's

we have records for the family of gods

from ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia

Sumeria Spain Theon represents the most

important natural forces in the lives of

ancient Mesopotamia and there are a lot

of deities here so strap in try to pay

attention to everyone's responsibilities

and note what kinds of thing don't have

gods all right here we go the first pair

of deities are the earth goddess ki and

the sky God called on on mates with key

and namu goddess of the primal waters on

Anam whose children are Anki the

trickster god and his sister minguk ooga

the goddess of the read on and key the

more significant duo begot Ning Leo the

air goddess and Enlil the air God Ning

Leo and Enlil give birth to Nana the

moon god Enki and his sister Inga Kouga

creates Ning Gaul the moon goddess

mingle Anana then have three children

who to the Sun God Anana the great

goddess of heaven and earth

Ereshkigal the queen of the underworld

Ereshkigal husband is Google Anna the

bull of heaven and in Anna marries the

shepherd Dumuzi de mozi it turned out

was the son of Anki the trickster god

and his consort the Sheep goddess seer

it may be worth noting that yes the

Sheep goddess did give birth to a

shepherd so that is the basic pantheon

of Sumer but what does this tell us

about Mesopotamia first it suggests that

at least in terms of their myths natural

phenomena like the earth and sky take

precedence over human actions and

emotions like love I mean only two of

the original Mesopotamian gods

Anke the trickster and ananna also the

goddess of love are described as ruling

over aspects of human nature and the

Sheep well we tend to think agriculture

when we talk about the Fertile Crescent

but the fact that their Pantheon

features sheep and a bull rather than a

harvest deity might recall an earlier

life as herders or perhaps the bull is

symbolic not only of masculinity but

also a farming this is the fun part of

Pantheon specifically and mythology

generally you can read them in many many

ways no tow does not a joke about

hieroglyphics but it does get us to our

next significantly more complex family

of gods the Egyptian pantheon right up

to that I'm going to say that the

Egyptian pantheon is even more confusing

than your average confusing pantheon but

surprise surprise it's also just as

incestuous first up there's no standard

version of the Egyptian pantheon the

miss changes depending upon who is

writing it and where and when for

example in the story of Isis and Osiris

our most complete source isn't even

Egyptian it's the Greek biographer

Plutarch who wrote in the 1st and 2nd

centuries CE II well after Egypt had

become halan eyes and then Roman eyes in

his version of the Isis and Osiris myths

he give Egyptian gods Greek name for

example he refers to tote as Hermes he

does still give you credit for inventing

darts though so there are also different

versions of the pantheon depending upon

where you are in Egypt for the most part

we'll be sticking with a group of gods

worshipped at the city of Heliopolis and

headed by a tomb or raw but we'll give a

nod to the fact that in cede the

Pantheon was led by a moon and we can't

forget the

tempted monotheism of Akhenaten that was

classic and just to make this even

trickier a lot of the Egyptian sources

we have for myths are fragmentary and

they're spread out over thousands of

years so for simplicity we're going to

settle on the nine God Pantheon that

forms the core of Egyptian religious

belief and it doesn't include toe Sarika

the any ad or nine gods was in place in

helle apple s by 2700 BCE and is the one

found in the Pyramid Texts which might

be the oldest surviving set of religious

texts in the world at the top of this

Pantheon is a tomb aka Rey aka rah aka

Khepri aka

our moon or sometimes I'm rod depending

upon where in Egypt you are this is life

we're trying to simplify things a tomb

is the great eye of the heavens and of

creation he was the spitter in our

Egyptian creation story iTunes creative

cost creates qu the life spirit and

tecnu the world order or cosmos this

brother and sister pair mate and give

birth to Gabe and Newt give is the

spirit of life and mute is an Egyptian

great mother goddess the two are

separated by their father Shu and Gabe

becomes earth while Newt becomes the sky

and the stars which is a neat reversal

of the whole earth mother sky father

thing like their parents brother and

sister gets and new to become the mother

and father of the rest of the God in

this Panthea their children Osiris and

Isis are probably the best-known

Egyptian gods other than hawk headed

rock Osiris god of the underworld and

grain kind of like a Demeter slash Hades

combo was probably the most popular of

the Egyptian gods because I mean hey who

doesn't like food and death

he dies and is revived which happens

more than you would expect in this

actually maybe exactly as much as you

expect in this Isis is a goddess of the

earth and the moon and is married to

Osiris the mystery cult of Isis was

popular well beyond Egypt into Roman

time and if you're not sure what a

mystery cult is guess what that's the

point the second son and third child

from the Gib Newt pairing is set set is

a god of evil and darkness and is the

Nemesis of Isis and Osiris he's married

to his sister Nessa a goddess of death

and

because you know if you're going to be

married for all of eternity it's nice to

share interest and the final piece of

this puzzle is young Horace

not to be confused with old Horace or

the guy from Warhammer he would

conceived miraculously by Isis and

Osiris after the latter's death and he

has aspects of a Sun God he's a light

that defeats sex darkness most important

though Horus who was often depicted with

the head of a falcon a hawk not an Ibis

is the spiritual force behind the

Pharaoh I know that you're wondering

when we're going to talk about Anubis

bostedt and Sekhmet but remember for the

sake of comparative simplicity we're

sticking by this nine god pantheon so

what conclusions then can we draw from

this basic pantheon there are multiple

versions of some gods with raw

representing both the Sun and creation

and Horus representing both the Sun and

kingship so we can infer that the Sun

was important to the Egyptians probably

as much for its eternal cycle of death

and rebirth as for its providing

life-giving energy ancient Egyptian

culture is commonly said to focus on

death and that's not wrong although

death to the Egyptians probably didn't

hold the same terror that it does for

many in the modern world I think the

most distinct example of this necro

centric ideal is the pyramids and the

mummified corpses and jars full of

organs found within them but also this

week's featured myth the story of Isis

and Osiris tell you I thought level

Osiris was much beloved by the people of

Egypt he showed them how to cultivate

grain gave them laws and taught them to

honor the gods his brother set was

envious but wouldn't try anything while

Osiris was away teaching civilization to

the world but when Osiris returned set

and 72 accomplices had a plan a plan

involving furniture they had secretly

measured a Cyrus's body and built a

beautiful chest his exact dimensions at

a party celebrating Osiris is returning

sets suggested that whoever fit in the

chest would receive it as a gift

Osiris gave it a shot and when he laid

down in the box the conspirators nailed

it shut and filled it with lead they

threw it in the river and it floated out

two slices of Cyrus's wife went looking

for her husband and found the chest near

the land of byblos where a great tree

had grown up around it encasing the

coffin in his trunk she cut away the

wood around the coffin and lay upon it

Willy with

grief and power that the king's younger

son died of fear Isis soon left the

chest to visit Horus and set found the

coffin while boar hunting he cut up

Osiris body into 14 pieces and scattered

them far and wide

Isis discovering what set had done set

out to search for the pieces she found

thirteen of them but not what ISA Nagi

might have described as his excess she

buried the pieces where she found them

which is why there are so many graves

for Osiris in Egypt said couldn't find

the true grave of Osiris and Osiris

would be worshipped throughout Egypt

win-win except for the fact that he was

dead for was thanks thought-bubble

this is one version of the story but in

another version upon finding at the body

of Osiris Isis and her sister necess

wept such a loud lamentation that rah

the Sun God took pity on them and sent

down jackal-headed Anubis to help Isis

and Nephthys the two sisters with the

help of Anubis Thoth and Horus pieced

Osiris back together and wrapped him in

linen bandages and performed the funeral

rites Isis flapped her wings over the

body and Osiris revived from then on he

became the king of the Dead ruling in

the underworld so this myth illustrates

some central facets of Egyptian culture

one is the idea of Osiris as a king and

a god much like the Pharaohs another is

the role of mummification in Egyptian

life or death or well actually both The

Binding of Osiris and his revival is a

promise to Egyptian of eternal life

according to David Lehman Egyptians

believed that every man would live

eternal in the Otherworld if only his

surviving friends did for his body what

the gods had done for the body of Osiris

as Osiris died and rose again from the

dead so all men hoped to rise like him

business also suggests that in Egypt the

Pantheon is somewhat fluent with gods

performing numerous roles Osiris goes

from being the father of civilization to

the ruler of the underworld a role that

in later Egyptian mythology will be

taken over by Anubis while set is the

source of evil and trouble the jealous

younger brother always trying and

sometimes succeeding to take the place

of his older brother there's a 10

see to view Pantheon zazz explanations

of natural phenomena that correspond

between particular gods and particular

aspects of nature like the sun's rising

in settings but often the gods resist

falling into such restrictive roles and

if myths like Isis and Osiris show it's

the particular stories that matter to

people as much if not more than who is

the goddess of what and why

just ask Sangha Norse goddess of

storytelling we're going to meet her

really soon but until then thanks for

watching we'll see you next week

check out our crash course mythology

toast tote bag and poster available now

at ds2dio jack crash course mythology is

filmed in the chad and stacey emigholz

studio in indianapolis indiana and is

produced with the help of all of these

nice people our animation team is

thought cafe and crash course exists

thanks to the generous support of our

patrons at patreon patreon is a

voluntary subscription service where you

can support the content that you love

through a monthly donation to help keep

crash course free for everyone forever

thanks for watching and don't forget to

be mythological we wanted that one huh

[Music]

you