WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Hogs of Hell, Part 1 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.039 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:09.959 name is Robert Lamb. Today is Saturday. We have a 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:11.880 vault episode for you. This is going to be The 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.200 Hogs of Hell Part one. It originally aired ten twenty four, 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:20.680 twenty twenty four. Let's jump right in. I remember, indeed 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.720 that in later years the Lord of my country, knowing 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.000 I was acquainted with Italy, asked me why, as he 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.960 had seen down there some lords went out to pasture 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.680 their pigs. And I laughed, realizing that on the contrary, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.159 they were going in search of truffles. But when I 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.360 told him that these lords hoped to find the truffle 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.159 underground to eat it, he thought I said they were 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:48.880 seeking der Typhon, the devil, and he blessed himself devoutly, 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.559 looking at me in amazement. Then the misunderstanding was cleared up, 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.000 and we both laughed at it. Such is the magic 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.040 of human languages, that, by human accord, often the same 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:03.600 sounds mean different things. Had so of milk umberto echoes 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:04.520 the name of the Rose. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.080 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:21.640 is Robert. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.399 Lamb, and I am Joe McCormick. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.720 All right. In today's episode, as the title indicates, and 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.640 as the quote suggest, we're turning our attention once more 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.320 to beings and monsters that may verge on the demonic, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.600 and this time it is, of course, hogs of hell, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:41.199 pigs of hell, uh bores of the underworld, and so forth. 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.600 We've of course discussed the Garrisne demoniac on the show 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:49.240 before this, being Christ's exorcism of the demonic legion into 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.880 a herd of swine, out of a man and into swine. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.320 We did a whole episode about that in the past. 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.360 This time, though, it's more about hell pigs of one 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.240 sort or another. We're gonna we're gonna explore some different 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.080 territory and different interpretations. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.760 That's right, monster pigs, bl z of bores, and pigs 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.440 of a more heavenly sword as well. But we start 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.040 a lot of these October episodes with examples from horror 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.640 movies of the types of creatures we're talking about, and 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.840 so I figured we should do the same today. I 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.200 know this has come up on the show several times. 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.920 I'm not quite sure why we keep pinging back on 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.760 this movie so often, but when it comes to horror 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.560 movies with monster pigs. I have to mention the nineteen 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.200 eighty four Russell Mulcaheek killer pig movie from before the 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.160 same director made Highlander in nineteen eighty six. This was 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.280 eighty four and the movie is called Razorback Now. I've 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.360 described the plot in the past as something like a 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:54.680 combination of Australian Texas Chainsaw massacre and Jaws, but with 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.440 a pig instead of a shark. I stand by that. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.160 I think that is a pretty that gives you a 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.359 pretty good idea of what you're dealing with. It's been 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.840 a while since I've seen it. I don't super highly 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.760 recommend it. Like my memory is that is extremely gooey 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.640 and gross like at one of the major settings of 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.120 the movie is a gray market dog food factory in 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.000 the Australian outback, so you can imagine the kind of 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.080 chainsaw massacre connotations you'd get there. There's a lot of 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.639 body slop. But it is worth mentioning as a movie 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.800 because it's one of the relatively few horror films I 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.640 can think of where the monster is a pig. I 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.440 was looking it up and it seems there have been 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.080 several more movies on this theme in recent decades, but 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.120 I haven't seen any of those, so this is the 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.560 one I'm aware of. And I recall that the movie 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.320 does actually do a pretty commendable job of making the 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.760 bores mouth a mind rending terror. It's just this hot, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:55.000 steaming maze of teeth and tusks, and for most of 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.720 the movie, in fact, almost never really you really don't 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:03.120 see the creature's whole bit. You just see its mouth almost, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.000 like all there is is a mouth, which I think 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.320 is a strong choice. You get a similar kind of 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.760 thing in some shark movies, basically all you see or 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:11.720 the gaping Jaws. 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.040 Yeah, this is not what I've seen, but I know 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.120 you admire it, or in my aspects of it. And 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.800 I'm looking at some stills here right now, and yeah, 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.920 this monster pick looks amazing, Like this is this is 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.640 the thoroughly deserving of the title Jaws, but with a pig. 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.400 I mean, it does take serious boldness to approach that 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.480 as a concept, because do you can keep the You 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.119 can keep the monster hidden much more easily in Jaws 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.840 because it's underwater, right, but a boor is just running around, 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.720 So yeah, it takes some clever photography to make the 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.960 scene convincing and heighten the tension without ever showing us 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:52.839 too much of the bore until the very end. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:54.880 I guess the thing about a bore is you can 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.279 have the boar moving through like the tall grass or 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.719 the undergrowth to some extent, it's sort of like it's underwater. 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.880 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, you can have that. Uh 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.239 though this boar I from what IVER call it's taller 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.720 than any grass in the setting. It's like a fan 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.240 sized bore. Okay, Now, as I said, I haven't really 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.600 seen any of these other recent pig monster movies. Maybe 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.440 there's some really good ones. I don't know, I can't say. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:21.160 Uh. 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.800 But of course, beyond the realm of horror movies, there 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.320 are a lot of fascinating pig beings in mythology, religion, 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:33.440 and ancient literature, including good pigs, bad pigs, and everything 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:33.960 in between. 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:36.960 Yeah. Yeah, And I have to admit I never really 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:38.800 looked into them all that much before, and I think 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.479 I probably kind of glossed over mentions of bores and 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.080 pigs in mythology in the past, just because I don't know. 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.400 I'm I didn't have really strong opinions about wild boars. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.800 I don't have any experiences with them. You know, I've 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:56.640 seen various you know, pig and pig kin animals that 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.240 the zoos, and they're interesting, but you know, I just 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.440 wasn't inspired. So I of course, when we were going 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.480 to do this episode, I said, sure, let's do it. 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.320 Let's dive in, and I turned to one of my 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.599 favorite sources, initial sources for this sort of thing. I 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:14.400 looked to one of folklore's Carol Rose's books, in this case, Giants, 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:18.280 Monsters and Dragons and Encyclopedia Folklore, Legend and Myth great volume, 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.280 easily one of my most loved and falling apart books. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.840 But when I started looking around for bores and pig 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.880 like creatures, I was surprised at how many there were. 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.960 There are a lot of them. Dozens of creatures are 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.599 referenced in this book. And I should stress that while 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.599 she's pretty exhaustive in these volumes, she is by no 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.720 means complete in her chronicling of global traditions. So if 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.479 she has dozens, there are more out there as well. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.440 So there are a lot of monstrous, hellish and even 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:54.279 divine pig bore and bore like beings in global traditions. 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.760 This just popped into my head. So it's not a 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.919 fully formed thought. Maybe is this not worthy yet, but 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.080 it just struck me that you know, a lot of 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.760 these animals that we see having a major role in 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:14.960 religion in mythology are animals that exist in both a 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.200 wild and domesticated form around the culture. So like you see, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.400 you know, very common to have cattle related, cattle related imagery. 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.720 We were just talking about cattle related beings in ancient 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.200 Mesopotamian religion, and of course they would have had both 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.800 domesticated cattle and the wild orx around them. And we've 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.480 seen similar things with goats. You could have domestic goats 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.440 and wild goats around you. Maybe something about that kind 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.320 of dichotomy where you're seeing like the same animal body 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.600 both you know, roaming and running around and doing its 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.040 own thing in the wild, but also in a only 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.080 slightly altered form as an animal that you keep on 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.520 your farms, and that that seems to hit something in 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:58.280 the brain. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.440 Yeah, and definitely seems to influence the way we use 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.960 those animals in our language and our symbols and in 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.840 our mythology. You know, coming back to for instance, you 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:13.320 know donkeys and asses. We talked about this in the 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.680 Mesopotamian Demon episode, the idea of of a ferocious she 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:22.480 demon being associated with a donkey, and how it seems 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.960 perhaps laughable if you're thinking from a modern standpoint about 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.520 a domestic donkey, but we're talking here about a wild creature. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.960 It was swift, and therefore it's a fitting steed for 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:34.439 a demon. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.439 S Oh, yeah, that's right. So what was it? The 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.199 demonus lamashe Tu is said to ride on a wild donkey, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.679 but also occasionally was depicted maybe with donkey ears. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.320 Yeah, yeah, And to your point, we also see this 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.080 with cattle versus you know, wilder forms of that creature. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.720 And we'll see that again time and time again. When 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.640 it comes to pigs, bores, and pick like creatures. The 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:04.720 various species compose the suborder of Suena known as the 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.240 Sua forms. These can be found around the world, from 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:12.760 wild and ferocious bores to pig like cavalinas, and of 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.920 course the wild and domestic pigs of the genus sus. 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.559 I had when I told my son about this, he 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.319 thought this was rich. I was like, you're never gonna 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:27.720 forget the genus of wild and domestic pigs because they're sas. 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.520 Is it not sus? I would have said Sue's, but oh, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:32.600 it's got to be saus. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.800 It's well sus maybe, but when I read it, I'm like, sus. 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:38.960 Their genus is sus perfect us. 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:40.679 Okay, suck. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.079 So human relationships with these animals, of course, has entailed 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:51.960 many different things. Hunting, consumption, sort of just acknowledgment of 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.920 their wild status, observation of their behavior in the wild, 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.959 and then poresine imagery and associations. These are going to 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.280 vary somewhat from culture to culture and from time to time, 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.920 and at times too and kind of counterintuitive ways that 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.319 I think sometimes breaks down to, you know, the the 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.160 idea of looking to the wild seuiforms as well as 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.080 to the domestic suiform and then also having you know, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.800 different cultural influences enter into an area. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.520 Yeah. Thinking about the cultural associations we have with pigs 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.400 got me thinking on several different frequencies. I was like, 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.640 for one thing, in our culture, isn't it funny how 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:40.040 we we really associate pigs with eating when eating is 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.280 something all animals do. Yeah, Like, why is that? And 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.679 my best guess is maybe it has something just to 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.679 do with the relatively omnivorous appetites of a pig that 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.960 you know they famously will kind of they're kind of 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.120 not picky about what kinds of things they eat. But 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.680 that's also true of many other animals that you think 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:00.760 of us that way. 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.880 I think, yeah, we end up comparing ourselves more to 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:06.400 the pig. And they're probably a number of ways to 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.800 sort of slice that up, right. I mean, you could 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.280 focus on the intelligence of the pig, and the domestic 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.199 pig is a pretty bright creature. You could maybe focus 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.560 on it's relative hairless. I mean, I say the pigs 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.040 are hairless. They do have hair, but a lot of 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.120 times they are you're seen or certainly depict it as 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.160 being kind of hairless, especially when you're dealing with like 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.680 cartoon pigs. Yeah, and we're very we're very strange in 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.600 the way that we are, especially with like roadside barbecue 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.319 restaurants are very quick to personify the pig and invot 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.920 cartoon pigs. Eat at a place where the flesh of 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.920 pigs is served under the name of pork. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.080 Yeah, the Pulled Pork restaurant where it shows a pig 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.280 in a chef's hat, wearing just a shirt with like 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:53.240 a knife and a fork. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:59.920 Yeah, it's gonna often be horrific. So yeah, there's a 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:04.160 to unpack and like American associations of the pig, but 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.680 if you go, you know, across the board and throughout time, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.120 you'll find a lot more to look at. For instance, 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:14.200 the wild boar is a powerful image in medieval heraldry. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.360 It's also pretty powerful and Hindu iconography, where it's at 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.280 times linked to the divine, as we'll explore. In the 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.800 Chinese zodiac the pig is associated with wealth and good fortune. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.760 And I've heard other you know, sort of takes on, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:33.199 like how the pig is considered in say Thai culture, 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.439 where I'm to understand that the term for pig, which 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.600 I believe is MoU, is a common nickname of endearment. 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.280 So something you might call a child with some endearment, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.160 you know, some some kid that you love, or your 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.360 baby brother, and it wouldn't be a put down, it 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.880 wouldn't be an insult, that sort of thing. But meanwhile, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:55.440 elsewhere in time and space, here on Earth, poresine imagery 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.880 of course has all these negative connotations tied to as 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.560 you said, gluttony or sloth, or even to the unclean 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:03.360 and the demonic. 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.240 That's right. And as we often bring up in these 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:11.280 episodes about monster traditions, looking at beliefs about monsters, especially 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.719 monsters based on an animal, I think usually tells us 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.080 more about us and our relationship to that animal than 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.400 it does about the animal itself. That's right. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.359 So you know, we're going to dive into some examples 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.800 from global traditions here, but I will say that as 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.120 I was going through them and reading about them, and 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.640 some of which they couldn't find enough to really mention here, 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.480 but overall I found that you could basically divide them 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.080 into sort of three categories with a certain amount of overlap. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.439 So there are primordial bores, often with a real emphasis 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.640 on a connection to the earth. You know, they run 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.640 around in the earth, they dig in the earth, kind 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.000 of as referenced in our cold open here. You know, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.200 they are concerned with things under the soil, and they 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.080 go under the soil to get them. So they have 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:57.760 this connection. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.320 But by primordial, are you saying that they have something 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.840 to do with like an initial state of the universe 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:05.439 or with the creation of the world. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:10.400 Yes, like something about like the state of at least 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.160 the surface world, and we'll get into some examples of this. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:21.040 Then there are also divine bores. Often these are ethereocephalic, 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:23.960 so you know it's the head of a bore on 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.120 a humanoid body, but not always. There are also divine 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.720 bares that are just straight up like a mighty boar 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.840 that is also a god. And then another huge area, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.880 and this is one that I think ties directly into 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.960 the horror movie example that we kicked off the episode with, 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.160 and that is the bore that hunts humans, which is 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:48.440 basically not a huge twist because I mean history and 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.360 just basic understanding of wild boars will tell you that 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.760 they are they can be dangerous prey, and we can 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.400 point to examples throughout history of even famous people, members 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.080 of nobility dying in the conquest of a prize bore, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.960 say a bore that they have injured in an attempt 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:09.000 to kill, and then they themselves die of injuries sustained 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:09.440 from the boar. 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:15.360 So the famous and within context somewhat ignoble death of 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:20.200 Robert Barathian in fiction is based somewhat on real incidents. 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.800 It's not implausible in royal. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.880 History, no, not at all. Yeah, I mean, and to 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.520 be clear, like wild boars can be dangerous today, and 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.200 there are fatal incidents that occur. They can be very 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.600 defensive and even aggressive if the circumstances are right. But 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.840 these mythic treatments often take it one step beyond. It's 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.440 not just that this is a dangerous game to hunt, 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.560 but this game actively not only hunts you back, but 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.280 might hunt you of its own accord. Like you're not 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.440 even trying to hunt the monster boar. It just goes 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:56.360 out and hunts people at night. That sort of thing. 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:01.000 Okay, So to recaps, you've got boors from the creation, 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.680 or bores from the beginning. You've got divine bores or 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.520 heavenly bores, and then you've got the board that eats people. 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:11.440 Right, One more quick fictional example before we dive into 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.880 these examples from global traditions, I should note that in 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.640 Dante's Inferno, there are twelve named demons that compose the 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.200 Malagrancia in the eighth circle of Hell, and one of 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:30.080 them is clearly named with hogs in mind. This is Curiato, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.680 whose name means swine or a little pig, and we 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.960 meet him in Canto twenty one verse one twenty two. 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:42.320 So that's just a quick example of a literary pig 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:42.840 in hell. 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.640 I don't remember what the context was, but we've talked 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.200 about the Mala bronca before. There were the I think 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.920 that name translates to evil claws. And this is the 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:57.600 circle of demons who are shown like surrounding a boiling 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.680 lake of pitch, and there are the like I don't know, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.840 like corrupt people and grafters or something that they keep 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.879 having to force back down under the pitch. Pretty pretty 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:09.480 nasty job. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:21.919 They're demons with jobs, though they have a rope. All right, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.000 enough of the like straight up demonic here, Let's get 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.600 into some other examples. So I'd like to start in 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.280 Hindu traditions, since these traditions feature some of the most 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:36.560 divine and I think powerful invocations of por sign imagery. 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.000 So I turned once more to Nanditha Krishna's excellent book 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.359 Sacred Animals of India, in which the author chronicles a 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.879 number of different animals and talks about like their you know, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.520 their their role in the natural world in India, conservation status, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.760 and then also the different ways that they're invoked. And 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.280 so the author here describes a course, the scie and 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.000 power of wild boars creatures that are that are of 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.879 course closely tied to the earth. As I mentioned earlier, 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.480 they dig for roots in the soil, and in doing 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.240 so they turn over the soil, perhaps as the author 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.959 suggests informing humans about the value of tilled soil. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:20.760 Oh, so they could be one of the sort of 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.720 like agricultural knowledge givers in a way. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.800 Exactly at the same time, they're also like this natural 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.040 force that you know might be beneficial but might also 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.920 be destructive. They can they can certainly hurt and kill humans, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.960 but they can also be destructive to human agricultural pursuits 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.560 because they may raid crops, they may dig around in 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.520 your gardens and so forth. So in essence, we have 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:48.080 a fierce, wild, but not universally hostile creature that is 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:53.439 closely tied to the earth. The bore both tills and 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.480 fertilizes the soil, and tradition holds that they're also tied 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.240 to rain and monsoon seasons as well, digging right before 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.560 the beginning of the monsoon. So one of the major 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.480 uses of bor iconography and Hindu traditions is the tenth 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.880 incarnation of the god Vishnu and that is of Vadaha. 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.840 And there are different stories, of course concerning this incarnation, 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.600 as you'll find with just about any particular detail and 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.879 the Hindu traditions. But one of the big tales does 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:27.160 involve a demon of sorts. Now more precisely, it involves 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.119 an osserra. This is the kind of power seeking demi 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.080 god that is often in conflict with the benevolent devas. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.240 So one of these is one of these cases where 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.440 the word demon in English seems a precise enough descriptor, 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.520 but with certain caveats, you know, like it's the system 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.520 of supernatural beings can be compared to that that you 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.679 find in Christian mythology. But there's still a lot of 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.600 important differences, right. 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.119 We just recently talked about this in our series on 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.119 the so called demons of age in Mesopotamia. To what 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.640 extent that term does sort of apply and in other 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:04.720 ways doesn't. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.720 In this case, we have a demon or by the 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:13.879 name of Hironyaksha that steals the earth itself, so rolls 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.359 up the earth like a mat, we are told, and 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.520 then takes it into the ocean depths. Wow, and yeah, 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:23.240 and so Vishnu is not crazy about this. So Vishnu 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.760 takes the form of a great bore, this is Vardaja, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.360 and dives into the ocean to retrieve it, slaying here 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:35.480 in Yaksha. In the fierce battle that ensues. Then Vardaja 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.399 restores the earth, and while he is at it, teaches 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.239 humans agriculture, because again this is connection between bores and 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.720 tilling of the earth, fertilizing the soil. Uh And I 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.280 want to note that while many illustrations and depictions of 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.159 this battle show Vardaja as a bore and here in 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.879 Yaksha as a human or a humanoid demon, there's at 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.639 least one illustration that depicts them both as human boar hybrids. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:02.960 I included this one here for you, Joe. This is 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:08.760 a seventeen forty illustration by Indian painter Manaku of guler Oh. 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.680 I like this painting though, so they're shown in conflict here. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.520 Do you know which of the two beings in the 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.000 painting is supposed to be the incarnation of Vishnu? Is 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.280 it the one with the grayer skin or the green skin? 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.600 It would be the gray skin, I believe, because here 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:28.600 you see a regal, multi armed, noble looking poor sign 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.400 individual por sign being and then on the other hand, 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.560 you see this wild green monster that is also poor 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.400 sign that also has the features of a bore. And 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.200 I love this imagery because you get in one image 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.760 these two drastically different ways of invoking the imagery of 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.040 the boar, the noble and the savage, the good and 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:51.600 the evil, and so forth. 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.399 Yeah, that's right. So the vicious demonic boar here is 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:59.520 mouth open, its jaws kind of like the to compare 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.360 it to the the movie Razorback, it's just all mouthed 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.960 a reaching out with its arms to attack, whereas the 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.440 Vishnu version of the boar, Yeah, it's standing with its 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:14.080 chin up, you know, raised in kind of lofty defiance. 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.959 Yeah. Yeah. And you'll find other depictions of Vardaja in 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:24.480 which pretty much looks like this with gray skin, the 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.000 head of a boar, multiple arms. But then you'll also 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.359 find depictions where he is just a great bore. Uh. 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.679 And I included an image of some sculpture art that 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.679 depicts this. Now Naraka, the lord of the underworld Krishna 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.040 rights is also held to be the offspring of Vadaha 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:46.840 and the Earth via his spouse Boudevi, which I believe 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.080 the sculpture I included here. If you look at it, 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.359 there is a female figure on there, kind of like 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:56.000 hanging from one of his tusks. I believe that is 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:56.800 bou Devi. 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:01.040 Whoa oh okay, so I initially interpreted this humanoid figure 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.879 to be climbing the boar, as if to climb up 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:06.120 its side and ride it. Be though she's hanging from 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.359 its tusk. Wow. Yeah. 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:11.760 Krishna also points to a couple of other Hindu entities 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:16.400