WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Nile Inundation 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.080 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.400 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.040 Time for an episode from the Vault. This one originally 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:19.640 published on Marche and this is called the Nile Inundation. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.239 This is an episode we did on the on the 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.000 regular flooding of the Nile, and so we get into 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.720 some great mythological and scientific connections to that. All right, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:35.080 let's dive right in. Hail to you, hoppy sprung from Earth, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.760 come to nourish Egypt of secret ways at darkness by day, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.960 to whom his followers sing, who floods the fields that 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.000 ray has made to nourish all who thirst. Let's drink 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:58.200 the waterless desert his due descending from the sky. Welcome 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:07.920 to stot to Blow your Mind product and by heart Radio. Hey, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:09.880 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.280 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today we're going 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.120 to be talking about inundation. That's right. And we we 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:23.520 opened there with a reading from the translation from m 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.960 Lithium in Ancient Egyptian Literature, a book of Readings, Volume one, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.640 The Old and Middle Kingdoms, um. And this is referring 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.360 to a particular deity who is associated with, but not 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:41.280 the sole representation or embodiment of the inundation the annual 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.360 flooding of the Nile. Right, So this would be the 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.080 god we've been saying. Hoppy. He He is a god 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.200 whose name in English is usually spelled h a p 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.360 y uh. And I have not I searched in Vain 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.120 to find a correct pronunciation for this name and could not, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.760 But I think it's Hoppy yeah. And I think also 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.000 Hoppy sounds a little less like happy, Like I have 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.920 an inclination to not want to call a god by 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.119 the name happy, but at the same time, as we'll 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.839 discuss so later on, like this is ultimately a very 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:20.040 joyful deity. Everybody loves Hoppy. Hoppy is happy, so it 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.760 wouldn't be the worst faux pa. Now, one thing I 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.400 like about Hoppy is that Hoppy is the god that 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.400 embodies not not just a physical geo fact, not just 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.440 an object in the world, but a process within a 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.800 geo fact. So Hoppy is not the god of the Nile, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:43.040 but the god of the seasonal cyclical flooding of the Nile. Right. 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.440 Or or you can even get more specific in saying 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.160 that he is he is one of various gods that 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.040 is tied up with the inundation. Uh So, depending on 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.400 like what aspects of the inundation you're focusing on, uh, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.880 be it positive or negative, or the origin, etcetera, there 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.320 are different deities that can come into play. And it's 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.600 it's super fascinating to break it down because ultimately you're 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.840 talking about something that that that was so central to 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.959 ancient Egyptian life and therefore became so central to their 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.560 their worldview and cosmology. It makes sense that you would 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.000 have a cast of deities as opposed to a single deity. 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.160 Summing it up, now, Rob, did you end up thinking 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:26.520 about doing an episode on the Inundation of the Nile 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.400 because of that earlier episode we did this year on 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.480 the Tempest Stela Um? I think it was every time 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.240 we've touched on something that involves ancient Egypt, I've been 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.720 reminded that this is a great episode idea, or at 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.360 least I don't know it's a great episode, Dada, but 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.240 one that I was interested in covering um just because 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.240 I was I was reading a book that I'm going 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.240 to reference here in a bit, uh pick this up 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.080 around Christmas. I think Egyptian Mythology, A Guide to God's 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.119 Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine pinch Um, 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.760 and Uh, part of it is encyclopediaic and cyclopedic. Part 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.520 of it is more just an overview of Egyptian mythology 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.280 and UM and Egyptian history at least as as much 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.200 as is necessary to understand the mythology and um. And 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.520 this author went into this affair amount and UM. I 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.440 just hadn't thought about it, uh in these terms before, 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.039 or certainly in this much detail. And I thought this 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.080 would be a fascinating topic to look at because not 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.480 only is it a chance to sort of geek out 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:31.360 on Egyptian mythology and talk about, you know, ancient civilizations, 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.040 but also I feel like a trend that that we've 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.400 found on the show before is any time we take 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.440 a particular mythology and analyze it and try and break 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.000 it down like, it helps us understand other mythologies more, 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.120 and it it helps us understand sort of the whole 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.080 human exercise itself a little better. And in this case, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.400 I think we end up getting into some very interesting 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.600 scientific territory as well. Yeah, absolutely, um, and and they're 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.920 they're actually actually future episode of stuff to blow your mind. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.080 We can do that kind of um launch off of 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.240 some of the broader themes that we end up exploring 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.279 a little bit in this episode. So we are going 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.880 to be talking a bit about mythology here at at 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.479 the top of the episode. And as we've discussed before 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.560 in the show, there are numerous angles from which to 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.320 approach a given cultures mythology. That there are tales and 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.360 traditions that emerges a way of explaining the physical world, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.279 to explain the origins or the end of things, to 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.320 tackle questions about life and death, and to ponder a 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.480 great many contemplations of objective and subjective reality. Uh. They 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.040 can provide a framework by which to interpret our lives, 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.719 give our lives meaning or to say, empower rulers, and 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.760 even to provide creative outlets and and provide entertainment. So 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.080 we don't want to leave anyone with the idea that 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.720 there's just one way to interpret a myth and cosmology, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.159 one way to to dissect it, one way to skin 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.240 the cat as if you will, Nor do we want 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.320 to limit the capacity for creativity and complex thought in 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.720 ancient people. But without a doubt, environment and place are 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.719 one of the factors that influence the creation of a mythology, 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.440 because of course mountain gods don't emerge simply because the 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:12.040 mountains exist. No, there has to be a connection of experience. Uh. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.479 And and this, uh, this made me pick up a 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.120 book I hadn't looked at in a while. I think 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.440 I picked this up in college um by Jonathan Z. Smith, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.599 titled to Take Place, and in it, uh, Smith quotes 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:30.520 Alan Gusso, an environmental artist, who said, quote, the catalyst 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.720 that converts any physical location, any environment, if you will, 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.279 into a place is the process of experiencing deeply. A 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.600 place is a piece of the whole environment that has 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.440 been claimed by feelings. Oh yeah, I think that is 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.680 so true. The world is full of natural environments, but 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.200 within those natural environments are places. And what makes a 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.320 place a place is the is the part of the 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.920 environment that you remember and talk about. Yeah. So, so 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:56.839 on one level, you can go very specific with this. 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.760 For instance, Smith's book deals primarily with ritual in relation 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:04.160 to place, in particular constructed ritual environments. But you can 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.360 also you can pull out I think, and you can 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.680 look at at the bigger picture, and you can look 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:14.240 at something like a great river, uh, large bodies of water, mountains, etcetera. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.200 And you know these, you know, the mythology is full 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.040 of of this relationship between humans and there and then 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.560 then their environments. You know, how how we feel about it, 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.240 how we interact with it, for sure, but then how 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.640 we feel about it, what hopes are tied up in it, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.200 what fears are tied up in it, the order, the 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.320 chaos and uh and so a lot of that is 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.440 very visible, uh in is going to be very visible 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.600 in our discussion about the Nile. So to kick things off, 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.560 let's just remind everybody a bit about Egypt and the Nile. 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.240 Uh So, Egypt, the Egypt you know from a modern map, 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.560 is located in the northeastern corner of Africa, but it's 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.640 technically a transcontinental country because it is it's uh. It 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.880 also includes a very southwestern corner of Asia that's connected 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:03.000 by land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. There's a 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.480 very long history of human civilization here. Rock carvings date 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.520 back to roughly ten thousand b C. Though the pre 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:14.320 Dynastic period generally the earliest Egyptian period discussed by historians 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:19.760 stretches from fifty five hundred to thirty two hundred b C. Now, 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.240 for starters, as as we did, we definitely mentioned in 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.440 the Tempest Stela episode UH that also dealt with with 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.800 ancient Egypt, the northern portion of Egypt, closest to the 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:33.600 Mediterranean was thought of as Lower Egypt, while Upper Egypt 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:37.240 is the region that is to the south. Furthermore, we 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.160 know the world of the known world was much smaller 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.480 to the ancient Egyptians. The full extent and size of 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.880 Africa was unknown, and as Geraldine Pinch points out in 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.400 her book, the known world for the ancient Egyptians in 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.800 the third millennium extended roughly from modern Greece and Turkey 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.240 in the north to Ethiopia and the south, and from 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.959 Libya or what is modern day Libya in the west 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.040 to what is currently Iraq in the east. Now, the 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.520 defining characteristic of Egypt is of course the mighty Nile River, 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.560 which cuts through its center and empties through the Nile 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.200 Delta into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile itself flowing north 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.760 out of its flows north out of its two primary 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.040 tributaries the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The Blue 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.000 Nile stems from Lake Tana and modern day Ethiopia, and 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.160 the White Nile stems from Lake Victoria further south on 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:33.120 the borders of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. It's worth noting 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.960 that Egypt itself gets extremely little rain. Some of some 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.640 of the northern areas. I was reading a little bit 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.600 of rain every year, like maybe a few millimeters, but 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.760 most of the country gets basically no rain at all 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.920 on average. And uh, that's pretty interesting to consider, like 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.280 being completely tied to a river or tributaries of that 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.680 river for your only sources of water. There there is 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.440 all most you can almost count on the fact that 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.320 no rain is going to be coming down out of 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.600 the sky. It's just the river or bust. But it's 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.120 also interesting that while it has been that way for 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.440 thousands of years, it was not always that way. That's right, 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.320 if you go back to the the truly ancient path 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:23.120 like basically prehistoric egypt Um, you go back, you go 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:24.760 back to this period of time, and you know, for 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.280 thousands of years, northern Egypt and northern Africa in general 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.959 had a wetter climate, grasslands and animal population stretched across 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.360 areas that are now just complete desert, and the the 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.520 the life that you would find there. The animals also 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.400 included nomadic peoples who ranged across the grasslands, while of 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.880 course still other humans enjoyed the rich environment along the 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.199 coasts of the Great River. Yeah, and this damp period 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.400 in ancient prehistoric Africa is one of the reasons that 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.840 you can, for example, find beautiful rock carvings at places, 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.640 say in the middle of the Sahara Desert that could 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.319 not support human life today or not, and not a 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:09.439 sustained sedentary life there today. Yeah. So so yeah, these 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:13.360 areas that are now desert were once um more more 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.440 filled with life, but then the land began to dry 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.240 out and that left the river as the main thing, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.160 really the only thing to cling to and pinch. Rights 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:24.920 that this would have been a period of not only 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:29.040 great climatic change but also cultural change, and that it 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.520 might have helped shape the idea in Egyptian mythology that 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.160 the world was once different, and of course we see 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.400 this in other cosmologies as well, the idea that there 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.920 was a world before, that there was a life before. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.400 But it's interesting to think of that about that in 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.960 terms of of of climate change. Yeah, totally so by 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:52.040 the fourth millennium BC, agricultural communities, you know, it certainly 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.079 cropped up along the Nile, and uh, the resulting world 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.360 of the ancient Egyptians was rather unique. So you had 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.960 host wild deserts that were difficult to cross that made 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.319 up nine of Egyptian territory, cutting them off from uh, 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.839 from from these uh you know, other lands to the east, west, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.720 and south and also sufferance serving as a buffer zone 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.320 between them and these lands. These sort of empty lands 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.400 were called the red lands. Um. Though Uh, it's also 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.720 worth noting that you have mountains in some of the 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.559 desert regions that did offer mineral wealth. So it wasn't 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.160 just it wasn't simply a case of well, there's nothing 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.160 out there that that was of use to the Egyptians. Uh, 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.440 but certainly in terms of like the thing that gave 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.360 you life on a daily basis, that that was tied 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.199 to the Nile. Meanwhile, to the north you had where 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.320 the Nihil empties into the Mediterranean Sea, you have the 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.400 vast salt marsh, and and then of course the Mediterranean itself. 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:52.840 And Pinch notes that the Egyptians were never enthusiastic seafares, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.000 and they're kind of a rarity and being one of 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.760 the very few coastal cultures to worship no deities of 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:04.400 the sea. That's interesting. I never thought of that before. Yeah, 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.680 because I mean you think about certainly, um uh, you 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.360 know Greek traditions. You know, you see the mighty role 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.360 that Poseidon plays, and not only Poseidon, but various other 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:19.360 um see gods and goddesses minor and major that we're 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:24.839 you know that that that we're also worshiped, and sometimes 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.720 we're worshiped instead of Poseidon, and all kind of are 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.480 kind of caught up in the more or less canonized 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.080 versions of of Greek mythology that we have today. Well, 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.239 in Greek and Roman mythology, I think you can absolutely 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.560 see this duality of the ocean embodied in the gods 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.960 and monsters that are associated with it. Because the sea 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.720 is a place of great opportunity, so it's often sort 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.640 of associated with wealth somehow, but it is also a 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:55.600 place of great danger, and it's temperamental and it's unpredictable. Uh. 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.920 You know, Poseidon is often just like the jerky ist 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.480 of gods. Yeah, and so we're gonna see a lot 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.320 of that same duality in the ancient Egyptian treatment of 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.320 the Nile, because, I mean, a river is not a 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.240 docile thing, especially when you're talking about a great river 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.640 like like the Nile, which is depending on how you're 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.000 measuring it against the Amazon, it's either the longest river 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.400 on Earth or like the second longest. It is it 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.760 is undoubtedly a great river, uh, and which means it 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.640 has great power to both create and destroy. And key 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.480 to that is the inundation. So the Nihil is subject 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.440 to This annual inundation occurs between May and August UH, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.960 caused by a combination of monsoon rains and melting snow 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.400 in the mountains of Ethiopia, and as a result, the 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.320 Nile River expands, the Nile River explodes, It floods low 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.040 lying lands and the Nile River basin, and the Nile 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.800 delta Uh. Not only does it water the lands, it 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.160 also deposits a thick layer of silt, so the waters recede, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.800 they leave behind rich and fertile soil that is ideal 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.360 for agricultural use. Yeah, and this proves really important in 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.720 things you'll later see, like the technology that the ancient 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.640 Egyptians figured out in order to irrigate their crops, which 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.840 involved um often ways of constructing dikes and canals and 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.160 stuff where you would let in the waters of the 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.520 flooding Nile as it comes in from the highlands. Uh 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.880 and and then you would just let that water sort 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.920 of sit there and soak in the in the irrigation 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.760 ditches for a while before you'd eventually let it run 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.360 back out into the river later on. And I think 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.560 the idea there was not just that it would moisten 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.600 the soil, but that you were you were trying to 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.440 give it time for the mineral rich silt that comes 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.000 down from the highlands and the river to settle onto 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.800 the bottom and and sort of bring the vitamins I 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.200 know they're not vitamins, but the but the minerals and 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.720 uh and chemical riches of that soil to help put 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.000 put the nutrients into the soil in your fields that 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.280 your crops need. Yeah, the link here to irrigate ation 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.280 is U is certainly worth noting because uh, with with 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.320 the inundation, we're talking about natural irrigation. And this is 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.560 this is where our you know, our our our ancestors 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:16.120 understanding of of what is would be possible with with 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.600 unnatural irrigation man made irrigation. Uh, you know what they 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.280 could do in terms of okay, well, you know we 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.200 have this flooding that occurs, but what if we try 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.840 to control the flooding? And this is of course not 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.080 a tail specific to um to Egypt. We see this 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.480 in uh In in all the the the great civilizations 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.800 of old, you know, the the importance of the floodplain 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.720 and then the the eventual technology that emerges in managing 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:46.520 the waters in order to enable agriculture to continue to 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.800 flourish in a way that could be you know controlled. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.880 Oh there are great Chinese myths about controlling the flow 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.800 of rivers. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, So this is this is 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.600 a trend, like like a referenced earlier, Like we could 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.120 we could go from here and do a whole series 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:07.280 of episodes, invention based episodes just on um irrigation technology, 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:13.600 because human history is basically a story of humans figuring 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.760 out the best ways to manage their water supply. Yeah, 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.520 that's exactly right. But I wanted to mention another aspect 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.480 of the Nile and I know you've got thoughts about 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.040 this too, which is that so we were saying that 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.080 sometimes gods of the sea are kind of fickle, they're 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.560 kind of unpredictable there that they can be dangerous at 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.239 the same time that they can represent great wealth, you know, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.080 you you can the sea can be your livelihood, but 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.000 also it can bring storms that crash you against the rocks. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.280 And the same thing can be very true of the Nile, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.320 but in a different way. So on the banks of 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.600 the Nile, for for the farmers and the crops that 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.119 support Egyptian civilization, there would be this flooding season that 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.359 would allow you to moisten your fields and nourish your crops. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.280 But if the flooding season fails in either direction, if 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.880 the waters either do not climb high enough or if 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:05.040 they climb too high, it's disaster, right yeah, yeah, If yeah, 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.560 you don't get enough water, then you're not gonna get 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:11.080 enough flooding and you're not gonna grow enough food. Um, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.680 if you get just the right amount, then it's perfect 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.399 because you're gonna get enough food to feed the entire 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.680 population plus more. You know, that's surplus. That is such 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.000 a vital aspect of of the rise and and and 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.680 you know, and sustaining nature of civilizations. But then yeah, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.960 if you get too much water, then it's overflowing of 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.560 the flood zones. Then it's destroying communities, it's drowning people, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.919 it's causing death and destruction. Yeah, and you saw this, uh, 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.320 this version of the calamity coming through in one interpretation 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.040 of the situation that was being described in The Tempest Steela. 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.800 I remember there was this idea that the Nile is 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.960 flooding for some reason, and it says that there are well, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.560 there's one passage that I think was somewhat open to interpretation, 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.800 but it sounded like it was talking about the bodies 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.359 of dead people floating like skiffs of papyrus in the water. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.840 And uh and so yeah, obviously like if the water 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.920 has come too high, I can destroy your towns. Yeah. 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.560 So uh. Pinch nicely summarizes this by saying, quote, the 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.800 whole welfare of the country depended on this one phenomenon. Uh. 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.280 And because of this, the ancient Egyptians seem to have 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:23.000 felt both uniquely blessed and uniquely vulnerable. And um, yeah, 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.280 that's that's interesting to think about it. Again. You see 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.240 shades of this in a in a lot of mythologies 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.440 that the idea that you're ultimately depending on on some 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.399 sort of you know, natural abb and flow that you 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:39.200 do not control. There's a certain amount of chaos uh 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.240 to this system, even if there is uh still some 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:51.639 order that you can cling to. Now um as we 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:56.280 mentioned earlier, they're multiple Egyptian gods and goddess is tied 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:01.080 up with the inundation and ultimately with the Nile. Uh. Oh, well, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:02.879 if you if you were ever read anywhere, if you 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.560 see like a god or goddess of the ancient Egyptian 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.880 pantheon described as the god of the Nile, then that 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.920 is that isn't that is at least an oversimplification of things, 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.680 because there is no one true god of the Nile. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.520 There's no one uh central god even of the inundation, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.439 but rather different divine beings that represent different parts of it, 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.960 which which is uh which also me I think makes 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:30.440 a lot of sense because again, if this river and 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.840 this annual flooding is so central to life and your 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.280 view of the the of the universe, then it's going 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.760 to be too They're too complicated to have one figure, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:47.680 one sort of you know, humanoid apparition summing it all up, well, yes, 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.960 and I think you can see ways in which the inundation, 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.840 the yearly inundation of the Nile, took up so much 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.840 of the brain space of ancient Egyptian peoples that it 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.280 becomes a central sort of meta for for anything that 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:07.399 is overwhelming or unpredictable, or bringing great great riches or 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.720 bringing bringing great destruction. I was looking at a different 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.240 part of Geraldine Pinch's handbook on Egyptian mythology, and there's 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.440 one part where she's talking about one of the stories 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.240 of the poisoning of the god Ray and I think 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.359 the story I believe is called the True Name of Ray. 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.359 And uh, there's a part where she quotes from the 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.120 from a translation of the text that said, after he's 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.360 been poisoned, that the poison had overwhelmed his body, like 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.639 the inundation overwhelms everything in its path. So it's just 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.800 this ready made metaphor. It's the imagery that easily comes 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.879 to mind whenever you're thinking about, uh, any number of 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.920 different dynamics. Yeah. Yeah, And the same way that we 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.240 depend so much on various technologies today, is there there, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.359 you know, to draw our metaphors from to make sense 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.200 of what we're doing and the world we're living in. Well, 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.040 I mean, I might compare it to the metaphor of 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.400 like the metaphors of the seasons and many other cultures, 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.560 that the inundation metaphor could be as common and easily 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.480 accessed when one is searching for something with which to 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.879 compare the thing you're talking about right now to the 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.320 way that we so easily reach for metaphor, is about 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.240 winter turning into spring, you know, spring and sprong or 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.800 something like that. Is the winter of our discontent? Exactly? Yeah, 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.280 and you would say something more on the lines of 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.600 now is the inundation of our discontent or our content 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:35.360 depending on how it goes, It's in inundation time in America. 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:39.119 Uh so, you know, we have more on on the 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.240 deities in a bit, but basically the inundation itself was 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.000 seen as part of the divine order of things or 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:47.399 or MOTT which is generally spelled M A A T 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:51.840 in English, and the creator of all things, though ultimately 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:55.040 there's less emphasis on this. In an ancient Egyptian mythology 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.480 is the Sun, uh you know, the the ancient Egyptians, 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:01.320 where the children of the Sun and the Egyptian world existed. 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:05.280 At the center. Uh and in its divine order. Uh, 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:07.639 you know, all encompassing and in surrounding it, you had 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.120 the primeval waters of None, out of which the creator 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:15.200 God emerged, and the nile and the inundation extend out 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.840