WEBVTT - 7 Blunders of the Ancient World

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope

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<v Speaker 1>and iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Guess what mango was that?

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<v Speaker 1>Well?

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<v Speaker 2>All right, So I was reading up on ancient Greek

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<v Speaker 2>theater this week, which you know I like to do

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<v Speaker 2>every October very personal reasons. I don't want to get

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<v Speaker 2>into it, and I came across this story about an

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<v Speaker 2>Athenian actor name he Geligos, and he once mispronounced a

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<v Speaker 2>word so badly that it tanked his entire career.

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<v Speaker 1>That sounds so harsh, like just one word tanked his career?

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<v Speaker 1>What was the word?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, so here's the story. This happened back in the

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<v Speaker 2>spring of four hundred and eight BC, and it was

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<v Speaker 2>during the premiere performance of Orestes. This was this tragedy

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<v Speaker 2>written by Euripides. He was playing the lead role, and

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<v Speaker 2>in a scene where his character recovers from a bout

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<v Speaker 2>of madness, he's supposed to say, quote, after the storm,

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<v Speaker 2>I see once more a calm, But because he was

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<v Speaker 2>rushing to get the line out, there's this word in it, galen,

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<v Speaker 2>and he says it with the wrong inflection, which changed

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<v Speaker 2>the meaning from calm to weasel, Like that's a different word.

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<v Speaker 1>Those are yeah, I always think that's an improvement.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, it was actually worse than it sounds, because in

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<v Speaker 2>ancient Greece, seeing a weasel was considered a really bad

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<v Speaker 2>omen So the mispronunciation not only made the line sound sillier,

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<v Speaker 2>it also conveyed the exact opposite mood. Instead of being

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<v Speaker 2>this optimistic line about feeling better, it became this ominous

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<v Speaker 2>line about him having bad luck.

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<v Speaker 1>And it was actually that big of a mistake just

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<v Speaker 1>mispronouncing this one word, I'm.

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<v Speaker 2>Telling you it ruined his whole career. So comic playwrights

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<v Speaker 2>of the era teased him mercilessly and even referenced him

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<v Speaker 2>by name in their own play. This killed his reputation

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<v Speaker 2>as an actor, to the point that he never acted

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<v Speaker 2>again after that one flub. It also gave him a

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<v Speaker 2>different level of fame than his contemporaries. Like basically, even

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<v Speaker 2>though ancient Greek tragedies are the bedrock of Western theater,

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<v Speaker 2>we usually don't have record of the actors who appeared

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<v Speaker 2>in the original performances. You don't hear the names of

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<v Speaker 2>any of them except for Geligos, who we still know

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<v Speaker 2>for this mistake, and this was definitely not the legacy

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<v Speaker 2>he would have hoped.

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<v Speaker 1>For, but it is still his legacy. No such thing

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<v Speaker 1>as bad publicity.

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<v Speaker 2>No, that's exactly right. So we're often hearing about the

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<v Speaker 2>seven wonders of the ancient world, so today I thought

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<v Speaker 2>it might be fun to explore the seven biggest blunders

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<v Speaker 2>of the ancient world instead. This slip of the tongue

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<v Speaker 2>is just the first on the list, but that still

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<v Speaker 2>leaves six more gafts to go, so let's dive in. Hey,

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<v Speaker 2>their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genie. I'm Will Pearson,

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<v Speaker 2>and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh

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<v Speaker 2>hot Ticketter and on the other side of that soundproof

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<v Speaker 2>glass wearing a It took me a minute to read this,

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<v Speaker 2>but it says po body's nerfic T shirt.

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<v Speaker 1>He's so clear, so clever, clever a.

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<v Speaker 2>Picture of a great sphinx on it. That's our friend

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<v Speaker 2>and producer Dylan fag and he's just always one upping

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<v Speaker 2>the last thing he's done.

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<v Speaker 1>So I am actually glad that Dylan referenced the sphinx

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<v Speaker 1>because I considered adding the sphinx to our list, specifically

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<v Speaker 1>because of that broken nose it has, but once I

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<v Speaker 1>started looking into it, I realized the nose wasn't broken

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<v Speaker 1>off by mistake.

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<v Speaker 2>This is one of those stories that I feel like

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<v Speaker 2>I've heard a few times and I never can like,

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<v Speaker 2>wasn't it cut off on purpose? Or shot off by

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<v Speaker 2>French troops or something like that.

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<v Speaker 1>No one actually knows who did it for sure. There

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<v Speaker 1>have been all these rumors over the years that it

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<v Speaker 1>was Napoleon soldiers they had blasted the nose off with

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<v Speaker 1>the cannonball in the seventeen nineties. That was the rumor,

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<v Speaker 1>But most historians actually think that the schnaws was chiseled

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<v Speaker 1>off in the late fourteenth century and chiseled off like

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<v Speaker 1>it's a mass of nos that's huge. The most likely

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<v Speaker 1>culprit was this man named Mohammad Sayim al Dhar and

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<v Speaker 1>apparently the Egyptian peasants of the era had started making

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<v Speaker 1>offerings to the sphinx in the idea that it would

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<v Speaker 1>improve their harvests or whatever. But when Aldaar found out,

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<v Speaker 1>he was so outraged by this idolatry that he destroyed

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<v Speaker 1>the sphinx nose just despite them.

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<v Speaker 2>Wow, So did the villagers kind of snap out of

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<v Speaker 2>it after that or what?

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<v Speaker 1>No, they executed him for vandalism. Oh god.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay, yeah, so far we've talked about some people that

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<v Speaker 2>they're just lives, have.

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<v Speaker 1>Gone poorly after things.

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<v Speaker 2>But all right, so now that we've got that nose

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<v Speaker 2>story out of the way, what's your first fact?

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<v Speaker 1>Mango? Okay, So I actually kind of want to stick

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<v Speaker 1>with Egypt for a minute, because not only is it

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<v Speaker 1>home to the only ancient wonder that still exists, the

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<v Speaker 1>Great Pyramid of Giza, but it's also home to a

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<v Speaker 1>true anciente blunder called the Bent Pyramid. Have you ever

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<v Speaker 1>seen this? Actually have not. I'm actually going to put

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<v Speaker 1>a photo here, but the three hundred and thirty foot

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<v Speaker 1>tall Bent Pyramid of Dashu Where was built for pharaoh

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<v Speaker 1>Sneffru in about twenty six hundred BCE, and its name

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<v Speaker 1>stems from an engineering issue that required the builders to

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<v Speaker 1>abruptly change the angle of the pyramid slope about halfway

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<v Speaker 1>through the construction. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm just looking at this picture, and the slope really

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<v Speaker 2>does change drastically right there in the middle of the pyramid,

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<v Speaker 2>Like the lower portion looks so much deeper than the top.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So the whole thing was originally designed to be

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<v Speaker 1>built at a fifty four degree angle, which would have

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<v Speaker 1>given it smooth, straight angles that you see on traditional pyramids.

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<v Speaker 1>But as the builders added more and more layers of blocks,

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<v Speaker 1>these cracks started appearing in the structure, and they realized

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<v Speaker 1>it would probably collapse if they kept going, and so

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<v Speaker 1>after a bit of number crunching, they decided to reduce

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<v Speaker 1>the angle for the upper portion to a much more

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<v Speaker 1>stable forty three degrees. I guess it worked.

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<v Speaker 2>It's still standing today, and you could argue that the

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<v Speaker 2>slightly curved appearance is part of the landmark's charm.

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<v Speaker 1>I guess.

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<v Speaker 2>But I'm curious why the Egyptians made such a mistake

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<v Speaker 2>in the first place. I mean, building pyramids feels like

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<v Speaker 2>kind of their thing, you know.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, Egyptians are well known for building pyramids. I

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<v Speaker 1>think we're going to break that fact, right, Yeah, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>But Snepfer's bent pyramid was kind of in early work.

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<v Speaker 1>It was just the second pyramid burial structure that the

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<v Speaker 1>Egyptians had ever constructed. The first one had been built

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<v Speaker 1>about two hundred years earlier, southwest of Cairo. And the

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<v Speaker 1>interesting thing about that one is it was actually a

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<v Speaker 1>stone step pyramid, So the kinds you see in like

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<v Speaker 1>Central America, rather than a smooth faced one like the

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<v Speaker 1>kind that they would later become famous for. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>So I guess this bent pyramid was in this transitional

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<v Speaker 2>phase where they were still trying to figure out what

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<v Speaker 2>it really meant or what it needed to build a pyramid.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they were still fine tuning the process, and obviously

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<v Speaker 1>there was a fair amount of trial and error along

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<v Speaker 1>the way. The Egyptians learned from this mistake, and once

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<v Speaker 1>the Bent Pyramid was finished, they built a second, more

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<v Speaker 1>successful one for the same pharaoh, This three hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>forty foot tall, smooth side red pyramid, and it's just

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<v Speaker 1>to the north and the future pyramids built in the area.

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<v Speaker 1>It was built at that same forty three degree angle

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<v Speaker 1>that saved the Bent pyramid. I don't know what it

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<v Speaker 1>is about forty three degrees, but it just works.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and definitely does. That's ever, when we want to

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<v Speaker 2>build a pyramid.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, well, I've got an architectural mishap to add to

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<v Speaker 2>our list as well, except mine is more of an

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<v Speaker 2>ecological oversight than some sort of design flaw all. So

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<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna give you a little bit of background here.

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<v Speaker 2>This was in the great Maya city called te Call

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<v Speaker 2>and that formed around six hundred BCE. Now to Call

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<v Speaker 2>started as this tiny village in what's now Guatemala, but

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<v Speaker 2>over the course of about one thousand years it developed

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<v Speaker 2>into this full blown jungle metropolis so to call hit

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<v Speaker 2>its stride between three hundred and nine hundred CE, and

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<v Speaker 2>at the peak of its power in the mid eighth century,

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<v Speaker 2>it boasted upwards of sixty thousand inhabitants, so there was

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of people living in one place, making it

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<v Speaker 2>one of the largest and most powerful city states in

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<v Speaker 2>all of the Americas.

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<v Speaker 1>And I'm guessing the architecture there was pretty impressive as well.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the architecture is actually pretty stunning. So they're these

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<v Speaker 2>one hundred foot tall temples more than two dozen pyramids.

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<v Speaker 2>But maybe most impressively, it also had this highly advanced

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<v Speaker 2>water management system that was there to help residents survive

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<v Speaker 2>of the region's dry season. So this included a series

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<v Speaker 2>of dams, reservoirs that collected and stored as much rain

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<v Speaker 2>water as possible, as well as these paved sloping plazas

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<v Speaker 2>to help direct the water where it needed to go.

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<v Speaker 2>So the city even had this sand filtration system to

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<v Speaker 2>keep the water clean. So really advanced systems.

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<v Speaker 1>That sounds gorgeous actually, And I'm guessing all that water

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<v Speaker 1>work was necessary because of where the city was located, right.

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<v Speaker 2>That's exactly right, Like the city was built in the

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<v Speaker 2>middle of this dense rainforest and people didn't have easy

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<v Speaker 2>access to lakes or rivers, so that's how the city

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<v Speaker 2>compensated for this. But what's ironic is that the very

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<v Speaker 2>system that helped to Call survived droughts and dry spells

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<v Speaker 2>also led to its downfall, and much of the Maya

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<v Speaker 2>Kingdom collapsed at the turn of the ninth century, and

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<v Speaker 2>in fact, to Call seems to have been outright abandoned,

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<v Speaker 2>like with all of its structures left completely intact, as

0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.040
<v Speaker 2>if everyone just picked up and left at some point.

0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.440
<v Speaker 2>So for the longest time, there's been this mystery about

0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.559
<v Speaker 2>what caused the city's demise. Obviously wasn't a violent struggle,

0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.800
<v Speaker 2>as there were no signs of damage to the city.

0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.920
<v Speaker 2>So that led historians to conclude that the city's collapse

0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.160
<v Speaker 2>was probably related to droughts and overpopulation.

0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.920
<v Speaker 1>And we're saying the fancy water system that the city has,

0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.160
<v Speaker 1>that's the reason that they left.

0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.199
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So there was this very recent study, it was

0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.920
<v Speaker 2>back in twenty twenty that was published in Scientific Reports Journal,

0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.720
<v Speaker 2>and it was this investigation of to Call's reservoirs, and

0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.320
<v Speaker 2>they revealed that they were dangerously polluted with high levels

0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.800
<v Speaker 2>of mercury. And not only that, scientists also found traces

0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.840
<v Speaker 2>of very toxic algae blooms. Now, the presence of mercury

0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.280
<v Speaker 2>is most likely attributed to a red mineral called cinnabar

0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.720
<v Speaker 2>or mercuric sulfide, which the ancient mile widely used as

0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.120
<v Speaker 2>a pigment or a dye for various things. So, for example,

0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.920
<v Speaker 2>the city's temples and the main palace were said to

0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.200
<v Speaker 2>be caked in cinnabar, which means that during the rainy season,

0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.560
<v Speaker 2>all that mercury rich powder.

0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.160
<v Speaker 1>It just washed right off the buildings. Yes, so you

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:01.480
<v Speaker 1>know it's not good news.

0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.000
<v Speaker 2>And so thanks to those sloping plazas, this just flowed

0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.040
<v Speaker 2>straight down into the city's reservoirs and obtained the water

0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:08.800
<v Speaker 2>supply of course.

0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and so obviously, with people drinking and cooking with

0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:15.240
<v Speaker 1>all this poisoned water, they must have started getting sick, right.

0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.920
<v Speaker 2>Very sick. Once the blue green algae began to bloom

0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.480
<v Speaker 2>in those phosphate filled reservoirs, the locals could probably tell

0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.560
<v Speaker 2>from the site and smell alone that the water was

0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:25.959
<v Speaker 2>no longer safe to drink.

0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.839
<v Speaker 1>And I guess what's weird about this is that the

0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.440
<v Speaker 1>entire population just gets up and leaves, right. I mean,

0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.840
<v Speaker 1>this civilization has lasted what like a thousand years, and

0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.520
<v Speaker 1>it feels like they'd almost wanted to fight to save

0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:40.600
<v Speaker 1>their city a little bit more.

0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:42.640
<v Speaker 2>Well, you've got to keep in mind that Takol was

0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.880
<v Speaker 2>already struggling due to intensifying droughts. So even if there

0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.400
<v Speaker 2>was a way to fix the pollution, the residents really

0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.679
<v Speaker 2>didn't have the time to implement it. Like, they obviously

0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.160
<v Speaker 2>needed to deal with this immediately, and so they had

0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.240
<v Speaker 2>to find a new water supply. And there's also the

0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.880
<v Speaker 2>religious component to consider, So water was sacred to the

0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.200
<v Speaker 2>Maya because it was key to their whole existence. So

0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.440
<v Speaker 2>when their supplies suddenly went bad, in the middle of

0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.000
<v Speaker 2>a terrible drought. They likely took it as a sign

0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.840
<v Speaker 2>that the gods were displeased with them. So from a

0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:17.040
<v Speaker 2>practical standpoint and a symbolic one, abandoning their once great

0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.720
<v Speaker 2>city probably felt like the most sensible option.

0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I guess it's a luxury to be able to

0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.080
<v Speaker 1>learn from your mistakes. Like when you think about the

0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.200
<v Speaker 1>Egyptians working on that bent pyramid, they make this awkward

0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.120
<v Speaker 1>pyramid and then they have time to reflect and figure

0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.240
<v Speaker 1>out like how to make the next one perfect. Right,

0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.320
<v Speaker 1>But for the Maya, they don't really have a chance

0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:37.880
<v Speaker 1>to be scientific. In order to survive. They just have

0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:38.920
<v Speaker 1>to scramble. Yeah.

0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:40.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Actually, it's funny that you put it that way,

0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.080
<v Speaker 2>because the next blunder on my list is from someone

0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.200
<v Speaker 2>who also had to walk away in order to survive

0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.040
<v Speaker 2>a mistake, but in his case there was a literal

0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.840
<v Speaker 2>dead elephant blocking the exit. How about that for a tease, mango.

0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:55.800
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about, but

0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm very curious. So let's take a quick commercial break

0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:15.520
<v Speaker 1>and then you can tell me all about it. You're

0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.400
<v Speaker 1>listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the

0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.480
<v Speaker 1>seven blunders of the ancient world. So will where are

0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.240
<v Speaker 1>you taking us next? All right?

0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.680
<v Speaker 2>So for this one, we're headed back to ancient Greece

0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.560
<v Speaker 2>to about the third century BCE, which was a tumultuous

0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.640
<v Speaker 2>time in the Mediterranean. The recent death of Alexander the

0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.360
<v Speaker 2>Great had created this serious power vacuum and all of

0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.400
<v Speaker 2>his former generals and allies were competing to fill it.

0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.960
<v Speaker 2>And one of the would be successors, King Pirus, was

0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.360
<v Speaker 2>this ruler from northern Greece, and he managed to extend

0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.600
<v Speaker 2>his domain by winning narrow victories against the armies of Macedonia.

0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.360
<v Speaker 2>Now this was in the year two eighty, and that's

0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.840
<v Speaker 2>when he set his sights on conquering Rome. So Piras

0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.760
<v Speaker 2>sailed to Italy with about thirty thousand soldiers and twenty

0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.600
<v Speaker 2>war elephants, marking the first time that elephants had ever

0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.440
<v Speaker 2>been seen on the peninsula.

0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:10.560
<v Speaker 1>So this must predate Hannibal and the Alps then, I guess.

0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.080
<v Speaker 2>By about sixty years, so not not a ton of time.

0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.560
<v Speaker 2>But as you might imagine, the Romans on the battlefield

0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.479
<v Speaker 2>were pretty freaked out by the sight of these enormous

0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.520
<v Speaker 2>armored an I can't even imagine if I had never

0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.080
<v Speaker 2>seen an elephant, But even with the advantage of intimidation,

0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.560
<v Speaker 2>Peeris only barely pulled.

0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:28.960
<v Speaker 1>Out a win.

0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.760
<v Speaker 2>In fact, the number of casualties he sustained was so

0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.840
<v Speaker 2>high that the Greek historian Plutarch quoted him as having said, quote,

0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.120
<v Speaker 2>if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans,

0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.320
<v Speaker 2>we shall be utterly ruined. So you can imagine that

0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.920
<v Speaker 2>these were hard won battles. So King Pieris became well

0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.040
<v Speaker 2>known for his narrow winds, and people started using the

0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.480
<v Speaker 2>expression pyrhic victory, which of course means a victory that

0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.720
<v Speaker 2>comes at such great costs that it's almost like a defeat.

0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.160
<v Speaker 1>It's funny. I remember taking a class on the moguls

0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:06.080
<v Speaker 1>in college, and elephants are obviously so massive and so intimidating,

0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.040
<v Speaker 1>but they also scare incredibly quickly, and so they're not

0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:10.920
<v Speaker 1>great war animals.

0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:13.959
<v Speaker 2>I can I can imagine that, especially if you let

0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:14.920
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of mice loose.

0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:16.400
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's what I hear.

0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.800
<v Speaker 2>Have no idea whether that's true, it's not true, So

0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.199
<v Speaker 2>I haven't even gotten to his real mistake. If you

0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.280
<v Speaker 2>remember that amazing tease before the commercial break, the dead

0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.480
<v Speaker 2>elephant blocking the doorway. Do you remember this of So,

0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.600
<v Speaker 2>after a series of Skin of his Teeth victories in Italy,

0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.920
<v Speaker 2>Peeris actually started losing battles, so in two seventy five

0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.640
<v Speaker 2>he retreats back to Greece and begins making a play

0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:40.840
<v Speaker 2>for the throne.

0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:41.240
<v Speaker 1>Of mast On.

0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.960
<v Speaker 2>First he targeted Sparta, but when the city state proves

0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.160
<v Speaker 2>resistant to his attacks, he turns his focus north to Argos.

0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.600
<v Speaker 2>I've always thought this was interesting in military history, where

0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.159
<v Speaker 2>they're like, I'm gonna go beat these people, and then

0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:54.800
<v Speaker 2>I can't, like, oh no, no, I'll go over here.

0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.720
<v Speaker 1>But it's interesting to think about it.

0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.920
<v Speaker 2>But now Piers had no trouble breaking through the city's defense,

0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.560
<v Speaker 2>thanks once again to his pack of giant elephants. But

0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.040
<v Speaker 2>once he's inside, he finds it really difficult to maneuver

0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:11.280
<v Speaker 2>through the narrow streets, and his forces are quickly overwhelmed.

0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.560
<v Speaker 2>And to make matters worse, Pearce's forces keep pouring into

0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.879
<v Speaker 2>the city even after he had ordered a retreat, and

0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.439
<v Speaker 2>in the scuffle that followed, one of the elephants, the

0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.399
<v Speaker 2>largest one, falls down right in front of the main gate,

0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.920
<v Speaker 2>which sends the other elephants into a panic, and they

0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:33.240
<v Speaker 2>start rampaging through the city basically crushing everything.

0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.040
<v Speaker 1>I mean, can you imagine, like there's no reverse on

0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.280
<v Speaker 1>an elephant, Like you're in these narrow streets, and like

0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.880
<v Speaker 1>the turning radius isn't that great? Not good? Not good?

0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.040
<v Speaker 1>So does Paris get.

0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.359
<v Speaker 2>Tremfled, Not exactly, but his death was the direct result

0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.760
<v Speaker 2>of not being able to get around the fallen elephant.

0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.320
<v Speaker 2>So in the battle, Pieris takes one look at the

0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.920
<v Speaker 2>chaos unfolding and decides to take his chances back in

0:18:59.000 --> 0:18:59.520
<v Speaker 2>the city.

0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:00.480
<v Speaker 1>Now, as the.

0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.960
<v Speaker 2>Story goes, he's fighting his way through the streets and

0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.000
<v Speaker 2>he gets stabbed through the breastplate by this enemy spear.

0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.840
<v Speaker 2>Pieris turned to face his attacker and landed a killing blow.

0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.000
<v Speaker 2>But what he didn't realize was that the soldier's mother

0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.040
<v Speaker 2>had been watching the whole scene from a nearby rooftop. So,

0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.960
<v Speaker 2>according to Plutarch, when the old woman saw that her

0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.119
<v Speaker 2>son was in danger, she lifted up a roof tile

0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:27.240
<v Speaker 2>with both hands and hurled it at Peuris's head, and

0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.840
<v Speaker 2>the resulting blow didn't kill Pearis, but it left him

0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.960
<v Speaker 2>dayed enough that other soldiers were able to swoop in

0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:35.200
<v Speaker 2>and finish him off.

0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.879
<v Speaker 1>It feels like bringing elephants to battle wasn't a great idea,

0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.399
<v Speaker 1>but the king's real mistake was killing someone right in

0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:45.359
<v Speaker 1>front of their mother. You don't do that. Yeah, it's

0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:47.560
<v Speaker 1>not the kind of thing you walk away from. But

0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.000
<v Speaker 1>let's leave the battlefield behind for now, because it's time

0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.159
<v Speaker 1>to pay a visit to the ancient city of Bethlehem.

0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.320
<v Speaker 1>And that's where Saint Jerome, one of the early scholars

0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.560
<v Speaker 1>of the Catholic Church, accidentally sparked one of the weirdest

0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:05.120
<v Speaker 1>trends in medieval and Renaissance are the horns on Moses.

0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.000
<v Speaker 2>You know, I've actually always wondered about this, because there's

0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.480
<v Speaker 2>that famous statue of Moses by Michelangelo, and for no

0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.919
<v Speaker 2>apparent reason, he's got these weird little baby goat horns

0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.080
<v Speaker 2>sprouting from his forehead.

0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.959
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's super weird, especially considering Moses's this prophet and

0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.040
<v Speaker 1>horns are obviously associated with the devil. But Michelangelo was

0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.960
<v Speaker 1>actually far from the only person to make this connection.

0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.720
<v Speaker 1>This image of a horn Moses turns up in all

0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.960
<v Speaker 1>sorts of Western medieval iconography, and weirdly, it can all

0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.159
<v Speaker 1>be traced back to this single mistranslation by Saint Jerome.

0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.480
<v Speaker 1>So it all goes back to the late fourth century.

0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.399
<v Speaker 1>See when Saint Jerome began working on the first Latin

0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.320
<v Speaker 1>translation of the Christian Bible, and for whatever reason, he

0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.240
<v Speaker 1>decides to ignore the existing Greek translation of the Old

0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.960
<v Speaker 1>New Testaments and instead he translates his own version directly

0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.719
<v Speaker 1>from he grew into Latin, and unfortunately that led him

0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.840
<v Speaker 1>into trouble due to seven ambiguities in the ancient Hebrew language.

0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.359
<v Speaker 1>One example of this is the Hebrew word for a

0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.119
<v Speaker 1>ray of light is almost exactly the same as a

0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.520
<v Speaker 1>word for horn, and because the Hebrew language doesn't apparently

0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.600
<v Speaker 1>write out its vowels, I guess Jerome wasn't able to

0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.600
<v Speaker 1>pick up on the context clues. And so in the

0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.080
<v Speaker 1>Book of Exodus, when Moses returns from Mount Sinai with

0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.320
<v Speaker 1>the Ten Commandments, his face is lit up by this

0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.600
<v Speaker 1>divine light, but in Saint Jerome's translation he gets horns instead.

0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.199
<v Speaker 2>Wow, all right, So Moses spends six weeks on a

0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.160
<v Speaker 2>mountaintop communing with God and comes back down he's suddenly

0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.760
<v Speaker 2>grown a pair of horns, and nobody manages to comment

0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:40.640
<v Speaker 2>on this again, is that what we're talking about here.

0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.439
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's super weird. And the really well part is

0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.840
<v Speaker 1>that the people who translated the Old Testament into Ancient

0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.600
<v Speaker 1>Greek had already solved for this welcome back to part

0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.159
<v Speaker 1>time genius meaning of the Hebrew text and described Moses's

0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:56.800
<v Speaker 1>face as glorified. But because Jerome had ignored that Greek translation,

0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.000
<v Speaker 1>Moses winds up supporting horns in art for the next millennium,

0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.399
<v Speaker 1>even after the error is widely acknowledged.

0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:06.359
<v Speaker 2>I like the art world was like, no, We're just

0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:08.919
<v Speaker 2>we're sticking with the horns, you know. All right, So

0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:10.879
<v Speaker 2>if my math is right, that brings us up to

0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.359
<v Speaker 2>five ancient blunders with two left to go. But before

0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:30.359
<v Speaker 2>we get to those, let's take one more quick break,

0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:34.560
<v Speaker 2>all right, Mango sur my final entry on our ancient

0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.439
<v Speaker 2>blunders list. I want to take us back to the

0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:41.240
<v Speaker 2>reign of Shen Sherwang, the first Emperor of China. So

0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.560
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about the third century BCE, and Shen puts

0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.399
<v Speaker 2>an end to a long period of provincial conflict in

0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:52.600
<v Speaker 2>China by unifying the country's various provinces under one central government.

0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.720
<v Speaker 2>He was also responsible for several major advances in Chinese culture,

0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.960
<v Speaker 2>including the introduction of standardized weights and measures, the creation

0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.639
<v Speaker 2>of uniform system of writing, the construction of the earliest

0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.320
<v Speaker 2>form of the Great Wall. So a lot of accomplishments here.

0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.399
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it seems so pretty productive. Pretty productive. Yeah, But as.

0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:14.240
<v Speaker 2>He grew older and more powerful, the emperor also became

0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:17.280
<v Speaker 2>obsessed with death and began searching for a way to

0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.639
<v Speaker 2>achieve immortality. It feels like a lot of these leaders

0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.680
<v Speaker 2>fall into this trap. And we know this because about

0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.840
<v Speaker 2>twenty years ago, archaeologists discovered this cache of ancient writings

0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:31.639
<v Speaker 2>at the bottom of an abandoned well in the Hunan Province,

0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.360
<v Speaker 2>and one of them contains this executive order issued by

0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.639
<v Speaker 2>the emperor. The decree ordered a nationwide search for immortality

0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.560
<v Speaker 2>potions or elixirs of life, and required every village and

0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.320
<v Speaker 2>region to submit a report of their findings.

0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:50.120
<v Speaker 1>That's kind of amazing. I mean, like, China is such

0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:52.679
<v Speaker 1>a vast territory and it's not like you can just

0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:55.280
<v Speaker 1>send out junk mail or notification. The fact that like

0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:58.240
<v Speaker 1>he forced this decree on everyone is incredible.

0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.040
<v Speaker 2>It's a testament to Chen's he as a leader. But

0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.000
<v Speaker 2>it also just shows how seriously he took this quest

0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:04.920
<v Speaker 2>for his immortality.

0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.280
<v Speaker 1>So did the villages end up getting back to him.

0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.040
<v Speaker 2>I imagine they all did, But only a handful of

0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:13.000
<v Speaker 2>responses were found in that well, and most of the

0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:16.520
<v Speaker 2>replies were awkward notes from regional governments saying they hadn't

0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:18.879
<v Speaker 2>found the elixir of life, but we're going to keep

0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:20.600
<v Speaker 2>looking for it because they A'm sure they didn't want

0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.560
<v Speaker 2>to get in trouble. But the only semi hopeful response

0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:27.840
<v Speaker 2>came from officials and Langya when they suggested this herb

0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:31.639
<v Speaker 2>from a local mountain might have these life extending properties.

0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:32.879
<v Speaker 1>That sounds promising, did it?

0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:36.760
<v Speaker 2>Apparently not considering Emperor Chen died at the age of

0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:40.280
<v Speaker 2>forty nine. But that actually brings us around to his

0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.440
<v Speaker 2>big mistake, because it seems that in his desperate search

0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:47.800
<v Speaker 2>for immortality, the emperor may have actually shortened his own life.

0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:51.200
<v Speaker 2>Historians believe that his early death was brought on by

0:24:51.359 --> 0:24:55.520
<v Speaker 2>mercury poisoning. This extremely toxic side effect of many of

0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:59.119
<v Speaker 2>the elixers that he drank in pursuit of his eternal life.

0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:02.879
<v Speaker 2>Don't feel too badly for the emperor because he did

0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:06.680
<v Speaker 2>have a backup plan, so before his early ish death,

0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.680
<v Speaker 2>he ordered the construction of this enormous burial chamber, which

0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:14.199
<v Speaker 2>he famously stocked with a life size army of thousands

0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:17.160
<v Speaker 2>of terra Cotta warriors. To see where we're going here, Yeah,

0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:20.960
<v Speaker 2>Jen believed in the afterlife and hope that the Clay

0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:23.480
<v Speaker 2>soldiers would protect him in the world that was to come.

0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:26.320
<v Speaker 1>I like that. You basically thought he would live forever regardless,

0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:28.880
<v Speaker 1>but he still tried to find a magic potion. Yes,

0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:32.080
<v Speaker 1>make sure I was going to live on ear Earth. Well,

0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:35.560
<v Speaker 1>oddly enough, my last mistake also has to do with

0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:38.479
<v Speaker 1>one man's quest for immortality. And maybe it's because I'm

0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:40.040
<v Speaker 1>actually working on a new show on how to Live

0:25:40.080 --> 0:25:44.159
<v Speaker 1>Forever because I am obsessed with other people's obsession with

0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:48.960
<v Speaker 1>the topic. But for this fact, we need to head

0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:51.960
<v Speaker 1>over to the city of Ephesis, which used to be

0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:54.159
<v Speaker 1>a part of ancient Greece but is now in modern

0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:57.240
<v Speaker 1>day Turkey. And the city is largely remembered as the

0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:01.240
<v Speaker 1>birthplace of the philosopher Heraclitis, but it was also home

0:26:01.320 --> 0:26:03.919
<v Speaker 1>to many lesser known female artists. I didn't realize this

0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:06.680
<v Speaker 1>until we did this episode, but if theesis was filled

0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:10.640
<v Speaker 1>with sculptors and painters and teachers, including the artist timer Reid,

0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:13.480
<v Speaker 1>who painted a famous portrait of Artemis in the fifth

0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:17.920
<v Speaker 1>century BCE. Now Artemis for anyone who's familiar with Greek

0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:21.120
<v Speaker 1>myths or Percy Jackson was one of the most revered

0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:24.640
<v Speaker 1>goddesses in the ancient Greek pantheon, but the Ephesians laid

0:26:24.640 --> 0:26:26.960
<v Speaker 1>a special claim to her because they actually believed she

0:26:27.040 --> 0:26:30.119
<v Speaker 1>had been born near the city. And while most cities

0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:33.400
<v Speaker 1>praised Artemis as the goddess of hunting and wild animals,

0:26:33.680 --> 0:26:35.760
<v Speaker 1>the people here actually worshiped her as this goddess of

0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:39.040
<v Speaker 1>fertility and the protector of women and young girls, and

0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:42.159
<v Speaker 1>in fact, Ephesian women would often call on Artemis for

0:26:42.200 --> 0:26:45.920
<v Speaker 1>help during childbirth. So Artemis was, I don't know, kind

0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:48.520
<v Speaker 1>of like the city mascot. Patron deity might be a

0:26:48.520 --> 0:26:50.359
<v Speaker 1>better way to describe it, but I want to go

0:26:50.400 --> 0:26:54.560
<v Speaker 1>with mascot. But that's why the city has had a

0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:57.359
<v Speaker 1>temple dedicated to her since as far back as the

0:26:57.400 --> 0:27:00.159
<v Speaker 1>Bronze Age, and the original structure was wiped out by

0:27:00.200 --> 0:27:03.560
<v Speaker 1>a flood in the seventh century, but about two hundred

0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:07.320
<v Speaker 1>years later, the Lydian king Croesus paid to rebuild the

0:27:07.359 --> 0:27:10.679
<v Speaker 1>temple of Artemis, and he made it bigger and sturdier

0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:13.640
<v Speaker 1>than ever, and so this new and improved temple was

0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:16.359
<v Speaker 1>one of the largest ever built in ancient Greece. It

0:27:16.520 --> 0:27:20.560
<v Speaker 1>stood roughly sixty feet tall. Inside there was this treasure

0:27:20.560 --> 0:27:25.880
<v Speaker 1>tove of relief carvings, sculptures, paintings, including this massive statue

0:27:25.920 --> 0:27:28.640
<v Speaker 1>of Artemis herself. But for nearly one hundred years after

0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:31.800
<v Speaker 1>its completion, the Temple of Artemis served as a house

0:27:31.800 --> 0:27:34.520
<v Speaker 1>of worship, and it was also this tourist destination, this

0:27:34.680 --> 0:27:38.920
<v Speaker 1>art gallery all in one. And then this guy named

0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:42.680
<v Speaker 1>Haristratus comes along right and late one evening in three

0:27:42.760 --> 0:27:45.840
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty six PCE, he makes his way up

0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:48.240
<v Speaker 1>to the temple and sets fire to the wooden roof.

0:27:48.600 --> 0:27:51.920
<v Speaker 1>The flame spread so quickly throughout this wooden interior. By

0:27:51.920 --> 0:27:55.200
<v Speaker 1>morning the temple is totally in ruins. There's nothing left

0:27:55.240 --> 0:27:57.439
<v Speaker 1>but a few blackened marble columns.

0:27:57.720 --> 0:28:00.560
<v Speaker 2>So not an Artemis fan, I'm guessing that's the things

0:28:00.600 --> 0:28:02.640
<v Speaker 2>we really don't know much about the Arsonist.

0:28:02.760 --> 0:28:06.359
<v Speaker 1>He's believed to have been lower class and possibly enslaved,

0:28:06.440 --> 0:28:09.679
<v Speaker 1>and many historians suspect that he wasn't Ephesian by birth,

0:28:09.960 --> 0:28:12.119
<v Speaker 1>and obviously with that kind of background, you can imagine

0:28:12.160 --> 0:28:15.520
<v Speaker 1>all sorts of potential motives. It might have been politically motivated.

0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:19.000
<v Speaker 1>It might have been protesting this injustice of his low station.

0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:22.320
<v Speaker 1>Or he also might have been a misogynist lashing out

0:28:22.320 --> 0:28:24.480
<v Speaker 1>it this women's protector.

0:28:24.640 --> 0:28:26.239
<v Speaker 2>Or maybe, and I'm not trying to be funny here,

0:28:26.280 --> 0:28:29.160
<v Speaker 2>maybe he was just unwell and not thinking clearly.

0:28:29.480 --> 0:28:32.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, there are all sorts of plausible options, except

0:28:32.760 --> 0:28:36.800
<v Speaker 1>that none of them are the explanation that he offered,

0:28:37.040 --> 0:28:40.080
<v Speaker 1>because after being arrested, he admitted that he had torched

0:28:40.120 --> 0:28:41.960
<v Speaker 1>the temple just to make a name for himself. He

0:28:42.080 --> 0:28:44.640
<v Speaker 1>wanted to leave his mark on history, and he decided

0:28:44.680 --> 0:28:46.320
<v Speaker 1>the best way to do it was to destroy the

0:28:46.320 --> 0:28:48.400
<v Speaker 1>symbol of the city, which had been, you know, a

0:28:48.440 --> 0:28:51.120
<v Speaker 1>wonder of the ancient world that could have lasted for

0:28:51.160 --> 0:28:53.760
<v Speaker 1>a very very long time had it not been for him.

0:28:54.320 --> 0:28:56.680
<v Speaker 2>It's weird because it makes you wonder why the Ephesians

0:28:56.680 --> 0:29:00.360
<v Speaker 2>would play into his hand by recording his confession. Why

0:29:00.400 --> 0:29:02.480
<v Speaker 2>not just say the fire was an accident, sweep it

0:29:02.560 --> 0:29:02.840
<v Speaker 2>under the.

0:29:02.840 --> 0:29:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Rud Apparently they tried so. Not only did Efesian authorities

0:29:06.120 --> 0:29:09.400
<v Speaker 1>sentence Haris Stratus to death for the arson, they also

0:29:09.600 --> 0:29:13.800
<v Speaker 1>institute this special kind of punishment known as damnatio memory

0:29:14.480 --> 0:29:19.000
<v Speaker 1>or condemnation of memory, and under this order, the public

0:29:19.080 --> 0:29:22.040
<v Speaker 1>was forbidden to speak or write the culprit's name. This

0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:26.280
<v Speaker 1>was obviously done to discourage others from committing similar copycat crimes,

0:29:26.320 --> 0:29:29.520
<v Speaker 1>but also to ensure that he didn't get his wish.

0:29:29.680 --> 0:29:32.640
<v Speaker 1>You know, that people would forget the name Herostratus, so

0:29:33.000 --> 0:29:36.520
<v Speaker 1>instead of being remembered, he would be condemned to obscurity.

0:29:36.600 --> 0:29:38.480
<v Speaker 2>It's like the people that streak across like at the

0:29:38.520 --> 0:29:40.440
<v Speaker 2>super Bowl and stuff like that on the field, mial

0:29:40.480 --> 0:29:42.400
<v Speaker 2>it don't show them. We do not want them to

0:29:42.440 --> 0:29:45.120
<v Speaker 2>be known. But that's clearly not what happened, since we're

0:29:45.160 --> 0:29:46.200
<v Speaker 2>talking about him right now.

0:29:46.280 --> 0:29:50.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, completely. Apparently some historians refused to go along with

0:29:50.400 --> 0:29:53.120
<v Speaker 1>this punishment, so they write down his story, his name

0:29:53.200 --> 0:29:55.719
<v Speaker 1>before it could be forgotten by history, and as a result,

0:29:55.880 --> 0:29:58.720
<v Speaker 1>Arsonist's name was not only remembered, it became the basis

0:29:58.760 --> 0:30:02.920
<v Speaker 1>for a new expression, which is herostratic fame. It basically

0:30:02.960 --> 0:30:06.040
<v Speaker 1>means fame at any cost. All right, So what are

0:30:06.040 --> 0:30:08.080
<v Speaker 1>we calling the mistake in this one? Because it seemed

0:30:08.120 --> 0:30:10.640
<v Speaker 1>like the arson has got exactly what he wanted. In

0:30:10.680 --> 0:30:12.760
<v Speaker 1>this case, I think it's the Ephesian authorities who made

0:30:12.760 --> 0:30:15.560
<v Speaker 1>the mistake because they tried to suppress the truth about

0:30:15.560 --> 0:30:19.000
<v Speaker 1>this fire, and they went about it in the worst

0:30:19.000 --> 0:30:21.800
<v Speaker 1>possible way, right. They told everyone not to talk about it,

0:30:21.840 --> 0:30:23.719
<v Speaker 1>which just makes everyone want to talk about it.

0:30:23.840 --> 0:30:25.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, all right, Well, I'm glad we put this

0:30:26.000 --> 0:30:27.560
<v Speaker 2>list together. It's nice to know that the people of

0:30:27.640 --> 0:30:30.520
<v Speaker 2>the past were just as accident prone as the rest

0:30:30.560 --> 0:30:31.040
<v Speaker 2>of us.

0:30:31.040 --> 0:30:34.160
<v Speaker 1>And as susceptible to mercury poison. It is true. It

0:30:34.160 --> 0:30:36.600
<v Speaker 1>seems to close out the show. Why don't we try

0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:39.120
<v Speaker 1>to keep the fact off mercury poisoning free.

0:30:39.160 --> 0:30:43.280
<v Speaker 2>I'll try, no promises. Well, let's see what happens.

0:30:47.200 --> 0:30:50.080
<v Speaker 1>Okay. So here is a messy medieval blunder from the

0:30:50.080 --> 0:30:53.320
<v Speaker 1>city for Germany. This is back in eleven eighty four.

0:30:53.600 --> 0:30:56.440
<v Speaker 1>Dozens of noblemen gathered at Saint Peter's Church at the

0:30:56.440 --> 0:31:00.400
<v Speaker 1>request of the King Henrik the sixth, and he had

0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:02.560
<v Speaker 1>called a meeting to settle a land dispute between two

0:31:02.560 --> 0:31:06.040
<v Speaker 1>prominent citizens. But unfortunately they actually never got a chance

0:31:06.080 --> 0:31:09.840
<v Speaker 1>to discuss it because shortly after the meeting started, the

0:31:09.880 --> 0:31:13.280
<v Speaker 1>floor of the church collapses, right and apparently the upper

0:31:13.320 --> 0:31:16.000
<v Speaker 1>room where the group met wasn't intended to hold such

0:31:16.040 --> 0:31:18.920
<v Speaker 1>a large gathering. Everyone's in chainmail and all this heavy armor,

0:31:18.960 --> 0:31:22.680
<v Speaker 1>and the floor just wasn't strong enough. So the weight

0:31:22.720 --> 0:31:25.120
<v Speaker 1>of the falling people and the debris was so heavy

0:31:25.120 --> 0:31:28.360
<v Speaker 1>that they broke through the ground floor too, and wound

0:31:28.440 --> 0:31:34.760
<v Speaker 1>up plunging right into the church's communal sessca boast. I know,

0:31:34.800 --> 0:31:36.960
<v Speaker 1>it's like the money pit or something. It's believed that

0:31:37.240 --> 0:31:41.200
<v Speaker 1>almost everyone for the meeting fell into the latrine pits. Supposedly,

0:31:41.720 --> 0:31:44.920
<v Speaker 1>the king and the archbishop avoided this embarrassment by clinging

0:31:44.960 --> 0:31:47.640
<v Speaker 1>onto some iron rails on the church's windows. I don't

0:31:47.680 --> 0:31:50.360
<v Speaker 1>know if that's just sort of like polishing the story,

0:31:50.400 --> 0:31:53.640
<v Speaker 1>but the majority weren't so lucky, and altogether more than

0:31:53.720 --> 0:31:57.320
<v Speaker 1>sixty people fell into this latrine and never made it out.

0:31:57.920 --> 0:32:00.120
<v Speaker 2>That might be the saddest story about people falling to

0:32:00.200 --> 0:32:03.000
<v Speaker 2>a giant toilet that I've ever heard, So can't use

0:32:03.040 --> 0:32:05.640
<v Speaker 2>that in our future list of sad stories of people

0:32:05.680 --> 0:32:06.960
<v Speaker 2>falling into giant toilets.

0:32:07.000 --> 0:32:09.760
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that's really sad. All right.

0:32:09.760 --> 0:32:12.520
<v Speaker 2>I've got a tragic, low brow blunder of my own

0:32:12.600 --> 0:32:15.000
<v Speaker 2>for you, mango, and it's about the first known mooning

0:32:15.120 --> 0:32:18.040
<v Speaker 2>on record, and it took place in Jerusalem. This was

0:32:18.080 --> 0:32:20.960
<v Speaker 2>back in the first century CE, and according to a

0:32:21.000 --> 0:32:24.960
<v Speaker 2>contemporary historian of the era, Flavius Josephus, the first mooning

0:32:25.000 --> 0:32:27.920
<v Speaker 2>took place just outside of the city when a Roman

0:32:27.960 --> 0:32:31.400
<v Speaker 2>soldier exposed his backside to a group of Jewish pilgrims

0:32:31.440 --> 0:32:35.440
<v Speaker 2>on their way to celebrate Passover. As Josephus puts it, quote,

0:32:35.520 --> 0:32:38.720
<v Speaker 2>the soldier pulled back his garment and, cowering down after

0:32:38.760 --> 0:32:41.800
<v Speaker 2>an indecent manner, turned his breach to the Jews and

0:32:41.840 --> 0:32:45.200
<v Speaker 2>spake such words as you might expect upon such a posture,

0:32:46.640 --> 0:32:49.959
<v Speaker 2>Or to put it another way, he farted, thank you

0:32:50.040 --> 0:32:50.280
<v Speaker 2>for that.

0:32:50.440 --> 0:32:54.520
<v Speaker 1>Clarify. Okay, So I'm going to skip to another one.

0:32:54.840 --> 0:32:57.360
<v Speaker 1>I know we've talked about the Wicked Bible before aka

0:32:57.400 --> 0:33:00.520
<v Speaker 1>the Sinner's Bible, and it's just a normal English printing

0:33:00.560 --> 0:33:03.680
<v Speaker 1>of the Christian Bible. This is from sixteen thirty one, except,

0:33:03.800 --> 0:33:06.120
<v Speaker 1>of course, it leaves out the word not from the

0:33:06.160 --> 0:33:10.360
<v Speaker 1>seventh Commandment, so instead of saying thou shalt not commit adultery,

0:33:10.640 --> 0:33:13.320
<v Speaker 1>it orders the readers to go out and have an affair.

0:33:13.560 --> 0:33:15.960
<v Speaker 2>Was this a typo situation or did the printers leave

0:33:16.000 --> 0:33:18.400
<v Speaker 2>out the non on purpose, like as a prank.

0:33:18.160 --> 0:33:20.320
<v Speaker 1>Or what was the origin of this? So there's this

0:33:20.520 --> 0:33:23.200
<v Speaker 1>long running rumor that the misprint was actually an act

0:33:23.240 --> 0:33:27.480
<v Speaker 1>of sabotage by a rival publisher, But today most experts

0:33:27.560 --> 0:33:29.840
<v Speaker 1>think it was just an honest mistake, not that it

0:33:29.880 --> 0:33:32.640
<v Speaker 1>made much difference to the two printers responsible for this.

0:33:32.880 --> 0:33:36.600
<v Speaker 1>Once King Charles found out about the Wicked Bible, he

0:33:36.760 --> 0:33:39.840
<v Speaker 1>ordered the printers to stand trial for sloppiness, and ultimately

0:33:39.960 --> 0:33:43.360
<v Speaker 1>he stripped them of their printing license. Now, one thousand

0:33:43.440 --> 0:33:46.120
<v Speaker 1>copies of the Bible were printed before the error was discovered,

0:33:46.280 --> 0:33:49.440
<v Speaker 1>but since most of them were destroyed by all these

0:33:49.480 --> 0:33:51.960
<v Speaker 1>scandalized readers, priests or whatever who wanted to get rid

0:33:52.000 --> 0:33:54.920
<v Speaker 1>of them, only about twenty copies are known to exist today.

0:33:55.120 --> 0:33:57.800
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right, well here's a quick one I found.

0:33:57.800 --> 0:34:01.440
<v Speaker 2>So back in thirteen twenty five, raine short lived conflict

0:34:01.480 --> 0:34:05.640
<v Speaker 2>broke out between the Italian city states of Bologna and Modena,

0:34:05.680 --> 0:34:08.359
<v Speaker 2>and it was called the War of the Bucket. Now,

0:34:08.400 --> 0:34:11.480
<v Speaker 2>trouble had been brewing between the two cities for centuries,

0:34:11.560 --> 0:34:14.239
<v Speaker 2>but the thing that supposedly tip them over into this

0:34:14.400 --> 0:34:18.560
<v Speaker 2>all out war was the theft of an old wooden bucket.

0:34:18.600 --> 0:34:20.440
<v Speaker 2>I mean, buckets are very handy, so you could see

0:34:20.440 --> 0:34:23.840
<v Speaker 2>the other night frustrate someone. But apparently a group of

0:34:23.960 --> 0:34:27.960
<v Speaker 2>Modanese soldiers sneaked into Bologna one night, they noticed this

0:34:28.160 --> 0:34:31.080
<v Speaker 2>random bucket at a public well, and they decided to

0:34:31.160 --> 0:34:34.320
<v Speaker 2>take it with them, So you know, the spoils of victory,

0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:37.040
<v Speaker 2>I guess. And of course someone noticed the missing bucket

0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:39.480
<v Speaker 2>the next morning and was able to quickly suss out

0:34:39.520 --> 0:34:44.280
<v Speaker 2>who had stolen it. So Bolanese officials demanded this bucket

0:34:44.280 --> 0:34:48.120
<v Speaker 2>be returned, and even when the Modanese refused to oblige,

0:34:48.280 --> 0:34:51.080
<v Speaker 2>Bologna declared war on its longtime rival.

0:34:52.080 --> 0:34:55.520
<v Speaker 1>I feel like that has got to be some bucket, right.

0:34:56.719 --> 0:34:59.480
<v Speaker 2>I definitely hope so, because although the war only lasted

0:34:59.520 --> 0:35:02.840
<v Speaker 2>a few months, it's estimated that roughly two thousand people

0:35:02.960 --> 0:35:04.000
<v Speaker 2>die between.

0:35:03.680 --> 0:35:05.960
<v Speaker 1>The two sides. Oh my god, a few months. So

0:35:05.960 --> 0:35:09.320
<v Speaker 1>how did Bologna get this bucket back? They did not.

0:35:09.560 --> 0:35:12.560
<v Speaker 2>They wound up surrendering, and just to add insult to injury,

0:35:12.960 --> 0:35:16.120
<v Speaker 2>the Modinese were said to have stolen a second bucket

0:35:16.160 --> 0:35:17.400
<v Speaker 2>on their way back home.

0:35:20.440 --> 0:35:23.040
<v Speaker 1>So we've talked about some pretty silly fluffs today, but

0:35:23.120 --> 0:35:25.279
<v Speaker 1>I think this fact might be the most embarrassing yet.

0:35:25.320 --> 0:35:28.759
<v Speaker 1>According to a biography of Greek philosophers, there was a

0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:32.880
<v Speaker 1>stoic philosopher named Crispus, and this is in the second

0:35:32.880 --> 0:35:37.640
<v Speaker 1>century BCE. He apparently laughed himself to death while watching

0:35:37.640 --> 0:35:44.839
<v Speaker 1>a donkey eat figs. Okay, so apparently this happened during

0:35:44.880 --> 0:35:48.120
<v Speaker 1>the one hundred and forty third Olympiad. Chrysippus was just

0:35:48.160 --> 0:35:50.920
<v Speaker 1>hanging out watching the games when he noticed that his

0:35:51.040 --> 0:35:53.920
<v Speaker 1>donkey had started helping himself to some figs, and he

0:35:54.000 --> 0:35:56.480
<v Speaker 1>thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever seen, so he

0:35:56.520 --> 0:35:58.880
<v Speaker 1>cries out, now give the ass some pure wine to

0:35:59.040 --> 0:36:03.000
<v Speaker 1>wash down his fig and then, according to Diogenes, he

0:36:03.160 --> 0:36:08.120
<v Speaker 1>laughed so violently that he died. Wait, so this.

0:36:08.080 --> 0:36:11.480
<v Speaker 2>Guy got presumably very drunk at the Olympics and then

0:36:11.760 --> 0:36:13.919
<v Speaker 2>died laughing at his own dad joke.

0:36:14.040 --> 0:36:14.880
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like that.

0:36:15.440 --> 0:36:17.600
<v Speaker 2>Are we sure this guy was a stoic, because that

0:36:17.680 --> 0:36:19.440
<v Speaker 2>does not sound very stoic to me.

0:36:20.160 --> 0:36:22.080
<v Speaker 1>I think his real mistake was not giving a close

0:36:22.160 --> 0:36:25.280
<v Speaker 1>enough watch on his fig supply, because the easiest way

0:36:25.360 --> 0:36:28.759
<v Speaker 1>to prevent death by laughing at watching a fig eating

0:36:28.800 --> 0:36:31.040
<v Speaker 1>donkey is to never give your donkey figs in the

0:36:31.080 --> 0:36:31.600
<v Speaker 1>first place.

0:36:31.760 --> 0:36:35.080
<v Speaker 2>A truer words were never said, Mango, I think you

0:36:35.120 --> 0:36:37.680
<v Speaker 2>deserve the trophy this week for imparting that bit of wisdom.

0:36:37.680 --> 0:36:39.239
<v Speaker 2>You built it up like it was going to be

0:36:39.280 --> 0:36:42.759
<v Speaker 2>a great fact and it delivered. So congratulations, you win

0:36:42.800 --> 0:36:43.720
<v Speaker 2>the trophy this week.

0:36:44.360 --> 0:36:46.279
<v Speaker 1>Well that's going to do it for a part time

0:36:46.320 --> 0:36:50.600
<v Speaker 1>Genius from myself, Will, Marry, Gabe and Dylan. Thank you

0:36:50.719 --> 0:36:53.160
<v Speaker 1>so much for listening. We'll be back next week with

0:36:53.360 --> 0:36:56.319
<v Speaker 1>and other brand new episodes, so please tune back in

0:37:09.920 --> 0:37:13.160
<v Speaker 1>Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

0:37:13.719 --> 0:37:17.120
<v Speaker 1>This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me Mongish

0:37:17.160 --> 0:37:21.040
<v Speaker 1>Heatikler and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy.

0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:25.000
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan

0:37:25.080 --> 0:37:28.719
<v Speaker 1>Fagan with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive

0:37:28.760 --> 0:37:32.319
<v Speaker 1>produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with

0:37:32.400 --> 0:37:36.160
<v Speaker 1>social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts and

0:37:36.280 --> 0:37:41.000
<v Speaker 1>Viny Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit

0:37:41.040 --> 0:37:44.920
<v Speaker 1>the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to

0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:58.800
<v Speaker 1>your favorite shows.