WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Baphomet, The Goat of Mendes

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

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<v Speaker 1>My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And

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<v Speaker 1>this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas

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<v Speaker 1>and monsters. In time, it's almost impossible to have not

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<v Speaker 1>seen the so called goat of Mendes or Baphomet or Baphomet,

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<v Speaker 1>whether on a T shirt for a metal band or

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<v Speaker 1>in movies such as the Night Hammer film The Devil

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<v Speaker 1>Rides Out. The most well known image of this monstrous

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<v Speaker 1>humanoid is the eighteen fifty six drawing in French occultist

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<v Speaker 1>Elaphus Levey's book Dogma and Ritual of High Magic. We

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<v Speaker 1>see a creature with the head and legs of a goat,

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<v Speaker 1>the torso of a woman, the wings of a bird,

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<v Speaker 1>and a lit torch emerging between his horns. It bears

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<v Speaker 1>a pentagram on its forehead and additional symbols illustrate its

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<v Speaker 1>body and environment. As with many examples of divine imagery,

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<v Speaker 1>the image of Baha May is highly symbolic and has

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<v Speaker 1>been incorporated into various occult traditions, subcultures, and new religious movements.

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<v Speaker 1>It is also highly suggestive of various traditions of hornet

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<v Speaker 1>gods in human history, such as pan in Greek tradition.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't have time to follow all of these threads

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<v Speaker 1>regarding the entity, but two major historical notes are of

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<v Speaker 1>special interest. The first concerns the trial of the Knights Templars,

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<v Speaker 1>and the other concerns the writings of Herodotus on the

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<v Speaker 1>religion of ancient Egypt. First, the Templars the Poor Knights

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<v Speaker 1>of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was the

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<v Speaker 1>religious military order of the Catholic Church during the Crusades,

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<v Speaker 1>which ran ten They were intended to serve as protectors

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<v Speaker 1>for pilgrims on their way to the Whole Lands, but

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<v Speaker 1>a sort of power creep occurred. They were given free

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<v Speaker 1>reign to move across borders, made exempt from taxes, and

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<v Speaker 1>ended up playing key military roles in various battles of

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<v Speaker 1>the Crusades. But even the non warriors of this order

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<v Speaker 1>became important, managing the movement of funds across vast distances

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<v Speaker 1>of the Crusades and setting up a kind of proto

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<v Speaker 1>banking system. They became powerful, and so they made powerful enemies.

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<v Speaker 1>As the Crusades failed, the Templars were blamed. Finally Fillip

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<v Speaker 1>the fourth of France, with the aid of Pope Clement

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<v Speaker 1>the Fifth, then based in France, the order was suppressed

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<v Speaker 1>and falsely accused on charges of blasphemy and heresy, among

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<v Speaker 1>other things. The charges included the notion that they worshiped

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<v Speaker 1>a severed head called bapho May. Some of the templars

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<v Speaker 1>were burned at the stake, fifty six in total, I believe,

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<v Speaker 1>including Grandmaster Jacques de Malay, and others were absorbed into

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<v Speaker 1>different militaries, etcetera. The name bappo May, sometimes pronounced Bafflement,

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<v Speaker 1>is generally understood to be a French corruption of the

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<v Speaker 1>name Muhammad. The monstrous templar god. Baphi May is a

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<v Speaker 1>product of trumped up charges that the Templars had converted

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<v Speaker 1>to the Islamic faith of their enemies, and the French

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<v Speaker 1>impapal accusers here invoke a fanciful and grotesque degradation of

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<v Speaker 1>Islam and a corruption of Islamic ideas. To make the

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<v Speaker 1>case to be clear, nowhere in Islamic tradition does one

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<v Speaker 1>find such a creature as this. As for the goat

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<v Speaker 1>of Mendis, this is the name given by Alaphus Leavey,

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<v Speaker 1>most likely referring to the writings of fifth century Greek

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<v Speaker 1>historian Herodotus, who wrote of supposed goat like deities and

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<v Speaker 1>reverence for actual goats in the region of Mendis, the

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<v Speaker 1>Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city Jeget, which is

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<v Speaker 1>now known as Tell El Ruba. Their ancient practices did

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<v Speaker 1>concern a hornet god, but it is often referred to

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<v Speaker 1>as a ram rather than a goat. The deity bey

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<v Speaker 1>neb Digit. To quote S. Birch's translation of Herodotus, Now,

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<v Speaker 1>the reason why those Egyptians whom I have mentioned do

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<v Speaker 1>not sacrifice goats, female or male, is this The Mendesians

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<v Speaker 1>count Pan to be one of the eight gods. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>those eight gods, they say, came into being before the

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<v Speaker 1>twelve gods, and the painters and image makers represent impainting

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<v Speaker 1>and sculpture the figure of Pan, just as the Hellenists

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<v Speaker 1>do with goat's face and legs, not supposing him to

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<v Speaker 1>be really like this, but to resemble the other gods.

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<v Speaker 1>The cause, however, why they represent him in this form,

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<v Speaker 1>I prefer not to say. The Mendesians then reverence all

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<v Speaker 1>goats and the males more than the females, and the

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<v Speaker 1>goatherds too have greater honor than either herdsmen. But of

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<v Speaker 1>the goats, one especially is reverenced, and when he dies

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<v Speaker 1>there is great mourning in the Mendesian district, and both

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<v Speaker 1>the goat and pan are called in the Egyptian tongue Mendies.

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<v Speaker 1>As Geraldine Pinch explains in her book Egyptian Mythology, the

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<v Speaker 1>word for ram bah and the word for soul or

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<v Speaker 1>manifestation sounded much the same in Egyptian, so they were

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<v Speaker 1>often regarded as manifestations of other deities such as Osiris,

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<v Speaker 1>though ben Ebjujet is also sometimes treated as an independent

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<v Speaker 1>deity as opposed to a manifestation. And just as goats

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<v Speaker 1>will be goats, rams will be rams, and their association

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<v Speaker 1>with virility seems to have colored traditions of an Ebjdette,

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<v Speaker 1>just as they colored traditions of Pan and others. Pinch

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<v Speaker 1>writes quote the sexual aspect of the cult at Mendi's

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<v Speaker 1>made it particularly disliked by early Christians. Ben Jiujette's form

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<v Speaker 1>as a ram or goat headed man was reinterpreted as

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<v Speaker 1>a devil figure who entered Western tradition as the horned

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<v Speaker 1>King of the Witches. It is curious that Baffa May,

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<v Speaker 1>the goat of Mendez, has become so closely associated with Satanism,

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<v Speaker 1>a d it dy that never quite existed, for theology

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<v Speaker 1>that likewise never quite existed either, but that hasn't stopped

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<v Speaker 1>the entity from taking on various meanings for assorted ideologies, subcultures,

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<v Speaker 1>and creative visions. Tune in for additional episodes of The

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<v Speaker 1>Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us

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<v Speaker 1>at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio.

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