WEBVTT - The Monstrefact Omnibus: Creatures of Myth and Legend 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.439 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.560 Hi everyone, this is Robert Lamb. We are skipping listener 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.680 mail this week, which normally publishes in this space, in 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.400 order to build up our reserves, so keep those emails coming. Instead, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.520 we're presenting a special Monster Fact omnibus episode for you 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.319 this week that collect six previously published entries in a 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.080 single episode. I know some of you prefer to listen 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.680 to these short form episodes in this format, so I'm 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.159 going to continue to try and roll these out periodically 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.600 over the course of the year, generally when I've built 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.720 up enough to fit a particular theme. But this one 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.520 is kind of a grab bag, so without further ado, 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.599 let's jump right in. First of all, we will consider 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.800 the Mummy in this episode. I like to discuss one 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.720 of the classic monster icons of twentieth century heart cinema, 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.959 the Undead Mummy. You've all encountered some variation on this 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.319 monster before, if not in the original six part Universal 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.800 Pictures Mummy franchised, then perhaps in nineteen eighty seven's The 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.160 Monster Squad or nineteen nineties Tales from the Dark Side, 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.920 the movie, which has a very memorable adaptation of Sir 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.440 Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot two forty nine, which I'll touch 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.720 on again in a bit. For my own part, I 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.800 fondly remember reading a pair of kids books from the 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.959 late eighties and nineties when I was a child, by 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.800 Alita E. Young, Terror in the Tomb of Death and 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.640 Return to the Tomb of Death, both of which featured 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:44.440 undead mummies and ancient Egyptian curses. Now, to properly understand 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.960 mummy horror fiction in general, we have to recognize its 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:53.080 place within the larger world of Egyptomania. The term Egyptomania 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.040 is more often used to refer specifically to nineteenth century 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.240 European fascination with all things Egypt in the way of 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.919 Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, but it can also generally be leveled 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.000 at different points in time when various cultures have pursued 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:11.560 an interest in ancient Egyptian civilization and culture. In the 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:17.519 excellent book Egyptomania, author Ronald H. Fritz discusses various forms 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.120 of Egyptomania over the ages, from the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.600 and Romans to Europeans and afrocentrist movements. He also devotes 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.320 a chapter to Hollywood movies and literature. He writes that 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.400 Egyptian themed fiction in its current forms emerged during the 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.800 nineteenth century, again after Napoleon's campaign in Egypt inspired a 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.680 new surge in European Egyptomania, surplanting Egypt's smaller place in 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.639 the European culture of the time period, where it was 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.720 mostly relegated to its role in Shakespearean theatre, freemasonry, and 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:55.239 sporadic fictional treatments. Fritz writes that Egyptian themed fiction basically 0:02:55.280 --> 0:03:00.440 falls into a number of subgenres theirs historical fiction, biblical fis, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.280 mysteries and thrillers, occult fiction, and yes, there is the 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.800 Mummy fiction. But where does the idea of undead mummified 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.800 ancient Egyptians come from in all of this? Well, the 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.280 nineteen thirty two universal horror movie The Mummy might seem 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.119 like a good place to start, after all, it kicked 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.040 off a rather influential franchise, but Fritz shares that early 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.880 versions of the script didn't feature an undead mummy at all. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.919 This element was only added later in subsequent rewrites. Unlike 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:33.000 Dracula and Frankenstein, the Mummy franchise was not rooted in 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.200 a particular work of literature, though there are clear literary 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.280 forbears nineteen thirty twos, The Mummy wasn't even the first 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.840 mummy motion picture. Consider instead that the likes of nineteen 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.840 eleven's The Mummy, in which a scientist revives an Egyptian 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.240 mummy with electricity and then falls in love with her 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.920 sadly lost, is just one of a flurry of silent 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:01.560 mummy movies from the nineteen tens. As for literary sources, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.040 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories The Ring of Thoth 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.480 eighteen ninety and Lot Number two forty nine in eighteen 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.400 ninety two are important to note, as is Brahm Stoker's 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.320 The Jewel of the Seven Stars from nineteen oh three. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.680 Fritz singles out The Mummy or a Tale of the 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:23.080 twenty second Century by Jane C. Loudum from eighteen twenty 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.720 seven as the earliest long work concerning a reanimated mummy. 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.880 Other early examples of reanimated mummy stories include Theophile Gottner's 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.160 The Mummy's Foot and Edgar Allen Poe's eighteen forty five 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.760 story Some Words with a Mummy. These stories, according to 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.640 Fritz arise in general, again out of nineteenth century Egyptomania, 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.200 but also out of European and American fascination with mummies 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:52.880 and mummy unwrapping parties. In particular, he also writes that 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.440 we can't underestimate Victorian colonial guilt and misgivings about the 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.000 desecration of Egyptian tombs and artifacts as a strong motivation 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.480 for summoning so many tales in which over eager American 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:10.240 and European archaeologists on Earth ancient tombs, ancient curses and 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.920 invoked the wrath of the Untead. In fact, he points 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.760 out that initially mummy stories cast archaeologists firmly in the 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.919 role of villains, but then the needle moved in the 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.800 opposite direction quote after the discovery of Tutenkammen's tomb nineteen 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.719 twenty two. Thanks to the film industry, archaeologists were portrayed 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:34.400 as heroic, scholarly adventurers, while angry mummies were not avengers 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.680 but the revived, corporeal forms of a mindless ancient evil. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.320 This shift is in effect an affirmation or vindication of 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:48.680 imperialism and colonialism. On top of all of this, there's, 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.880 of course, the influence of pre existing tales of cursed 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.479 objects and the unsettled dead, which would have found new 0:05:55.560 --> 0:06:01.200 life in Egyptomania fueled creations. These very elements all would 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.120 seem to have contributed to the undead Mummy's place in 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:11.440 our horror fiction. All right, Next, let's consider the curious 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:18.320 relationship between knots and monsters. Yesterday's core episode of Stuff 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.279 to Blow Your Mind concerned the fabled rat King, in 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.320 which it is said the tales of rats become intertwined 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.479 and knotted, a dire omen of impending doom. But what 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.960 about elsewhere in the natural and unnatural worlds? To begin with, 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:37.360 folklore is rife with magical knots, is Cyrus l. Day 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.200 pointed out in Knots and Not Lore back in nineteen fifty. 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.280 Just as the use of knots extends back through prehistoric 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.720 human times, so too does the idea that we might 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:52.080 work magic with the various intricate knots that we tie. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:57.440 They observe that ancient people's attempted to control the weather, biology, reproduction, death, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:02.279 and various supernatural entities via the working of knots not 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:06.760 magic was sometimes maleficent and other times beneficial. It could 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.040 be an intentional magical effect, or something invoked by accident. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.680 It might be said to work at close range, across 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:17.600 vast distances and across various stretches of time. After all, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.720 what is the knot but the joining and the binding 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.120 of things, the creation of something, the creation of a 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.160 new complexity in the process. And of course the topic 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.720 is closely aligned with all manner of fabric arts and 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.800 even hair braids. As not so easily become the subject 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.960 of magical thinking, they inevitably touch the world of monsters. 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.760 Among the many anti vampire traditions we find the notion 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.760 that one may leave a complex array of knots out 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.440 for the creature, which will then occupy its time trying 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.640 to unravel them and figure them out till the sun 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.960 rises once again. There are also other related tactics that 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.360 don't involve knots at all, such as leaving out poppy 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.280 seeds that the vampire will feel compelled to count. Vitural 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:05.480 complexity overpowers the undead senses, it would seem, but as 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.880 with the fabled rat king, there are also some myths 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.720 and legends of knotted creatures. The account of Heracles and 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.520 Coccus is notable. While in some depictions Coccus is merely 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.800 presented as a fire breathing giant, or even just a 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.520 large muscular man that Heracles wrestles, other times he is 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.680 described as a sort of giant spider, except with three 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.440 fire breathing human heads atop a long neck. In order 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.560 to slay the monster, Heracles ties its neck in a knot. 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:38.600 Dragon iconography often involves knots, as does serpentine iconography, and 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.320 the knotting of tail or neck may be presented as 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.360 a means of defeating the creature or as a self 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.880 coiling behavior. In the natural world, climbing snakes have been 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.920 observed to use lasso locomotion to scale trees and poles 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.120 in search of prey, a configuration that indeed appears to 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.520 be a simple knot. Elsewhere, hagfish, when agitated, will twist 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.560 themselves into a traveling overhand knot to squeeze off excess slime. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.760 All right, now, it is time to consider the salamander. 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.600 As mentioned in yesterday's Core episode The Nature of Diamonds, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.560 Part One, I'd like to discuss the fantastic salamander in 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.760 today's Monster Fact Now Dungeons and Dragons players have long 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.239 noticed the startling difference between salamanders of the natural world 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.640 and salamanders as they appear in the D and D 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.960 Monster Manual, where they are described as flaming snakes and 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.640 snake like beings that quote slither across the sea of 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:44.079 ash on the elemental plane of fire. Meanwhile, real life 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.960 salamanders are quite remarkable but are decidedly not on fire. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.000 Ancient and medieval bestieries are full of strange and often 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.480 fiery tales of the salamander. I turned to the writings 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.800 of Fulk historian Carol Rose in her book Monsters, Giants 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:03.280 and Dragons, as well as poorge Luis Borges the Book 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.800 of Imaginary Beings to piece together the different attributed features 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.520 of the mythic salamander. The creature pops up in various 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.679 works from the ancient Greco Roman world, most notably the 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.000 writings of Roman historian Plenty the Elder in seventy seven CE. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.760 He describes the salamander as a monstrous lizard that poisons 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.679 anything it touches, known to live on the slopes of 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.480 volcanoes as well as within the heart of a fire 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.439 as borhes points out, Plenty highlights the creature's natural coldness 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.800 as a reason for this. It's so cold it simply 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.920 resists the fire and even extinguishes it. But Plenty also 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.079 writes of another creature, the pyrosta, that lives within the 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.319 copper smelting furnaces of Cyprus, and the creature, he says, 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.480 dies if they leave the flames. Borhes points out that 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.319 the later traditions would take these attributes and apply them 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.960 to the salamander. It's also worth noting, though, that as 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.240 a creature of fire, the mythic salamander was, by some standards, 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:12.480 a necessary part of classical elemental theory. If earth, water, air, 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.959 and fire are the prime building blocks of nature, then 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.679 there have to be animals of each element, and that 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:23.959 includes creatures of fire. As we discussed in yesterday's episode, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:29.160 sixteenth century Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini claimed in his autobiography 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.640 to have seen a salamander in the fire as a child. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.599 As Matt Simon discussed in a twenty fourteen article for 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.960 Wired Magazine, Fantastically Wrong, the legend of the homicidal fire 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.520 Bruce salamander. This common bit of lare likely came about 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:48.000 as ancient people occasionally threw damp logs on their fires, 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.760 damp logs that may have had tiny, unfortunate salamanders clinging 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.319 to their underside. But as Borges stressed, the notion of 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.960 a creature that lives in fire was a theologically useful 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.080 bit of lore as well. Saint Augustine, in his fifth 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.600 century CE work The City of God, used the salamander 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.319 as proof that fiery living torment in the afterlife was 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.439 not that far fetched, a notion. Bor Has notes that 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.520 the mythical phoenix, another mythical creature of fire, was often 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.520 cited by theologians to support the idea of a bodily resurrection. 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.280 During the Middle Ages, salamanders continued to tear it up. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.600 In the bestiaries. Writers of the day described their abilities 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.280 to poison the fruit of trees, they entwined, to stop 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.560 up the mouths of lions, and of course, extinguish fires. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:40.079 The creature also became associated with fibrous minerals classified today 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:44.240 as asbestos, which are highly fire resistant. Of course, natural 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.679 salamanders do not live in or tolerate fire any more 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.080 than the rest of the animal kingdom. In fact, they 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.520 are decidedly moist creatures. The truth of experience and experimentation 0:12:55.040 --> 0:13:00.120 easily extinguished the fantastic idea of a literal salamander of 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:05.559 the flames, but the creature lived on in heraldry, alchemical symbolism, 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:14.880 and of course fantasy. For this next one, let us 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:21.800 consider the horror of the one who drills. In this episode, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.000 I'd like to turn to the traditions of the Inuit, 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.480 specifically the Inuit of the eastern Hudson Bay region of 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.720 what is now Canada. In the Dictionary of Native American Mythology, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.920 Sam D. Gill and Irene F. Sullivan relate the story 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:40.000 of a pair of killers. In other tellings, monsters who 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:45.280 terrorized the people. Ikutuyuk, whose name means one who drills 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.640 and his brother would capture people, pin them down on 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.640 their backs, and then murder them by drilling holes in 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.120 their bodies. Afterwards, they would cover a corpse with piles 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:59.119 of rocks like kerns or to the Inuit in nuksuk 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.840 in Nuxiok, were largely used to aid navigation, but were 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.680 sometimes used as warnings of dangerous grounds. According to the myth, 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.120 the brothers continued their horrible crimes until a two Nit 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.280 set out to stop them. The Tunit were a legendary 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.600 people said to live long ago, possibly connected to an 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:22.080 actual Paleo Eskimo culture. They were tall giants even and 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:26.480 possessed a fierce energy and competition. Gill and Sullivans share 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:29.040 that tu Nit were said to die of exhaustion from 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.680 fierce competitions and feats of hunting and archery, And so 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.760 one brave Tunit took it on himself to rid the 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.760 people of the Kutuyuk and his brother. He challenged Akutuyuk 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.640 to a fight, and they battled while tied together with 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.160 a rope. The Canadian Museum of History features a nineteen 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:52.640 sixty carving by Inuit artist Issa Kupirowala a la Usa 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.720 depicting the back, which you can view on their website. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.480 In the end, the Tunit heroes succeeded in killing a 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.840 kudu Yuk, and the remaining brother fled into the wilderness. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.080 The story of a kudu Yuk was also related by 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.760 Inuit author Jonasi Kuinurayak, who lived eighteen ninety five through 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.480 nineteen sixty four. Now you might wonder what manner of 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.640 drill this monstrous killer would have used. The Inuit traditionally 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.880 made use of the pump drill, an ancient hand powered 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.760 tool used in fire making as well as for drilling 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.240 small holes and objects for jewelry and the like. It's 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.520 a simple hand powered flywheel tool. The craftsperson revolves the 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.840 drill shaft by vertically working a bow or bar carrying 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.640 a cord attached at the center to the upper end 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.080 of the shaft. I realize this is hard to picture, 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.320 so I recommend looking up an image or video. Materially, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.840 the pump typically involves some combination of wood, ivory, rawhide, 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.720 metal stone, sometimes jadite. According to the Pin Museum, there's 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.520 also the Inuit mouth drill. This was essentially a small 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.480 bow drill used for firing making, and the user would 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.640 brace the tool and provide downward pressure with the head 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.120 via a mouth or chin block. Now to be clear, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.200 neither of these tools was a weapon. But according to 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.520 Robert Fortune in his nineteen eighty five article Lancets of 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.320 Stone Traditional Methods of surgery among the Alaska Natives, there 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.600 is reason to believe that dental drilling may have been 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.160 practiced to alleviate tooth pain, and that cranial drilling may 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.120 also have been practiced in some cases for either medical 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.000 or magico religious purposes, known as trepanation. This practice is 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.200 found in cultures around the world dating back to prehistoric times, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.640 with some rare modern proponents of the procedure as well. 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.680 So one can imagine how the idea of murderous drillers 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.440 might have emerged in Inuit mythology and storytelling based on 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.360 everyday technology and or painful surgical procedures that had been 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.920 experienced or witnessed, though the possibility of actual isolated drill 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:01.040 based torture is I suppose not impossible across one reference 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.320 to isolated drill marks on Inuit remains a nineteen ninety 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.280 three article by Melby in Fairgrief titled a Massacre and 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.600 Possible Cannibalism in the Canadian Arctic, but the consensus would 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.240 seem to be that the evidence in question suggested a 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.000 mortuary practice, with drill holes being just one of the 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.240 classifications of cuts found to the bone. Ykudu Yuk and 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.760 his brother are haunting figures to consider, and yet another 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:30.480 fascinating aspect of Inuit culture. Ah, what is that in 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.400 the night sky? Why it's the moon? Rabbit? Let's find 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:39.800 out more. In celebration of the lunar New Year, I 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:41.879 thought today would be a great time to consider the 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.720 lunar rabbit. Now, exactly what you see in the dark 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.560 splotches of the full moon will depend on your individual 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.480 and or cultural priming. You may see a face, a 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.320 man with a cane or a fork, a frog or toad, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.200 or some other animal reel or imagine. But the rabbit 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.320 has been a popular choice since time out of mind, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.960 and why not. Indigenous rabbit or hair species exist on 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.600 every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The rabbit also boaths 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.840 a great deal of character, inspiring numerous and varied tales 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.760 that detail just how that rabbit made it to the Moon, 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.040 or from the Moon to the Earth in the first place. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.480 Author Randolph S. Albright recounts several of these in his 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.880 twenty twenty book House of the Three Rabbits. According to Albright, 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.680 the Yoruba people of Nigeria and the Woloff people of 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.080 Senegal recount legends of a rabbit sent down from the 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.720 Moon with the secret of immortality, but the rabbit got 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.000 the message backwards or mangoled in one form or another, 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:53.840 and instead bestowed mortality upon human beings. Oops the moon 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.200 punished the rabbit by splitting its nose and forcing it 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:02.240 to accompany each dying mortal into the afterlife. The Siberian 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:07.240 moon goddess kaltez Uku sometimes takes the form of a rabbit. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.680 The Mayan moon goddess Ixceel often carries a rabbit. The 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.359 Cree people of North America tell of a rabbit who 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.600 traveled up to the moon with the help of a 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.879 passing crane, and the Celtic goddess Ostra took on the 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.800 form of a hare during the full moon. In Buddhist teachings, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.560 Albright shares the rabbit's image appears on the moon because 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:32.760 the rabbit offered up its own body to feed a 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.320 starving beggar who was actually Sacra, lord of Davas in disguise. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.960 The Aztecs told a similar tale concerning the god Quetzalkotl. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.080 As Victoria Dickinson explores in her book Rabbit from the 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.520 Excellent Rakotan Animals series, the Aztecs associated the rabbit with 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.240 drunkenness as well as the moon, and held that the 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.840 rabbit must first pass through fire on its way to 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.800 the lunar surface, and of course, the luner rabbit has 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.159 an important place in many East Asian traditions, often as 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:08.159 a lunar zodiac animal, and Chinese traditions invoke the creature 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.080 in the myth of Chenga. We discussed various versions of 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.200 this myth in great detail in our stuffed to Bow 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.200 your Mind episode Chinese Mortality, which you can find in 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.600 our archives. But the simple version is as follows. The 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.120 hero Ye the archer, receives the elixir of immortality from 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.840 the Queen Mother of the West, and then, while her 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.040 reasoning varies depending on the telling. Sometimes it's to protect 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.280 the potion from theft by an enemy, Yi's wife Changa 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.040 drank it instead and was instantly transported to the moon. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.560 In some earlier tellings, she is then transformed into a 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.000 toad who pounds the elixir of immortality there, and it's 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.480 of course the very toad we might see when we 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.919 gaze up at the full moon. Other times, and certainly 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.399 in later tellings, she retains her human form and is 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.480 accompanied by the jade rabbit, who pounds the elixir of 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.640 immortality instead. Thus we see the rabbit on the moon. 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:06.240 Dickinson writes quote to Chinese alchemists, the pale jade moon 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.160 rabbit embodied the yin or female principle that was associated 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.520 with the moon, not only in Asia, but in the West, 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.280 where the moon is often referred to as feminine. She 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.560 also pointed out that in Japanese traditions, the rabbit doesn't 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.240 pound the elixir of immortality, but instead pounds the rice 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:40.879 that will be used in lunar new year mochikekes. And finally, 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.720 let's consider the multi armed, multi headed madness of the Hekatonkis. 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.159 And the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.879 heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.280 more than before, and they all both male and female, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:02.239 stirred up hated battle. That the Titan gods and all 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.119 that were born of Kronos, together with those dread mighty 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.280 ones of overwhelming strength, whom Zeus brought up to the 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:11.760 light from Erebus beneath the earth, one hundred arms sprang 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.679 from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.800 heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These then 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.439 stood against the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.560 in their strong hands. These are the words of Hesiod 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:31.480 from his eighth century BCE text Theogony here in translation 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.159 by Evelyn White, describing the one hundred handed warriors, the 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:41.359 Hecatonkyries of Greek mythology. Naturally, the poet Hesiod compiled various 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:43.800 tellings and traditions in his poetry, and in doing so 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:48.520 solidified a number of characters, relationships, and tales concerning the 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.119 Greek pantheon of deities. So what we read here is 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.639 effectively the most popular understanding of the Hecatonkyres. They were 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.680 a very ancient race of multi headed and multi handed giants, 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:03.800 and they stood among the various children of the primordial 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:09.080 sky god Urunas. But Uruanas hated these monstrosities from the 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.760 first and imprisoned them, locking them away out of sight. Eventually, 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:19.600 Urunas's offspring, Cronos, rises against his father, overthrows him, but 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:24.200 seemingly keeps these earlier unsightly offspring locked away. It is 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:28.159 not until Zeus, the child of Cronos, rises up with 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:33.000 his fellow Olympian gods, rebels against the Titans. They free 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.320 and recruit the Hecatonkyries, as well as their kin, the Cyclopses, 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:43.080 into their ensuing war for control of the cosmos. This 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.920 was the Titanomachi, and Hesiod describes their role in its battles, 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:51.600 naming the three most prominent of the one hundred handed 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:57.720 warriors in surviving traditions, and amongst the foremost Cootus and Bryarias, 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:03.240 and guys insatiate for war, raised fierce, fighting three hundred 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:07.080 rocks one upon another. They launched from their strong hands 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.719 and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:14.400 beneath the wide pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains. 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.760 When they had conquered them by their strength, for all 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:21.280 their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus. 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:26.119 The Hecatonkyres, according to Hesiod, are much more than allies 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:28.960 of the gods. In their war against the Titans, the 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:33.760 Hecatonkreis strike the final blow. They chain the Titans. They 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.240 become the wardens of the Titans, and are quite ironically 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.480 imprisoned once more in the process. Now it should be 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:45.320 noted that in some traditions the Hecatonkyres may have fought 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:49.760 instead on the side of the Titans, and in some compilations, 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.080 such as Brewer's Dictionary, of phrase and fable. The authors 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:56.880 go so far as to describe individuals, specifically Bryarius as 0:24:56.960 --> 0:24:59.840 a titan, so it gets a bit confusing at times. 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:03.200 And I suppose that's how I have always felt about 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.080 the hecatonqures since I was a child and read about 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:11.280 them and various books. Somewhat confused because the morphologies of 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:14.399 so many other Greek monsters are just so well defined. 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:17.160 There's so many illustrations of them, and as a child, 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:19.920 you can draw them, you can roughly sketch them yourself, 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:22.960 and it's a lot of fun. But the hecatonqures always 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:26.119 seem to defy logic. Their name feels more like a 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:30.040 literary concept describing a force of nature as opposed to 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:33.119 a codified creature, and indeed this is often how they 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:37.639 are interpreted. They are difficult to envision or to reproduce visually, 0:25:38.240 --> 0:25:40.520 and certainly there are plenty of contemporary artists who have 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:43.240 had a lot of fun producing various, surreal and just 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:47.680 horrifying interpretations of the hecatonqures, but one is generally hard 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:51.679 pressed to find representations of these creatures in art history. 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:54.760 Now I invite correction on this front, because I would 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:57.080 very much love to see such images, to see like 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:01.720 classical illustrations, medieval illustrations and so forth of the hecatonqureis. 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:05.800 But my searches have generally come up well empty handed. 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:09.320 Perhaps we've simply lost ancient Greek depictions of these creatures. 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:12.600 I can only assume that they were too far removed 0:26:12.640 --> 0:26:16.080 from actual human physiology to interest many sculptors. You know, 0:26:16.200 --> 0:26:19.000