WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Slayer 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:07.480 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.640 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:12.720 is Saturday. Time to go into the vault for a 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:14.960 classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This is 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:19.040 an old episode from an October maybe last October, right, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.880 it's October of last year. Okay, Well this was our 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.639 episode about the monster Slayer. Yeah. Yeah, So this one's 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.240 full of monsters and the heroes who slay them, and 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.600 we kind of tease apart what this means, what we 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.080 can take home from this, like what are the ultimately 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.120 like what are some of the religious um uh, you know, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.760 aspects of even the modern slasher story. I remember feeling 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.640 very very fondly about this one when we first did it. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.320 So we hope you enjoy this classic episode of Halloween 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:53.560 Stuff to Blow your Mind. Welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:53.600 --> 0:01:02.520 your Mind from how stopworks dot Com. Hey you welcome 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:04.440 to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.720 lamp and I'm Joe McCormick, and I want to tell 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:15.399 you a story about a monster slayer. Robert, are you game? Okay? So, 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.440 once upon a time in medieval Japan, there was a 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.960 warrior named Minamoto no Raiko, who was a daring swordsman, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.160 and he was famous everywhere for his bravery and his resolve. 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.440 And Raiko had in his service a companion named Watanabe 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.040 note Suna, who was also courageous, and he was a 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.520 formidable fighter in his own right, and he wielded a 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.600 bow and arrow and wore a suit of armor. And 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.160 one day, Raiko and Suna were traveling on the road 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.640 to kita Yama when they saw a skull floating in 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.360 the sky, flying in and out of the clouds above. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.760 Now Ricco and Sooner were curious how such a thing 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.000 could be, so they decided let's follow the skull, and 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.480 they followed the flying skull all the way to Kagaroka, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.920 where it led the to a crumbling old mansion from 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:07.000 ancient times. The decaying manner was surrounded by wild, overgrown 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:10.840 weeds and an old gate choked by vines. So Rico 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.920 ordered Souna to wait for him outside, and Rico entered 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.080 the mansion alone. As he approached the threshold, he started 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.160 to become aware of her presence. There was an old 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.320 woman lurking behind the door, and he called out, who 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.720 are you? She replied I've been living here for a 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.320 good long time. I am two hundred and ninety years old, 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.519 and have served in their turn nine lords of this house. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.959 And then Rico saw her. She was a horrible sight 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.880 to behold before the warrior's eyes. The old woman grasped 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.200 her own eyelids with a tool, and she flipped her 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.799 eyelids back over the top of her head like a hat. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.640 Then she pushed her mouth open with a large hairpin, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.280 and her lips became gigantic, and she took her lips 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.000 and she tied them around her own neck, and her 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.320 breasts began to sag down into her lap like rags. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.520 The old woman began to speak again. She said, Spring 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.000 comes and autumn goes, but my sad thoughts remained the same. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.480 Years begin an end, but my misery is eternal. This 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.320 place is a demon's den. No human dares passed through 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.519 our gates. My sorrowful youth has gone, but my old 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.400 self sadly remains. I lament that bush warbler's depart, and 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.160 swallows on the beam fly off. In her sorrow, the 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.720 wretched old woman begged Rycho to kill her with his 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.520 sword and put her out of her misery. Raiko could 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.240 see that the old woman was out of her mind, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.360 so he left her alone, and he instead decided to 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.520 go into the house to see what had happened and 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.320 solve the mystery of the flying skull and what was 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.200 afflicting this woman and making her think she lived in 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.920 a demon's den. So he went inside the house, and 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.960 outside the sky grew dark and fierce, and winds began 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.360 to blow. But Sooner waited loyally for his master, and 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.840 inside the house, Rycho began to hear the sounds of 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.520 footsteps echoing like the beat of a hand drum. Then 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.720 he saw a coterie of spirits and goblins coming into 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.040 the room with him, but the creatures didn't attack. Instead, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.040 they only danced around and then laughed at his fear 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.640 before passing out through another door. In their place, there 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.280 came into the room a tiny woman, no more than 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.840 three ft tall, but with a gigantic face more than 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.400 two thirds of her whole height, and she had thick, 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.680 heavy eyebrows, and when she opened her mouth, Rycho could 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.599 see that her front teeth were black. She wore a 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.560 purple hat and a red hakama with nothing underneath. Her 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.400 arms were so thin they were like strings, and her 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.680 skin was as pale as snowfall. Then that woman disappeared, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.440 and Raiko realized dawn was nearing. Almost as soon as 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.520 the strange woman had left, another woman came into the room. 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.120 This time the woman was graceful and calm, and so 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.279 beautiful that Reicho could barely believe his eyes. He thought 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.040 that this woman must be the true mistress of the 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.480 old house, finally coming out to welcome him, and her 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.640 eyes shone as bright as the reflection of a bonfire 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.160 and black lacquer. But when Rico was distracted by the 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.000 woman's beauty, she got the better of him. She lifted 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.640 up the hymn of her hakama, and from underneath it 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.880 she heaved at the swordsman some kind of material what 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.159 looks like balls of white cloud, and the balls of 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.159 white cloud blinded him. They got in his eyes, and 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.080 in a rage, Raiko drew his sword and he slashed 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.479 at the woman, but she evaporated into thin air. He 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.200 slashed so mightily that his sword passed through the floorboards 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.920 and cut a foundation stone, and the tip of the 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.080 blade broke off where the woman had been. There was 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.040 now nothing but a pool of white blood. On the floor, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.440 with a trail of more white blood leading off somewhere else. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.040 Riicho and soon had joined together again, and they followed 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.240 the trail of white blood out of the house and 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.039 up into the mountains, and finally to the mouth of 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.080 a dark cave out of which white blood was flowing 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.320 like a river. As soon as suggestion, the two of 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.000 them made an figi of ratan and vines in the 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.640 shape of a man, and they carried it before them 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.159 as they entered the cave. Inside the cave, they found 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.680 a gigantic monster in the form of a mountain spider, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.479 but nearly two hundred feet tall, and it wore a 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.720 brocade on its head. Its eyes were as bright as 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.120 the sun and the moon. The giant monster bellowed, what 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.560 has happened to my body? It is so painful. Then 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.400 the monster hurled something at them in the dark, and 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.360 the projectile hit the effigy that they carried in front 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.560 of them and knocked it down. Rico and Sona examined 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.640 the object that the monster had shot at them, and 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.120 they discovered that it was the broken tip of Rico's sword. 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.160 Together they took hold of the creature and they began 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.960 to drag it out of the cave, and the monster 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.080 put up a good fight, and it was a terrible monster, indeed, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.359 strong enough to move boulders with its legs. So Rico 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.320 said a prayer to the sun goddess Amaterasu and asked 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.120 her for aid with the fight. Rico and Sona pulled 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.240 and pulled, an Eventually the monster collapsed and fell belly 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.240 up on the earth without hesitation. Rycho drew his sword 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.920 and chopped off the monster's head. Sooner ran to slash 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.480 open the monster's belly, but found when he got there 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.520 that it had already been opened by a deep gash. 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.200 This was the wound Riicho had given it inside the 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.360 house when it was in the form of the woman, 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.440 and this proved that the giant spider truly was the 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.760 beautiful woman that he had seen. From the gash in 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.520 the giant Spider's belly, one thousand, nine hundred and ninety 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.560 heads tumbled out onto the ground. The warriors cut open 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.760 another part of the spider's body, and many smaller spider 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.880 monsters swarmed out, each about the size of a seven 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.280 or eight year old child. When the warriors looked further 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.000 in the stomach of the spider beast, they found twenty 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.600 human skulls. Knowing what had to be done, Riicho and 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.120 soon A dug a grave in the ground and buried 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.600 the twenty skulls and then burned the Giant Spider's din. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.720 When the Emperor heard what Rycho and Soona had done 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.720 in the eliminating this heinous monster that had been plaguing 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.240 the country, he gave them promotions and appointed them governors 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.520 of their own provinces. And this is the story of 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.960 Minamoto no Raiko and the Giant Spider. That is a 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.000 fabulous story. I love it, just like the the the 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:20.040 layers of the adventure and then just the the revelations 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.520 about the horrific monstrosity that they're faced with. I like 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.040 how it's weird and rambling, like it takes a long 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.640 time to get to the final form of the monster. 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.400 You don't really know where it's gonna go. It takes 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.640 you to a haunted house first. Uh. Something about that 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.880 feels both unusual and intuitive. Um so that they start 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:42.680 off seeing the skull, and I have to assume that 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.400 I guess the skull was some form of the monster. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.200 I don't know. But but also I like how in 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.040 a lot of the monster slayer stories you come across, 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.200 there's a more specific reason that the that the hero 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.240 must undergo the quest to slay the monster, they have 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.360 to like rescue a princess or something. This time, they're 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.760 just detectives investigating something weird that they saw, and it 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.480 eventually leads them into the monster's cave to kill it, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.000 which also ultimately kind of makes you feel bad for 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.720 the monster, Like it didn't even kidnap anybody they knew. 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.040 They just like made their way to it. Yeah, it 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.280 was it seems to be entirely recreational on their part. Yeah, well, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:20.960 I mean, I guess it kind of makes them like 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.160 some kind of roving police force almost in a way. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.880 Or maybe they just needed the experience points. I mean, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:33.040 that's that's true. So this giant spider story comes from 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.240 an early fourteenth century Japanese picture scroll called the Sushi 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.240 Gumo Sushi, and the version of the story that I 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.120 read is as translated by the scholar Dr Nariko t 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.400 writer who we've referenced on the show before, I think 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:51.880 in our episode about cuteness and monstrosity sense. Yeah, so 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:53.960 that so my version of the story I just told 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.360 was based on her translation of this fourteenth century scroll. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.440 And this is not the only legend about giant spiders 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.760 in early modern Japan. The sushi gumo or earth spider 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.400 was a common monster found in no plays and in 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.600 supernatural narratives in the following centuries. But there are also 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.600 other spider monsters, like the ushi on e, which was 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.640 sometimes described as like a giant spider with the head 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.920 of a bull, and it attacks fishermen at the water's edge. 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:23.960 And then there's also the juro gumo, which is the 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:27.480 literally the prostitute spider, and it's another sort of ghost 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.640 like creature that appears in the literature of the Ato period, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.640 shape shifting like the sushi gumo, between the forms of 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.280 a beautiful woman and a voracious arachneid, luring men to 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.840 their deaths. So a classic trope of of monsters appearing 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:47.760 as is desirable humans or even non human entities, of course, 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.880 and you see that too in in the Sushi Gumo 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.880 in the story where the spider monster appears as this 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.040 beautiful woman in the house and distracts the swordsman with 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.240 her beauty just long enough to throw clouds of white 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.440 matter in his eyes, who knows what that's supposed to be. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.520 I don't know if I guess it's the silk, right, Oh? Maybe, Yeah, 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.120 I don't know it's supposed to be said. I mean, 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.199 it's it's described as literally like clouds, so it's hard 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.120 to know exactly what it's referring to. It seems to 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.160 be some kind of magical substance. But yeah, So we're 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.840 doing something a little bit different today than we usually 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.240 do in our October episodes, where we love to focus 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.160 on monsters. Today we wanted to take a look at 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:29.520 the immortal enemy of our beloved monsters, the monster slayer. Yeah, 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.360 it's it's often an essential part of the story and 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:38.080 sometimes the thing sometimes they define define each other, right, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.959 Sometimes the monster is really the thing that defines the hero. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.200 Other times there's not a lot to say about the 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.400 monster itself except that a certain hero of note gave 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.040 it a good slaying at some point. Yeah, And it's 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.040 almost as deep and as old as the monster mythology itself, right, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.280 the oldest monster stories you can find when you go 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.040 back in time. Very often our monster or slayers stories, 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.120 there's a monster and there's a hero who must venture out, 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.720 often alone or with a faithful companion uh to face 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.040 the monster and destroy it. And the monster slayer archetype 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.960 is actually classed as a particular type of like you know, 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.200 myth archetype, the princess and the dragon type story, which 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.640 appears all over the world in different cultures. Uh. And 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.120 you know, and that's the very broad take. You know 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.840 that there's like a princess who's being held captive or 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.120 being threatened by some kind of monster, and a hero 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.760 must venture out with courage and face the monster. Though 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.320 of course, clearly not all the monsters in these types 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.680 of stories are dragons. And then there's just the bigger 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.080 myth architecture of whether or not there's a princess, there's 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:47.240 very often a slayer who must face down the beast. Right, 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.200 and and we're gonna we're gonna explore some different versions 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.280 of this where the beast has you know, varying degrees 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.560 of symbolic uh power. I guess you would say, uh 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:03.920 in other times less so. Uh. Again, it often comes 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.160 down to like why is why why is this hero 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.760 killing this monster? That's often the question, like what is 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.760 gained by this story? Uh? And in doing that you 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.960 have to look at what the monster represents what the 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.360 hero represents, and then there are certain complexities that seem 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.040 to come along just as storytelling evolves. Yeah. So another 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.080 one I wanted to focus on to go even much 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.080 deeper into history is the story of mar Duke the 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.160 Monster Slayer. Now mar Duke, of course, is an ancient 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.719 Near Eastern god, uh, and I want to I want 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:35.760 to focus on the story of mar Duke the Monster 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.959 Slayer as told from the Enema a Leash the ancient 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.960 Babylonian Epic of Creation, which of course is a great 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.640 story We've explored on the podcast before and I'm excited 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.839 to explore it again. So the general story, Robert, you 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.800 remember the outlines. You've got the primordial creators in the 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.559 Babylonian Epic, right, You've got Tiamat and Apsu, which represents 0:13:55.559 --> 0:14:00.240 salt water and freshwater respectively. They're these gods and also 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.800 kind of monster creatures. They're sort of dragon gods that 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.120 are also saltwater and freshwater, and they and they embody 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.800 a lot of natural might, a lot of are also 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:16.440 potentially chaotic might, right, Yeah. Yeah, they represent the sort 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.160 of chaos before the creation of the order of the 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.960 world today and what they do is uh the sweetwater 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.120 in the saltwater. Together, they create a race of gods, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.320 but end up finding those gods they've created unpleasant and loud, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.680 and eventually um the gods turn on their creators and 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:39.400 they slay Opsu, the sort of freshwater deity, and Tiamat, 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.080 the saltwater deity. She is enraged, and she tries to 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.840 make revenge on the gods for slaying Opsu, attacking them 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.600 in the form of a giant sea monster, a saltwater dragon, 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.200 and making a team of evil monsters to do wickedness 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.320 on her behalf and the gods. Of course, because of 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.240 her power, they're too afraid to go out and fight 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.200 Tiamat themselves, but eventually they convinced the storm god mar 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.320 Duke to go out himself and fight her on their behalf. So, 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.080 in exchange for risking his life in this fight, mar 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.200 Duke's what's in it for Marduke? Right? Mar Duke demands 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.160 that the gods make him their king, so he that 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.520 that's the deal, right, I'll go out and slay the 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.680 monster if you guys make me the boss, which sounds 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:26.480 like a good deal. You need a king, you want 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.080 one that's going to actually slay your monsters, right, So 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.360 mar Duke is armed with special weapons imbued with some 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.160 kind of storm power, a bow and arrow, a mace 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.000 and net. And then there are these powers of the 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.200 winds that he commands, including the winds of the cardinal 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.240 directions north, south, east, and west, but also these other 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.240 kinds of wind magic. Like there's one wind weapon he 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.120 has just called the Evil Wind. And I guess we're 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.720 supposed to imagine some sort of like cosmic fart here um. 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:58.000 The fart jokes do kind of present themselves at this point. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.840 So from here I think I will just read some 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.360 lines from the enemy aliash as the as translated by E. A. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.720 Spicer Robert. Would you like to read with me, of course? 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.320 Then the Lord raised up the Floodstorm, his mighty weapon. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:16.120 He mounted the storm chariot, irresistible and terrifying. He harnessed 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.800 and yoked it to a team of four, the Killer, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:23.440 the Relentless, the trampler, the swift sharp, where their poison 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.960 bearing teeth they were versed in ravage, skilled and destruction. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.600 On his right he posted the smider, fearsome in battle. 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.840 On the left, the combat which repels all the zealous. 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.040 His cloak was an armor of terror. His head was 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.960 turbaned with his fearsome halo. The Lord went forth and 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:47.040 followed his course. He set his face towards the raging Tiamat. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.520 He held a spell between his lips. A plant to 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.840 put out poison was grasp in his hand. And then 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.760 we'll skip a bit. Marduk approaches U and Tiamat's consort, Kingu. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.400 This monster Kingu and her allied gods and monsters become fearful, 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.960 and then Tiamat taunts Marduke, and then Marduke gives a 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.000 speech rebuking Tiamat and challenging her to single combat. And 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.280 then we'll pick up with the lines again. When Tiamat 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.440 heard this, she was like one possessed. She took leave 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.560 of her senses. In fury. Tiamat cried aloud to the 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.719 roots of her legs, shook both together. She recites a charm, 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.800 keeps casting her spell while the gods of battle sharpen 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.439 their weapons. Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of God's, then joined battle. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.680 They strove in single combat. Locked in conflict, the Lord 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.840 spread out his net to unfold her. He let loosen 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.879 her face the evil wind, which followed behind. When Tiamat 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.080 opened her mouth to consume him, he drove in the 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.320 evil wind, and she could not close her lips as 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.800 the fierce winds encumbered her belly. Her body was distended 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.920 and her mouth was wide open. He released an air. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.800 It tore her belly, It cut through her inside, splitting 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.359 her heart. Having subdued her, he blotted out her life. 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.840 He threw down her carcass and stood upon it. Oh, 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.560 you gotta stand on it. That's that's just uh, that's 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.360 absolutely necessary. Well, we've hit on this before, like the 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.080 they see that trope in both the Western and Eastern 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.040 art with a demon or devil or monster trampled beneath 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.600 the feet or sat upon as if it were thrown. 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.240 You know, it's still a thing when you see I mean, 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:32.520 I almost hate to bring this up because it makes 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.320 me mad whenever I see it. But like those like 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.000 Safari hunting pictures where people like shoot a lion or 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.240 something like that and then they're like standing there with 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.000 their foot on it. Yes I am not crazy about 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.399 that either, but they put their foot on it. It's 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.840 still a thing. It's like you are now earth. It's 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.840 it's like it's instinctive almost. I put my foot on 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.120 this thing to show I have beaten it. And then, 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.320 of course the next thing in this story, because it 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.679 becomes of course the epic of creation, is that mar 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.919 Duke makes the things in the earth out of Tiamat's 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.680 dead body. Ah. This is another thing we see time 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.600 and time again in different uh myths, the idea of 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.760 some primordial being being overcome and then their body being 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.399 repurposed in creation. Yeah, it is. It's an interesting repeating theme, 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.600 and I don't know. I wonder what that says, Like, 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.040 why do we have the the inherent suspicion that the 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.679 ground on which we walk was once a living being? 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:27.879 We should come back and doing a whole episode on 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.439 dead gods at some point. Oh absolutely. Now Here's another 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.080 thing I was thinking about, which is that in most 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:38.200 of these pre modern stories, the monster slayers always a dude. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.399 It's always male, not always. I want to get to 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.719 a counter example that I was able to find. And 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.959 it's also not uncommon for the monster that is getting 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.040 slain to be female. Think about the Sushi Gumo, the 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.359 woman in the house and slayed by the swordsman tim 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.520 At the female monster slayed by Marduke per Uh and 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.680 the Medusa. Yeah we can. We can discuss more about 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.119 what is meant by that in a bit. But I 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.520 was on the hunt for some good pre modern ancient 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.080 female monster slayers, and I think I found at least 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.960 one good example that that I turned up sort of 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.880 a pre Buffy Buffy if you will, right, Well, I mean, yeah, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.280 that's one of the many great things about Buffy. Of course, Yeah, 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.360 she's she's one of the greatest vampire slayers, monster slayers 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.320 of all time. But then she is a she has 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.680 a female, which you, as you pointed out, you don't 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.199 see a lot of in the ancient myth cycles. It's 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.040 a nice change up on the gender dynamics of that. Yeah. 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.119 But so another ancient Mesopotamian monster slayer would be in 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.119 an A, the Glorious in an A crusher of heads. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.600 In Anna was a Sumerian goddess also known as the 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.280 Accadian ishtar got us of many things. We we've mentioned 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.159 her on the podcast before, but you know, got us 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.399 of the storehouse and the products of agriculture, but also 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:54.639 it seems of fertility, sex, war and slaughter, and in 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.680 Anna is maybe my favorite ancient god or goddess due 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.000 to those awesome hymns in her praise written by the 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.040 priestess in Heduana. Perhaps the earliest known piece of writing 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.440 with a named author in Heduana was a twenty third 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.280 century b c. Mesopotamian high priestess and poet, the daughter 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.320 of the Accadian king Sargon the Great. And so she 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:20.520 wrote these hymns to Anna that are just spectacular to read. Um, 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:23.160 But okay, what kind of monster slang does Innanna do? Well? 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.400 The story here is more obscure, more complex, but it's 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:31.480 also interesting. It comes down to this Sumerian concept called kor. 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.040 And my source here is a couple of pieces by 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.919 the twentieth century ancient Neary scholar Samuel In Kramer. So 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.359 everything I'm saying here comes from Kramer. Kramer writes that 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.400 kur can be a really confusing word in ancient Sumerian 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.320 literature because of its many different meanings. First of all, 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.280 it seems to have a primary literal meaning of mountain, right, 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.440 so got coor the mountain. It's also used to mean 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.920 foreign land, presumably because the peoples of the mountains board 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.520 Ring Summer were a constant threat. But then Core also 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.919 appears to just mean land in general, like territory. Uh, 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.119 but also it has cosmic and religious connotations. So the 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.199 word Core is also used to signify the Great Below 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.679 or the nether world quote the empty space between the 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.920 Earth's crust and the prime evil Sea. And Kramer writes, 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.840