WEBVTT - The Slayer 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.119 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuffworks 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:14.600 dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.599 My name is Robert lamp and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:23.080 I want to tell you a story about a monster slayer. Robert, 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.400 are you game? Okay? So, once upon a time in 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.600 medieval Japan, there was a warrior named Minamoto no Ko 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.479 who was a daring swordsman, and he was famous everywhere 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.600 for his bravery and his resolve. And Raiko had in 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:43.400 his service a companion named Watanabe note Suna, who was 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.159 also courageous, and he was a formidable fighter in his 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.440 own right, and he wielded a bow and arrow and 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.600 wore a suit of armor. And one day Raiko and 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.200 Suna were traveling on the road to Kita Yama when 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.040 they saw a skull floating in the sky, flying in 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.440 and out of the clouds above. Now Rico and Sooner 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:03.720 were curious how such a thing could be, so they 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.160 decided let's follow the skull, and they followed the flying 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.080 skull all the way to Cagaroka, where it led them 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:15.160 to a crumbling old mansion from ancient times. The decaying 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.200 manner was surrounded by wild overgrown weeds and an old 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:23.040 gate choked by vines. So Rico ordered Souna to wait 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.800 for him outside, and Rico entered the mansion alone. As 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.840 he approached the threshold, he started to become aware of 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.160 a presence. There was an old woman lurking behind the door, 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.640 and he called out, who are you? She replied, I've 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.440 been living here for a good long time. I am 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.280 two hundred and ninety years old and have served in 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.759 their turn nine lords of this house. And then Rico 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.440 saw her. She was a horrible sight to behold before 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.960 the warrior's eyes. The old woman grasped her own eyelids 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.320 with a tool, and she flipped her eyelids back over 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.160 the top of her head like a hat. Then she 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.440 pushed her mouth open with a large hairpin, and her 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.560 lips became gigantic, and she took her lips and she 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.919 tied them around her own neck, and her breasts began 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.440 to sag down into her lap like rags. The old 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.040 woman began to speak again. She said, spring comes and 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.800 autumn goes, but my sad thoughts remained the same. Years 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.960 begin an end, but my misery is eternal. This place 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.880 is a demon's den. No human dares passed through our gates. 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:32.000 My sorrowful youth has gone, but my old self sadly remains. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.320 I lament that bush warbler's depart, and swallows on the 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.120 beam fly off. In her sorrow, the wretched old woman 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.519 begged Rycho to kill her with his sword and put 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:43.920 her out of her misery. Rycho could see that the 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:45.840 old woman was out of her mind, so he left 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.000 her alone, and he instead decided to go into the 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.400 house to see what had happened and solve the mystery 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.400 of the flying skull and what was afflicting this woman 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.960 and making her think she lived in a demon's den. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.000 So he went inside the house, and outside the sky 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.280 dark and fierce, and winds began to blow. But Sooner 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.639 waited loyally for his master, And inside the house, Rycho 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.440 began to hear the sounds of footsteps echoing like the 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.600 beat of a hand drum. Then he saw a coterie 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.639 of spirits and goblins coming into the room with him, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.320 but the creatures didn't attack. Instead, they only danced around 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.359 and then laughed at his fear before passing out through 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.600 another door. In their place, there came into the room 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.840 a tiny woman, no more than three ft tall, but 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.640 with a gigantic face more than two thirds of her 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.080 whole height. And she had thick, heavy eyebrows, and when 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.520 she opened her mouth, Rycho could see that her front 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.800 teeth were black. She wore a purple hat and a 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.600 red hakama with nothing underneath. Her arms were so thin 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.560 they were like strings, and her skin was as pale 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:53.320 as snowfall. Then that woman disappeared, and Raiko realized dawn 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.720 was nearing. Almost as soon as the strange woman had left, 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.720 another woman came into the room. This time the woman 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:03.680 was graceful and calm, and so beautiful that Rycho could 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.520 barely believe his eyes. He thought that this woman must 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.440 be the true mistress of the old house, finally coming 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.800 out to welcome him, and her eyes shone as bright 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.479 as the reflection of a bonfire and black lacquer. But 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.400 when Rico was distracted by the woman's beauty, she got 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.720 the better of him. She lifted up the hymn of 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.839 her hakama, and from underneath it she heaved at the 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.080 swordsman some kind of material what looks like balls of 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.560 white cloud, And the balls of white cloud blinded him. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.400 They got in his eyes, and in a rage, Raiko 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.880 drew his sword and he slashed at the woman, but 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.800 she evaporated into thin air. He slashed so mightily that 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.840 his sword passed through the floorboards and cut a foundation stone, 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.960 and the tip of the blade broke off where the 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.280 woman had been. There was now nothing but a pool 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.320 of white blood on the floor, with a trail of 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.800 more white blood leading off somewhere else. Raiko and soon 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.680 had joined together again, and they followed the trail of 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.280 white blood out of the house and up into the mountains, 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.320 and finally to the mouth of a dark cave, out 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.960 of which white blood was flowing like a river. As 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.400 soon as suggestion, the two of them made an effigy 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.760 of ratan and vines in the shape of a man, 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.760 and they carried it before them as they entered the cave. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.000 Inside the cave, they found a gigantic monster in the 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:25.480 form of a mountain spider, but nearly two hundred feet tall, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.839 and it wore a brocade on its head. Its eyes 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.320 were as bright as the sun and the moon. The 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.599 giant monster bellowed, what has happened to my body? It 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.480 is so painful. Then the monster hurled something at them 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.520 in the dark, and the projectile hit the effigy that 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.520 they carried in front of them and knocked it down. 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.880 Rico and Sona examined the object that the monster had 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.960 shot at them, and they discovered that it was the 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.159 broken tip of Rico's sword. Together, they took hold of 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.279 the creature and they began to drag it out of 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.039 the cave. And the monster put up a good fight, 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.680 and it was a terrible monster. Indeed, it's strong enough 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.719 to move boulders with its legs. So Rico said a 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.600 prayer to the sun goddess Amaterasu and asked her for 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.559 aid with the fight. Rico and Sooner pulled and pulled, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.599 and eventually the monster collapsed and fell belly up on 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:18.000 the earth without hesitation. Rico drew his sword and chopped 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.320 off the monster's head. Sooner ran to slash open the 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.960 monster's belly, but found when he got there that it 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.039 had already been opened by a deep gash. This was 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.880 the wound Richo had given it inside the house when 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:31.640 it was in the form of the woman, and this 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.320 proved that the giant spider truly was the beautiful woman 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.240 that he had seen from the gash in the giant 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.720 spider's belly, one thousand, nine hundred and ninety heads tumbled 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.200 out onto the ground. The warriors cut open another part 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.960 of the spider's body, and many smaller spider monsters swarmed out, 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.520 each about the size of a seven or eight year 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.000 old child. When the warriors looked further in the stomach 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.880 of the spider beast, they found twenty human skulls. Knowing 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.360 it had to be done, Riicho and soon a dug 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.160 a grave in the ground and buried the twenty skulls, 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.080 and then burned the giant spider's din. When the Emperor 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.640 heard what Richo and Suna had done in eliminating this 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.000 heinous monster that had been plaguing the country, he gave 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.560 them promotions and appointed them governors of their own provinces. 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.160 And this is the story of Minamoto no Riiko and 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.760 the Giant Spider. That is a fabulous story. I love it, 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.680 just like the the the layers of the adventure and 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:33.240 then just the the revelations about the horrific monstrosity that 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.920 they're faced with. I like how it's weird and rambling, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.120 like it takes a long time to get to the 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.760 final form of the monster. You don't really know where 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.000 it's gonna go. It takes you to a haunted house first. 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:50.720 Uh something about that feels both unusual and intuitive. Um 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:52.960 So that they start off seeing the skull, and I 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.080 have to assume that I guess the skull was some 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.560 form of the monster. I don't know. But but also 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.840 I like how in a lot of the monster slayer 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:05.280 stories you come across, there's a more specific reason that 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.080 the that the hero must undergo the quest to slay 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.160 the monster. They have to rescue a princess or something. Here, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.960 this time, they're just detectives investigating something weird that they saw, 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.120 and it eventually leads them into the monster's cave to 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.680 kill it, which also ultimately kind of makes you feel 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.280 bad for the monster, Like it didn't even kidnap anybody 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.960 they knew, They just like made their way to it. Yeah, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.280 it was. It seems to be entirely recreational on their part. Yeah. Well, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.000 I mean, I guess it kind of makes them like 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.160 some kind of roving police force almost in a way. 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:38.880 Or maybe they just needed the experience points. I mean, 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:43.880 that's that's true. Uh So, this giant spider story comes 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.760 from an early fourteenth century Japanese picture scroll called the 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.160 Sushi Gumo Soshi, and the version of the story that 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.000 I read is as translated by the scholar Dr. Nariko 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.200 t writer who we've referenced on the show before. I 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.920 think in our episode about cuteness and strocity. That make sense? 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.480 Uh yeah, so that so my version of the story 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.000 I just told was based on her translation of this 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.959 fourteenth century scroll. And this is not the only legend 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.680 about giant spiders in early modern Japan. The sushi gumo 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.240 or earth spider, was a common monster found in no 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:22.120 plays and in supernatural narratives in the following centuries. But 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.120 there are also other spider monsters like the ushi one, 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.360 which was sometimes described as like a giant spider with 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.960 the head of a bull, and it attacks fishermen at 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.360 the water's edge. And then there's also the juro gumo, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.720 which is the literally the prostitute spider, and it's another 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.679 sort of ghost like creature that appears in the literature 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.000 of the Ato period, shape shifting like the sushi gumo 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.480 between the forms of a beautiful woman and a voracious arachneid, 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.559 luring men to their deaths. So a classic trope of 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.240 of monsters appearing as is desirable humans or even non 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.040 human entities, of course, and you see that too in 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.400 in the Sushi Gumo in the story where the spider 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.360 monster appears as this beautiful woman in the house and 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.080 distracts the swordsman with her beauty just long enough to 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.520 throw clouds of white matter in his eyes. Who knows 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.240 what that's supposed to be. I don't know if I 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.839 guess it's the silk, right, Oh? Maybe? Yeah, I don't 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:18.680 know it's supposed to be said. I mean, it's it's 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.480 described as literally like clouds, so it's hard to know 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.319 exactly what it's referring to. It seems to be some 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.760 kind of magical substance. But yeah, So we're doing something 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.080 a little bit different today than we usually do in 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.040 our October episodes where we love to focus on monsters. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.040 Today we wanted to take a look at the immortal 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.800 enemy of our beloved monsters, the monster Slayer. Yeah, it's 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.160 it's often an essential part of the story and sometimes 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.080 the thing sometimes they define like define each other, right, 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.959 Sometimes the monster is really the thing that defines the hero. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.200 Other times there's not a lot to say about the 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.400 monster itself, except that a certain hero of note gave 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.040 it a good slaying at some point. Yeah, and it's 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.040 almost as deep and as old as the monster mythology itself. Right. 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.320 The oldest monster stories you can find when you go 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.320 back in time very often are monster slayers stories. There's 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.120 a monster, and there's a hero who must venture out, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.720 often alone or with a faithful companion, uh, to face 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.080 the monster and destroy it. And the monster slayer archetype 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.960 is actually classed as a particular type of like you know, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.680 myth archetype, the the princess and the dragon type story 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.160 which appears all over the world in different cultures. Uh. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.800 And and you know, and that that's the very broad take. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.000 You know, that there's like a princess who's being held 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.760 captive or being threatened by some kind of monster, and 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.080 a hero must venture out with courage and face the monster, 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.040 though of course clearly not all the monsters in these 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.240 types of stories are dragons. And then there's just the 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.840 bigger myth architecture of whether or not there's a princess, 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.400 there's very often a slayer who must face down the beast. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.200 And and we're gonna, we're gonna explore some different versions 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.280 of this where the beast has you know, varying degrees 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:09.280 of symbolic uh power. I guess you would say uh 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.920 in other times less so uh. Again, it often comes 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.160 down to like why is why? Why is this hero 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.800 killing this monster? That's often the question, like what is 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.760 gained by this story? Uh? And in doing that you 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.960 have to look at what the monster represents, what the 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.400 hero represents. And then there are certain complexities that seemed 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.040 to come along just as storytelling evolves. Yeah. So, another 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.080 one I wanted to focus on, to go even much 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.080 deeper into history is the story of mar Duke the 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.200 Monster Slayer. Now mar Duke, of course, is an ancient 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.719 Near Eastern god uh, and I want to I want 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:46.760 to focus on the story of mar Duke the Monster 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.960 Slayer as told from the Enema a Leash the ancient 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.960 Babylonian Epic of Creation, which of course is a great 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.640 story we've explored on the podcast before and I'm excited 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.959 to explore it again. So the general story, Robert, you're 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.800 remember the outlines. You've got the primordial creators in the 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.559 Babylonian epic, right, You've got Tiamat and Opsu, which represents 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:11.520 saltwater and freshwater respectively. They're these gods and also kind 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.120 of monster creatures. They're sort of dragon gods that are 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.280 also saltwater and freshwater, and they and they embody a 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.439 lot of natural might, a lot of are also potentially 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.600 chaotic might, right, yeah, yeah. They represent the sort of 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.480 chaos before the creation of the order of the world today. 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.760 And what they do is uh the sweetwater in the saltwater. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.199 Together they create a race of gods, but end up 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.960 finding those gods they've created unpleasant and loud, and eventually, 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.960 um the gods turn on their creators and they slay Opsu, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.600 the sort of freshwater deity, and Tiamat, the saltwater deity. 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.160 She is enraged, and she tries to make revenge on 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.360 the gods for slaying Opsu, attacking them in the form 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.640 of a giant sea monster or a salt water dragon 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.280 and making a team of evil monsters to do wickedness 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.360 on her behalf and the gods. Of course, because of 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.240 her power, they're too afraid to go out and fight 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.200 Tiamat themselves, but eventually they convinced the storm god mar 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.720 Duke to go out himself and fight her on their behalf. 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.880 So in exchange for risking his life in this fight, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.600 mar Duke's what's in it for Marduke? Right? Mar Duke 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.680 demands that the gods make him their king, so he 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.400 that that's the deal. Right, I'll go out and slay 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.400 the monster if you guys make me the boss, which 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.320 sounds like a good deal. You need a king, you 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.840 want one that's going to actually slay your monsters, right. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.240 So mar Duke is armed with special weapons imbued with 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.800 some kind of storm power, a bow and arrow, a 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.840 mace and net, and then there are these powers of 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.800 the winds that he commands, including the winds of the 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.240 cardinal directions north, southeast and west, but also these other 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.240 kinds of wind magic, Like there's one wind weapon he 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.120 has just called the Evil Wind. And I guess we're 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.840 supposed to imagine just some sort of like cosmic fart 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.200 here um. The fart jokes do kind of present themselves 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.160 at this point. So from here, I think I will 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.880 just read some lines from the enemy Alish has the 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.320 as translated by E. A. Spicer, Robert, would you like 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.200 to read with me? Of course? Then the Lord raised 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.280 up the floodstorm, his mighty weapon he mounted the storm chariot, 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.000 irresistible and terrifying. He harnessed and yoked it to a 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.040 team of four, the Killer, the Relentless, the trampler, the 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.640 swift sharp, where their poison bearing teeth they were versed 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.600 in ravage, skilled, and destruction. On his right he posted 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.720 the smider, fearsome in battle. On the left, the combat 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.280 which repels all the zealous. His cloak was an armor 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.040 of terror. His head was turbaned with his fearsome halo. 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.840 The lord went forth and followed his course. He set 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.280 his face towards the raging Tiamat. He held a spell 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.720 between his lips. A plant to put out poison was 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.520 grasp in his hand. And then we'll skip a bit. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:10.320 Marduk approaches Uh and Tiamat's consort, Kingu. This monster Kingu 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.040 and her allied gods and monsters become fearful, and then 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.960 Tiamat taunts Marduk, and then Marduke gives a speech rebuking 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.360 Tiamat and challenging her to single combat. And then we'll 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.720 pick up with the lines again. When Tiamat heard this, 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.760 she was like one possessed. She took leave of her 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:32.000 senses in fury, Tiamat cried aloud to the roots of 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.440 her legs, shook both together. She recites a charm, keeps 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.560 casting her spell while the gods of battle sharpen their weapons. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.000 Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of God's, then joined battle. They 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.080 strove in single combat. Locked in conflict, the lord spread 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.840 out his net to unfold her. He let loose in 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:56.920 her face the evil wind, which followed behind. When Tiamat 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.120 opened her mouth to consume him, he drove in the 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.360 evil wind, and she could not close her lips. As 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.800 the fierce winds encumbered her belly. Her body was distended 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.160 and her mouth was wide open. He released an arrow. 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.800 It tore her belly, It cut through her inside, splitting 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.359 her heart. Having subdued her, he blotted out her life. 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.840 He threw down her carcass and stood upon it. Oh, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.560 you gotta stand on it. That's that's just uh, that's 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.360 absolutely necessary. Well, we've hit on this before, like the 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.120 they see that trope in both the Western and Eastern 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.040 art with a demon or devil or monster trampled beneath 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.600 the feet or sat upon as if it were thrown. 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.280 You know, it's still a thing when you see. I mean, 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.520 I almost hate to bring this up because it makes 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.320 me mad whenever I see it. But like those like 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.000 Safari hunting pictures where people like shoot a lion or 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.280 something like that, and then they're like standing there with 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.040 their foot on it. Yes, I am not crazy about 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.119 that either, but they put their foot on it. This 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.440 is still a thing. It's like you and now Earth. 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.720 It's it's like it's instinctive. Almost. I put my foot 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.119 on this thing to show I have beaten it. And then, 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.320 of course, the next thing in this story, because it 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.679 becomes of course, the epic of creation is that mar 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.960 Duke makes the heavens and the earth out of Tiamat's 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.680 dead body. Ah. This is another thing we see time 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.600 and time again in different uh myths, the idea of 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.760 some primordial being being overcome and then their body being 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.399 repurposed in creation. Yeah, it is. It's an interesting repeating theme. 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.639 And I don't know, I wonder what that says, Like, 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:34.040 why do we have the the inherent suspicion that the 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.680 ground on which we walk was once a living being? 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:38.919 We should come back and doing a whole episode on 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.440 dead gods at some point. Oh, absolutely, now here's another 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.080 thing I was thinking about, which is that in most 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.200 of these pre modern stories, the monster slayers always a dude. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.399 It's always male. Not always. I want to get to 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:53.719 a counter example that I was able to find. And 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.000 it's also not uncommon for the monster that is getting 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.080 slain to be female. Think about the Sushi Gumo, the 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.639 woman in the house and slayed by the swordsman Tiamat, 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:08.840 the female monster slayed by marduk Uh and the Medusa. Yeah, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.359 we can. We can discuss more about what is meant 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:13.480 by that in a bit. But I was on the 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:18.080 hunt for some good pre modern, ancient female monster slayers, 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.000 and I think I found at least one good example 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.920 that that I turned up sort of a pre Buffy 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.080 Buffy if you will, right, Well, I mean, yeah, that's 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.240 one of the many great things about Buffy. Of course, Yeah, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.400 she's she's one of the greatest vampire slayers monster slayers 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.720 of all time. But then she is she has a 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.920 female which you, as you pointed out, you don't see 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.280 a lot of in the ancient myth cycles. It's a 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.040 nice change up on the gender dynamics of that. Yeah, 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.119 but so another ancient Mesopotamian monster slayer would be in 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.119 an A the glorious and ann a crusher of heads. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.639 In Anna was a Sumerian goddess also known as the 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.240 Accadian ishtar got us of many things. We we've mentioned 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.159 her on the podcast before, but you know, got us 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.960 of the storehouse and the products of ag culture, but 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:05.520 also it seems of fertility, sex, war and slaughter. And 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.480 in Anna is maybe my favorite ancient god or goddess 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.880 due to those awesome hymns in her praise written by 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.679 the priestess in Headuana, perhaps the earliest known piece of 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.240 writing with a named author. In Headuana was a twenty 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.919 third century b c. Mesopotamian high priestess and poet, the 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.119 daughter of the Acadian king Sargon the Great. And so 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.560 she wrote these hymns to Anna that are just spectacular 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.920 to read. Um, But okay, what kind of monster slang 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.080 does Anna do? Well? The story here is more obscure, 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.600 more complex, but it's also interesting. It comes down to 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:44.040 this Sumerian concept called kor And my source here is 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.680 a couple of pieces by the twentieth century ancient Neary 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.320 scholar Samuel in Kramer. So everything I'm saying here comes 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.160 from Kramer. Kramer writes that kore can be a really 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.840 confusing word in ancient Sumerian literature because of its many 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.399 different meanings. First of all, it seems to have a 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.560 primary literal meaning of mountain, right, so got coor the mountain. 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.439 It's also used to mean foreign land, presumably because the 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.919 peoples of the mountains bordering Summer were a constant threat. 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.000 But then core also appears to just mean land in general, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:22.880 like territory. Uh. But also it has cosmic and religious connotations. 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.359 So the word core is also used to signify the 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.719 Great Below or the nether world, to quote, the empty 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.159 space between the Earth's crust and the primeval sea, and 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.800 Kramer writes quote Moreover, it is not improbable that the 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.600 monstrous creature that lived at the bottom of the Great 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:44.800 Below immediately over the primeval waters is also called cour if. 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.159 So this monster Core would correspond to a certain extent 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.439 to the Babylonian Tiamat. So this is another version of 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.560 the Tiamat sea monster legend. And Kramer writes about kind 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.040 of in the tradition of Marduk, that there are multiple 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.680 ancient stories and fragments of stories we have in which 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.720 monster slayers attack the monster Core. In one the hero 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.119 is the god Inky, in another one it's Ninerta. But 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.760 in a third it appears to be in Anna. And 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.400 so there's this passage where Anna threatens the Core who 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.560 does who does not recognize her might? And in Anna says, 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.200