WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Three-Pupiled Eye, Part 1 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey you, Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.200 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday, 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:13.239 the day of each week that we venture down into 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.680 the vault and retrieve an older episode of the show 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:19.599 for you. This one originally published on March twenty ninth, 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.280 twenty twenty two, and it's part one of our series 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.440 called The Three Pupiled Eye. Yeah. I remember this one 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.880 being quite a lot of fun, and I think we 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.440 discussed this idea as it pops up in a various 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.519 cultures and traditions and sources. But I think we do 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.240 get a little bit into some Irish legend so it's 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.279 a good topic to revisit as we launch ourselves towards 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:48.280 Saint Patty's Day. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:58.280 a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.480 Your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.720 And you know, we recently did a couple episodes that 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:10.360 related to Irish mythology, and as we were looking through 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:17.440 these various accounts of various heroes and monsters and tales 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.720 too often to ten and and so forth, I was 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.280 reminded again of a motif that I remember coming up briefly, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.680 at least when we were looking at the hero cocolin, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:34.240 and that is Irish heroes that are depicted as having 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.360 either multiple pupils or multiple irises within their eyes. That 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:44.240 is a strange detail, especially because I can picture multiple pupils, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.280 I have a harder time picturing multiple irises. So, of course, 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.760 basic anatomical note, the pupil is the black dot in 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.200 the middle of your eye, and the iris is the 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:59.400 colored ring around that dot. So multiple pupils I'm seeing, Okay, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.400 multiple thoughts, multiple irises. I don't know that that just 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.280 what Like, how would you tell where one iris began 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.520 or ended? Well, I guess you'd have to have like 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.960 multiple irises and pupils in that department. And as we'll 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:14.320 get into one of the things is that some of 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.720 these accounts will say pupils and other versions of that 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.760 same account will say irises. So you know, I'm not 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.839 I'm not sure exactly how uh you know, the term 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.519 maybe gets confused over time or it's lost in translation. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.200 So but it kind of adds to the mystery of 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.079 of not being exactly sure what we're talking about here 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.959 when these details come up, Well, so how did these 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.519 details go? Like, what's an example? Okay, so um, taking 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.320 for example, Kucolin since we've we've discussed him before. The 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:49.880 Irish hero, a warrior hero, a demigod possessed by the 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.240 ability to enter the warp spasm during battle. Lots of 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:58.919 wonderful tales and about this character, and he's he's prominently 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.080 featured in the early Irish epic The Cattle Raid of 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.320 Coolie or the Tane as it goes sometimes called. But 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.920 one of the other interesting facts about this hero is 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:13.160 that he's sometimes described as having seven irises, as translated 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.800 from the epic by Joseph Dunns. I believe in nineteen 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:20.160 fourteen translation quote seven jewels of the eyes brilliance was 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.360 either of his keenly eyes, seven toes to either of 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.160 his two feet, seven fingers to either of his two hands, 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.200 with the clutch of hawk's claw, with the grip of 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:37.280 Hedgehog's talent in every separate one of them. I love 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.640 how that's all majestic and fierce until you get to 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.760 the hedgehog. I don't know. Hedgehog's talent sounds pretty intense 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.240 to me. Even if I can't quite picture what that 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.720 would be. Maybe I don't have enough experience with hedgehogs. Though. 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.640 I also this struck me because I love stories where 0:03:55.480 --> 0:04:01.000 beings have a strange, recurring, specific number of body features. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.840 It reminds me of visions in the Bible, like particularly 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.360 the visions of the Dragon and the beast in the 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.880 Book of Revelation. And if you're not familiar, the Book 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.960 of Revelation is the last book in the Christian New Testament. 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.960 It is mostly describing a vision that the author, someone 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.480 named John says was given to him by Christ. And 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.200 it's a book where the number seven has great significance. 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.160 It's used in a number of ways throughout the apocalypse. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.719 There are messages sent to seven church congregations there and 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.400 then within the vision, seven seals are opened, seven trumpets 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.800 are sounded, and so forth. But there are also these 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.280 wondrous beings, both great and terrible, with seven of something. 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.960 So for example, in chapter twelve, verse three, it says, 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.919 and there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold a 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.760 great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.080 seven crowns upon his heads. And I always wondered if 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.320 that meant okay, so he's got seven heads and then 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.239 seven crowns on his heads. But does that mean seven 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.600 crowns per head or just one crown per head? I'm 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.640 not sure. One of the seven heads is wearing seven crowns, 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.400 staffing pop to each other. That heads a real dick. 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.520 They fight over the crowns. But then later also the 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.440 beast is said to have seven heads and ten horns 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.040 quote end upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.720 heads the name of blasphemy. And so I like these 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.520 specific numbers. It's not just like, oh, this beast has 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.680 two heads. It's got seven heads. And of course, in 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.520 Jewish and Christian traditions, seven is a very significant number. 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.960 It's a holy number and one that most of the 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:42.200 time seems to be associated with wholeness or completion or fulfillment. 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.159 You know, God rested on the seventh day in the 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.200 creation story, after creating Earth in six days, rested on 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.360 the seventh, So it's sort of like the finishing of 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:55.240 a good and wholesome cycle of something. Though I guess 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.560 in this case it's interesting because this is a sort 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.719 of unholy seven. It's the opposite of God, and there 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.599 are other beings in Jewish literature described with various specific 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.000 numbers of features. For example, there is a vision described 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.479 in the Book of Isaiah where the prophet sees the 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.880 Lord sitting upon a throne and he's surrounded by angels 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.279 called seraphim, which literally means the burning ones. And the 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.920 Seraphim are said to each have six wings, and there's 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.279 a reason given for this. In the vision, the wings 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.479 are each doing something, so Isaiah says that with two 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.920 of the wings he covered his face, with two of 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.000 them he covered his feet, and with the other two 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.679 he did fly. Though I wonder if the number six 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.000 is also showing a different significance in that these beings 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.599 are sort of the second highest beings in the heavenly 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.039 hierarchy without being on the level of God himself. So 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.640 seven is holy perfection and fulfillment. Six is one level 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.160 under that. Oh wow. So first of all, I love 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.400 how this actually is finding way to tie back to 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.240 our recent episodes on the days of the week, you know, 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.479 the seven day week, and yeah, all these thing about 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.520 examples like this where we're dealing with you know, literary 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:09.400 motifs and symbolism and you know, mythic beings. But we 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.480 take these non biological numbers and though they sort of 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:19.080 bleed through their imagined bodies, and and we instantly enter 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:24.240 this zone of of of just of of fantasy and 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.240 in myth um. You know, it's the it's the sort 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.160 of thing that I think, you know, today we would 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.480 we would classify this sort of thing is like you know, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.920 visionary art or you know, some sort of psychedelic notion um. 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.120 But but clearly we've you know, we've been dreaming up 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.960 these these things throughout human history. Well yeah, yeah, and 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.400 you're right to note that seven is not a very 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.440 biological number. Yeah, I mean, usually in animals with bilateral symmetry, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.120 there tend to be even numbers of things. There are 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.280 some interesting exceptions, but that's that's most most often the case. 0:07:57.640 --> 0:07:59.800 We'll get to one exception within the human body later 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.600 on that I like. But yeah, so so I don't 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.280 know exactly why you'd get these myths later on of 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.520 like say, yeah, a hero who's got seven irises in 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.400 his eye or seven pupils in his eye. But I 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.280 would be surprised if it isn't if it isn't part 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.640 of a tradition, if it is an all downstream from 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.960 this ancient line of thinking that says, hey, you know, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.000 this monster doesn't just have two heads, it has seven heads. 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.400 And not only does it have seven heads, the fact 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.640 that it has seven heads means something. This is like 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.120 the ultimate bad monster because there's seven of it. Seven 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.160 is kind of like a siren. It means whenever there's 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:40.079 seven or of something, it's it's incredibly meaningful. It's intensely significant. 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.040 And with with Cocullen's eye, it's it's really hard for 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.440 me to picture it, Like I guess I'd end up 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.560 picturing like this just sort of ring of pupils, and 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.880 then yeah, when I try and picture seven irises in there, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.320 it doesn't really come together for me. Here a couple 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:02.560 of other translations. M Thomas CANSELLA translation says seven hard 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.000 heroic jewels are set in the iris of Kucullan's eye 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.760 and then done also translating in another section of the work, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:14.880 hero from a poem prophecy quote seven gems of champions, 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.240 brave deck the center of his orbs. Naked are the 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.600 spears he bears, and he hooks a red cloak round 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.000 And I've seen these, yeah, I've seen these described as 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.839 as pupils as irises, and there's a there's one version 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.360 that reads, quote, there were seven pupils in Kucullin's royal eye, 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:36.000 and two of these pupils were squinting. The pupils were squinting, Yes, 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.560 and yeah, this this is another area where I haven't 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.240 found I haven't found much to really, you know, break 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.880 down what this means, and that that just makes it 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.040 more enticing, Like what what to imagine looking into this 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.199 this hero's eyes and then like, first of all, they're 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.000 like seven pupils in there, and then and then to 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.520 make things even weirder, to make that moment even weirder, 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.880 two of them are squinting. A two of the pupils 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.840 are squinting. But pupil, I mean, so pupils do, of 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.560 course contract. We'll talk about that as we go on. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.640 That's one of their main anatomical functions. But I don't 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.520 think that's usually what people mean with the words squinting. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.280 With squinting, I think of squeezing of like the muscles 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.120 around the orbital you know, your face. Yeah, though, as 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:23.400 we'll discuss, pupils do weird things. So maybe by the 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.760 time we roll through some examples from the animal world, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.160 we'll have a better idea of what this could conceivably 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.679 look like. But cal Colin is not the only character 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:39.480 in an Irish tradition who has mysterious eyes. There's also 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.920 a character by the name of fedem Or. I think 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.559 the modern version of this is Fidelma, and this is 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.520 a she's a member of the two authored don and 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.640 she's a prophet, a poet. She's mentioned in the Ulstra cycle, 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:58.199 and I've also read that she some critics and historians 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.440 think that she may be connected to later toys of 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.040 the Banshee, which, again, the Banshee, one of its whole 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.640 things is that it is it haunts a place, It 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.280 whales in anticipation of death, so it is it is, 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.600 in its own way, a profit, though a profit of 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.640 one particular thing. She appears in the Tane as well, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.880 and she's described as having three irises in each eye, 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:26.199 triple irises. And this gets really interesting because she's described 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.520 at length, and I'm just going to read a part 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.120 of it, translated by Dunne quote weaving lace was she 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.680 and in her right hand was a bordering rod of 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.880 silvered bronze with its seven strips of red gold at 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.480 the sides, A mini spotted green mantle around her, A bulging, 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.840 strong headed pin of gold in the mantle over her bosom, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.840 A hooded tunic with red interweaving about her. A ruddy, 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.680 fair faced countenance. She had, narrow below and broad above. 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:02.240 She had a blue gray laughing eye. Each eye had 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.080 three pupils. Dark and black were her eyebrows, The soft 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.160 black lashes threw a shadow to the middle of her cheeks. 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.880 Red and thin were her lips. Shiny and pearly were 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.320 her teeth. Thou wouldst believe they were showers of white 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.200 pearls that had rained into her head. And I have 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.360 to say, I love how I mean, it's all beautiful, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.280 but the three pupils in the eye just gets like 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.960 this brief description. But then the author is like, and 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.520 let me tell you about her teeth, right, Yeah, I 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.200 had the same reaction. So then again, I'm thinking about 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.280 the historical setting from which this story would have emerged, 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:40.959 and maybe at that time seeing somebody with really clean 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.920 teeth was even more rare than a eye with three pupils. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.079 A true true. So so okay, so we already have 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.440 a couple of examples here cocullen and we have we 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.920 also have a Feedom here, and Feedom is very much 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.319 just see her, and she has eyes of prophecy, So 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.800 it's easy to see where one interpretation here is that 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:05.520 her eyes are unnatural because she has unnatural vision she 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.000 can see into the future. Makes sense, right sure, But 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.040 as as several different commentators have pointed out, this is 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.319 what this is. Another level where it got even more 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.960 interesting is that commentators have pointed out that, um, these 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.280 are also signs of beauty. So think to this passage 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.120 I just read, so uh, you know, yes, again, she 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.920 is a seer, but she's described as as being as 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.560 not being beautiful but possessed with weird eyes. Her triple 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.280 pupils or iris eyes are listed as part of her 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.319 beauty though you know, undeniably this connects to her attributed 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.680 powers as well. Right, So it's listed along other along 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:51.040 other things like having long, lustrous eyelashes and pearly teeth, 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.640 things that in a lot of other literature would be 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.760 just clear markers that are supposed to mean beauty. And 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.640 here it's also like and three people by that is 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.680 one of those things, right, we all know that thing? Yeah, yeah, 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:05.240 And this is this is I think something that makes 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.240 it so fascinating to read as a modern reader of 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.080 the text, because obviously, if you had, you know, a 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.280 modern work of fiction that was referring to a character 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.760 like this, everything would go in reverse, right, you would 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:18.440 have all that you would say, Oh, she was beautiful, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.880 and she looked totally human, a beautiful human, except woe, 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.480 those eyes three pupils in each one. It was a 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.640 bit weird. So one of the sources that I was 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:33.640 looking at about this is Jacqueline the Evil Eye in 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.480 early Irish literature in Law two thousand and three, published 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:42.480 in Celtica twenty four. It provides a lot of insight 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.680 into the literary motif of the eye in Irish literature. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.200 So she brings up, first of all, a different creature 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.440 with a unique eye, and that is the one eyed 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:59.000 giant Insoul Cache or ing Soul the Terrible, who is 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.320 described as this great giant something of a pirate I 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.720 think with possible like English origins of the time, so 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:08.560 you know, into in this week get like the idea 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.040 that may if there is some sort of historical basis 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:12.760 for this figure, maybe he was just some sort of 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.440 a pirate rater from that region. But in the mythic 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.200 connotation he becomes this, this this great, big giant who 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.680 not only has just this single eye in his head, 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.440 he's not only a cyclops, but it is a solid 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.240 black eye. And that solid black eye has seven pupils 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.320 within it, though I've also read descriptions where he just 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.000 has three pupils. How would it have pupils if it's solid. 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:36.960 The pupil is the black part of the eye. So 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:43.520 that's thoroughly confusing. Yes, so he's known for the destruction 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.760 of Dadurga Hostel. There's a whole story about this. And 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.240 so the author here is discussing Ingsul's eye and she 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.840 connects it not only with Cocolin, but also with the 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.240 High King of Ireland, Cormac McCart who is also said 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.520 to have had seven pupils in each eye. So again 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.920 it's just driving home that this is a recurring motif. 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.440 It's not like a one time thing that you know, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.800 it clearly meants something and was worth repeating in the Cannon. 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:13.600 But but she points out that you know, in the 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.920 cases of these two heroes quote this is explicitly qualified 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.160 as a sign of beauty. And furthermore, she says that 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.320 the squinting in Cucullin's pupils is also seen as a 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.720 doornament rather than disfigurement. And then she also comes back 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.920 to Fedelm, the female seer of the Tuatha, to Donna 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.080 and says quote, there is no explanation offered of this characteristic, 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.160 the triple I with Fedelm. It could be a sign 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:42.880 of beauty, and it could be a sign of her 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:47.240 supernatural sight. The latter is more probable because the characteristic 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.280 is separated from the description of her looks by the 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.800 mention of the weaver's beam. The weaver's beam has been 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.000 interpreted as a supernatural tool for prophecy. The triple pupils 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.040 could therefore very well be a symbol of her claer 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.520 of glance. And yeah, so I'm not if I'm not 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.879 mistaken here the weaver's beam, this is part of a loom. 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.440 And so we're getting into the idea they'd like here this, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:14.320 this piece of technology also had mystical connotations for divination. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:16.720 All right? What about ing Sol though, the giant or 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.119 pirate who has a single eye which is entirely black 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.680 and also has either three or seven pupils in it, well, 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.880 she's She says that, Okay, if we're going to look 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.600 at these other examples and try and figure out Engsol, 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.000 we'll say, first of all, he's definitely not beautiful. This 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:32.880 is not a sign of his beauty. He's a rough 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.240 and horrible monster, she knows. She points out some of 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.840 the terms that are used to describe him. But his 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.000 sight is described as being sharp, he can make out 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.880 every detail of the hostile at a glance, and Boor 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.840 says that he also might connect to the legendary evil 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.760 eye of Balor, the king of the Fomorians, whose great eye, 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.879 when opened and when his great brow could be raised 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.480 up in some accounts, two warriors have to stand on 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.560 either side of him, put a woman wooden beam beneath 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.600 his big, saggy brow, and lift the brow up so 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.840 that the evil eye can see out an unleash destruction 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.399 on the battlefield. It could be connected to that Ballor, 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.680 by the way, is eventually killed by his grandson Lug 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.320 of the Tuatha de Dun, and there are multiple versions 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.280 of the Balor myth as well. Sometimes his destructive eye 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:25.440 is described, you know, more or less like the single 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.800 single eye of a cyclops and other times it's depicted 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.280 as more of a third eye in the center of 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.280 the head alongside two ordinary eyes. So there's just a 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:42.119 taste of the triple or sevenfold eye in Irish mythology. 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.240 And again I've even having you know, research to the 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.040 bed and laid it out in the in the outline here, 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.119 it's still just overwhelmingly mysterious and on inspiring to me. 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.040 And we're going to come back to some other traditions, 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.480 some other ancient writings that refer to mysterious eyes of 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.359 this nature. But at this point we're gonna we're gonna 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.240 shift into the scientific world and hopefully this will be 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.399 a fun case where the science and the myth will 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.440 sort of play off each other and each one will 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:21.040 make the other more fabulous. All right, well, since we're 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.280 talking about eyes, I think we do need to do 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.200 a quick overview of eyeball anatomy. So picture an eyeball, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.080 rob Are you doing it? Can you can see that 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.040 eyeball in your mind's eye burning like the eye of Sauron. Okay, well, 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.280 that actually connects to something because the eye of Sauron, 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.040 you picture that, that's not just floating out in space, right, 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.800 it's sitting in a tower, that's right, And so of 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.320 course our eyeballs need some some structural scaffolding as well. 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.520 So the eyeball of humans it's within a bony socket 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.119 called the orbit, and the outer layer of the eyeball 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.400 itself is a tough white tissue made of collagen that's 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.000 called the sclera. This is the white part of the 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.840 eye that you can see. And then the pupil, of course, 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.200 is the black dot in the middle of the eye. 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.640 Covering the pupil on the outside is a clear layer 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.560 of cells known as the cornea, which both protects the eye. 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.720 It protects the iris and the pupil, and it also 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.280 helps to focus incoming light into the pupil. Actually, there 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.119 are two parts of your eyes that do focusing of 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.600 light rays. The cornea does the majority of it. I 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:23.639 think it does about two thirds of the focusing, and 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.560 that's the first layer. And actually, if you've listened to 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.480 our episodes on tiers that we did I think a 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.399 couple of months ago, you know there's something even to 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.119 the outside of the cornea, which is that thin layer 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.159 of tier film that covers the eye. It's secreted by 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:40.520 the lachrymal glands actually has multiple parts. That the watery 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.320 part of the tier film is secreted by the lachrymal glands, 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.480 and then there's an oily part of the tier film 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.120 that comes from the base of the eyelids, now coming 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.320 to the pupil. While it's tempting to think of the 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.080 pupil as a thing, the interesting truth is that the 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.919 pupil is really an absence. The pupil is the whole 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:05.600 or the opening through which light passes. So light comes 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.280 through the cornea and then is directed through the pupil 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.560 and then is focused again a second time after the 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.280 cornea by a clear structure on the inside of the eye, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.359 the inside of the pupil that's called the lens. And 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.080 then finally, after it is focused through the lens, the 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.320 light is reflected onto the layer of sensitive cells on 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.879 the back of the inside of the eye, known as 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.600 the retina, and then the sensing cells of the retina 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.720 transmit the information about the light via the optic nerve 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:34.840 all the way to the visual cortex in the back 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.720 of the brain, where the information is made sense of 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.040 in a way that we experience as sight. So I 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.040 think what we should say is that sight happens in 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.320 the brain, which is why there are so many things 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.280 that can that can affect what we see when we 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:48.879 look at the world. You know, it's not just like 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.000 a video camera feed. There's there's some post processing that 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.119 goes on that can be affected by all kinds of 0:21:55.200 --> 0:22:00.280 things from uh, you know, from biases and little little 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.280 tricks of how the brain works, to drugs and so so. 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.000 Sight happens in the brain, but of course light has 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.520 to go through all these stages within the eye before 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.159 it is turned into the experience of vision in the 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.240 visual cortex. You know. I just think you were talking 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.040 about how about the pupil being an absence and not 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.000 a thing, and I was thinking about, you know, various 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.120 there's of course the Chinese story of the magic paint brush, 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.159 and I think there are different variations on this, but 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.200 there's one in which the paint brush, whatever you paint 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:33.720 with it comes to life, but only after you have 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.280 added the eye or I think perhaps the you know, 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:42.120 adding the pupil slash iris of the eye, because depending 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.680 on the detail of your illustration, like the pupil in 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:47.280 the eye are just going to be one, right, Like 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.080 if you're painting an eye. Drawing an eye, you create 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.399 the white and then you put that black dot in 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.399 the middle to complete it, and it kind of brings 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.040