Reading Notes - Crash Course Mythology (Mythical Places)

For this week, I chose to watch the Crash Course Mythology video unit on Mythical Places and I have found my favorite creation story. 

In the first video, "Gardens and Caves," we compare the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man to the Zuni story of the Emergence from the Caves. Garden of Eden is symbolic of humanity beginning as perfect beings, being forced to live in the world as a punishment for disobedience, and functions an impetus for moral behavior so that we may one day return to that state of perfection. But the Zuni creation story is better to me because it symbolizes humanity emerging from chaos, ignorance, and immaturity. Humans are, at first, living in filth and confusion beneath the earth before a god takes pity on them and sends his sons to free them. Once they do, they try to teach humanity how to live and keep tweaking them in their sleep until they get it just right. Very cool, because it still has the supernatural element-and that's always a crowd-pleaser, but it isn't so much about an indictment or a punishment--it's about a gift. 

In the second video, "Mountains," I learned about ow mountains are used to symbolize lots of different things in different stories. In the Chinese tale about the 10,000 Treasure Mountain, a poor but pure boy helps an old stranger, is rewarded with magic keys to the 10,000 Treasure mountain--one to enter and one to exit. Each time he goes into the mountain, he chooses a practical treasure: grinders and hoes that actually produce food. A wicked king tries to steal the treasures, and eventually takes a key--but only the one to enter. So the king dies surrounded by useless treasure and the boy can no longer enter the mountain, but is rewarded for his humility and work ethic with a bride. And I guess her family is already rich since they had the keys to a treasure mountain and never used them. In a Japanese story, we learn how mountains and other elements of nature are anthropomorphized and treated as their own spirits, such as in Shintoism. This really helps characterize nature as the complex entity that it is--something that can help us or harm us at any time. 

I liked the "Trees" episode. I knew the myth of Apollo and Daphne already, but I'd never heard the Vietnamese myth of Tun, Lun, and Tao (and I'm sure I didn't spell them correctly. It was tragic but it had the kind of symmetry that I like to see in myths. It was like "Romeo and Juliet" but with a love triangle instead of two immature kids who thought they were in love but really just sort of died to be dramatic. 

In the "Cities" video, he discusses the varied history of Jerusalem, a city that is a prominent feature in all of the Abrahamic faiths. Depending on time, place, and narrator, Jerusalem is either a beautiful, holy place, or a dirty, sinful den. He also talks about the history of Rome, which I love because I read several of the Roman foundation myths. I liked that the Romans went back and wrote a seamless creation story for themselves, and I think it's even more interesting to look a the stories in historical context, because you really can see what the ideas of a time and place were. I really do love these little videos. 

"Fires of Troy" by Kerstiaen de Keunick
via Wikimedia Commons