Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta. This is crash course Mythology and today
It's everybody back in the pool... or river... or storm drain overflow from Divine Rainstorms. That's right
It's our final flood episode and we're heading West to the Americas. Surf's up Thoth
We've already talked about floods from the ancient near east at the point between Europe, Africa, and Asia and last week we covered the floods
of China in East Asia, but it turns out that essentially anywhere there's a civilization
there's a story of that civilization being destroyed...
by water. One myth from the Inca Empire
should sound familiar at this point. Viracocha was the supreme god of the Incas and considered the father of the other gods and
creator of the World. Viracocha
eventually became tired of the race of giants he created to populate the earth. He thought they were lazy and bad-tempered
And they always forgot his birthday, so I bet you can guess how he decided to get rid of those forgetful
Behemoths. That's right, a flood. Viracocha's flood rose up even higher
than the Andes Mountains high enough to drown the giants and in some versions all of humanity along with...
A single lucky couple survived by floating in a box. The box drifted to
Tiahuanaco. When it came to rest Viracocha made a new people with the
surviving couple. As a reminder of the flood we have lake Titicaca and lake Poopó although the latter
Disappeared in 2016 as a result of climate change and human diverting its waters for mining
So it's not just Viracocha who can destroy life in the Andes. No review of new World Myths would be complete
without a quick visit to the Popul Vuh
It's one of our best sources for understanding the world of the Mayans before the arrival of Europeans.
You might remember from our creation myths episode that in Mesoamerica the deities went through a number of attempts at birthing the world before?
Getting it right. In the creation story
I recounted the animals that were created couldn't talk. No helpful dragons like Yu the Engineer had in China.
So the gods started over and as it turns out the creator once messed up humans too.
Let's go to the Thought Bubble. In the beginning the creator made
Humans out of wood. These wooden people could do a lot of things we can. Walk, talk, have children, build houses... let's not think too
Hard about out of what but they were dry and yellow and their faces had no expression because they had no minds
Nor souls nor hearts. They beat their dogs, and they burned the bottoms of their cooking pot
They had forgotten how they were made and couldn't remember any of the names of God, so he said these men will not do either
I must destroy them also- and really can you blame them? Dog beaters- unbelievable
so the creator sent- you guessed it- a great flood knocking down the houses of the wooden men. The wooden men tried to escape but
The animals they had starved and beaten and cooking pots they had burned and the trees with branches they had chopped off all
Turned against them and wouldn't help them; only a few of them escaped from their flood and it is said that their
Descendant are the monkeys this is why you should never let a monkey cook- no offense Thoth
After reflecting the creator said it is time
I need men on the earth who will know my names who will obey me and
Love me that will nourish and sustain me
So he made a man out of cornmeal and used nine kinds of liquor to give strength to his new creations
He made four men and four women and they were very happy the creator was scared that these new creations might be too
Powerful though, so the creator blew a mist over their eyes and clouded their vision
But the people were still thankful. When the sun came up and the puma and the Jaguar roared the men and the women
Danced with Joy
Because they were alive and possibly drunk
Thanks Thought-bubble the couple book creation that gives us insight into the troubling nature of creation and
Humanity. As in many of the other myths we've seen, there's something not quite right about
Mankind at first. the gods always want a big watery
Do-over this myth differs from those we saw in the mediterranean world in a few ways first off Viracocha didn't find any human beings
Sinless enough to spare also apparently only humans are victims of this flood it's a little bit weird since those
Humans are made of wood which usually floats- wouldn't fire work better? I probably would have gone with fire wait my vengeful
God perhaps the reason the creator couldn't find a worthy survivor
Is that those wooden people were just a bad idea to begin with. this failed creation was the fault of the creator himself not
Misbehaving humans. there's something humble about this myth. god messes up, owns up, and tries again
You know that old pithy saying- if at first you don't succeed
Wash the entire race of people away in the divine deluge and try again our last a flood story is an aztec tale
from Oaxaca in Mexico
And probably predates
Columbus. In this myth a god called the old one tells one chosen man to Abandon his chores because the world
Is going to be destroyed. the old one tells the man to plant a cedar tree because as we all know gods don't garden and to
find himself a carpenter who can make a canoe. the man does as he's told and miraculously a
giant Cedar Tree grows in A
Single night and the man finds a carpenter to build a canoe. the carpenter does fine work, by the way, just not so fine that
He gets to survive what's about to go down
You know what happens next the rain comes and the Earth is destroyed
but the canoe floats on top of the waters and the man and his family are spared. the rain stops, the Earth dries up, and
The man comes out of his canoe and catches some fish to eat
But then the old one tells the man that he must not make a fire. soon the old one smelled something from the Earth
he come down and he finds the man cooking the fish on a fire the
Nerve the old one says who gave you permission to catch fish, and you were told not to make a fire yet
You are doing it. I told you not to make fire. You fool now
You will have to serve as an example for the new people and the old one hits him over the head
Because you did not listen
I am going to change you into a howler monkey. in another version of this myth
The man survives with a dog and the dog is the one that cooks for him eventually he discovers that the dog is
actually a woman and they marry and then they create a new race of humans because
Mythology. no matter which version were talking about though we have to wonder why the man who survived was chosen.
I mean yeah, he can plant a cedar seed
But there must have been better option. these myths are fascinating for a number of reasons on a number of fronts notice the monkey
Transformation theme
Coincidence? maybe not even though the Mayan Empire and the Aztec empire didn't exist at the same time they were pretty close
Geographically and probably shared some stories
They also probably both hung out with monkeys when we compared these flood stories to the ones in Gilgamesh, or the bible there are
Interesting similarities and differences. after all the old one picks out a special individual to be the sole survivor of his
Watery reset button
but Noah and Utanapishtim were chosen because of their unfailing
loyalty and Faith the Survivor of the Old ones flood in pretty much every version is characterized by
disobedience it makes one wonder about each cultures respective valuation of loyalty versus independence and whether that aztec
Survivor was meant as a disobedient role model or a fish cooking cautionary tale
No matter where they come from though flood myths seem to be mainly about punishing humanity for Transgression
That's usually wickedness, but sometimes as in Yu the engineer's story
It's the poor management of the state by the king. these stories tell people that when bad things like floods happen they happen because
Well, we deserve them. they also remind us that humanity is imperfect
But the gods who created us are as well- again and again the gods in these stories
Feel like they've made a mistake in creating mankind and they want to just start over. no matter how hard they try
Humans just kind of keep screwing up even when a God tries to get it right and to start from scratch
They can't or maybe we can't because after all
Guess we're only human
Thanks for watching we'll see you next week
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Thanks for watching and, really, deep down aren't we all
Nine kinds of liquor?