Aloha I'm Mike Rugnetta, and this is Crash Course Mythology and today we're
going to continue looking at goddesses, and what makes them so great!
In this episode we'll focus on two myths:
one about a volcano goddess,
and another about White Buffalo Calf Woman.
We're going to look at these myths a bit more in-depth
than we usually do, and head to places we haven't talked about much before:
Hawaii and North America. Y'all packed, Ttoth?
Ooh!
Ooh! ..Nice! Sharp!
*title music, images and jokes*
*jokes you'll need to pause the video to read, honestly*
Longtime crash-course fans may remember that Hawaiian mythology featured heavily
in our episode about Captain Cook.
The god in question then was "Lono,"
who was supposed to be pretty powerful, but he was only one of the great gods who
followed Pele, the fire goddess, to Hawaii from the land beyond the vast oceans.
By the time Cook arrived in Hawaii, Pele was the most feared and respected of
Hawaii's divinities, holding court with her five brothers and sisters in the Kilauea
Volcano--which is a scary place to hold court, but very convenient if you like BBQ.
Pele exemplifies the "Triple-Goddess" that we talked about in the previous episode:
she's a goddess of life AND death--
controlling the lava that gives the Hawaiian islands its rich, fertile soil
but-also destroys EVERYTHING in its path.
And in this story we also see her as
the regenerative goddess of sexual allure and creativity.
In short, "This girl / is on fi-yah!" ...(emoji)
One day Pele decided to come out of her smoldering pit at Kilauea to go to the beach.
After frolicking in the Hawaiian surf with her sisters,
she lay down for a nap in a cave.
But before she fell asleep,
she warned her sisters that if any of them woke her
she would kill them all!
(Whoa, grouchy!)
If it were absolutely necessary to awaken her
she said that her youngest sister,
Hi'iaka, should be the one to do it.
At the time, Hi'iaka was out playing in the Lehua groves,
and making friends with a tree spirit, named Hopoe,
who quickly became Hi'iaka's best friend.
Meanwhile, the dream spirit of the sleeping Pele traveled to
Kauai where there was a hula performance in the Alaka sacred hall.
And there she found the prince Lohiau.
The prince saw her and fell in love with her instantly.
He invited her to eat with him and then go back to his house.
Pele allowed the prince to kiss her but not to touch her--which is a little confusing,
because, isn't kissing a kind of touching?-- anyway, the Prince tried getting handsy
anyway, and Pele floated away back to Hawaii.
Distraught beyond compare,
he (Lohiau) hanged himself with his loincloth.
Thaught Bubble, you can take it from here.
After a few days Pele's sisters grew worried about her trance-like nap
and summoned Hi'iaka to wake her.
The little sister chanted over her big sister's body
and the great goddess woke up (and didn't kill anyone).
Pele asked each of her sisters to go to Kauai
and fetch Lohiau, but they were all too afraid
to make the journey--except for Hi'iaka.
Pele promised the youngest sister that-
-after she accomplished her task, Pele would take Lohiau as a lover
for five days and nights, and then he would belong to Hi'iaka.
Before going, Hi'iaka made Pele promise
not to destroy the Lehua groves where her friend Hopoe lived.
She also asked for some of Pele's magic power to help her on her journey.
Hi'iaka made the dangerous trip to Kauai
where she found that Lohiau had been dead.. for many days.
--well, mostly dead.
Hi'iaka looked closely and noticed above the prince's body a dim ghost-Spirit hovering.
Using all her extra magic power she brought Lohiau back to life.
While Hi'iaka was away on her journey, Pele broke her promise,
and her lava destroyed the Lehua groves! --KILLING Hopoe!
Hi'iaka saw this betrayal so she decided that, since the bargain was broken,
she would take Lohiau as her own, saying,
"I have faithfully kept the compact between myself and my sister,"
"I have not touched her lover,"
"I have not let him caress me,"
"I have not given him a kiss."
"Now that compact is at an end."
"I am free to treat this handsome man as my own lover,"
"-this man, who has had a desire for me."
"And I will let Pele with her own eyes see the compact broken."
Thank you Thought Bubble!
So that's exactly what Hi'iaka did.
When their sisters saw her kissing Lohiau,
they tattled to Pele, who responded,
"Mouths were made made for kissing."
Which makes it seem like she's okay with it
--but she's definitely not okay with it.
Pele called upon the other great gods
to help her destroy Lohiau..
which they did..
with LAVA.
The lava spared Hi'iaka but flowed over Lohiau
who died...
AGAIN.
Pele, still angry, would have destroyed the world itself,
but another God, Kane the earth-shaper, calmed her down.
The story doesn't end there though.
A great sorcerer came to the pit where Pele and her sisters lived
and asked them why his friend, Lohiau, had been destroyed.
After the sisters told him, he asked, "why, since Lohiau had
already died, did he have to die again?"
Pele asked him to explain what he meant
and the sorcerer told her
about what Hi'iaka had done on Kauai to save Lohiau.
Hi'iaka confirmed her deeds,
explaining that she had saved him,
but only smooched him
after learning Pele off'd her rad tree pal.
The sorcerer then asked Pele to show herself to him.
He fell down and adored her,
an act which seemed to soften her heart.
Pele sent to her brother, Ka-moho-alii, to find Lohiau's spirit
and bring him back to life.
Hi'iaka found him in the charred groves,
the place where the destroyed Lehua
were beginning to grow again.
As they wandered together through Hawaii,
they knew that the goddess of the pit
was not now so terror-inspiring.
As a mother goddess,
Pele has power over life and,
Pele has power over life and, especially,
Pele has power over life and, especially, death.
Her actions are often destructive but also..
Her actions are often destructive but also.. regenerative.
By the end of the story,
the Lehua groves are regrowing, and
the love between her sister and the prince is rekindled.
the love between her sister and the prince is rekindled. (wink!)
While Pele's powers are terrible,
we should also note that she sometimes chooses to limit them.
Pele makes threats,
including the threat of killing her sisters,
but she doesn't follow through.
Circumstances can also alter her behavior.
When she discovers the truth about Hi'iaka's loyalty,
and her efforts to bring Lohiau back,
Pele's attitude changes. She.. .
Pele's attitude changes. She.. . cools off a bit.
Does this mean that our actions towards the gods
can influence their actions upon us?
Or is it primarily an analogy for how we, as humans,
should behave towards one another:
honoring our elders, but also keeping our promises.
Maybe it's just about n ot getting hot under the collar about your sister!
The creation of the social order is another aspect of
great goddess mythology.
One we can see echoed in our next story:
The White Buffalo Calf Woman.
The Lakota, Nakota and Dakota tribes who populate the northern
Great Plains of the United States, and part of Canada, are sometimes lumped under
the name, "Sioux," but since that has pejorative connotations
we're going with the "D'Danke Oh Yah De," or "Buffalo Nation."
The people of the Buffalo Nation have a complex religious system
that sees the world as challenging and haphazard,
forcing people to accept loss
and work to complete the unfinished world.
In this context the White Buffalo Calf Woman is a culture bringer;
"She gives the [Buffalo Nation People] objects and practices that symbolize and define
their way of relating to the spirit and human worlds."
This is a version of her story:
Long ago
the people of the [Buffalo Nation] came together
at the seven sacred council fires because
there was no game and the people were starving.
They decided to send two Scouts to find something--anything--to eat.
This was so long ago that it was before horses,
so the scouts would have to go out on foot.
The two Scouts searched everywhere, but found nothing;
until one day, they spotted a distant figure
floating...
floating... not walking!
--and because of this they knew that
that person was "wakan," or "holy."
This person was Ptesan-Wi, the White Buffalo Calf Woman,
and she was very beautiful.
Each man saw her and reacted differently.
One was in awe of her,
but the other was overcome.. by desire..
and he tried to touch her.
Instantly he was struck by lightning,
and burned into a heap of black bones.
So, if we've learned anything today, its that-
Goddess Groping = Gruesome Death.
White Buffalo Calf Woman told the other Scout
that good things would come to the Buffalo Nation people, and that he should
return to camp and await her arrival.
He did as he was told, and the camp
prepared itself for the holy one.
Four days later White Buffalo Calf Woman
arrived with a bundle and was made welcome.
She told the people to create an altar
and a rack for the holy thing that she had brought them.
When they had done as she instructed,
she opened the bundle and revealed..
..the "Chanunpa," the sacred pipe.
the White Buffalo Calf Woman showed the people how to pray, and how to use the pipe:
How to fill it, and sing the songs that went along with it. She told them,
"With this holy pipe you will walk like a living prayer.
With your feet resting upon the Earth
and the pipe-stem reaching into the sky
your body forms a living bridge
between the sacred beneath and the sacred above.
Wakan Tanka smiles upon us, because now we are one:
earth,
sky,
all living things,
the two-legged,
the four-legged,
the winged ones,
the trees
the grasses.
Together with the people, they are all related,
one family,
the pipe holds them together."
She told them of the pipe's symbolism:
the bowl and the stem were carved by men,
and the decoration of the pipe was the work of women.
The pipe binds men and women together and is used in marriage ceremonies.
Women, according to the White Buffalo Calf Woman, are equal to men in importance
because their work and their bodies
keep the people alive.
"You are from the mother earth,"
she told the women.
"What you are doing is as great as what the warriors do."
The White Buffalo Calf Woman gave many gifts to the Buffalo Nation
including corn, wild turnips,
and the knowledge of how to cook wild turnips,
which--I mean, I sure as heck wouldn't know so,
thanks Ptesan-Wi!
She told the people that they were special,
and that this was why they had been given the Chanunpa.
Most important, when the White Buffalo Calf woman left the people,
promising that she would see them again,
the great buffalo herds appeared,
allowing themselves to be killed-
-so that people could eat and live.
Unlike the Pele story,
Ptesan-Wi's interactions are mostly with humans
and with groups
rather than other gods or individuals.
And rather than being mercurial, the White Buffalo Calf Woman
offers a sense of order,
and a sense that the right behavior will be rewarded.
In short, great goddesses are powerful,
great goddesses are desirable,
the goddesses giveth,
and the great goddesses taketh away.
And, in a way, they suggest a relationship between the sacred and the profane;
teetering, like many deities, on a line between
worldly desire and otherworldly authority.
So, maybe most importantly, remember:
terrible things will happen to you
if you try to touch a great goddess without permission.
Consent is Sexy!
Thanks for watching, We'll see you next time.
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Thanks for watching,
and as Pele says,
"Mouths were made for kissing!"
"Mouths were made for kissing!" *smooch*