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  • Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're gonna

  • put on our mythical coats, grab our mythical hats, hop on a mythical mode of public transportation

  • and get ourselves into the hustle and bustle of mythical cities.

  • Some of these cities are real, some are fictional, and some are even metaphorical.

  • But all of them are metropolitain!

  • Come on, Thoth!

  • The Bifrost Bus only runs once an hour!

  • [Intro] City myths can be tricky.

  • They're not like other mythical places we've looked at-- like gardens, caves, or mountains--because

  • they don't belong to the natural world.

  • They're man made, or sometimes god made.

  • And this means that the stories we tell about them can be a little different.

  • A lot of the stories we have about cities are closer to tall tales, which are fun, but

  • they don't meet our criteria for myth, mostly because they're, well...a little unserious.

  • A good example of a tall tale city is El Dorado, the city of gold said to exist somewhere in

  • South America, that really tended to be more of a metaphor for some ultimate prize that

  • one may search for endlesslybut likely never actually attain.

  • And some urban tales are almost too serious--they're places that really existed, with archaeological

  • evidence and complicated histories that transcend the stories we tell about them.

  • Probably the best known of these is Troy, whose siege is described in the Iliad.

  • The archaeological history of Troy is fascinating, but I'll leave that for Crashcourse Archaeology.

  • Just kidding.

  • There's no Crashcourse Archeology.

  • [[[Thoth comes on like Indiana Jones.]]]

  • Or maybe we just haven't discovered it yet.

  • Another significant archeological city that has a mythical story attached to it is Jericho.

  • Jericho is one of the oldest cities in human history, but is probably best known for the

  • story of its destruction at the hands of Joshua in the Old Testament.

  • According to the story, the Lord tells Joshua to march around the city walls for six days

  • with seven priests blowing ram's horns as they carry the ark of the covenant, a chest

  • that contains the ten commandments.

  • On the seventh day, following the Lord's instructions, Joshua has the army march around

  • the city seven times and on the seventh circuit he has the trumpets sound and the army shout

  • its war cry.

  • According to the book of Joshua, chapter 6, verse 20:

  • When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the

  • men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they

  • took the city.”

  • It's a great story, but archaeologists are still arguing over whether or not a walled

  • city even existed at the time of Joshua.

  • And even if it did exist, trumpets probably didn't bring it down.

  • Looking at things etiologically, as we sometimes do, is fun, but it isn't ALWAYS possible

  • to reconcile myths and historical remains.

  • This is especially true of living cities, which have to go about their business while

  • also existing as a repository of stories about them.

  • Let's start with a holy site mentioned in the Bible, but still standing today, a holy

  • site common to all three Abrahamic religions: Jerusalem.

  • It might be an understatement to say that Jerusalem has been the subject of many stories.

  • And the imagery used to describe Jerusalem changes dramatically depending upon who's

  • doing the describing and when.

  • Sometimes the city is beautiful, sometimes ugly.

  • Sometimes Jerusalem is personified as a not especially reputable mythic woman.

  • This is particularly true during the Babylonian captivity, a time in the 6th century BCE when

  • the babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar kept sacking Jerusalem and sending Jews into exile.

  • This all led to some complicated feelings about Jerusalem.

  • The lamentations of Jeremiah begin:

  • How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!

  • She is become as a widow, that was great among the nations!

  • She that was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!

  • (1:1) Okay.

  • A tributary.

  • Not so bad.

  • But then it gets unpleasant, Jeremiah continues:

  • Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing;

  • All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness:

  • Yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

  • Her filthiness was in her skirts; she remembered not her latter end;

  • Therefore is she come down wonderfully; she hath no comforter: (1:8-9)

  • Yeah I mean, Jeremiah's ambivalence is maybe understandable.

  • It's hard to see your sacred city conquered and destroyed.

  • Though as for Jeremiah comparing the city to a lewd and unclean woman, it's not the

  • only time the Bible deploys the female image unfairly.

  • But maybe we can read it as a lamentation for a city that was supposed to nurture him

  • but is now taunting him and other Jews by harboring their conquerors.

  • The Jews eventually go back and rebuild Jerusalem so hopefully some of these feelings abate.

  • In the New Testament, Jerusalem is described as a woman again, but this woman is more

  • well, clean.

  • In the Book of Revelation, John invents an idealized Jerusalem, a New Jerusalem intended

  • as a new spiritual home.

  • In chapter 12 he says:

  • And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared

  • as a bride adorned for her husband.

  • (Rev 21:2) So which is it?

  • Bride or harlot covered in filth? ... both?

  • Some cities in the Bible are often classed as places of sin -- Sodom and Gomorrah being

  • the most obvious example -- but let's not forget: cities also provide opportunities

  • for humankind to unite.

  • For the early Christians, the ideal city wasn't Jerusalem, but Rome.

  • We haven't talked a great deal about Roman mythology in this series, largely because

  • it draws heavily on Greek sources, but Romans did create their own mythological history,

  • particularly for their city.

  • We're going to look at two important myths surrounding the founding of Rome, involving,

  • you might be shocked to learn: families and violence.

  • One story of the foundation of Rome comes from Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid.

  • This is the story of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who escapes the sack of Troy with his aged

  • father, his young son, and statues of his household gods.

  • Eventually he makes his way to Italy where he and his group of Trojans settle.

  • There, Aeneas marries Lavinia, the daughter of the king of Latium.

  • Anchises, Aeneas's dad, dies during the journey, but in book six of the Aeneid, Aeneas

  • goes to the underworld and his father explains to him the future history of Rome.

  • Anchises mentions a future descendant called Romulus:

  • Of him, my son, Great Rome shall rise, and, favored of his

  • star, Have power world-wide, and men of godlike

  • mind.

  • She clasps her seven hills in single wall, Proud mother of the brave

  • That's right, it's not Aeneas who founds Rome.

  • It's his son who settles at Alba Longa, and a later descendantRomuluswho builds

  • the city of seven hills.

  • But hold the mythical phone for just a moment... who is thisRomulus”?

  • The story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus begins in Alba Longa where a woman named

  • Rhea Silvia lives.

  • Unfortunately for Rhea, Mars, the god of war, is obsessed with her.

  • And after cornering her in a sacred grove heseducesher -- which, I mean, let's

  • be real, probably he rapes her.

  • Now pregnant, Rhea goes to her uncle, King Amulius, for help.

  • But Amulius is furious.

  • Instead of helping his niece, he imprisons her.

  • When she finally gives birth, he orders her twin sons to be left to die on the bank of

  • the Tiber river.

  • Abandoned, the twins are suckled by a gentle she-wolf until they're found by a shepherd

  • named Faustulus who raises them.

  • Probably because of their early troubled lifeoh but also because they were sort of raised

  • by a wolf?–the boys turn to crime, eventually stealing some of Amulius's sheep.

  • Remus is captured and taken before Amulius for trial.

  • At this point, Faustulus reveals to Romulus the brothers' true identities.

  • Romulus, in good criminal-hero fashion, sets off for Alba Longa to get revenge on his great-uncle

  • the king.

  • Romulus kills Amulius and rescues Remus.

  • He gives the vacant throne to Amulius's grandfather Numitor and then the twins go

  • off to found their own city, which brings us to the Thoughtbubble.

  • Romulus and Remus decide where they were abandoned, on the banks of the Tiber, would be a great

  • place for a new city, but they can't agree on the exact location.

  • Romulus receives a sign from the gods telling him to choose the Palatine hill as the site,

  • so he sets out to mark the boundaries by digging a ditch.

  • Remus sets up camp opposite him on the Aventine hill.

  • Remus, the more headstrong of the two brothers, jumps over the ditch to show Romulus that

  • it's not exactly invasion proof.

  • Romulus, seeing this as sacrilege, kills his brother and becomes the sole ruler of the

  • new city.

  • That's why it's calledRomeand notReemand I think we're all thankful

  • for that.

  • Imagine being a REEMAN instead of a ROMAN.

  • BUGH.

  • So Romulus has a spot for his city and no rival twin, but he still has one big problem:

  • not enough people.

  • So he puts out the word that the hill will be a refuge for the criminals and runaways

  • of Italy.

  • And that's exactly who shows up.

  • Roman historian Livy calls them “a miscellaneous rabble, without distinction of bond or free.”

  • But that rabble is almost entirely male, and in order to populate the city, Romulus and

  • the city leaders invite visitors from neighboring cities to celebrate a harvest festival with

  • them.

  • After the visitors arrive, at a pre-arranged signal, the Romans seize all the young women.

  • And grow the Roman population through ... mass rape.

  • BUGH Thanks Thoughtbubble.

  • These stories, like the ones in the Bible, remind us how easily myths can gloss over

  • or sometimes even glamorize terribly violent actions.

  • The founding and conquering and defending of cities can get really ugly.

  • Some myths reflect this, others choose to pretty up their origin stories with magic

  • and stuff.

  • The story of Rome's founding highlights some of the complexity to be found in mythical

  • cities.

  • Many cities have origin stories, some more historically grounded than others.

  • When we're dealing with actual cities, that have archaeological and written histories,

  • we often find that the myths surrounding the city jibe with that history.

  • Jericho was besieged and conquered at some point, though it's unlikely that trumpet

  • blasts were responsible.

  • Rome, built on the Palatine, and became the seat of one of the most expansive empires

  • in the world.

  • One empire that relied on cunning and violence, characteristics that we might easily ascribe

  • to its pro-wolf, pro-rape, pro-conquest, brother-murderer of a founder.

  • Cities are ambivalent, morally ambiguous places.

  • Kind of like everywhere else people live.

  • And with that, we've reached the border of our final mythical place.

  • Next episode, we move on to the first examination of mythical beasts.

  • Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.

Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're gonna

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