Then he just strolls on back to his cradle.Īpollo soon learns that some of his cattle are missing and he is furious. Instead, he hides the meat and cow-skins in the cave, throws his sandals in the river and covers over the fire. Hermes whips up a fire, kills two of the cows and roasts them but doesn't eat them, which is kind of strange since he's supposedly so hungry. He also invents some backwards sandals that hide his own tracks- again, clever baby. To get them into the cave, he makes them walk backwards so their footprints would be difficult to follow. Hermes steals fifty cows and hides them in a nearby cave. So he runs to Pieria where his brother Apollo keeps his sacred cattle. Then Hermes gets hungry, but not for milk he wants some meat. Anyway, he turns the tortoise shell into a lyre which he starts to play, inventing lyrics to accompany his music pretty creative for a baby. I don't know what you were expecting we're talking about tricksters. Okay, so, baby Hermes sneaks out of his cradle and killed a tortoise. But instead of getting into all that, let's explore one of the famous myths about Hermes, which begins when he was just a wee little baby trickster. Since Hermes was also the god of travellers and roads maybe these herms were meant to.point travellers in the right direction? Tricksters like Hermes are often associated with extreme sexual appetites and also with creativity - a connection which makes a lot of sense when we think back to our stories about creation of the world. These are called herms and were frequently placed at crossroads. Hermes was a phallic god and all around Greece you could find square pillars topped with a bust of his head and featuring a male member. But hey, fun fact, he has a big presence in statuary. We haven't talked much about Hermes because there aren't too many myths where he's a main character - usually he's a messenger, more than a central focus. I mean, he does disguise himself as a biting fly so he's definitely not like the best. We're going to focus on Europe in this episode, looking specifically at Hermes, the Greek version of Thoth here, and also Loki, who in today's myth actually somehow isn't the worst.sorta. We're going to look at tricksters as a culture hero, meaning someone whose creativity adds to the culture of the mythological world they inhabit. Hey, there, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Mythology, and today we're continuing with Tricksters. Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet? Noe, Shawn Arnold, Eric Prestemon, Malcolm Callis, Advait Shinde, Rachel Bright, Khaled El Shalakany, Ian Dundore, Tim Curwick, Ken Penttinen, Dominic Dos Santos, Indika Siriwardena, Caleb Weeks, Kathrin Janßen, Nathan Taylor, Andrei Krishkevich, Brian Thomas Gossett, Chris Peters, Kathy & Tim Philip, Mayumi Maeda, Eric Kitchen, SR Foxley, Tom Trval, Cami Wilson, Moritz Schmidt, Jessica Wode, Daniel Baulig, Jirat Mark, Les Aker, Bob Kunz, Mark Austin, William McGraw, Jeffrey Thompson, Ruth Perez, Jason A Saslow, D.A. Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever: All that's to say, this is a good one.Ĭrash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at This episode has it all! Cattle rustling, cook outs, luthiery, joke haircuts, and Gullinbursti the Battle Swine. We'll learn how the shennanigans of Hermes are credited with deeply influencing Greek culture and myth, and we'll look at how Loki's tricks led to a lot of important aspects of Norse myth. Basically, a culture hero is someone whose creativity adds to their mythological culture. In this episode, we're talking about tricksters as culture heroes. In which Mike Rugnetta continues to teach you about tricksters.
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