Unearthing The Bones of Greece's Ancient 'Giants' [2:18]

Did dinosaur fossils inspire the mythical griffin? Did mammoth bones shape the story of the Gigantomachy? Were the cyclopes modeled on the skulls of dwarf elephants? This video investigates some of the fascinating intersections between fossils and the Greek myths. This video is part of a collaboration with ‪@NORTH02 --‬ Check out their video "Scimitar Cats, Cave Bears, and Behemoths" for more on the fossils that so fascinated the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and the Greek Myths | 8:55
toldinstone | 522K subscribers | 179,486 views | August 20, 2021

Transcript
· Introduction
0:01 · in 58 bc
0:03 · marcus emilius scouris an ambitious
0:06 · roman politician
0:07 · sponsored spectacular games
0:10 · a zoo was set up in the circus complete
0:13 · with an artificial lake for crocodiles
0:15 · and hippos
0:17 · a wooden theater rose nearby gleaming
0:19 · with imported marble columns
0:22 · and on the campus marshes alongside many
0:25 · other marvels from distant lands the
0:27 · skeleton of a monster was displayed
0:31 · the monster's bones were colossal
0:34 · the ribs were taller than the mightiest
0:36 · elephant
0:37 · the spine was a foot and a half thick
0:39 · and no less than 40 feet 12 meters long
0:44 · these it was proclaimed were the remains
0:46 · of the beast sent to devour princess
0:49 · andromeda slain by the hero perseus
0:53 · we don't know what the bones actually
0:55 · were
0:56 · they may have belonged to a beached
0:58 · sperm whale
1:00 · or they may have been fossils discovered
1:02 · by chance and associated with the only
1:05 · stories that seemed to explain them the
1:07 · greek myths
1:10 · this video is a collaboration with
1:12 · north02
1:14 · a channel dedicated to paleontology and
1:16 · anthropology
1:18 · northzero2's video linked in the
1:20 · description explores the prehistoric
1:22 · animals whose fossils so fascinated the
1:25 · greeks and romans
1:27 · my video investigates how those fossils
1:29 · impacted the greek myths
1:32 · so without any further ado let's launch
1:34 · into our first myth
· Dinosaurs and Griffins
1:37 · beyond the roving scythians
1:39 · by the roots of the deadly mountains
1:41 · that guarded the passes to india
1:43 · griffins prowled
1:45 · they were massive creatures with lions
1:47 · bodies and the wings and beaks of eagles
1:51 · when they weren't hunting in the
1:53 · wilderness around their windswept home
1:55 · they were burrowing with their powerful
1:56 · claws seeking gold for their nests
2:00 · near the griffins lived the aramaspians
2:03 · a tribe of men born with only one eye
2:06 · despite rather limited depth perception
2:09 · the aramaspians had no trouble seeing
2:11 · the value of the gold heaped around the
2:13 · griffin's nests
2:15 · on moonless nights they rode into the
2:18 · deserts where the griffins lived and
2:20 · quietly plundered the nests
2:22 · if the griffins woke they attacked the
2:24 · men killing anyone they could catch
2:28 · according to classical folklorist
2:30 · Adrienne Mayor the Greek stories about
2:32 · griffins originated in the foothills of
2:34 · the altay and tianshan mountains where
2:37 · mesozoic fossils erode from slopes of
2:40 · red stone
2:42 · one of the more common fossils in this
2:44 · region is the protoceratops
2:46 · a small dinosaur with a festive crest on
2:49 · its head
2:50 · protoceratops fossils are sometimes
2:53 · found almost complete occasionally near
2:55 · nests of fossilized eggs
2:59 · here mayer argues are all the
3:01 · ingredients of the griffin myth nomadic
3:04 · miners and traders seeing the bones and
3:07 · eggs understood them as the remains of
3:09 · winged beasts guarding their nests
3:12 · associated those remains with stray
3:13 · deposits of alluvial gold and created a
3:16 · tradition that was eventually
3:18 · communicated to the greek world
3:21 · so were protoceratops fossils really
3:24 · responsible for the griffins
3:26 · possibly but we should be wary of
3:29 · assuming a direct causal relationship
3:32 · griffin-like composite creatures had a
3:34 · long history in greek art and appeared
3:36 · centuries before any conceivable contact
3:38 · with central asia
3:40 · the greek conception of the griffin may
3:42 · have been influenced more or less
3:44 · indirectly by central asian fossils but
3:47 · there's no way to conclusively prove a
3:49 · connection
3:51 · in the depths of mythic time the gods
· Mammoths and Giants
3:54 · confronted a terrible threat
3:56 · huge and terrifying creatures
3:58 · snake-footed with the primordial
4:00 · strength of their mother earth
4:02 · the giants
4:04 · armed with boulders and tree trunks the
4:06 · giants climbed the slopes of olympus and
4:09 · attacked the palaces of the gods
4:11 · every god was involved in the ensuing
4:13 · battle
4:15 · dionysus swatted giants with his iv'd
4:17 · staff
4:18 · hephaestus hurled missiles of liquid
4:20 · metal
4:22 · zeus struck down the mightiest giant
4:24 · with a thunderbolt
4:26 · at last after a titanic struggle the
4:28 · giants were hurled down to earth where
4:30 · hercules finished off the survivors
4:34 · the ancient greeks saw evidence of the
4:36 · giants fall all around them
4:39 · many parts of greece have rich fossil
4:41 · deposits from the miocene to pleistocene
4:44 · epics
4:45 · when mammoths mastodons and other
4:48 · oversized critters wandered the
4:50 · landscape
4:52 · the fossils left by these animals were
4:54 · enormous the biggest mammoths stood up
4:57 · to fifteen feet or four and a half
4:59 · meters at the shoulder
5:02 · since the best preserved bones from
5:04 · these skeletons are often human-looking
5:06 · femurs and scapulae and since the greeks
5:09 · who had not yet encountered elephants
5:11 · knew of no living animals so huge
5:14 · large fossils were frequently
5:16 · interpreted as the remains of fallen
5:18 · giants
5:20 · the greeks associated several places
5:22 · with the battle of the gods and giants
5:24 · but thought the giant's last stand had
5:26 · occurred near megalopolis in the central
5:28 · peloponnese where masses of prehistoric
5:31 · bones were embedded in deposits of
5:33 · ligonite coal
5:35 · the coal beds were combustible and sent
5:37 · up clouds of smoke when kindled by
5:39 · summer lightning
5:41 · this it was thought was the terrible
5:43 · fire of zeus's thunderbolts still
5:45 · smoldering after many centuries
5:49 · as in the case of the griffins we
5:50 · shouldn't assume that the megalopolous
5:53 · fossils were responsible for the myth of
5:55 · the giants fall
5:57 · the myth almost certainly came first and
5:59 · shaped the interpretation of the huge
6:01 · bones
6:02 · but if nothing else the megalopolis
6:05 · fossils gave dramatic physical shape to
6:08 · the giants and their battle with the
6:09 · gods in the greek imagination
6:12 · and now our final and most famous
· Dwarf Elephants and Cyclopes
6:15 · example
6:16 · there were a few different groups of
6:18 · cyclopes in greek myth but the most
6:21 · notorious were the tribe of gigantic
6:23 · man-eating and generally unpleasant
6:26 · one-eyed shepherds who lived in caves on
6:28 · the coast of sicily
6:30 · in 1914 the austrian paleontologist
6:33 · ortheniel abel suggested that the
6:36 · cyclops myth was inspired by dwarf
6:38 · elephant fossils
6:40 · these remains belonged to populations
6:43 · stranded on sicily and other islands by
6:45 · the rising sea levels of ice age
6:47 · interglacial periods
6:49 · since smaller animals were better
6:51 · adapted to the scarcer resources of an
6:53 · island the ancient elephants of sicily
6:56 · gradually became much more compact than
6:58 · their mainland cousins eventually
7:00 · shrinking to the size of ponies
7:03 · the bones of dwarf elephants looked
7:05 · unlike those of any other animal
7:07 · familiar to the early greeks
7:10 · their skulls about twice human size were
7:13 · especially uncanny with a huge nasal
7:15 · cavity in the center of the forehead
7:18 · on a living elephant this is the base of
7:20 · the trunk
7:21 · but to someone who has never seen an
7:23 · elephant it looks more than a little
7:25 · like a gigantic eye socket
7:28 · it would have been easy for an ancient
7:30 · observer to mistake the fossilized head
7:32 · of a dwarf elephant for the skull of a
7:34 · monstrous one-eyed man
7:37 · especially when jumbled and half-buried
7:39 · the rest of the elephant's bones could
7:41 · be interpreted in the same light
7:43 · and since the fossils were often found
7:45 · in seaside caves it would have been
7:47 · natural to infer that the one-eyed
7:49 · giants to which the bones belonged had
7:51 · been cave dwellers
7:53 · the theory that dwarf elephant skulls
7:55 · were responsible for the greek cyclops
7:57 · is appealing
7:59 · it is however just a theory
8:02 · in this case as always we cannot assume
8:05 · a direct relationship between fossil and
8:07 · myth
8:09 · we can only point to the possibility of
8:10 · a connection and remember that myths are
8:13 · seldom straightforward things
· Conclusion
8:16 · for much more on the fossils of the
8:18 · ancient mediterranean check out the
8:19 · video by north02 which is linked in the
8:22 · description
8:24 · if you're new to my channel you might
8:25 · also be interested in my book naked
8:28 · statues fat gladiators and war elephants
8:31 · which provides more detail about the
8:32 · interpretation of fossils and many other
8:34 · aspects of greek myth and popular belief
8:38 · thanks for watching

Scimitar Cats, Cave Bears, and Behemoths - Megafauna of the Mediterranean Ice Age | 12:17
NORTH 02 | 393K subscribers | 139,860 views | August 20, 2021

Transcript
· Intro
0:00 · [Music]
0:06 · the mediterranean
0:09 · a nearly enclosed sea located at the
0:11 · crossroads of three continents
0:14 · this relatively small area has been a
0:16 · center of culture and conflict for
0:18 · thousands of years
0:21 · but like all other places it has been
0:23 · defined by its past beyond human memory
0:27 · [Music]
0:29 · this video is part of a collaboration
0:31 · with another youtuber named told in
0:33 · stone who specializes in ancient greek
0:35 · and roman history
0:37 · he'll discuss how discoveries of ice age
0:39 · fossils influenced greek mythology
0:42 · i'll talk about these fossils and about
0:44 · the animals that left them
0:47 · so after watching this video click on
0:49 · the link in the description to check out
0:50 · his video
0:52 · feel free to say hi from me in the
0:53 · comments
· Fossils
0:57 · fossils are rare remnants from the past
1:00 · less than one tenth of one percent of
1:02 · all animal species have even become
1:04 · fossils
1:06 · not individuals whole species
1:10 · goliaths and dwarfs alike lived without
1:12 · ever gracing the fossil record
1:15 · their existence is lost to the sands of
1:17 · time for eternity
1:20 · fossils are not actually the material of
1:22 · a long dead organism
1:23 · they're only a cast organic matter from
1:27 · an organism does not last long
1:29 · scavengers microorganisms and natural
1:32 · weathering are quick to destroy most
1:34 · animal remains
1:37 · the only fossils that actually survive
1:39 · need very particular conditions
1:42 · remains typically must be covered soon
1:44 · after death by some form of protection
1:48 · sediments such as sand flowing lava or
1:51 · even sticky tar can preserve animals
1:55 · then as the thousands of years tick by
1:57 · minerals seep into the remains and
1:59 · replace the organic material with rock
2:02 · once fossilized the remains are still
2:04 · not safe
2:06 · geological processes are unforgiving and
2:09 · destroy anything in their way
2:12 · because of this fossils closer in time
2:14 · to us are more common
2:17 · fossils of animals that died only 10 000
2:20 · years ago are much more abundant
2:23 · this is why we know much more about the
2:25 · pleistocene than say the cretaceous
2:29 · the mediterranean is full of different
2:30 · types of fossils
2:33 · italy and greece however are not as rich
2:35 · and more ancient remains due to its
2:37 · geology
2:38 · for this reason we will be focusing on
2:40 · the pleistocene fauna of the area
2:44 · the pleistocene fossils found around the
2:46 · mediterranean and europe are quite well
2:48 · preserved
2:50 · this is partly due to the fact that
2:51 · animals living in this area over the
2:53 · last 100 000 years spend a lot of time
2:55 · in caves
2:57 · the world has been in an ice age for the
2:59 · last 2.58 million years
3:03 · what we typically refer to as the ice
3:05 · age was the last glacial period which is
3:07 · a pulse of cold in the overall ice age
3:11 · since the world became so cold this
3:13 · caused many animals and humans alike to
3:15 · seek refuge in caves
3:18 · caves although not particularly warm do
3:21 · offer shelter from the freezing wind and
3:23 · abundant snow
3:25 · animals living in caves often fossilize
3:28 · a lot better than the ones spending
3:29 · their days walking about
3:31 · this is because a lot of animals tend to
3:33 · die in their sleep or while in
3:34 · hibernation
3:37 · this leaves their remains untouched and
3:39 · the cave protects their remains for
3:40 · thousands of years to come
3:43 · remains of animals are also brought into
3:45 · caves by predators
3:48 · this behavior sometimes causes thousands
3:50 · of bones to accumulate in the dens of
3:52 · predators
3:54 · this is why caves are such a great place
3:56 · to look for fossils
· Cave Bears
3:58 · and there are many caves located in the
4:00 · interesting geography of the
4:02 · mediterranean
4:04 · italy and greece were once home to many
4:06 · fearsome predators
4:08 · one particularly menacing animal was the
4:11 · cave bear
4:13 · standing at 3.5 meters or almost 12 feet
4:16 · they stood at twice the height of a tall
4:18 · man
4:20 · they were also massive at about a
4:21 · thousand kilograms or 2200 pounds
4:26 · they needed this size to stay warm
4:28 · during the winter and this is why many
4:30 · animals actually grew very large during
4:31 · this period
4:34 · although they could take almost any
4:35 · animal in one-on-one combat they were
4:37 · actually mainly herbivores
· Cave Lions
4:40 · another fearsome beast was the cave lion
4:44 · panthers spalia was 12 percent bigger
4:46 · than modern lions at 339 kilograms or
4:49 · 747 pounds
4:52 · they lived throughout europe including
4:54 · modern italy the iberian peninsula and
4:57 · parts of greece
4:59 · anatolia and the levant however were
5:01 · controlled primarily by modern lions
5:04 · panthera leo
5:07 · cave lions hunted a variety of animals
5:09 · including deer horses and bovits
5:12 · but some enjoy the taste of cave bear
5:15 · fossil evidence tells us that some cave
5:17 · lions actually preferred the flesh of
5:19 · these bears
5:21 · during the cold winters they would sneak
5:22 · into the cave of hibernity bear and
5:24 · attack
5:26 · not all these attempts were successful
5:28 · and larger bears had a better chance of
5:30 · waking up to a free meal
5:33 · another lesser-known animal that
5:34 · inhabited this region was the scimitar
5:36 · cat
5:38 · this animal known to science as
5:40 · homotherium
5:41 · had teeth larger than any living cat
5:45 · they were fearsome predators about the
5:47 · size of african lions that had much
5:49 · success throughout the world hunting
5:50 · beasts big and small
5:53 · homo ethereum were known to hunt young
5:55 · mammoths in groups and then drag their
5:57 · kill deep within caves
6:00 · other predators and scavengers included
6:02 · wolves and hyenas
6:05 · the wolves of europe during the
6:06 · pleistocene were different
6:08 · they were about the same size but they
6:10 · were more heavily built
6:12 · unlike modern wolves who only have to
6:14 · worry about the occasional brown bear
6:17 · competition would have been fierce for
6:18 · these pack hunters
6:21 · cave hyenas also bunched up in large
6:23 · clans that even a cave lion would try to
6:25 · stay away from
6:27 · these beasts were much stockier and
6:28 · almost twice the weight of their modern
6:30 · counterparts
6:32 · they were known to choke down on any
6:34 · fragment of bone be it a bear or an
6:36 · unlucky man
· Elephant
6:38 · but the mediterranean was home to more
6:40 · than just predators
6:43 · one of the most impressive animals that
6:45 · left behind fossils in the mediterranean
6:47 · was the straight tusk elephant
6:50 · paleoloxadon antiquis was a large
6:52 · species of elephant
6:55 · it stood 4 meters or 13 feet tall and
6:58 · weighed twice as much as modern
6:59 · elephants at 13 tons
7:03 · these animals have long called europe
7:05 · home
7:06 · when the ice age advanced it and many
7:09 · other animals retreated to the much more
7:11 · habitable mediterranean
· Dwarf Elephant
7:13 · but it also had some much smaller
7:15 · relatives
7:17 · elephants are surprisingly good swimmers
7:20 · they are buoyant and their trunk acts as
7:22 · a snorkel
7:24 · because of this they have often swam to
7:26 · find greener pastures
7:28 · pilia paleoloxadon actually conquered
7:30 · many islands in the mediterranean
7:33 · some of these islands were once home to
7:34 · the smaller descendants of paleoloxadon
7:38 · once an animal is because an elephant
7:40 · gets to an isolated island they
7:42 · typically shrink
7:44 · this is because of the evolutionary
7:46 · process of insular dwarfism
7:49 · the process is complicated but i will
7:51 · simplify it quickly
7:54 · on an island large herbivores like
7:56 · elephants get smaller because of a lack
7:58 · of resources and predators
8:02 · there isn't enough food to eat and there
8:03 · is no reason to be big because there are
8:05 · typically no predators large enough to
8:07 · eat them
8:09 · this is why when the ancient elephants
8:11 · got to these islands they rapidly shrank
8:15 · paleoloxidon fel connery shrank so much
8:18 · that it was 98 smaller than its
8:20 · ancestors
8:23 · it was only 96 centimeters or three foot
8:25 · two at the shoulder
8:27 · the largest males only weight 300 kg or
8:30 · 660 pounds
8:33 · there were three other dwarf species
8:34 · found on sicily malta crete and cyprus
· Woolly Mammoth
8:39 · they all left behind bizarre fossil
8:41 · remains that don't come off as being
8:42 · elephant in nature
8:45 · the woolly mammoth also inhabited the
8:47 · northern mediterranean
8:49 · it fared much better than paleo locks it
8:51 · on in the cold due to its hair and fat
8:54 · preserves
8:56 · it left its massive curved tusks all
8:58 · over europe
9:00 · greece and italy were also home to the
9:02 · wooly rhino
9:04 · a tanking beast covered in hair equipped
9:06 · with two horns just like the modern
9:08 · variety
9:10 · they were a common prey item of humans
9:12 · and predators alike
9:15 · step bison were another impressive beast
9:17 · to be found along the iberian peninsula
9:21 · larger than modern bison they also
9:23 · possess bigger and stronger horns
9:26 · step brown bear were another species
9:28 · found along the mediterranean
9:31 · they were more massive than modern brown
9:33 · bears at about a thousand kilograms or
9:35 · 2200 pounds
9:38 · another more ancient felid that
9:40 · inhabited southern europe was dinofelis
9:44 · these animals were similar to
9:45 · homotherium in form but were quite
9:47 · different
· Horses and Irish Elk
9:49 · they were known to prey on primates
9:52 · other notable animals from southern
9:54 · europe include the aurochs horses and
9:56 · irish elk
9:58 · aurochs were the undomesticated
10:00 · ancestors of modern cattle
10:03 · they only went extinct in about the
10:04 · 1600s
10:07 · wild horses were very common throughout
10:09 · eurasia and the mediterranean was no
10:11 · exception
10:13 · irish elk despite their name did call
10:15 · some of the iberian peninsula and italy
10:17 · home in the past
10:19 · they were over two meters or almost
10:21 · seven feet tall at the shoulder
10:24 · their heads were adorned with the
10:25 · largest antlers of any deer ever known
10:29 · from tip to tip they were 3.65 meters or
10:32 · 12 feet
10:34 · the animal itself also weighed up to 700
10:36 · kilograms or 1500 pounds
10:40 · ice age animals were truly a sight to
10:42 · see
10:44 · i wish i had the pleasure of seeing a
10:45 · wild untamed europe
10:48 · but unfortunately their world was
10:50 · changing and rather fast
10:53 · the ice age would end with rapid climate
10:55 · change roughly 11 000 years ago
10:59 · some of these animals would survive for
11:01 · a while longer but all would eventually
11:03 · fall into extinction
11:06 · their world only a memory of the past
11:09 · but their bones would still fill the
11:10 · caves of the mediterranean
11:13 · were especially dense concentrations of
11:15 · ice age fossils in and around greece
11:18 · which would significantly influence
11:20 · greek mythology
11:22 · to learn more check out toldenstone's
11:24 · video on fossils and the greek myths
11:27 · which is linked in the description
11:31 · thanks for watching make sure to like
11:33 · and subscribe it really helps out the
11:35 · channel
11:36 · check out my instagram and comment some
11:37 · video ideas down below
11:40 · i make videos about history of humans
11:42 · ancient animals and the occasional
11:43 · full-length documentary
11:46 · if that sounds interesting check out the
11:48 · over a hundred videos i have made
11:50 · well i'll see on the next episode of
11:51 · north o2 see ya
11:56 · [Music]
12:03 · uh
12:08 · [Music]
12:13 · [Music]
12:17 · you

The plots of Greek myths have leaked into our lives, providing inspiration for artists from Botticelli to Goya and sources for stories from Hamlet to Happy Days. Here, Robin Lane Fox uncovers the truth behind Greek myths and gods, revealing the stories, people, journeys andtopography that provided the source material.

This compilation is from the documentary series Greek Myths: True Stories.
The Extraordinary Truth Behind Greek Mythology | 15:27
BBC Timestamp | 788K subscribers | 69,890 views | October 31, 2024

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:02 · This fearsome abyss has been hollowed out
0:04 · over thousands of years by the rivers
0:06 · and it drops straight down
0:09 · for hundreds of feet.
0:14 · It's still known in Turkish as Cehennem.
0:18 · That's Gehenna or hell, in Muslim and Christian tradition.
0:22 · And it really would be hell now
0:24 · to try to get to the bottom.
0:31 · Fortunately, heaven doesn't require a climbing rope.
0:34 · It's a few hundred metres from hell,
0:37 · where stairs lead down into a ravine.
0:42 · In ancient times, saffron crocuses grew here,
0:46 · objects of cult for the ancient Hittites.
0:52 · Modern Turks named this place Cennet – heaven.
0:57 · But beyond heaven is the underground lair of a monster.
1:10 · One of the stories we have of the Hittite snake monster
1:14 · is that, at first, it defeated the storm god Tarḫunta,
1:18 · then stole his eyes and heart,
1:21 · which he'd hid in a cave.
1:26 · In later Greek myth, Zeus too is defeated at first
1:29 · by the snakey monster – in Greek, Typhon –
1:32 · on Mount Casius itself, we're told.
1:35 · And Typhon cuts away the god's sinews using an adamantine sickle,
1:39 · wraps them up in a bear skin
1:41 · and conceals them in his lair, the Corycian cave.
1:46 · If we consider the story in its real context,
1:49 · we can understand, for the first time, how and when
1:53 · the story passed to the Greeks and then grew.
1:59 · Visible beyond the remains of this Christian church
2:02 · is the Corycian cave of the Greek myth.
2:17 · At its mouth, there's actually an inscription which identifies it,
2:21 · although it dates from some 600 years after the Greek Dark Ages.
2:29 · To protect it from damage, it has been concealed
2:33 · and its location is known only to the cave's Turkish guardian, Haji.
2:39 · He's agreed to uncover it for me.
2:42 · I'm the first scholar to see it in years.
2:46 · In 1896, an inscription was reported here.
2:49 · It's absolutely thrilling we've managed to find it again.
2:52 · As far as I can see, beautifully cut Greek lettering.
2:56 · This really is the lifeblood of ancient history.
2:59 · This is what we rely on and we're finding it straight in front of us.
3:02 · And it looks as though it's lines of verse by one Eupeithes,
3:08 · who is in the dells and the cave.
3:14 · We'll have to wait till the lines are clearer.
3:19 · After a couple of hours of digging,
3:21 · all four lines of verse are revealed.
3:25 · Wary of going into the depths,
3:27 · Eupeithes wrote his verses and had them inscribed
3:31 · on this beautifully dressed stone.
3:35 · And what he tells us is so important for fixing its context.
3:39 · He tells us how, "I honoured and propitiated
3:42 · the gods Pan and Hermes."
3:45 · Now, that's immensely important because in the story, precisely,
3:50 · Pan and Hermes are the gods who rescue the stolen sinews of Zeus.
3:54 · So this is the cave, certainly, where it happened.
3:58 · And he calls it "ein arimois" – "in Arima" –
4:02 · a name which is going to be so important for our Greek travellers,
4:06 · but which also ties up with the Hittite placename here,
4:10 · Erimma, on the map.
4:13 · And he describes how he entered the depths,
4:16 · which are echoing with the sounds of the streams of the River Aous.
4:21 · So when he was in the bottom, he heard the echoing noise of the river.
4:25 · This is the most unlikely site.
4:27 · How did you ever come to discover there were things to excavate here?
4:30 · It was an accidental finding of this site,
4:33 · when a walker found a very interesting specimen of a hipparion.
4:40 · That is an ancient horse, isn't it?
4:42 · It is an ancient three-toed horse.
4:45 · [Robin Lane Fox] Evangelia Tsoukala is a palaeontologist.
4:49 · With her team, she's been excavating this hillside near Mende
4:55 · and has made some remarkable discoveries.
4:58 · - I can show you here, a very extraordinary bone.
5:03 · - Yeah! It's one of the biggest things I've ever seen!
5:05 · - It is a femur of a mastodon. - Oh, my goodness.
5:08 · What is it?
5:09 · It is an ancestor of the mammoth.
5:11 · Ah! Right.
5:12 · I mean, if I look at it knowing nothing,
5:14 · I might think this was the bone of some enormously heavyweight human.
5:18 · - The imagination of the layman is incredible
5:23 · and I have an example from my excavation in Grevena,
5:26 · with the huge mastodons there
5:29 · and the people there thought that they would come from an elephant from a circus.
5:34 · From a circus? And they'd escaped!
5:36 · But you persuaded them?
5:38 · After 20 years, yes.
5:43 · [Robin] This hillside has already produced many other giant prehistoric bones.
5:48 · They must have been a race of gigantic people.
5:50 · What I'm thinking is that the Greeks, Euboeans, who had been out in Naples
5:55 · and had seen the shattered remains of the battlefield,
5:58 · where the gods had zapped the giants with thunderbolts,
6:02 · I can now understand why they come up here
6:04 · and they think, this is the camp.
6:05 · This is where the giants bred, where they lived.
6:08 · Once you see it, you can see what the Euboeans concluded.
6:11 · Those things are far bigger than me.
6:13 · They're proof. The poets knew. These are giants.
6:17 · And this is why the whole story is partly located here
6:20 · and partly located on the smouldering volcanoes in Italy.
6:24 · I think it was possibly here
6:26 · that a really important lesson was learned.
6:30 · Somewhere, one day,
6:31 · an inquisitive Euboean sat with a Phoenician
6:35 · and looked and listened while the Phoenician
6:38 · wrote out the letters of his script
6:40 · and described them.
6:42 · And the Greek adapted them and copied them down
6:45 · as letters still in use in the modern Greek alphabet –
6:48 · alpha, beta, gamma.
6:50 · Exactly the order which we know Phoenicians used for their own letters,
6:56 · aleph, bet, gamel.
6:58 · The Greek thought he needed signs for the vowel sounds he was hearing,
7:02 · so he added them – epsilon, iota and so forth –
7:06 · making the fullest alphabet the one which is most easy to read.
7:10 · And it's that Greek alphabet that is the ancestor of all the alphabets
7:14 · we still use in the modern West.
7:22 · As the alphabet developed,
7:24 · myths could eventually become more fixed,
7:27 · as they were written down.
7:29 · But during the Greek Dark Ages, they were still told orally
7:33 · and open to influence.
7:36 · On Cyprus, we can follow this happening
7:39 · to the story of a local fertility goddess.
7:43 · Like other visitors to Amathous,
7:46 · Euboeans encountered her shrine.
7:50 · Her worship here dates as far back as the 2000s BC.
7:55 · Through contact with visitors from the Near East,
7:59 · she then took on a wilder sexual identity.
8:03 · And then, when the Greeks arrived,
8:05 · she became Aphrodite.
8:10 · Jacqueline Karageorghis has spent her whole life
8:13 · studying the transformations of the goddess of love.
8:30 · So, a goddess of love and sex is, in fact, for the Greeks
8:35 · an introduction in the early Dark Ages?
8:50 · You're making this Greek Aphrodite sound as though she lived in Paris.
8:54 · She's sexy and all the rest of it.
8:55 · But Jacqueline, there are said to have been
8:58 · prostitutes here, serving the cult of the goddess,
9:00 · at least by Christian sources. Do you believe that?
9:15 · And then they kept the money as their dowry, is that right?
9:23 · Nowadays, their fathers build them a house.
9:28 · To the west of Amathous is another place
9:31 · now associated with Aphrodite.
9:34 · It is known as the Rock of Aphrodite.
9:37 · And the local story is that if you swim all the way round this rock,
9:42 · you are blessed with eternal beauty.
9:48 · The beach alongside is now considered the location
9:52 · of Aphrodite's literal emergence.
9:56 · Of course, the story of Aphrodite is connected to much grander stories in heaven, Jacqueline.
10:01 · When Father Heaven is castrated, of course,
10:04 · blood and white sperm flies everywhere.
10:07 · And according to the Greeks, when the sperm falls down into the sea,
10:11 · somebody very significant is born from it.
10:14 · Your goddess, Aphrodite.
10:16 · And the Greeks, when they later thought about it,
10:19 · tried to connect that name – Aphrodite –
10:21 · with their own Greek word aphros,
10:24 · meaning "foam" or "foaming white sperm".
10:27 · Do you think it was any historical truth in that?
10:37 · Like a word play?
10:39 · That was a pretty good way to be born.
10:42 · But there is the local story
10:44 · that when she was born, she was washed to this very beach.
10:47 · This is what the Cyprus Tourist Board still tells you nowadays, Jacqueline.
10:51 · Do you think there's any history in that?
11:17 · When is the first thing, do you think?
11:21 · But it shows beautifully how what will be a myth, I'm sure, continued in modern Cyprus,
11:27 · begins and starts from a beautiful landscape
11:29 · and then acquires a force of its own, exactly as it did in the ancient world.
11:34 · This is how myths are made.
11:36 · Here in the storerooms of the Eretria Museum,
11:39 · the shelves are crammed with boxes full of objects
11:42 · excavated by the Swiss School of Archaeology.
11:47 · These finds have given us a clearer picture
11:50 · of the lives of our Euboean travellers
11:53 · and the culture in which the myths we will trace were born.
11:58 · - OK, Robin, I wanted to show you, here, two shards with the graffiti.
12:03 · - Early writing? - Writing, early writing.
12:05 · They were found in the Sanctuary of Apollo.
12:08 · The first ones dated from the end of the 9th century, early 8th century.
12:11 · We can see four letters.
12:14 · - Well, they're not Greek. I can't understand them. What are they?
12:17 · - They are Semitic. - Good heavens.
12:19 · So this is at the turning point when some Near Easterner
12:22 · has either taught a Euboean to write,
12:25 · or a Euboean is copying what he's learned, perhaps in the Near East.
12:30 · - Absolutely. But it was carved on a Euboean pot.
12:32 · This is a typical Euboean drinking cup.
12:35 · - We're right at the start of the origin of writing.
12:38 · Extraordinary. Yes.
12:40 · - And at the end of the series,
12:42 · we have, again, a graffito carved on a local pot.
12:46 · Euboean, with another four letters.
12:49 · - I think I can read it. Hera.
12:51 · - Hera.
12:52 · - Hera, yes. Four Greek letters.
12:55 · So, what we have is real moment of transition.
12:57 · We have somebody trying to write Greek in a non-Greek alphabet,
13:01 · and then we have Greek written in the real Greek alphabet.
13:04 · This is enormous, important change.
13:06 · This is really at the root of all Western civilisation.
13:10 · I mean, the Greek alphabet,
13:11 · we had then the Roman alphabet,
13:13 · the Etruscan alphabet, our alphabets.
13:15 · If they couldn't write, we wouldn't know anything about them.
13:17 · If they couldn't write down Homer,
13:19 · we wouldn't be able to read his poems.
13:20 · We wouldn't know anything about Hesiod.
13:22 · This is a real change for people
13:24 · and we're witnessing it in the palm of your hand.
13:27 · Incredible.
13:28 · - Now, I want to show you these two seals,
13:31 · which belong to the Lyre-Player Group.
13:33 · Five of them were found in the Sanctuary of Apollo.
13:36 · They were found in the northern sacrificial area.
13:38 · And where a cult is established,
13:40 · cult linked with women.
13:42 · - So this is like a calling card for Euboean women?
13:45 · Well, I never. - Yes, absolutely.
13:46 · - Talking about Euboean women in the 8th century,
13:49 · we have here the neck of an amphora.
13:52 · - Oh, there they are! Dancing. - We can see... yes.
13:54 · Or it's a procession.
13:55 · - And they're holding garlands, it looks like,
13:57 · and these very trendy skirts.
13:59 · They've had to breathe in, for the painter, anyway.
14:01 · Tight waists, long skirts, 8th-century BC fashion. Wonderful.
14:06 · This is part of a krater, Robin, where you have the typical
14:10 · Euboean 8th-century iconography, with a horse...
14:13 · - Spindly legs. Yes, there he is, the four-legged friend.
14:16 · And these aren't farm animals, are they, Sylvian?
14:18 · They don't pull carts.
14:20 · They can't, they haven't got the right collar.
14:22 · These horses, they used for competition and, above all, for war.
14:26 · It's a sign of social distinction,
14:28 · it's not just they love animals. - Absolutely.
14:30 · You're smart, you're a nobleman, you're one of the horse breeders,
14:34 · the local cavalry. Wonderful.
14:35 · - Now, this was found in the west quarter in Eretria.
14:40 · It's a very important find.
14:42 · And it's a monumental amphora.
14:45 · - Right, which stood, then, by a grave.
14:47 · Would that be right? - Exactly.
14:48 · - And I can see a chariot.
14:50 · It's a sort of chariot race or, on this bit,
14:54 · there's somebody… Oh! They're trying to jump on,
14:56 · off and on the back of the chariot. - The Apobates.
14:59 · - Yep. This is a sort of Greek game they play,
15:01 · where the skill is to jump on to a chariot
15:03 · when it's moving and jump off the back of it.
15:04 · - Probably during funerary games. - Fantastic.

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Transcript
	·	Introduction
0:01	·	in 58 bc
0:03	·	marcus emilius scouris an ambitious
0:06	·	roman politician
0:07	·	sponsored spectacular games
0:10	·	a zoo was set up in the circus complete
0:13	·	with an artificial lake for crocodiles
0:15	·	and hippos
0:17	·	a wooden theater rose nearby gleaming
0:19	·	with imported marble columns
0:22	·	and on the campus marshes alongside many
0:25	·	other marvels from distant lands the
0:27	·	skeleton of a monster was displayed
0:31	·	the monster's bones were colossal
0:34	·	the ribs were taller than the mightiest
0:36	·	elephant
0:37	·	the spine was a foot and a half thick
0:39	·	and no less than 40 feet 12 meters long
0:44	·	these it was proclaimed were the remains
0:46	·	of the beast sent to devour princess
0:49	·	andromeda slain by the hero perseus
0:53	·	we don't know what the bones actually
0:55	·	were
0:56	·	they may have belonged to a beached
0:58	·	sperm whale
1:00	·	or they may have been fossils discovered
1:02	·	by chance and associated with the only
1:05	·	stories that seemed to explain them the
1:07	·	greek myths
1:10	·	this video is a collaboration with
1:12	·	north02
1:14	·	a channel dedicated to paleontology and
1:16	·	anthropology
1:18	·	northzero2's video linked in the
1:20	·	description explores the prehistoric
1:22	·	animals whose fossils so fascinated the
1:25	·	greeks and romans
1:27	·	my video investigates how those fossils
1:29	·	impacted the greek myths
1:32	·	so without any further ado let's launch
1:34	·	into our first myth
	·	Dinosaurs and Griffins
1:37	·	beyond the roving scythians
1:39	·	by the roots of the deadly mountains
1:41	·	that guarded the passes to india
1:43	·	griffins prowled
1:45	·	they were massive creatures with lions
1:47	·	bodies and the wings and beaks of eagles
1:51	·	when they weren't hunting in the
1:53	·	wilderness around their windswept home
1:55	·	they were burrowing with their powerful
1:56	·	claws seeking gold for their nests
2:00	·	near the griffins lived the aramaspians
2:03	·	a tribe of men born with only one eye
2:06	·	despite rather limited depth perception
2:09	·	the aramaspians had no trouble seeing
2:11	·	the value of the gold heaped around the
2:13	·	griffin's nests
2:15	·	on moonless nights they rode into the
2:18	·	deserts where the griffins lived and
2:20	·	quietly plundered the nests
2:22	·	if the griffins woke they attacked the
2:24	·	men killing anyone they could catch
2:28	·	according to classical folklorist
2:30	·	Adrienne Mayor the Greek stories about
2:32	·	griffins originated in the foothills of
2:34	·	the altay and tianshan mountains where
2:37	·	mesozoic fossils erode from slopes of
2:40	·	red stone
2:42	·	one of the more common fossils in this
2:44	·	region is the protoceratops
2:46	·	a small dinosaur with a festive crest on
2:49	·	its head
2:50	·	protoceratops fossils are sometimes
2:53	·	found almost complete occasionally near
2:55	·	nests of fossilized eggs
2:59	·	here mayer argues are all the
3:01	·	ingredients of the griffin myth nomadic
3:04	·	miners and traders seeing the bones and
3:07	·	eggs understood them as the remains of
3:09	·	winged beasts guarding their nests
3:12	·	associated those remains with stray
3:13	·	deposits of alluvial gold and created a
3:16	·	tradition that was eventually
3:18	·	communicated to the greek world
3:21	·	so were protoceratops fossils really
3:24	·	responsible for the griffins
3:26	·	possibly but we should be wary of
3:29	·	assuming a direct causal relationship
3:32	·	griffin-like composite creatures had a
3:34	·	long history in greek art and appeared
3:36	·	centuries before any conceivable contact
3:38	·	with central asia
3:40	·	the greek conception of the griffin may
3:42	·	have been influenced more or less
3:44	·	indirectly by central asian fossils but
3:47	·	there's no way to conclusively prove a
3:49	·	connection
3:51	·	in the depths of mythic time the gods
	·	Mammoths and Giants
3:54	·	confronted a terrible threat
3:56	·	huge and terrifying creatures
3:58	·	snake-footed with the primordial
4:00	·	strength of their mother earth
4:02	·	the giants
4:04	·	armed with boulders and tree trunks the
4:06	·	giants climbed the slopes of olympus and
4:09	·	attacked the palaces of the gods
4:11	·	every god was involved in the ensuing
4:13	·	battle
4:15	·	dionysus swatted giants with his iv'd
4:17	·	staff
4:18	·	hephaestus hurled missiles of liquid
4:20	·	metal
4:22	·	zeus struck down the mightiest giant
4:24	·	with a thunderbolt
4:26	·	at last after a titanic struggle the
4:28	·	giants were hurled down to earth where
4:30	·	hercules finished off the survivors
4:34	·	the ancient greeks saw evidence of the
4:36	·	giants fall all around them
4:39	·	many parts of greece have rich fossil
4:41	·	deposits from the miocene to pleistocene
4:44	·	epics
4:45	·	when mammoths mastodons and other
4:48	·	oversized critters wandered the
4:50	·	landscape
4:52	·	the fossils left by these animals were
4:54	·	enormous the biggest mammoths stood up
4:57	·	to fifteen feet or four and a half
4:59	·	meters at the shoulder
5:02	·	since the best preserved bones from
5:04	·	these skeletons are often human-looking
5:06	·	femurs and scapulae and since the greeks
5:09	·	who had not yet encountered elephants
5:11	·	knew of no living animals so huge
5:14	·	large fossils were frequently
5:16	·	interpreted as the remains of fallen
5:18	·	giants
5:20	·	the greeks associated several places
5:22	·	with the battle of the gods and giants
5:24	·	but thought the giant's last stand had
5:26	·	occurred near megalopolis in the central
5:28	·	peloponnese where masses of prehistoric
5:31	·	bones were embedded in deposits of
5:33	·	ligonite coal
5:35	·	the coal beds were combustible and sent
5:37	·	up clouds of smoke when kindled by
5:39	·	summer lightning
5:41	·	this it was thought was the terrible
5:43	·	fire of zeus's thunderbolts still
5:45	·	smoldering after many centuries
5:49	·	as in the case of the griffins we
5:50	·	shouldn't assume that the megalopolous
5:53	·	fossils were responsible for the myth of
5:55	·	the giants fall
5:57	·	the myth almost certainly came first and
5:59	·	shaped the interpretation of the huge
6:01	·	bones
6:02	·	but if nothing else the megalopolis
6:05	·	fossils gave dramatic physical shape to
6:08	·	the giants and their battle with the
6:09	·	gods in the greek imagination
6:12	·	and now our final and most famous
	·	Dwarf Elephants and Cyclopes
6:15	·	example
6:16	·	there were a few different groups of
6:18	·	cyclopes in greek myth but the most
6:21	·	notorious were the tribe of gigantic
6:23	·	man-eating and generally unpleasant
6:26	·	one-eyed shepherds who lived in caves on
6:28	·	the coast of sicily
6:30	·	in 1914 the austrian paleontologist
6:33	·	ortheniel abel suggested that the
6:36	·	cyclops myth was inspired by dwarf
6:38	·	elephant fossils
6:40	·	these remains belonged to populations
6:43	·	stranded on sicily and other islands by
6:45	·	the rising sea levels of ice age
6:47	·	interglacial periods
6:49	·	since smaller animals were better
6:51	·	adapted to the scarcer resources of an
6:53	·	island the ancient elephants of sicily
6:56	·	gradually became much more compact than
6:58	·	their mainland cousins eventually
7:00	·	shrinking to the size of ponies
7:03	·	the bones of dwarf elephants looked
7:05	·	unlike those of any other animal
7:07	·	familiar to the early greeks
7:10	·	their skulls about twice human size were
7:13	·	especially uncanny with a huge nasal
7:15	·	cavity in the center of the forehead
7:18	·	on a living elephant this is the base of
7:20	·	the trunk
7:21	·	but to someone who has never seen an
7:23	·	elephant it looks more than a little
7:25	·	like a gigantic eye socket
7:28	·	it would have been easy for an ancient
7:30	·	observer to mistake the fossilized head
7:32	·	of a dwarf elephant for the skull of a
7:34	·	monstrous one-eyed man
7:37	·	especially when jumbled and half-buried
7:39	·	the rest of the elephant's bones could
7:41	·	be interpreted in the same light
7:43	·	and since the fossils were often found
7:45	·	in seaside caves it would have been
7:47	·	natural to infer that the one-eyed
7:49	·	giants to which the bones belonged had
7:51	·	been cave dwellers
7:53	·	the theory that dwarf elephant skulls
7:55	·	were responsible for the greek cyclops
7:57	·	is appealing
7:59	·	it is however just a theory
8:02	·	in this case as always we cannot assume
8:05	·	a direct relationship between fossil and
8:07	·	myth
8:09	·	we can only point to the possibility of
8:10	·	a connection and remember that myths are
8:13	·	seldom straightforward things
	·	Conclusion
8:16	·	for much more on the fossils of the
8:18	·	ancient mediterranean check out the
8:19	·	video by north02 which is linked in the
8:22	·	description
8:24	·	if you're new to my channel you might
8:25	·	also be interested in my book naked
8:28	·	statues fat gladiators and war elephants
8:31	·	which provides more detail about the
8:32	·	interpretation of fossils and many other
8:34	·	aspects of greek myth and popular belief
8:38	·	thanks for watching

Transcript
	·	Intro
0:00	·	[Music]
0:06	·	the mediterranean
0:09	·	a nearly enclosed sea located at the
0:11	·	crossroads of three continents
0:14	·	this relatively small area has been a
0:16	·	center of culture and conflict for
0:18	·	thousands of years
0:21	·	but like all other places it has been
0:23	·	defined by its past beyond human memory
0:27	·	[Music]
0:29	·	this video is part of a collaboration
0:31	·	with another youtuber named told in
0:33	·	stone who specializes in ancient greek
0:35	·	and roman history
0:37	·	he'll discuss how discoveries of ice age
0:39	·	fossils influenced greek mythology
0:42	·	i'll talk about these fossils and about
0:44	·	the animals that left them
0:47	·	so after watching this video click on
0:49	·	the link in the description to check out
0:50	·	his video
0:52	·	feel free to say hi from me in the
0:53	·	comments
	·	Fossils
0:57	·	fossils are rare remnants from the past
1:00	·	less than one tenth of one percent of
1:02	·	all animal species have even become
1:04	·	fossils
1:06	·	not individuals whole species
1:10	·	goliaths and dwarfs alike lived without
1:12	·	ever gracing the fossil record
1:15	·	their existence is lost to the sands of
1:17	·	time for eternity
1:20	·	fossils are not actually the material of
1:22	·	a long dead organism
1:23	·	they're only a cast organic matter from
1:27	·	an organism does not last long
1:29	·	scavengers microorganisms and natural
1:32	·	weathering are quick to destroy most
1:34	·	animal remains
1:37	·	the only fossils that actually survive
1:39	·	need very particular conditions
1:42	·	remains typically must be covered soon
1:44	·	after death by some form of protection
1:48	·	sediments such as sand flowing lava or
1:51	·	even sticky tar can preserve animals
1:55	·	then as the thousands of years tick by
1:57	·	minerals seep into the remains and
1:59	·	replace the organic material with rock
2:02	·	once fossilized the remains are still
2:04	·	not safe
2:06	·	geological processes are unforgiving and
2:09	·	destroy anything in their way
2:12	·	because of this fossils closer in time
2:14	·	to us are more common
2:17	·	fossils of animals that died only 10 000
2:20	·	years ago are much more abundant
2:23	·	this is why we know much more about the
2:25	·	pleistocene than say the cretaceous
2:29	·	the mediterranean is full of different
2:30	·	types of fossils
2:33	·	italy and greece however are not as rich
2:35	·	and more ancient remains due to its
2:37	·	geology
2:38	·	for this reason we will be focusing on
2:40	·	the pleistocene fauna of the area
2:44	·	the pleistocene fossils found around the
2:46	·	mediterranean and europe are quite well
2:48	·	preserved
2:50	·	this is partly due to the fact that
2:51	·	animals living in this area over the
2:53	·	last 100 000 years spend a lot of time
2:55	·	in caves
2:57	·	the world has been in an ice age for the
2:59	·	last 2.58 million years
3:03	·	what we typically refer to as the ice
3:05	·	age was the last glacial period which is
3:07	·	a pulse of cold in the overall ice age
3:11	·	since the world became so cold this
3:13	·	caused many animals and humans alike to
3:15	·	seek refuge in caves
3:18	·	caves although not particularly warm do
3:21	·	offer shelter from the freezing wind and
3:23	·	abundant snow
3:25	·	animals living in caves often fossilize
3:28	·	a lot better than the ones spending
3:29	·	their days walking about
3:31	·	this is because a lot of animals tend to
3:33	·	die in their sleep or while in
3:34	·	hibernation
3:37	·	this leaves their remains untouched and
3:39	·	the cave protects their remains for
3:40	·	thousands of years to come
3:43	·	remains of animals are also brought into
3:45	·	caves by predators
3:48	·	this behavior sometimes causes thousands
3:50	·	of bones to accumulate in the dens of
3:52	·	predators
3:54	·	this is why caves are such a great place
3:56	·	to look for fossils
	·	Cave Bears
3:58	·	and there are many caves located in the
4:00	·	interesting geography of the
4:02	·	mediterranean
4:04	·	italy and greece were once home to many
4:06	·	fearsome predators
4:08	·	one particularly menacing animal was the
4:11	·	cave bear
4:13	·	standing at 3.5 meters or almost 12 feet
4:16	·	they stood at twice the height of a tall
4:18	·	man
4:20	·	they were also massive at about a
4:21	·	thousand kilograms or 2200 pounds
4:26	·	they needed this size to stay warm
4:28	·	during the winter and this is why many
4:30	·	animals actually grew very large during
4:31	·	this period
4:34	·	although they could take almost any
4:35	·	animal in one-on-one combat they were
4:37	·	actually mainly herbivores
	·	Cave Lions
4:40	·	another fearsome beast was the cave lion
4:44	·	panthers spalia was 12 percent bigger
4:46	·	than modern lions at 339 kilograms or
4:49	·	747 pounds
4:52	·	they lived throughout europe including
4:54	·	modern italy the iberian peninsula and
4:57	·	parts of greece
4:59	·	anatolia and the levant however were
5:01	·	controlled primarily by modern lions
5:04	·	panthera leo
5:07	·	cave lions hunted a variety of animals
5:09	·	including deer horses and bovits
5:12	·	but some enjoy the taste of cave bear
5:15	·	fossil evidence tells us that some cave
5:17	·	lions actually preferred the flesh of
5:19	·	these bears
5:21	·	during the cold winters they would sneak
5:22	·	into the cave of hibernity bear and
5:24	·	attack
5:26	·	not all these attempts were successful
5:28	·	and larger bears had a better chance of
5:30	·	waking up to a free meal
5:33	·	another lesser-known animal that
5:34	·	inhabited this region was the scimitar
5:36	·	cat
5:38	·	this animal known to science as
5:40	·	homotherium
5:41	·	had teeth larger than any living cat
5:45	·	they were fearsome predators about the
5:47	·	size of african lions that had much
5:49	·	success throughout the world hunting
5:50	·	beasts big and small
5:53	·	homo ethereum were known to hunt young
5:55	·	mammoths in groups and then drag their
5:57	·	kill deep within caves
6:00	·	other predators and scavengers included
6:02	·	wolves and hyenas
6:05	·	the wolves of europe during the
6:06	·	pleistocene were different
6:08	·	they were about the same size but they
6:10	·	were more heavily built
6:12	·	unlike modern wolves who only have to
6:14	·	worry about the occasional brown bear
6:17	·	competition would have been fierce for
6:18	·	these pack hunters
6:21	·	cave hyenas also bunched up in large
6:23	·	clans that even a cave lion would try to
6:25	·	stay away from
6:27	·	these beasts were much stockier and
6:28	·	almost twice the weight of their modern
6:30	·	counterparts
6:32	·	they were known to choke down on any
6:34	·	fragment of bone be it a bear or an
6:36	·	unlucky man
	·	Elephant
6:38	·	but the mediterranean was home to more
6:40	·	than just predators
6:43	·	one of the most impressive animals that
6:45	·	left behind fossils in the mediterranean
6:47	·	was the straight tusk elephant
6:50	·	paleoloxadon antiquis was a large
6:52	·	species of elephant
6:55	·	it stood 4 meters or 13 feet tall and
6:58	·	weighed twice as much as modern
6:59	·	elephants at 13 tons
7:03	·	these animals have long called europe
7:05	·	home
7:06	·	when the ice age advanced it and many
7:09	·	other animals retreated to the much more
7:11	·	habitable mediterranean
	·	Dwarf Elephant
7:13	·	but it also had some much smaller
7:15	·	relatives
7:17	·	elephants are surprisingly good swimmers
7:20	·	they are buoyant and their trunk acts as
7:22	·	a snorkel
7:24	·	because of this they have often swam to
7:26	·	find greener pastures
7:28	·	pilia paleoloxadon actually conquered
7:30	·	many islands in the mediterranean
7:33	·	some of these islands were once home to
7:34	·	the smaller descendants of paleoloxadon
7:38	·	once an animal is because an elephant
7:40	·	gets to an isolated island they
7:42	·	typically shrink
7:44	·	this is because of the evolutionary
7:46	·	process of insular dwarfism
7:49	·	the process is complicated but i will
7:51	·	simplify it quickly
7:54	·	on an island large herbivores like
7:56	·	elephants get smaller because of a lack
7:58	·	of resources and predators
8:02	·	there isn't enough food to eat and there
8:03	·	is no reason to be big because there are
8:05	·	typically no predators large enough to
8:07	·	eat them
8:09	·	this is why when the ancient elephants
8:11	·	got to these islands they rapidly shrank
8:15	·	paleoloxidon fel connery shrank so much
8:18	·	that it was 98 smaller than its
8:20	·	ancestors
8:23	·	it was only 96 centimeters or three foot
8:25	·	two at the shoulder
8:27	·	the largest males only weight 300 kg or
8:30	·	660 pounds
8:33	·	there were three other dwarf species
8:34	·	found on sicily malta crete and cyprus
	·	Woolly Mammoth
8:39	·	they all left behind bizarre fossil
8:41	·	remains that don't come off as being
8:42	·	elephant in nature
8:45	·	the woolly mammoth also inhabited the
8:47	·	northern mediterranean
8:49	·	it fared much better than paleo locks it
8:51	·	on in the cold due to its hair and fat
8:54	·	preserves
8:56	·	it left its massive curved tusks all
8:58	·	over europe
9:00	·	greece and italy were also home to the
9:02	·	wooly rhino
9:04	·	a tanking beast covered in hair equipped
9:06	·	with two horns just like the modern
9:08	·	variety
9:10	·	they were a common prey item of humans
9:12	·	and predators alike
9:15	·	step bison were another impressive beast
9:17	·	to be found along the iberian peninsula
9:21	·	larger than modern bison they also
9:23	·	possess bigger and stronger horns
9:26	·	step brown bear were another species
9:28	·	found along the mediterranean
9:31	·	they were more massive than modern brown
9:33	·	bears at about a thousand kilograms or
9:35	·	2200 pounds
9:38	·	another more ancient felid that
9:40	·	inhabited southern europe was dinofelis
9:44	·	these animals were similar to
9:45	·	homotherium in form but were quite
9:47	·	different
	·	Horses and Irish Elk
9:49	·	they were known to prey on primates
9:52	·	other notable animals from southern
9:54	·	europe include the aurochs horses and
9:56	·	irish elk
9:58	·	aurochs were the undomesticated
10:00	·	ancestors of modern cattle
10:03	·	they only went extinct in about the
10:04	·	1600s
10:07	·	wild horses were very common throughout
10:09	·	eurasia and the mediterranean was no
10:11	·	exception
10:13	·	irish elk despite their name did call
10:15	·	some of the iberian peninsula and italy
10:17	·	home in the past
10:19	·	they were over two meters or almost
10:21	·	seven feet tall at the shoulder
10:24	·	their heads were adorned with the
10:25	·	largest antlers of any deer ever known
10:29	·	from tip to tip they were 3.65 meters or
10:32	·	12 feet
10:34	·	the animal itself also weighed up to 700
10:36	·	kilograms or 1500 pounds
10:40	·	ice age animals were truly a sight to
10:42	·	see
10:44	·	i wish i had the pleasure of seeing a
10:45	·	wild untamed europe
10:48	·	but unfortunately their world was
10:50	·	changing and rather fast
10:53	·	the ice age would end with rapid climate
10:55	·	change roughly 11 000 years ago
10:59	·	some of these animals would survive for
11:01	·	a while longer but all would eventually
11:03	·	fall into extinction
11:06	·	their world only a memory of the past
11:09	·	but their bones would still fill the
11:10	·	caves of the mediterranean
11:13	·	were especially dense concentrations of
11:15	·	ice age fossils in and around greece
11:18	·	which would significantly influence
11:20	·	greek mythology
11:22	·	to learn more check out toldenstone's
11:24	·	video on fossils and the greek myths
11:27	·	which is linked in the description
11:31	·	thanks for watching make sure to like
11:33	·	and subscribe it really helps out the
11:35	·	channel
11:36	·	check out my instagram and comment some
11:37	·	video ideas down below
11:40	·	i make videos about history of humans
11:42	·	ancient animals and the occasional
11:43	·	full-length documentary
11:46	·	if that sounds interesting check out the
11:48	·	over a hundred videos i have made
11:50	·	well i'll see on the next episode of
11:51	·	north o2 see ya
11:56	·	[Music]
12:03	·	uh
12:08	·	[Music]
12:13	·	[Music]
12:17	·	you

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:02	·	This fearsome abyss has been hollowed out
0:04	·	over thousands of years by the rivers
0:06	·	and it drops straight down
0:09	·	for hundreds of feet.
0:14	·	It's still known in Turkish as Cehennem.
0:18	·	That's Gehenna or hell, in Muslim and Christian tradition.
0:22	·	And it really would be hell now
0:24	·	to try to get to the bottom.
0:31	·	Fortunately, heaven doesn't require a climbing rope.
0:34	·	It's a few hundred metres from hell,
0:37	·	where stairs lead down into a ravine.
0:42	·	In ancient times, saffron crocuses grew here,
0:46	·	objects of cult for the ancient Hittites.
0:52	·	Modern Turks named this place Cennet – heaven.
0:57	·	But beyond heaven is the underground lair of a monster.
1:10	·	One of the stories we have of the Hittite snake monster
1:14	·	is that, at first, it defeated the storm god Tarḫunta,
1:18	·	then stole his eyes and heart,
1:21	·	which he'd hid in a cave.
1:26	·	In later Greek myth, Zeus too is defeated at first
1:29	·	by the snakey monster – in Greek, Typhon –
1:32	·	on Mount Casius itself, we're told.
1:35	·	And Typhon cuts away the god's sinews using an adamantine sickle,
1:39	·	wraps them up in a bear skin
1:41	·	and conceals them in his lair, the Corycian cave.
1:46	·	If we consider the story in its real context,
1:49	·	we can understand, for the first time, how and when
1:53	·	the story passed to the Greeks and then grew.
1:59	·	Visible beyond the remains of this Christian church
2:02	·	is the Corycian cave of the Greek myth.
2:17	·	At its mouth, there's actually an inscription which identifies it,
2:21	·	although it dates from some 600 years after the Greek Dark Ages.
2:29	·	To protect it from damage, it has been concealed
2:33	·	and its location is known only to the cave's Turkish guardian, Haji.
2:39	·	He's agreed to uncover it for me.
2:42	·	I'm the first scholar to see it in years.
2:46	·	In 1896, an inscription was reported here.
2:49	·	It's absolutely thrilling we've managed to find it again.
2:52	·	As far as I can see, beautifully cut Greek lettering.
2:56	·	This really is the lifeblood of ancient history.
2:59	·	This is what we rely on and we're finding it straight in front of us.
3:02	·	And it looks as though it's lines of verse by one Eupeithes,
3:08	·	who is in the dells and the cave.
3:14	·	We'll have to wait till the lines are clearer.
3:19	·	After a couple of hours of digging,
3:21	·	all four lines of verse are revealed.
3:25	·	Wary of going into the depths,
3:27	·	Eupeithes wrote his verses and had them inscribed
3:31	·	on this beautifully dressed stone.
3:35	·	And what he tells us is so important for fixing its context.
3:39	·	He tells us how, "I honoured and propitiated
3:42	·	the gods Pan and Hermes."
3:45	·	Now, that's immensely important because in the story, precisely,
3:50	·	Pan and Hermes are the gods who rescue the stolen sinews of Zeus.
3:54	·	So this is the cave, certainly, where it happened.
3:58	·	And he calls it "ein arimois" – "in Arima" –
4:02	·	a name which is going to be so important for our Greek travellers,
4:06	·	but which also ties up with the Hittite placename here,
4:10	·	Erimma, on the map.
4:13	·	And he describes how he entered the depths,
4:16	·	which are echoing with the sounds of the streams of the River Aous.
4:21	·	So when he was in the bottom, he heard the echoing noise of the river.
4:25	·	This is the most unlikely site.
4:27	·	How did you ever come to discover there were things to excavate here?
4:30	·	It was an accidental finding of this site,
4:33	·	when a walker found a very interesting specimen of a hipparion.
4:40	·	That is an ancient horse, isn't it?
4:42	·	It is an ancient three-toed horse.
4:45	·	[Robin Lane Fox] Evangelia Tsoukala is a palaeontologist.
4:49	·	With her team, she's been excavating this hillside near Mende
4:55	·	and has made some remarkable discoveries.
4:58	·	- I can show you here, a very extraordinary bone.
5:03	·	- Yeah! It's one of the biggest things I've ever seen!
5:05	·	- It is a femur of a mastodon. - Oh, my goodness.
5:08	·	What is it?
5:09	·	It is an ancestor of the mammoth.
5:11	·	Ah! Right.
5:12	·	I mean, if I look at it knowing nothing,
5:14	·	I might think this was the bone of some enormously heavyweight human.
5:18	·	- The imagination of the layman is incredible
5:23	·	and I have an example from my excavation in Grevena,
5:26	·	with the huge mastodons there
5:29	·	and the people there thought that they would come from an elephant from a circus.
5:34	·	From a circus? And they'd escaped!
5:36	·	But you persuaded them?
5:38	·	After 20 years, yes.
5:43	·	[Robin] This hillside has already produced many other giant prehistoric bones.
5:48	·	They must have been a race of gigantic people.
5:50	·	What I'm thinking is that the Greeks, Euboeans, who had been out in Naples
5:55	·	and had seen the shattered remains of the battlefield,
5:58	·	where the gods had zapped the giants with thunderbolts,
6:02	·	I can now understand why they come up here
6:04	·	and they think, this is the camp.
6:05	·	This is where the giants bred, where they lived.
6:08	·	Once you see it, you can see what the Euboeans concluded.
6:11	·	Those things are far bigger than me.
6:13	·	They're proof. The poets knew. These are giants.
6:17	·	And this is why the whole story is partly located here
6:20	·	and partly located on the smouldering volcanoes in Italy.
6:24	·	I think it was possibly here
6:26	·	that a really important lesson was learned.
6:30	·	Somewhere, one day,
6:31	·	an inquisitive Euboean sat with a Phoenician
6:35	·	and looked and listened while the Phoenician
6:38	·	wrote out the letters of his script
6:40	·	and described them.
6:42	·	And the Greek adapted them and copied them down
6:45	·	as letters still in use in the modern Greek alphabet –
6:48	·	alpha, beta, gamma.
6:50	·	Exactly the order which we know Phoenicians used for their own letters,
6:56	·	aleph, bet, gamel.
6:58	·	The Greek thought he needed signs for the vowel sounds he was hearing,
7:02	·	so he added them – epsilon, iota and so forth –
7:06	·	making the fullest alphabet the one which is most easy to read.
7:10	·	And it's that Greek alphabet that is the ancestor of all the alphabets
7:14	·	we still use in the modern West.
7:22	·	As the alphabet developed,
7:24	·	myths could eventually become more fixed,
7:27	·	as they were written down.
7:29	·	But during the Greek Dark Ages, they were still told orally
7:33	·	and open to influence.
7:36	·	On Cyprus, we can follow this happening
7:39	·	to the story of a local fertility goddess.
7:43	·	Like other visitors to Amathous,
7:46	·	Euboeans encountered her shrine.
7:50	·	Her worship here dates as far back as the 2000s BC.
7:55	·	Through contact with visitors from the Near East,
7:59	·	she then took on a wilder sexual identity.
8:03	·	And then, when the Greeks arrived,
8:05	·	she became Aphrodite.
8:10	·	Jacqueline Karageorghis has spent her whole life
8:13	·	studying the transformations of the goddess of love.
8:30	·	So, a goddess of love and sex is, in fact, for the Greeks
8:35	·	an introduction in the early Dark Ages?
8:50	·	You're making this Greek Aphrodite sound as though she lived in Paris.
8:54	·	She's sexy and all the rest of it.
8:55	·	But Jacqueline, there are said to have been
8:58	·	prostitutes here, serving the cult of the goddess,
9:00	·	at least by Christian sources. Do you believe that?
9:15	·	And then they kept the money as their dowry, is that right?
9:23	·	Nowadays, their fathers build them a house.
9:28	·	To the west of Amathous is another place
9:31	·	now associated with Aphrodite.
9:34	·	It is known as the Rock of Aphrodite.
9:37	·	And the local story is that if you swim all the way round this rock,
9:42	·	you are blessed with eternal beauty.
9:48	·	The beach alongside is now considered the location
9:52	·	of Aphrodite's literal emergence.
9:56	·	Of course, the story of Aphrodite is connected to much grander stories in heaven, Jacqueline.
10:01	·	When Father Heaven is castrated, of course,
10:04	·	blood and white sperm flies everywhere.
10:07	·	And according to the Greeks, when the sperm falls down into the sea,
10:11	·	somebody very significant is born from it.
10:14	·	Your goddess, Aphrodite.
10:16	·	And the Greeks, when they later thought about it,
10:19	·	tried to connect that name – Aphrodite –
10:21	·	with their own Greek word aphros,
10:24	·	meaning "foam" or "foaming white sperm".
10:27	·	Do you think it was any historical truth in that?
10:37	·	Like a word play?
10:39	·	That was a pretty good way to be born.
10:42	·	But there is the local story
10:44	·	that when she was born, she was washed to this very beach.
10:47	·	This is what the Cyprus Tourist Board still tells you nowadays, Jacqueline.
10:51	·	Do you think there's any history in that?
11:17	·	When is the first thing, do you think?
11:21	·	But it shows beautifully how what will be a myth, I'm sure, continued in modern Cyprus,
11:27	·	begins and starts from a beautiful landscape
11:29	·	and then acquires a force of its own, exactly as it did in the ancient world.
11:34	·	This is how myths are made.
11:36	·	Here in the storerooms of the Eretria Museum,
11:39	·	the shelves are crammed with boxes full of objects
11:42	·	excavated by the Swiss School of Archaeology.
11:47	·	These finds have given us a clearer picture
11:50	·	of the lives of our Euboean travellers
11:53	·	and the culture in which the myths we will trace were born.
11:58	·	- OK, Robin, I wanted to show you, here, two shards with the graffiti.
12:03	·	- Early writing? - Writing, early writing.
12:05	·	They were found in the Sanctuary of Apollo.
12:08	·	The first ones dated from the end of the 9th century, early 8th century.
12:11	·	We can see four letters.
12:14	·	- Well, they're not Greek. I can't understand them. What are they?
12:17	·	- They are Semitic. - Good heavens.
12:19	·	So this is at the turning point when some Near Easterner
12:22	·	has either taught a Euboean to write,
12:25	·	or a Euboean is copying what he's learned, perhaps in the Near East.
12:30	·	- Absolutely. But it was carved on a Euboean pot.
12:32	·	This is a typical Euboean drinking cup.
12:35	·	- We're right at the start of the origin of writing.
12:38	·	Extraordinary. Yes.
12:40	·	- And at the end of the series,
12:42	·	we have, again, a graffito carved on a local pot.
12:46	·	Euboean, with another four letters.
12:49	·	- I think I can read it. Hera.
12:51	·	- Hera.
12:52	·	- Hera, yes. Four Greek letters.
12:55	·	So, what we have is real moment of transition.
12:57	·	We have somebody trying to write Greek in a non-Greek alphabet,
13:01	·	and then we have Greek written in the real Greek alphabet.
13:04	·	This is enormous, important change.
13:06	·	This is really at the root of all Western civilisation.
13:10	·	I mean, the Greek alphabet,
13:11	·	we had then the Roman alphabet,
13:13	·	the Etruscan alphabet, our alphabets.
13:15	·	If they couldn't write, we wouldn't know anything about them.
13:17	·	If they couldn't write down Homer,
13:19	·	we wouldn't be able to read his poems.
13:20	·	We wouldn't know anything about Hesiod.
13:22	·	This is a real change for people
13:24	·	and we're witnessing it in the palm of your hand.
13:27	·	Incredible.
13:28	·	- Now, I want to show you these two seals,
13:31	·	which belong to the Lyre-Player Group.
13:33	·	Five of them were found in the Sanctuary of Apollo.
13:36	·	They were found in the northern sacrificial area.
13:38	·	And where a cult is established,
13:40	·	cult linked with women.
13:42	·	- So this is like a calling card for Euboean women?
13:45	·	Well, I never. - Yes, absolutely.
13:46	·	- Talking about Euboean women in the 8th century,
13:49	·	we have here the neck of an amphora.
13:52	·	- Oh, there they are! Dancing. - We can see... yes.
13:54	·	Or it's a procession.
13:55	·	- And they're holding garlands, it looks like,
13:57	·	and these very trendy skirts.
13:59	·	They've had to breathe in, for the painter, anyway.
14:01	·	Tight waists, long skirts, 8th-century BC fashion. Wonderful.
14:06	·	This is part of a krater, Robin, where you have the typical
14:10	·	Euboean 8th-century iconography, with a horse...
14:13	·	- Spindly legs. Yes, there he is, the four-legged friend.
14:16	·	And these aren't farm animals, are they, Sylvian?
14:18	·	They don't pull carts.
14:20	·	They can't, they haven't got the right collar.
14:22	·	These horses, they used for competition and, above all, for war.
14:26	·	It's a sign of social distinction,
14:28	·	it's not just they love animals. - Absolutely.
14:30	·	You're smart, you're a nobleman, you're one of the horse breeders,
14:34	·	the local cavalry. Wonderful.
14:35	·	- Now, this was found in the west quarter in Eretria.
14:40	·	It's a very important find.
14:42	·	And it's a monumental amphora.
14:45	·	- Right, which stood, then, by a grave.
14:47	·	Would that be right? - Exactly.
14:48	·	- And I can see a chariot.
14:50	·	It's a sort of chariot race or, on this bit,
14:54	·	there's somebody… Oh! They're trying to jump on,
14:56	·	off and on the back of the chariot. - The Apobates.
14:59	·	- Yep. This is a sort of Greek game they play,
15:01	·	where the skill is to jump on to a chariot
15:03	·	when it's moving and jump off the back of it.
15:04	·	- Probably during funerary games. - Fantastic.