The Mysteries Of The Ancient World's Lost Religions | Lost Gods | Odyssey

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] from the time before time was first measured humankind has pondered the question of God as the image of that God formed in their minds so they fashioned it in wood paint and stone and housed it in holy places the ancient world was populated with God's Beyond County today just one God dominates the world of believers where have the old gods gone our Quest is to peel away the layers of time to examine the civilizations that brought the gods to power and honored them in art and architecture and to discover the ultimate fate of the Lost gods [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] once this was a sea of waving grass on that Savannah gazelle grazed elephants wandered men haunted but seven thousand years ago the climate changed [Music] Egypt today is largely desert a moonscape blasted Baron by the Sun [Music] its Wasteland contains a treasure other civilizations would come to covet foreign is a thin Blue Ribbon bordered in Fertile green Egypt is the gift of the Nile [Music] when hunters and herders became Farmers they turned their thoughts to higher things and the gods were born [Music] foreign [Music] they had gods for everything because they believed the gods guaranteed mayat stability when the country United under its king he became the chief priest they would call him Para the great house the pharaoh he would guarantee the worship of the Gods and the life-giving flood of the Nile but what of the afterlife the Egyptians believed each person had a soul that survived to death but the soul needed the body preserved so he could live in it and be nourished through it this belief gave life to the art and architecture of Egypt that is still a wonder of the world today [Music] foreign [Music] the first hint of the glory of ancient Egypt traditionally the dead left the black Fertile Earth of the Nile for the Red Sand of the desert and we must follow them thank you cicada is a Monumental textbook of the art and architecture of the Old Kingdom and a picture gallery of its religious beliefs but they were snobbery even in death these tombs were for the Nobles this is the remains of our mastaba a mud brick construction it marks a transition in Egyptian architecture from Reeds wood and Nile lime to Stone but the mustabas did not preserve the body Nobles like irocapta organized statues of their relatives to accompany them on their Journey to the afterlife but money couldn't buy immortality and then they found netron every day they washed their clothes with washing soda and cleaned their teeth with bread soda when they put the two together they had something that would dry and preserve the body Egypt had cracked the code of eternal life mummification [Music] a combination of the salts in washing soda and bread soda which made up Nettleton were applied to the body to remove all moisture and so preserve the mummy of the Pharaoh but the mastaba was much too humble for an eternal pharaoh it was here at Sakara that Egypt saw its first pyramid the stepped pyramid of Joseph six mustabas of decreasing size piled one Atop The Other but the journey to the Beyond was perilous these are the passwords to the afterlife carved almost four and a half thousand years ago prayers advice and magical incantations giota stepped pyramid was an Act of Faith a Stairway To the Stars for the pharaoh it was also a prototype for a tomb that would be the artistic and Architectural high point of ancient Egypt [Music] [Music] Cairo is a modern Capital City busily engaging with the 21st century the Giza Pyramid complex is almost swamped by a Cairo suburb [Music] the Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu is the largest single building in the his tree of the world stands on a foundation of rock and Rises through 203 steps to a height of 147 meters it 6 million tons the weight of all Europe's Cathedrals combined [Music] built over a 20-year period the entire structure was covered in gleaming Limestone slabs and topped with a gold-covered pyramid Capstone Giza also boasts the best known piece of architecture in the world fingers 57 meters long and Facing East to the Rising Sun symbolizes the sun god of RA and his son the deified pharaoh the Greeks called it Sphinx in Arabic it is father of fear it did not defend the ancient Kingdom from destruction Federal Pepe II simply lived too long reigning for 90 years he buried his heirs and when he himself died in 2181 BC the kingdom shattered it was the end of the ancient Kingdom and the beginning of something new and startling in the religion of Egypt [Music] what Mecca is to Muslims so abiders became to the Egyptians not because of a prophet's tomb but because of Cyrus the god of the underworld or was buried here abidos marks a turning point in Egyptian religious thinking what developed here was the Revolutionary belief that each individual was responsible for the life granted them and that the afterlife was open to anyone Pharaoh or farmer why because Osiris like Jesus was the god of Resurrection the resurrection of Osiris was also a guarantee that the pharaohs would last forever through reincarnation [Music] Cyrus had come back from the dead and guaranteed the continuity of the Pharaohs according to Legend the murdered King osaris was resurrected by his wife Isis a guaranteed the continuity of the Pharaoh Kings [Music] but in this life it is people not Gods who wield power political priests would proclaim a God born in secret a moon became king of the Gods in the new capital of Egypt Amon was now the God and Karnak was his Temple foreign [Music] from the 20th century BC successive pharaohs made their Mark here in art and architecture [Music] kamnak became the most powerful religious and economic Center in Egypt like the Vatican estate within a state history is written in stone here [Music] the walls tell the story of daily worship two elegant pink Granite pillars recalled the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in the Lotus and papyrus United in the worship of the Gods Amun and ra [Music] once a year during the Feast of Pulpit was carried on the Nile to visit his wife and so ensure the Regeneration of the crops [Music] foreign was the PowerHouse of Egypt then Luxor was its Glory [Music] [Music] beyond the Sphinx guards Pharaoh Ramesses waits to greet the god [Music] inside a forest of 74 Papyrus topped columnists how were these great walls built by putting down a layer of stone and Shoring it with a ramp of rubber as the stone layers reached upward saw the rubble Run Part provided scaffolding for the workers it was decorated from the top down as the rubble ramps were removed and what glorious decoration [Music] foreign [Music] stenciled the figure as a guide to the sculptors who etched with copper and bronze chisels finally these were painted with Vivid columns [Music] the paint has long gone sandblasted by the centuries but an echo of their Glory remains thank you [Music] Beyond is a pillared hall of gigantic Reed columns with floors once silvered to resemble water and ceilings painted with stars [Music] foreign death held little mystery for the Egyptians of this era what really troubled them was the security of the Dead the dead pharaohs would go to the Valley of the Kings in the West becoming visible underground and safe for eternity [Music] the Valley of the Kings was dry and would preserve the body and it would be protected and served by a small army of guards and Priests who lived there [Music] the tombs of the great are all but concealed in this Valley in fact some are still to be found the decorations Echo those of Giza and Sakara in their mystery and splendor it was a cycle of Life Death and rebirth carefully stage managed by the priests underpinned with symbols incantations and Magic a cycle they thought would last forever in the year 1353 BC the young pharaoh and menhotep recited this poem to the Sun o God who gives life the soul god without another beside him you create the Earth according to your wish you are in my heart [Music] for a 21st century Christian Jew or Muslim it's an orthodox prayer for a 14th century BC Egyptian pharaoh it was heresy a menotep changed his vision from many gods to one he changed his name to akanatan in honor of the one God atom and he revolutionized the art and architecture of Egypt the sun was God then the temple didn't need a roof so the supporting walls could be less massive and what about out went the stylized perfectly proportioned god-like figure of the Pharaoh and in came the Pharaoh watts and all a man like any other Egyptian art had discovered realism [Music] like Henry VII the reforming Tudor Akhenaten confiscated the temple treasure and when the powerful priests tried to combat him he closed Karnak and luksa built a new capital for the new God I can often reigned just 17 years within days of his death all traces of his God and name were obliterated [Music] the priests of our moon had the revenge [Music] a moon would be restored but not for long the Persian Empire swept across the desert and engulfed Egypt the priests besieged Amun for a savior [Music] [Music] foreign said when the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers the savior of the Gods granted Egypt was a 33 year old Greek Alexander he did push back the Persians declared himself the son of amund and then left Egypt because he had other worlds to conquer but he also left a Greek General on the throne the first of the Ptolemy ferals it was the end of the Egyptian Dynasty [Music] so what happened Egypt's religion and its Mighty gods a small island here on the Nile holds the answer [Music] [Music] foreign high up in the Nile was a place of pilgrimage from earliest times but the art and architecture of Friday revealed the new reality the mighty figure on the pylon is Greek the Greek notion of space separates the buildings Greek perspective skews the pill [Music] the last Egyptian hieroglyphic was written here on the 24th of August 394 A.D and Epitaph for the glory that had been [Music] [Music] and there is this the kiosk of trajan a new power was already stretching across the Mediterranean the Romans were coming Egyptian religion was founded on stability stability easily becomes rigidity the Nile floods the crops grow the Pharaohs die and live again but then the world turned beneath their feet the whole structure of Egypt an inverted pyramid balanced on one man the all-powerful pharaoh toppled preservation and adaptation in religious belief as in archeology go hand in hand if the Egyptians had accepted that perhaps a moon Hawthorne and Osiris might not be listed among the Lost gods [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when the Western World lay under a pole of ignorance and savagery a people were coming to power in this land a people who would raise up cities of marble and worship their many gods from the high places within them lovers of wisdom they're philosophers questioned the heavens and the Earth while their astronomers mapped the sky and their mathematicians measured the planet they would produce art sculpture drama and architecture so wondrous that the Romans would copy it and a general Alexander who would win the greatest Empire the world had ever known champions of democracy and founders of the first European civilization they were the Greeks [Music] it is 2 000 years before the Christian era here the Greek mainland is ravaged by Barbarian Invaders civilizations do not grow in Shadow to tell the story of the Greeks and their gods I must go to Where it All Began [Music] Egypt Sumeria and Mesopotamia were already ancient when the first Advanced civilization in Europe flowered on the island of Crete they were known as the Minoans perfectly positioned on the Mediterranean they grew rich and Powerful The Secret of their success lay hidden in the fold of mountains grain Timber and olive oil traded for gold Ivory and precious stones but what of their gods from earliest times they worshiped the Earth goddess who blessed their fields with plenty when a wave of immigrants brought a sky Guard from Southeast Asia the Minoans married Earth and Sky the union of Heaven and Earth would produce two families the family of gods above the family of Mortals below [Music] the gods give form and meaning to the mysteries of the universe Mortals offered Worship in return from this Fusion of Heaven and Earth became religious art and architecture and the Jewel in the crown was knossos [Music] the Palace of canossos was a bustling Hive of 1500 rooms covering two hectares in workshops kitchens warehouses full of storage jobs terracotta Plumbing stories of long gone religious processions are recorded in the frescoes painted on wet plaster [Music] Monumental Stone stairways connect the quarters of commoner and King foreign remains flanked by the benches of advisors hardered by sedate Griffins [Music] in the Queen's chamber Dolphins Frisk across the war all right but the most famous work of art and knossos is the bull leapers the bull was the sacred animal of the Minoans the source and symbol of Royal and divine power [Applause] and then it all came crashing down [Music] in 1650 BC the neighboring Island of Terror now Santorini exploded showering Crete with volcanic ash 200 years later concrete itself was rocked by an earthquake already the religious beliefs art and architecture of the minoan civilization were ebbing to Greece and to Glory [Music] in the popular mind the Greek family of gods expanded and fought among themselves the infighting on high was reflected below [Music] Mighty cities competing for power but fused them together was a common enemy Persians come at the hour cometh the man the Persian crisis brought pedicles to power and welded the cities to a common cause the Persians defeated Athens reigned over Greece and the Acropolis was its crown it was the beginning of the golden age [Music] Acropolis means High High because High meant holy humanly it was a refuge from Attack close to Farms but far from the sea and Pirates if as Legend held the gods lived on Mount Olympus then their images would be housed and worshiped here but which God would be patron of Athens typically there was an argument Poseidon the sea God created a saltwater spring for the citizens on the Acropolis but Athena planted an olive tree and won their worship this is its descendant worshiped by Athenians for Generations [Music] [Applause] a consolation prize for Poseidon the erectile a masterpiece of Greek architecture and sculpture built in 420 BC on the Northern face six columns in the ionic style still stand with scroll tops and pearl motifs on the abacus Southern face something rare and imaginative [Music] six cariatids handmaidens of the goddess Artemis support the porch [Music] unlike Christian Muslim and Jewish temples Greek temples were homes for the gods rather than houses of worship [Music] and this is the spectacular home of Athena patron of Athens the Parthenon dominates the Acropolis and seems to continue and complete the upward thrust of the Hill it was built in pentelic Marble in the Doric Style it housed a vast statue of Athena [Music] in fact the gold and ivory statue cost more than the building all right the Athenians did not forget the Persians plaques around the temple were carved with scenes symbolizing the Triumph of good over evil civilization over barbarism some have managed to survive over two and a half thousand years [Music] the Acropolis the high city would house the guards in splendor for all eternity but what of the Mortal Men Who Built it the karimicus cemetery has been the last resting place for the great and good of Athens for over 2 000 years [Music] some tombs reflect the heroism of Martyrs [Music] are those the grief of Mormons still others hearken back to the powerful symbols of ancient times [Music] but the question remained where did the dead go did they cross the river sticks in the Underworld with Care on the ferryman to Paradise punishment of what one writer called an eternity of boredom foreign [Music] to Legend Zeus the sky God released Two Eagles in opposite directions wherever they met would be the center of the world this is the spot in Delphi marked by the unfollows the naval storm foreign like the medieval Vatican had immense power Apollo's Temple the most famous of All Greek shrines was terraced into the hillside it had Colonnades meeting rooms and a steady [Applause] because the god Apollo had killed the python the monster serpent who had attacked his mother that pythian games were held here in his honor every four years it was a religious Festival of athletic contests music and drama that rivaled the Olympics but what of the afterlife [Music] the Greeks found the afterlife so obscure it it sharpened their focus on this life they hungered to know the future this craving brought Kings and commoners on pilgrimage to the navel of the world foreign Delphi and its priesthood flourished grateful pilgrims heaped it with offerings over 3 000 statues and treasuries lined the sacred way to express their gratitude only one treasury remains the treasury of the Athenians in Thanksgiving for the victory at Marathon [Music] foreign [Music] was worshiped as the God of Light Harmony and Order and zest with the power of Prophecy Apollo himself answered all questions through his Priestess the oracle she sat on a tripod stool over a volcanic vent in the floor and gave her answers in a gibberish that was interpreted by the priests foreign [Music] would always be translated to the benefit of Delphi only Delphi could approve of new colonies and did so at a price it had a network of spies throughout the region informing the priests who broke out power among the heads of state foreign [Music] and when the unified state was threatened by the Persians the Greeks under Pedic lays their great leader came to ask a question [Applause] and then the Oracle got it wrong got it wrong the Oracle got it wrong should we resist the Persians the Greeks asked no answer the Oracle probably hoping Delphi would become the capital of Persian Greece Perry Clay is ignored the oracle the Greek Victory spelled defeat for Delphi [Applause] from the 3rd Century BC Delphi declined as Greece expanded [Music] trilemma ships sailing to the colonies carried Greek gods art and architecture and the ultimate question what of the afterlife [Music] colonists are always tempted to reproduce the place they've Left Behind paste them in southern Italy could certainly qualify as little Greece the Temple of Poseidon the god of the sea was built in 450 BC [Music] [Music] Doric the most popular architectural design in Mainland Greece is reproduced here in the thick powerful columns with plain tops a local contribution is the substitution of limestone for marble [Music] built nearby and within 100 Years of it the Basilica is also of ancient design but unusual for having nine columns on the short side and 14 on the long side foreign [Music] Divinity of pestum is Hera the jealous wife of Zeus and the goddess of maternity and fertility [Music] other gods were Faithfully reproduced in pottery and sculpture foreign [Music] goddess of harvest and fertility holds a bowl of fruit in her hands an amphora shows Aphrodite goddess of beauty rising from the sea form in a fine style and Vivid colors [Music] for the Greeks pestum was a home from home [Music] and then on June 3rd 1968 the archaeologist Marco Napoli found something new and exciting [Music] at first glance it was a tomb like any other except that it held the oldest and best preserved example of Greek mural painting [Music] five travertine stone slabs covered with white stucco and painted with Vivid scenes the paintings are of a symposium and after dinner drinks party for men only typically there was music and poetry and a game of cotterbox where the dregs of wine were tossed at a Target the scene seems to say more about the here and now than the Hereafter except for the painting of the Dead young man on the lid of the Tomb he is known as the diver a figure muscular taught and bronzed with reddish pigment as idealized as any Greek sculpture but some experts believe this is more than a work of art they believe the platform symbolizes the pillars of Heracles which marked the end of the known world and the diver is diving into death confident of reincarnation foreign the philosopher had already championed the idea of reincarnation in Greece while the other pictures are almost a lament for the end of life and its Joys the diver seems to LEAP joyfully in the hope of an afterlife people of the diver in payston was a mighty wave in Athens because Athens had become the kingdom of the Mind Plato promoted the idea of the highest virtue Shifting the focus from the god to the good aristarchos proclaimed the Earth circled the Sun the place of Sophocles questioned the Justice of the Gods Aristotle and others placed reason over mystery [Music] foreign [Music] once said once a man begins to think he begins to be underlined but it was Mount Olympus of the gods that was dismantled one myth at a time by questions where do the Greek gods go the high city the home of the Gods knows their fate the Acropolis and Greece fell to the Romans in 147 BC and the Gods they changed their names to Jupiter Juno and manalva and departed the stage to Rome it Spoils of War [Music] Acropolis the high and holy place would be overlooked and new temples would rise to replace the old foreign [Music] the church of Saint George was dedicated to the new Roman God Jesus of Nazareth and for the Greeks Christianity would replace the Greek gods and answer the question of the afterlife [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] would be remembered forever Greek art architecture sculpture and drama the living Legacy of the Lost gods [Music] all right in the 8th Century BC when the Greek city-states were coming to power the tribes occupied the hills above the Tiber in Italy there were farmers the gods were the Newman The Faceless and formless Spirits manifested in the powers of Nature and the cycles of the seasons but as they grew into an Empire that stretched from the Atlantic to the Dead Sea [Music] by the second Century A.D 85 000 kilometers of paved roads carried their laws currency Legions and beliefs to over 400 Nations the art architecture and engineering genius still generate Wonder today it was Horus one of the most famous poets who urged them carpedim seized the day and in their day they would seize the territories treasuries and gods of other civilizations they were the Romans [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign this is one of the best known symbols of Rome Romulus founder of the city and Remus his brother being suckled by a she-wolf but the she-wolf is etruscum from about 500 BC the Twins were added 200 years later a story of Rome and its Gods begins elsewhere [Applause] [Music] the Romans adopted and adapted the customs and beliefs of the peoples they conquered one of the most influential of these were the Etruscans foreign was one of the richest towns in Europe trading with Egypt and Venice like the Greeks the Etruscans had a group of city-states divided by politics but bonded by religion the Etruscans believed in an afterlife that resembled this life and housed their ancestors in the city of the Dead [Music] thousands of tombs carved from the soft volcanic rock were arranged in a city-like plan [Music] and it is among the dead we discover how the Etruscans lived [Music] in 1827 frescoes were discovered in the Tomba day really Avi as remarkable as any found in Greece painted on damp plaster they revealed the Etruscan culture of the Dead similar to that of Egypt in the same era vasas pottery and art objects were part of the Furnishings the dead would need in the afterlife but what are their gods the Etruscans believed in the homely gods of the threshold and how they also believed in the mighty gods based on the Greek Zeus and Hira what the Etruscans took from the Greeks the Romans took from the Etruscans from the father God and mother goddess to the humble household Gods the Romans took it all when they defeated the Etruscans in 280 BC [Music] [Music] The Forum a center for trade and religious rituals was the heart of Republican Rome Roman religion encompassed and celebrated the mighty gods of Nature and the everyday gods of domestic life in the shadow of the Temple of Jupiter the father God bearer of thunderbolts Vestal virgins kept the sacred flame alight a symbol sacred to the goddess Vesta who protected every Roman Hearth at home [Music] as the Empire expanded more and more kingdoms fell to Rome the Romans brought their booty on the Via flemenier over the milvian bridge the Romans had mastered the arched they would use it to span an Empire and bring its riches home to Rome [Applause] the Victorious generals Rose to power and competed for the Ultimate Prize to rule Rome itself the Republic was under threat come at the hour come at the man the man who claimed descent from the goddess Venus and from the ancient Greek hero anayers crossed the Rubicon and captured his own capital this man was Julius Caesar he gave the city a new form edged with Monumental buildings long since gone he took for himself the title pontifex Maximus the high priest of Rome in 44 BC when the Senators murdered Caesar they thought they were reclaiming solid Roman Republican values in fact they had swapped a dictator for an emperor the reign of Augustus was the Golden Age of Rome art and architecture thrived marble temples and monuments were raised to honor Gods borrowed from the Greeks Zeus became Jupiter hiran the wife of Zeus became Juno Aphrodite became Venus Poseidon the sea god became Neptune [Music] the Roman public could bathe in the heated baths of karakalya flock to the Colosseum for entertainment [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] the pantheon the home of all the gods became the religious heart of Imperial Rome designed by Hadrian it was the sanctuary of the Roman gods dedicated to the Emperor Augustus who encouraged the idea of his own divinity the Pax Romana the Roman piece spread to the very edges of the empire [Music] carleon in Wales was a walled Outpost of the empire built in 75 A.D and covering over 20 hectares [Music] the Welsh out kept the Romans in Within These Walls they recreated Rome [Music] five and a half thousand legionaries lived in 60 Barracks at galleon today only the ruins of four Remain the only surviving legionary barracks in Europe the Roman Legions brought their gods with them to the far-flung regions of the empire a Roman Emperor might make a sacrifice to Minerva the goddess of wisdom to Enlighten his rule far from the security of Rome the legionaries of carleon would beg the favor of Mars a God of War [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] but it wouldn't be Rome and home without an Amphitheater why was it built outside the walls of the Fortress Is it possible that the only fighting the legion we saw was between Gladiators and this six thousand seat Arena [Music] [Applause] was replicated all along the edges of the empire in Forts and towns that held to Roman gods and Roman ways and protected Rome from The Barbarians all powerful Rome was an empire in which the border between State and religion was becoming increasingly blurred why would it fear foreign gods foreign [Music] 's Villa in Tivoli covered an area greater than that of the Imperial Center of Rome here Hadrian created one of the greatest exhibitions of art and architecture and most of it copied from the Greeks the Romans regarded foreign Gods as having power over the people who worshiped them by bringing them to Rome and housing them in splendor Hadrian hoped to transfer their power and their favor to the Empire his most ambitious project was the canopus a replica of the sanctuary of the Egyptian god sarapis in Alexandria for this he had a canal dog 119 meters long and lined with imported Egyptian statues kariatids similar to those on the Acropolis the statues of the Greek gods in Tivoli show how far the Roman gods had evolved from vague Elemental numina to take on human features and form the Greeks gave faces to the Roman gods [Music] on an island in a round pool surrounded by columns the man who ruled the lives of some 15 million subjects found solitude in a state where the borders between religion and state had become inseparable it was a short step from Emperor to God [Music] here in the maritime theater Hadrian could indulge his passions for painting architecture and for his lover and Tinus who drowned in the Night by Hadrian's decree he became the last Roman god foreign Hadrian built a walled Sanctuary for foreign gods and to house the art and architecture of conquered Nations but the threat to the Roman gods would come from the east from the city gifted to Rome by the Greeks [Music] foreign to the historian aristia days Ephesus was Asia's greater Center of Trade and banking it was an exotic city of Marble Street and magnificent temples the Envy of the ancient world [Music] founded in the 13th century BC by the Greek Andrew cloth it was bequeathed to the Romans in 133 BC [Music] thank you the Romans were content to allow the Ephesians pay homage to the Greek god attempts the Egyptian god Isis or any of the other gods who had found followers in this Cosmopolitan City so long as they paid their taxes to Rome [Music] Ephesus was dedicated to Artemis the man-hating goddess of the moon the woodlands and women and childbirth her Temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World [Music] a simple column remains [Applause] [Music] marooned on a marsh it's a fitting Monument to the Greek architect theodorus [Music] challenge to build on a mouse he filled the foundations with coal topped with leather on this novel base he raised the temple 115 meters long and 55 meters wide the biggest marble temple in the world the vision of theodorus was awe-inspiring 127 columns supported a massive wooden roof built with cedar beams it was the pride of Ephesus but Ephesus holds other architectural wonders [Music] the library of Celsius in Ephesus was built in the second Century A.D by akele as a Monumental tomb for his father governor polymenos the architectural challenge was to squeeze it between two existing buildings [Music] akele created an optical illusion of height by arching the steps between the middle and the edge the same way the columns in the center were larger than those at the sides making the building look loftier than it was [Music] the most beautiful Roman contribution to Ephesus was dedicated to the emperor Hadrian in the second Century A.D it was famous for the craftsmanship of its facade two columns with Corinthian capitals support a Capstone decorated with a carving of taiki the goddess of Fortune the upper lintel holds a relief of Medusa one of the three Gorgons of Greek mythology whose appearance could turn men to Stone but it is the freeze around the upper lintel of the door that illustrates vividly the Roman influence on Greek Ephesus [Music] Greek gods and Roman emperors share the freeze with mythological gods and heroes as equals what threat could there be to the Divine Roman Emperor the equal to Zeus and Apollo in the conquered city of Ephesus [Music] [Music] but in this city of many gods a new God was already being proclaimed in a theater that could hold 24 000 Ephesians the speaker Was Paul of Tarsus champion of the new God Jesus the Nazareth [Applause] the Romans would accommodate one God to many [Music] this new religion with its one God was destined to take root in Rome and bring the pantheon of Roman gods to ruin [Music] [Music] the 12th century Church of San Clemente was built over the underground meeting places of the mystery Cults in Rome [Music] foreign [Music] meeting in secret beneath the crowded streets there were those who longed for more than the state religion could offer wonders of the Empire the Roman legionaries brought the cult of miserus from Persia to Rome in the 1st Century BC part sun god part hero maithra slew the bull whose blood renewed the Earth and cleansed his followers who met here on the deepest level beneath San Clemente the 4th Century A.D on the level above the maithra sanctuary another cult worshiped A Man Called Jesus whose blood they claimed would renew the world and save his believers [Music] but a state that required worship of the emperor and would house honor and accommodate a multitude of gods could never accept a religion that worshiped one God and no other but even the legions of Rome and the walls of Hadrian could not hold forever against the tide of history and the spiritual quest of human hearts foreign the Roman emperor Constantine convinced that the new God Jesus had aided him in battle converted to Christianity under Constantine Christianity became the state religion [Music] at street level the Magnificent Church of San Clemente is a medieval Monument to the religion that would spread to the furthest reaches of the Empire and make room its religious capital foreign [Music] gods in some ways they had become Servants of the state and risen to prominence on the back of its military might [Music] thank you Rome would become a city of temples dedicated to the new God for the Lost gods [Music] foreign [Music] the canopy of the tropical rainforest in Guatemala deals an ancient civilization [Music] two thousand years before the Christian era wandering tribes of hunter-gatherers felled the trees for Fields cut the Limestone beneath for breathtaking buildings they would be compared to the Greeks for their science to the Romans for their paved roads to the Egyptians for their pediments masters of the written word art and architecture they were the Maya [Music] foreign [Music] Guatemala is a country of contrasts smoking volcanoes rise from a carpet of tropical jungle spotted with Asia Lake [Music] the Maya believed in one God who had as many manifestations as the Hindu god Brahma the universe was supported by a tree its Crown high in the heavens its roots deep in the Underworld and on the earth between they created man-made mountains to honor the gods of both realms [Music] foreign World rested on a turtle's back surrounded by water and we are going to the center of that world in 1848 Ambrosio toot and Maya hacked through the forest and discovered the center of the Maya world the city of Tikka foreign [Music] by King Jaguar Paul the Kyle covers 16 square kilometers and contains more than 4 000 monuments soaring above the forest their purpose was to bring in the Maya nearer to their gods temple one reaches up 47 meters nine tapering tears of limestone representing the nine levels of jibalba the underworld [Music] who ruled over pregnancy [Music] in my belief humans were birthed from the underworld most would return their death [Music] only those who died violent deaths might aspire to the heavens foreign [Music] how do they build such massive monuments with stone tools this entire region sits on a bed of limestone soft to Quarry [Music] burnt Limestone gave lime for cluster to smooth over the faces of the pyramids [Music] finally they were painted in colors as Vivid as the plumage of the forest Birds built to appease the gods and impress rival cities they were also built to last but the gods of the Maya demanded more than Limestone buildings [Music] they were created from the blood of the Gods mixed with males the blood debt would have to be a repay blood sacrifice was a debt to the past and a bribe to the Future in earlier times royalty and Priests spilled their own blood to satisfy the Gods later they would Ambush other tribes and bring the captives to Tikal for sacrifice [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] as the wealth power and Prestige of the Kings grew they scanned the sky from this Observatory and created a new calendar to trace their lineage back over 3 000 years before the Christian era [Music] perhaps they spend so much time considering the stars and their own elevated status that they lost contact with the Earth The Humble Earth which had sustained them punished them it all came to an end in 8 30 A.D [Applause] and in the end it all came down to food [Music] slash and burn farming was not a cycle that would feed 40 000 Maya [Music] the Maya deserted the pyramids of Tikal the forest returned [Music] where did the Maya of Tikal go perhaps to the fabled cities of the North in the hope of full and planting foreign [Music] forty six a puzzled Spanish priest Padre Solis wrote to his Bishop from this place in Mexico I have found strange Stone houses he reported in fact he had stumbled on the Masterpiece of Mayan architecture Palenque [Music] only the central section of Palenque has been recovered from the forest and that spreads over 15 square kilometers [Music] the palace dominates the ceremonial Center [Music] topped by a complex of portacode galleries with false Vault ceilings [Music] but it is the pillar and roof surfaces that hint at palenque's artistic Legacy [Music] Maya sculptors created bass reliefs on Limestone tablets rivaling anything produced in Egypt [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] the Temple of the inscriptions climbed to 35 meters a Monumental staircase of nine overlapping sections like the first Egyptian pyramid at Sakara it's treasure three stone tablets covered in hieroglyphs one of the longest Maya inscriptions in existence [Music] up to recently Maya writing was a mystery as a secret history of ancient gods monarchs and monuments but palenka concealed another Secret [Music] in 1952 the Mexican architect Alberto Ross removed a false vaulted ceiling and found a passage to the underworld [Music] starting at the sanctuary the staircase descended to an underground Crypt [Music] [Music] foreign slab he found the Mortal remains of pakka king of Palenque from 615 to 683 A.D shows pakal at the moment of death falling into the jupalba the mouth of an earth monster foreign had even more surprises above ground [Music] imagine the astonishment of the first European in Palenque when he discovered these three temples the Spaniards christened them the temples of the leafy cross [Music] perhaps because they climbed to the sanctuary and were confronted by a carving that seemed out of place and time but it was carved 800 years before Columbus sailed from Spain the Maya religion the vertical beam represents the tree of life that holds up the universe where the horizontal beam intersects they called the eye of God [Music] and this is where the Maya of Palenque kept an eye on God [Music] and the god they watched was Venus revered from ancient times as the herald of the Rising Sun [Music] in this Tower they plotted the course of Venus without instruments and got it wrong by a margin of just 14 seconds in a year as they watched the rise of Venus did they foresee the fall of palenka was it invasion famine disease or drought doomed we don't know we do know that pacalson was captured and sacrificed by a rival City Palenque was effectively beheaded and by 8 10 A.D sank beneath the forest plankagon Tikal bottom memory was this the Prelude to something all South American civilizations feared the end of the world and could a new city drenched in blood avert the disaster [Music] Chichen Itza was built over 1200 years ago as a last throw of the dice against Doom every stone and step is heavy with portent the four staircases of the Castillo represent the Maya hieroglyph for the end of the name [Music] the end was nine the gods cried out for sacrifice chitsunitsa became a site of ritual Slaughter [Music] foreign [Music] Road leads to the cenotech the well [Music] in the Limestone riverless Yucatan Wells were a source of life to a city [Music] the Maya they were also gates to the underworld ruled by the rain God Shack [Music] according to the Spanish missionary Diego de Londa young women were thrown 22 meters to the waters below Messengers to the gardens bearing the prayers of the Maya for deliver [Music] y when it was dredged in 1860 by the North American Edward Thompson he recovered the skeletons of young females [Music] laughs [Music] over a thousand years ago from the Caracol The Observatory of Chichen Itza the Maya scanned the sky for Omens oh one one one [Music] the god Venus was threatened by Eclipse Chichen Itza became a Battleground between good and evil light and darkness thousands of Maya died in ritual sacrifices to reclaim Venus and their City from the dark [Music] foreign [Music] this is the ball court of Chichen Itza shaped like the capital letter I with sloped side walls and stands for spectators the object of the game was to put the ball through Wings embedded in the end walls could use shoulders and thighs to strike the ball which was made of stone or latex they played with a human head [Applause] [Music] foreign was more than a sport as the decorations on the walls attest for the winning team it was Lethal because according to the Maya it was an honor for the winners to be sacrificed [Music] as Doomsday kneeled bloodletting increased the Temple of the Warriors Broods City many of those who climbed the stairs never descended [Music] the doors of the temple are flanked by feathered serpent pillows [Music] the gaping Jaws in the sand the tales uplifted to support the roof but the real horror of Chichen Itza reclines before the doors on its stomach stomach an easy dish waiting for an offering of human hearts [Music] will gaze is implacably to the West the direction of death darkness and the color black [Music] darkness and death are everywhere in Chichen Itza it was dedicated to the shedding of sacrificial blood and seems to Harbor the ghosts of its victims to this day all of the lives lost could not save Chichen Itza [Music] perhaps the sacrificial price was more than the Maya city-states could pay weakened by Wars among themselves they were already in Decline when the Spaniards invaded in the 16th century the Maya were no match for muskets and measles and the people who believed that their world rested on a turtle's back surrounded by water made their last stand on an island [Music] that's one of my life am I awaited on Tire Sal for a prophecy to be fulfilled was written in their book The chilambilam receive your bearded guests from the East bearers of the standard of God [Music] and bowed to the Christian cross Maya waited true to the old gods under their chief canelk Christian missionaries came to offer baptism and were politely refused not yet they said [Music] what were they waiting for for the prophecies to be fulfilled for the end of the world the Spaniards grew tired of waiting in 1697 they sailed across the lake in an iron-clad galley Stone arrows were no match for metal those who survived the slaughter swam to The Refuge of the forest foreign [Music] but what are their gods the writer D H Lawrence saw the Maya world as giant trees felt by the Invaders but the roots still lived sending up new shoots through foreign soil [Music] the Maya God disappeared into the great treats [Music] but elements of the Maya religion remain to color the Christian rituals performed on Tire cell today [Music] these are the last traces the faint Echoes of the Lost gods [Music] when the Great powers of Europe chartered the Known World in the 15th century this land did not exist Peru and the enormous land mass of South America were marked Terror in cognito on the maps Land Unknown but in the Peaks and folds of the Andes Mountains the people were coming to power they worshiped a Creator God as well as the sun moon and stars in a single Century they were conquer and Rule an Empire equal to that of Rome the dramatic rise and fall of their culture would change forever the course of American and European history were known by the name of their all-powerful Divine King son of the Sun the income [Music] foreign [Music] Rod into the Earth to Mark the center of power they call this place Cusco the navel of the world [Music] [Music] over 3000 meters above sea level Cusco is the highest capital and the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America foreign diverting Two Rivers into channels to refresh his City and irrigate the terraced hillsides but the Inca genius was for stone without the wheel or horse using ramps and rollers they dragged cut and fitted the enormous stones that underpin Cusco to this day foreign we can still walk the streets of ancient Cusco marveling at the architecture and Artistry of the Inca Masons [Music] colonial buildings like the convento rest on the shoulders of Inca walls [Music] when an earthquake toppled the superstructures in 1956 these great Stones held firm the coricancha the Corral of gold was the most important temple in the Empire today it forms the base of the Colonial Church of santol Domingo [Music] dedicated to vericocha the Creator God and into the Sun God it was also a prison for the gods of Inca enemies their icons housed here in homage and as hostages [Music] thank you [Music] was also a treasure house and beggled belief more than 700 sheets of pure gold covered the carved Granite walls [Music] the courtyard was filled with life-sized sculptures of animals and a field of corn all fashioned from gold even the floors were paved with solid gold and here in the Inca holy of holies a massive golden image of the sun encrusted with emeralds reflected the glory of the sun god [Music] Ohio was also a center of religious rituals robed to resemble the gods offered the fruits of the earth and chichibir in honor of the Gods who according to Inca myth created the first Inca people from maize [Music] Cusco itself was designed in the shape of a great Stone Puma a sacred animal of the Inca foreign walls of the 15th century saksa huaman Fortress are the teeth of the Puma still snarling Defiance from the Inca stronghold with the capital Consolidated the Inca were ready for Empire in 1438 Patrick and his Inca armies swept out along the four roads that radiated out from Cusco to the Taiwan tinsuyu the four quarters of the world Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach [Music] regular intervals supplying the Warriors chaskey Runners relayed messages to and from Cusco covering up to 240 kilometers a day herds of llamas carried provisions llamas had the added advantage of being edible as well as agile [Music] fire expanded tribute and treasure flowed back the four roads to Cusco creating enormous wealth for the emperor his family and Nobles [Music] gold the sweat of the Sun and silver the tears of the Moon they would fashion into sacred art and build cities roads and bridges in the most precipitous places on Earth [Music] sons of conquered Chieftains also came to Cusco to learn the Inca ways and guarantee the Loyalty of their tribes [Music] but who built the massive infrastructure that underpinned the Inca Empire like the Egyptians the Incas levied Muti a labor tax 12 million people extended and maintained over 10 000 miles of Road farmed the land and fought to subdue their enemies in return the state gave them food and chicha beer even old age pensions and disability benefits as the Romans did the Incas conquered and assimilated those who were loyal remained on the land those who resisted were removed and replaced [Music] pizak the city of towers Broods on the height one of the stone cities guarding strategic parts of the empire [Music] like all Inca cities it is built in the shape of a creature sacred to the Inca pizak means partridge [Music] pizak was ruled by akalish a governor who ensured a portion of all produce went to the Inca fresh onions small corn fruit and potatoes flavor the air of the Market Square little has changed from the era of pachacute buyers and sellers wear Vivid colors and butter as their ancestors did terrorist Fields Ripple down the slopes all around because agriculture was and still is the lifeblood of pisak foreign the nearby Amphitheater at Moray was more than an agricultural Laboratory the crops grown here symbolized the generosity of the Gods and the ever-renewing relationship between the Inca and their deities and the entire Empire was tallied and taxed with this the keeper is a length of colored string knotted at specific intervals according to the decimal system the Incas had no writing As We Know It with colored strings they administered the largest Empire in the known world [Music] string quickly stretched to Breaking Point the lifestyle of the Royals heaped taxes on the lowly and when the Iranian Inca whiner car park died the Empire split in a bloody Civil War [Music] bodies hung from trees and strange rumors abounded oracles warned of bearded Invaders chasky ran to Cusco with news of a house floating on the sea crowded with bearded men [Music] that critical point the Spaniards waded ashore how could 200 conquistadores and a handful of priests topplan Empire foreign [Music] place to stand Archimedes the Greek said and I will shift the world [Music] the Keystone of the empire was the powerful Inca atahuarpa and the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro had a lever a daring plan that would shift the history of the world Nestles in the foothills of the Andes almost 2 700 meters above sea level for the kakamaka a pre-incan people it was a sacred place a city of the Dead The Cliffs are carved into Crypts simple niches and corridors like the catacombs of Rome here lie the ancestors of the hakamaka a people conquered by the Inca on their path to power [Music] foreign s named them Las pentanillas the little windows in 1532 The Souls of the kakamaka ancestors witnessed the Fateful collision between Europe and South America came in peace to meet pitharo in the plaza de armas suddenly armed Horseman burst from high doorways muskets boomed the people panicked and fled atawalpa was toppled from his throne and the sun fell to Earth foreign [Music] the Divine master of 12 million subjects was confined here in El cuarto de la rescarte is Ransom this room filled with gold to a height he could reach two other rooms with silver in today's money it would amount to more than 250 million dollars [Music] and when the rooms were filled with the sweat of the sun and the tears of the Moon as the Incas called gold and silver pitaro had atahualpa strangled the glory of Inca Gold and Silver artifacts was melted into ingots and shipped to Spain [Music] some of it found its way here to glorify the guard of the conquerors symbolizing the superiority of the new God gold clothes the Christian altar of the Baroque Cathedral that stands in the Placid armas a monument to the end of an Empire [Music] when pitharo took Cusco the capital the Inca people turned their faces to the mountains they would make their Last Stand whether Gods resided in the sky foreign [Music] Valley is a place of Mystery terrorist Fields Fingerprints of the sun god clings to a mountain spur 2 800 meters above sea level the catcher language it means a place of rest according to Legend the internal organs of mummified Inca were brought here for burial the Inca genius for stone is everywhere from the Steep staircase to the terraced fields and at the heart of oyente Tambo the Temple of the Sun foreign blocks are set without mortar they are an architectural Wonder only matched by the engineering ability that brought them from a quality eight kilometers away on the other side of the river is incomplete this typical trapezoidal doorway in the temple of the sun is not ruined but unfinished whoever built these walls was interrupted banyards were coming [Music] it took just 50 Horsemen to storm the Heights and oriented Tango fell [Applause] [Music] where did the Inca go there is a mysterious Motif carved in the stones of ayante Tambo the staircase is it a reminder of the highest places the holiest places of the Inca Gods where offerings could be given and deliverance granted we must claim this symbolic staircase to find what the Spaniards never found glorious lost city in the sky [Music] the dense Cloud forests of the hyandas hid the last Inca Manco car park for a Time by 1570 the Spaniards had stripped the Inca of language land and worship of their gods everything that made them unique [Music] but they missed something Machu Picchu lies cradled between two peaks high in the Andes Mountains guarded on three sides by a Gorge that drops 800 meters to the urubamba river the complex spreads over 13 square kilometers and includes more than 200 buildings [Music] Pablo Neruda the South American poet called it tall stepped city of stone Hiram Bingham the North American historian who founded in 1911 said it was like an unbelievable dream it was the brainchild of pachacuti country Palace for the Inca built on one of the most inaccessible sites on Earth brilliantly adapted to the Natural landscape it is an enduring Monument to the architectural and Engineering ability of the Inca [Music] there was no shortage of stone to be quarried and run by rampant roller to the site but where do they find water [Music] they found a natural mountain spring channeling water to the agricultural Terraces of Machu Picchu bringing it tumbling down within the city to feed 16 fountains who lived here it was a city divided the rough cut stonehouses of the peasants still stand within sight of the grander buildings of the powerful [Music] but Machu Picchu was also a religious Center Temple of the Condor uses the natural rock formation to portray the master of the mountain Skies a bird sacred to the Inca [Music] at the top of the complex of sacred buildings a granite monolith the intihuatana a place where the sun is kept prisoner Machu picchu's most famous monument suggests a strong link between the Inca worship of the heavenly bodies and astronomy using the angles of this pillar astronomers could predict the solstices and claim control over the seasons there were many in tihuatana throughout Peru the Spaniards smashed them to wipe out worship of the sun all except this one up heart of Machu Picchu even today Machu Picchu is still a place of Mystery the most well-known of the Inca sites and yet the one we know least about what we do know is that after just 50 years in use it was deserted and the jungle grew back to reclaim and conceal the last great Citadel of the Inca Empire and what are the Gods vericocha into the gods of the heavens rocks Springs valleys and high places disappeared with the Inca Empire to be remembered in art and architecture as the Lost gods [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] 800 years before the birth of Jesus a nomadic war-like people took Loot and Rose in Central Europe [Music] their world was Awash with benign spirits and demonic forces yet they built no basilicas or temples nature itself was their Cathedral [Music] like many other civilizations in the ancient world they worshiped a sun god and mother goddess and their afterlife was an extension of The Verve and vitality of their life on Earth where the priests and the magistrates who held their world together and performed secret rituals and sacrifices to the classical civilizations of their day they were barbarians who howled at their Gates and haunted their dreams and yet they would create art in metal to rival that of Rome and Greece masters of the horse and of Ireland they were the Celts [Music] roaming from the waste of Siberia and the steps of Northern Mongolia in the 8th Century BC a group of Celts settled to farm above the lake and beneath the duckstein mountains in Halstead together [Music] the calzsono borders between the natural and Supernatural worlds for them everything in the natural world had a religious significance [Music] the Sun God blessed their fields with planting taranis the Thunder God rumbled in the mountains above them and gifted rain to the crops [Music] Springs running water and the Placid Lake where The Dwelling Places of spirits to be soothed with offerings outside their settlement Cherry nunos like the Greek pan was the antler God of wild animals and the wild boar was especially revealed as a symbol of Warriors and warfare and a food preserved for gods [Music] but the horse which had brought them here was revered above all others as the goddess Epona [Music] to the Celts caves crevasses every opening in the Earth was a portal to the underworld and it was a gift of the underworld that underpinned their culture [Music] from prehistoric times people have borrowed here beneath the Earth for a mineral worth its weight in gold salt it was known as the white gold and in the ancient world it could make the difference between life and death [Music] Saul's preserved meat during The Long Winter months when the fields lay Fallen the whole stack salt mine also preserved a minor the victim of a long forgotten rock slide and close by a recent discovery this 4th Century BC wooden stairway used by the mining khals of halstadt also symbolized a portal to the underworld as it was with the Egyptians and the Etruscans it is the graves of the Dead that revealed the beliefs of the Celts they believed in an afterlife and furnished the Dead with food and drink and as the Egyptians did a boat for crossing to the other world foreign they also provided the implements the dead would need for survival there the grave finds also revealed their art in their pottery and their Mastery of metal [Music] Amber gold and other precious imported objects were the fruits of the Soul trade with Greek settlements as far south as Marseille in France [Music] but the graves of the past also hint at the glory of the Celtic future [Music] the sacred horse of the steps would be harnessed to a two-field chariot an idea taken from the Greeks bronze armaments of War would give way to iron the Celtic warriors who chose to be buried in their War chariots would race out of Central Europe and ravage the classical civilizations of Rome and Greece foreign [Music] BC Rome was just emerging from Etruscan domination when the Celts attacked marauding band rampaged through Italy and ransacked Rome [Applause] Celtic Society was structured around Warfare but the Celts unlike the Romans did not fight for territory but for Prestige and plunder and even the booty they brought home to Central Europe was regarded as the property of the Gods in 279 BC they swept East to Greece to the very Gates of Delphi the spiritual Powerhouse of Greek civilization eager for the fabulous treasuries that lined the sacred way Legend tells us that the Celts were more fascinated by the statues of Greek gods that are bounded in Delphi they were astounded that the elemental gods of nature could be reduced to human form ironically it was not the weapons of the Greeks that repelled them but the snowstorms of the high mountains surrounding Delphi it's for a powerful force and only a force of nature could hold them back Ed by the snow of the Sacred high places the Cults were treated behind them they left a legacy of fear neither the Greeks nor the Romans would forget the terror of The Barbarians at their Gates foreign Grace would fall to Rome and Rome would plot the downfall of the counts [Music] it was the Celts Misfortune that the Romans shared their belief in war as a passage to power and prestige in the first century BC Rome would produce a general in search of a victory over a foreign foe to secure power at home [Music] the goals the Celtic people of central France were a fall worthy of Julius Caesar The Savage Slaughter of the calcium France he pushed further into Central Europe where the Celts inclination to fight among themselves aided the Romans by the time the Celts agreed to bury their differences it was already too late many of those Celts who survived the battles with the Romans slaughtered their loved ones and took their own lives rather than live as slaves [Music] ironically for the defeated Celts the Romans brought a cohesion to their world that it had never known they also brought their gods the Celts of Central Europe accepted Jupiter Saturn Mercury and the others after all what was the foreign family of Roman gods to a people who had hundreds of Their Own already the Celts were rated south and east were finding their way Westward but where would they find Refuge from the might of Rome [Music] the Continental Celts did not invade Britain they were much too busy warring among themselves to organize such an expedition from 500 to 100 BC they trickled into England and Wales and assimilated the Briton culture Castle Henry's in Wales the castle of the prince is an Iron Age Promontory Fort resurrected and recreated by archaeologists the Celtic Hamlet was a cluster of Huts built with arched Timber walls of wicker and roofed with thatch foreign house was more elaborate decorated with a swirling Celtic art with which they embossed their Shields and dyed their bodies urged on by their Druid priests and without armor Celts crashed recklessly into battle assured by the same Druids that those slain would be reincarnated through the magical cauldron of came in Fall of agrona goddesses of Slaughter foreign there were farmers and The Granary was at the heart of the Hamlet [Music] in earlier times the wood the wooden plow could barely turn the thin Upland soil for planting about an agricultural revolution in Britain and it started in the village Smithy under the protection of gobnu the god of blacksmiths similar to the Greek and Roman gods Hephaestus and welcome [Music] [Music] Ivan meant new farming implements with which the Celts produced higher yields a gift of Amazon God of agriculture foreign weapons were a huge Advantage for raid and reprisal against neighboring tribes and from these forays they brought cattle and human heads home to the Hamlet the Celts the head was the seat of power to be taken out of battle so that the power of the victim Came To the victor it was a symbol of prestige they hung from their doorposts Julius Caesar one of Rome's most astute generals identified the seat of Celtic power it was not in the edge of their iron weapons the suicidal ferocity of their Warriors not even in their gods but in the powerful priests who stood between Gods and Men in the Celtic world The Druids [Music] this Priestly cast served a 20-year apprenticeship in mystery folklore magic and poetry [Music] they were counselors teachers and arbitrators the glue that held the Celtic world together [Music] Caesar tells us The Druids performed their rituals in groves of oak trees placating the gods and divining the future hmm inevitably that future would include Rome [Music] in 55 BC Julius Caesar crossed the channel from Gore the already fragmented Celts were smashed and assimilated by success of Roman campaigns out of The Druids which had bound the Celtic world together in Britain was broken [Music] Romans looked further west to Hibernia the Celtic Island at the edge of the world and decided it wasn't worth the trouble Celtic Island would survive intact for a Time this came to Ireland in four waves the fourth arriving in 500 BC [Music] they arrived in a land already marked by the cultures of the turreted and the Malaysians a land of Mighty monuments like Newgrange older than the pyramids of Egypt it was a land bristling with standing stones and brooding dolmens as they did in Central Europe and Britain the Celts adopted and adapted the gods of Ireland dagda became their sun god already represented in the spiral art common to the Latin culture of Celtic Switzerland [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] fortified enclosures were already common in Ireland [Music] the cats built them on water the chronog was baked in a lake on the foundation of wood Stone and suds surrounded by a wooden Palisade [Music] access was by boat or Causeway and they farmed the lake shore they also adapted Irish burial Customs placing the dead in cyst tombs shallow pits lined with stone slabs and covered by a large flat Capstone the urn placed inside held food for the afterlife [Music] [Music] Standing Stones sometimes marked their resting places and stone circles their places of ritual sacrifice [Music] [Music] but the tribal memory kept old Fears Alive and beneath their houses and enclosures they built sutarins Stone blind passageways that could store food and provide Refuge from Attack [Applause] [Music] but the attack was more likely to come from neighbor than Invader the Celts of Ireland were invincible and a symbol of their power towered over the Western Ocean [Music] it was according to Legend the great stronghold of the fear bollock and named after their Chief ankle Rising 61 meters above sea level it covers over four and a half hectares its fortifications Rippling out in three concentric semicircles oh [Music] foreign [Music] as well as the strong walls the area before the fort is peppered with sharp Stones leaning out of the ground to defend it against attack dunangas is a giant Stone thumbprint marking the edge of the Known World a place of mystery haunted by Keening Atlantic winds echoing with the spirits of a long gone people the Romans did not come but in the 5th Century A.D the Celts themselves brought a Roman as a slave from Britain a slave who escaped and returned as the bishop Patrick a Roman subject preaching another Roman subject Jesus of Nazareth what the Roman Empire with its Pantheon of gods failed to do was done by one man and one God Patrick beheaded Celtic Island converting the leaders that the people might follow monasteries sprang up all over the island Christian versions of the Celtic Hamlet as the Celts had done to the Irish Gods so the Christian faith did to theirs converting their Standing Stones to crosses and their sacred Springs to Holy Wells why did Christianity appeal to the Irish cults deeply planted in their folklore was the idea of a hero God who could be betrayed killed and rise again it was not a major cultural leap to accept the death and resurrection of Jesus and what of the old gods the stories of the old gods passed by Word of Mouth from one generation to the next would be set down in writing by Christian monks these manuscripts the belief that underpinned the Celtic world and ordered the everyday lives of the Celtic people were converted into heroic tales and myths they are a lasting epitaph for the Lost gods

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 1,802,739

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, classical antiquity, history documentary, classical documentary, ancient egypt, ancient egypt documentary, ancient egypt cat worship music, ancient egypt history, ancient rome, ancient rome documentary, ancient roman history, ancient greece, ancient greece documentary, ancient greece history, inca empire documentary, inca empire history, Maya, Ancient Gods, Celt, celtic gods and goddesses documentary, Odyssey, odyssey

Id: YvKswhesRaI

Length: 145min 47sec (8747 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Quarlo1970]

As Tennessee Ernie Ford once sang “Give me that old-time religion It’s good enough for me!”

[u/davtruss]

Look, nobody had more conflicted beliefs than a third century inhabitant of the Roman Empire. They had the classical Gods of Greece, the Roman conceptions thereof, the divine Emperors, the Gods of the Near East, including Egypt and Syria, the Gods of Germania and Britannia, the Gods of Carthage, and last but not least, Christos. That last was one was most confusing because it had something to do with the God of Israel, but with a twist.

And until that last part, goddesses were a pretty big deal too.

[u/ibethesmarterist]

I can't wait for Christianity to be lost to time.

[u/decalod85]

Why is your religion correct and all of these are myths? How long before your religion is a myth?

[u/Pheonixmoonfire]

If they were lost in time, how the hell can you do a documentary on them?

[u/davtruss]

OK, I'm 1/3 of the way through this production, and it's pretty good production wise. But it generalizes a great deal.

Not so much that you couldn't get a passing grade in 8th grade world history, but too much to expect an A on this topic in 9th grade AP World.

On the other hand, it's very entertaining and includes video of things that most of us will never see in person in our lifetimes.

I was just reading the other day about the "Minoans" because there are Egyptian finds painted in the Minoan method, where the paint is applied to the the wet plaster, which explains why the ancient ruins of Crete still have tons of color.

And we have no idea what the Minoans called themselves, nor have we cracked their earliest writing system, Linear A. The term "Minoan" comes from a British dude who excavated the ruins on Crete and decided that this was the source of Greek legends about King Minos and the Minotaur.

[u/C4p0tts]

Rosicrucianism and Hermeticism left out? :(

[u/Typical-Library-3901]

Unfortunately our ancestors misunderstood these Gods because they were ancient aliens who interacted with our ancestors and gave them the tools and knowledge of technology. Our ancient ancestors knew these beings were different and more advanced than them. Our ancient ancestors look 👀 at them as Gods. Different ancient cultures around the world 🌎 built shines, temples and structures to align with Orion and the universe of our galaxy

[u/Washingtonpinot]

If you like this topic, you might enjoy American Gods (the book! not the show) as it essentially explores an idea of what happens to old gods brought to a new world by immigrants, and what happens when their believers lose faith…in a fictional novel setting anyhow.