Dogs of Death (Indo-European Mythology of Death Cults, Werewolves, and the Wild Hunt)
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- Death cults, werewolves (and the werewolf), and the Wild Hunt, were key motifs in Indo-European mythology, and many of these were established around the dog, man's oldest domesticated pet. This video looks at some of the stories that showed how our ancestors viewed the dog as a spirit, and how it was intertwined with our journey into the otherworld after we died.
References:
Arbmann, Ernst: Rudra. Uppsala, 1922. (p 257-267)
Beutler, Ernst. Goethe, West-östlicher Diwan, hsg. Von E.B., Leipzig. 1943 (p 754.)
Eznik of Koln, 5th century work “On God”
Gwynn Jones, Welsh Folklore and Folk Custom, London 1930 (p. 200 ff)
Hartman, Hans: Der Totenkult in Irland. Heidelberg, 1952 (p 143 - 145)
Le Braz from Brittany (I, 107 ff.)
Ninck, Martin : Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube. Jena 1935 (p 65 - 77 ff)
Roscher, Wilh. Henry: The fragment of Marcellus von Side dealing with "kynanthropy". Abh. Der Sachs. Ges. der Wissenschaft. XVII. Leipzig 1896 (pf 220)
Scholz, Herbert. The Hound in Greek-Roman magic and religion. Berlin. 1937 (p. 51)
Wilh. Heinr. Das von der ,,Kynanthropie" handelnde Fragment des Marcellus von Side
Chapters
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0:00 Introduction
0:49 Spirit Dogs
2:25 Death cults, Werewolves, and the Wild hunt
4:10 Hints of Valhalla
5:22 Views of Vedic, Celtic, and others
6:28 Dogs as a companion and soul mate
8:56 The two dogs of Yama
10:34 The Zoroastrian view and the Wolf
12:10 A Celtic story about stopping the dogs
13:53 The Aralez dogs of Armenia
14:30 Hermes the Psychopomp
15:14 Germanic Dog Heaven
18:04 Are these all from the same story
19:22 The cliffhanger!
Are there any stories about dogs you would like to know more about? Cerberos? The Wild Hunt? Odin's wolves?
Thank you, but please make russian subtitles
@@user-km3di8rn5f
Да, у меня сейчас
Cerberos would be very interesting. Thank you so much for your fantastic content
Roof. Roof. = Yes. QUESTION: Can you place odds on the biblical story of Jacob and Esau being linked to a preference for hunting culture over agrarian? I remember being baffled over Abraham's clear favor towards the son who brought him meat. It took more effort to get the meat. Without refrigeration and or cattle, Jacob had to hunt to obtain fresh meat.
This brings me to the culture of the hunt and the *role that dogs played as early, masterful champion companions of the hunt.* Archaeological digs suggests that homo erectus might have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with wolf dogs for this very purpose. This squares with what you have uncovered in the lore - setting it very far back indeed. Whatever you uncover in Mesopotamia will be of deep interests to me. I know more about that region that that of the PIE. I'm happy to have stumbled upon PIE culture, b/c it's a bit more elusive.
@@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 I have never thought about that, and so will need a little time to ponder although your thoughts seem valid and sensible.
The Wolf Shepherd (also Wolf Shepherd, White King, White King, Wolf King) is the leader of wolves and werewolves, according to ancient Slavic folklore. It goes back to the ancient Indo-European cult of veneration of wolves.
According to legend, the wolf shepherd is the ruler of wolves, as well as the lord of stormy thunderstorms. The myths about the wolf shepherd and his retinue are similar to the myths about the Wild Hunt. Also, the figure of the Wolf Shepherd is interpreted as a thunder god. The shepherd uses the wolves as hounds and mounts as he travels to battlefields. According to one of the legends, the wolf shepherd controls the wolves that seek to devour the Sun. So that the wolves obey, he pacifies them with a whip and a club. At its core, it is neither good nor evil, nor even neutral, rather it maintains a balance. The wolf shepherd manages the lives of wolves, protecting them from humans, or humans from them. He assigns tasks and victims to the wolves, he himself often takes part in hunting or battle. It is believed that the victim appointed by the shepherd is inevitably doomed. The shepherd looks different. He can seem like a gray-haired old man, and a wolf. In some legends from Malorossia(little Russia) (one of the names of Ukraine in Russian Empire), the wolf shepherd is the goblin, so one of the incarnations of the shepherd is a goat-like humanoid. Also depicted as a furry man with goat hooves. The shepherd is called in Little Russia and Belarus Polisun, Lesovik. The shepherd was also revered by the Serbs. In some descriptions, the shepherd even has wings. The color of wolf fur is most often white or black for a shepherd.
Based on this, it can be understood that the Slavs also had traces of faith in wild hunting. More facts indicate that it was either a Leshiy or Veles / Volos, the god of cattle, storytellers. There was even a tradition in the north of Russia - to put on a bearskin. This is how the priests of Veles dressed.
I suppose that in Slavic mythology Veles(God of people) and Perun (God of Rus) could play the role of Odin, like his ancient progenitor - Wotan, hunt everyone at night, pursuing the Wild Hunt motif
I will wildly speculate that the reason for dogs’ association with an in-between place - between the realms of the living and the dead - was due to their unique position in-between the humans and the wild.
They were the first domesticated animal 30,000 years ago, after all, and domesticated from a dangerous potential predator of humans - how uniquely intimidating a dog must have seemed, absent all other domesticated animals. The dog of 10,000-20,000 years ago was likely less domesticated and a bit more dangerous than a modern dog, and so was still a somewhat threatening animal. Perhaps this is why the older stories seem more likely to portray dogs as an inbetween thing, wild and yet not wild, a companion to their master but still part of an unknowable threat.
In my area if you see a hearse we say Hold your collar, never swallow til you see a D. O.G. My great soul mate rescue dog from Ireland just died yesterday, a big black collie crossed with a groenendael. He was my companion on many night time walks though the woods. My partner called him Limi short for liminal. He wasn't one of my working dogs as he was feral for a year from being youngling but he was my absolute shadow throughout his life. Another great video, so well researched and I appreciate the sources.
Thanks for the great comment, very interesting. And thank you for watching!
Loved the video and can’t wait for more PIE puppers stories!! Thank you for another great one!!
Another excellent video Jon.many thanks
Cheers
This is such a great channel. I appreciate the work you're doing. Highly appreciate.
And thank you so much for watching my videos.
In never versions rudras are the avatars of Shiva and the Rudra your just mentioned is now known as Kaal bhairav.
And don't worry you tried hard to pronounce yudhishitra LMAO.
And I one mistake that Krishna pass away before the pandavs embarked on the journey to Kailash now in modern day Tibet.
anyways keep up the good work bro 👍
Very interesting video Jon! Rudra, seems to be the vedic counterpart of Wodan/Odin. There are parallels even beyond the Indo Europeans. In Siberia and America, there are dog sacrifices and myths about dogs as guardians of the otherworld. Dogs also seem to be first domesticated in Siberia about 23000 y BP. Maybe there is an old paleolithic link with the Ancient North Eurasians.
Yes, this video will lead on towards the belief that some have of Odin being influenced by Varuna, although there are a few videos to go before I get there. And I certainly hope to tell of any pre-PIE mythology if I can find good evidence of any :)
this is so good!!!! thanks!!!!!!
Thank you for watching and commenting :)
Dogs are also widely associated with healing and numerous ancient healer deities are depicted with them.
Another fantastic video! I look forward to your comparison with Anubis - it was my immediate thought when you said dogs and guiding the dead.
Thank you for watching, and for your kind words.
I'm looking forward to the next video about the dogs. Thank you.
Thank you, may the Indo-European Gods bless you!
Very good video, thank you
i can not say how amazing you are in words.
please consider to covering avesta and iranian mythology more
Thank you for your kind words, and I will talk about it more soon as I have a follow up video to this one.
Dharmarāja is another name of Lord Yama only, Yudhiṣṭhira's father, hence the dog connection
In still living Romanian folklore there is a concept that aftter death a soul of cruel, impulsive and violent man can return on earth taking a shape of wolf. These creatures are called pricolici and are very dangerous. It's probably relict of old Dacian's beliefs
That’s very interesting, thank you for sharing :)
I've always been honored to have the birth name of Cynthia... or Divine Dog. ☺️ Especially since Artemis has always been my favorite goddess.
This was an absolutely amazing video..very fascinating! One wonders if the two dog symbolism means on the one hand..the lost soul..or someone who hasn’t cultivated their soul in their lifetime. Such a dog would be frightening..a devouring one. A scary being standing at the threshold between life and the afterlife. The other dog is a ‘man’s best friend’ or a tame dog..someone who has encountered and worked or ‘combed’ out their soul issues…for lack of a better word. Also, of interest is what you say regarding myth indicating women entering puberty. This can possibly indicate the soul as well, since the soul is most often referred to in the feminine. At puberty the sense body enters its prime and the sense body is very much linked to the soul/astral.
Finally I'm just going to ask this community.... does this description sound familiar to anyone? They were associated with a Greek (?) Goddess. Their duty was to punish people who committed crimes, especially matricide. They were women with dog heads, bare breasted, wearing skirts/aprons of leather and carrying clubs and lashes. (No fetish jokes please) Remember reading something many years ago but can't find or recall the details. This video brought that memory fragment to mind and it's been nagging at me ever since. Any sincere help is appreciated.
The Chinvat bridge from Zoroastrianism is interesting. In Islam it is called the Sirat and has the same sort of function.
Bhairava has a dog (Shvan) as his divine vahana (vehicle).
The bloody hound Garm in Norse myth name means rag or the bloody rag. As the rag used by women in their cycle of the month. Regret can overcome a women when she sees herself bleeding and not with child. Garm might just be the Hound of regret.
According to the myths we all will meet the hound on our way to the afterlife and only these who regret nothing they did do not have to reincarnate.
The Tarot also pictures a dog in the card of the Fool it is seen as the conscience of the fool.
Our conscious and our regrets hound us.
knowing this, i will now call that time of the month "wolf week"
It's also worth to bring up Xolotl from Mexica mythology, we also see the motif of a bridge and a river on the way to the afterlife
Fascinating motif!!! There is a ritual among Iranians called sagdid (seen by a dog) before carrying dead bodies to the tower of silence a dog must see corpse. Exactly as u mentioned 4eyes dog white with yellow ears. This dog keep nasuš away. It's a demon related to dead bodies. I curious to know what's your idea about mithraic dog?
Thank you for watching, and yes, I have made a follow up video to this which talks about the "gaze of a dog" and related rituals. I will release it in the next month or two, and so I hope you watch that too :)
That's probably because that Dog is Lord Yama (Yima for you), God of Death, himself
@@topg2820 Probably it's right he got some dogs. No iranian call him yima or yama he known as jam.shīd in new persian.
@@mazdakbamdadan9733 yeah i meant Jamshed
In Sarajevo, I saw a mournful looking dog laying on a grave.
I'm intrigued by the fact that some of Hecate's dogs were people who passed before their time, like somehow the fates effed up.
In latvian myth werewolves(vilkači/Vilkatis) were called dogs of god(Dieva Suņi) and they hunted down evil witches.
Fun fact! There was a Dacian standard that was essentially a dragon with the head of a wolf or dog. I wonder how that fits in?
The multi headed dragon often had different types of heads, including other animals.
@@Crecganford
Interesting!
Several Norse serpents/dragons bear names suggesting they are wolves. Herodotus mentions a tribe of werewolves called the Neuri who were driven from their homeland by serpents.
Hermes was identified with Anubis in Egypt.
Very interesting video Jon! Do you think the similarity in the dog names Cerberus and Sarvara are coïncidence or have origins in some older story? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharvara
They are same
I keep seeing reference to the phrase Wind-Wolf, like in Gershenson’s “Apollo the Wolf God”. Do you have any other references to this? Is it a general PIE motif?
I have made a follow up video to this, but I haven’t released it yet. Perhaps I will in the next month or so, and that may provide the answers you are looking for.
I think kaal bhairav is odin as Every Shakti Peeth is guarded by Lord Kaal Bhairav and they are known as Bhatuk Bhairav. It is said Lord Kaal Bhairava's powers lie in the occult sciences and therefore, for occult experts, Bhairava is the most preferred deity. Worshipping Lord Kaal Bhairav helps to overcome diseases, adversaries, enemies and poverty.
It is, Odin is modelled after Ugra roopa of Lord Shiva aka Rudra
@@topg2820 That’s not true. 😑
How old is the story of Erigone and her dog that followed her in death and became a constellation beside her?
Video about dogs - “Stay” at 0:27. I see what you did there 😉
Could the story about Yama's two dogs be related to that of Odin's two wolves, Freki and Geri? Or would they be more related to Hecate's dog spirits,as their names mean Hungry and Greedy?
I do have another video on the topic that makes this point, what we are seeing is links to the Wild Hunt, the Psychopomp, and so it Odin. So yes, I think there is definitely a link. Thanks for watching.
There's also alot of anti-dog rhetoric found in the bible and in Jewish tradition that I think stems from the widespread association of dogs with the gods and the afterlife in pagan religions.
Dogs are transportation of lord kal bhairav
Cool. I have often wondered where the werewolf myth originated!
In the Edda there is a story of Ulfhendar, wich means wolfskins. Warriors dressed as wolves.
I would like to know more about the connection between indoeuropean and uralic mythology, and between uralic and native american legends. Is there a common origin of some similar myths (hellhounds, world tree etc.)?
My videos on dragons start to be on the edge of this, and my next video will talk about the world tree and its origins, or at least will introduce it. I hope you subscribe and don’t miss them.
Great video! I'm curious if you might now some good scholars who have published some good (as well as public and free) work on the subject of Norse, Baltic, Slavic and other Indo-European religions and mythologies. I trust you try to present the fruits of this work honestly, but I'd like to look this stuff for myself.
For some reason I struggle to find good scholarship on the subject on Google Scholar, while I have found a lot literature on Mesopotamian stuff (such as almost 300-page work on the god Ninurta by scholar Amar Annus)
All academic papers are free, and often you can write directly to the authors to get them. However, if you are looking for a repository then I tend to go to JSTOR.org as my first port of call (although I work 500 meters from the British Library which also helps). JSTOR is free to University staff and students, although they may offer free access to others. There is the academia site, which may help, but has less content. The other way I use is by using Google search, and I always find using the "filetype:PDF" at the end of the search criteria helps bring papers to the fore, especially if you are aware of their titles.
@@Crecganford Thanks!
Is "Wodan and Germanic Belief in Fate" available for sale anywhere online?
Ah, I translated the title into English, the book is German and actually called "Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube", and is very hard to get hold of to buy. I would suggest trying a library if you have one, and seeing if they can order it in. I'm in the fortunate position of working close to the British Library and I often have to use them to give me temporary access to these books. I hope that helps :)
@@Crecganford this does, thank you! I'll have to visit these libraries some day haha
Zoroastrianism has a dog involved in a persons burial. I always figured the dog might have better senses if they are not really dead...like a wake. Maybe the dog senses the dog form spirits?
Thank you for watching. I have made a video about that but haven't released it yet, but I'm sure I will do soon. The dog is incredibly important in these rituals.
Dog goD
i am english only canadian. i am old and blind. i need bigger subtitles. please. and thank you for dog. i always wonder. how dog am i? how dog are we? you answer.
the subtitles will have to be fixed on your end. if you are on an android phone, google says:
"Tap your profile picture . Tap Settings . Tap Captions. Tap “Caption size and style” to change the default size and font."
It gets more interesting when you look into the history of Werewolves or Dogman. Even today in almost every continent there are reports of Dogman, and packs of them, and their off spring. czcams.com/users/dogmanencounters is the best source for such testimonials, though not every single one is honest, many are. Linda Godfrey wrote extensively on the topic..Though reports and depictions of dogman/werewolf go back thousands of years.. even on the other side of the planet.
The Natives of Americas have stories of Dogman/Werewolves, before Europeans even came. Such stories like wearing Wolf skins on their heads and dancing around a dead corpse in a fire, at full moon.. howling and dancing. It's always a transformation tale, but sometimes it's tribes or clans of these creatures.
Whatever the case, if one actually dives into all the available documentation on the topic going back thousands of years including oral traditions (on both sides of the planet)... it seems to be more than a metaphor, or some God concept to explain death or such ideas. The reports today are prevalent in North America, UK, Europe.
Interesting indeed.
I don’t understand why dogs are so”evil” in all these legends. Is it really a mistranslation and the wolf is the culprit? Or were very early dogs more like the wolf dogs of today, and therefore still really wild? 🐺 🧟♂️
I thought dogs were helpers, protectors, pulled sleds and stretchers, and very loyal to their humans. I don’t get it!🐕🌷🌱
I made a follow up video to this, which may help explain the view of dogs more clearly.
Wile E. Coyote
Not the first dog I would have thought of… he didn’t have much luck!
Better to look at Native American mythology for his origins 😂.
p̷r̷o̷m̷o̷s̷m̷ ✌️
How could such a rich culture capitulate to alien, primitive fairy tales?
To which culture are you specifically referring?
@@Crecganford about the Indo-European or Aryan culture. although this word is not popular now
@@user-km3di8rn5f They are different cultures, Aryan being Indo-Iranian. Also remember PIE started 8,000 years ago, before the wheel, the horse, before metal working. And so their mythologies were relatively primative.
@@Crecganford Sorry if I write to you a lot - I'm afraid to seem intrusive.
It's just, it's very important to me.
Were not the Indo-European peoples once united?
Only Indo-Iranians considered themselves Aryans?
@@user-km3di8rn5f It's ok to ask questions :) Although I may not always have time to answer.
Aryans (Indo-Iranians) branched off from the Proto Indo-Europeans, when Proto-European cultures were also forming, around 5,000 years ago. Both Proto-Europeans and Indo-Iranians are descended from Proto Indo-Europeans. But the Aryan culture changed to be more spiritual, whilst the Proto-European cultures tended to be more agricultural. Both of these cultures can be called Indo-European.