All language subtitles for oracles.and.prophets.s01e04.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

- [Stew] From demonic writings

that have taunted
scholars for centuries

to the mysteries of
ancient healing cults

to forgotten Gods whose presence

bring dark omens of death,

these enigmas of history
could hold the keys

to unlocking our
collective faith.

In 17th century Sicily,

a troubled nun is
believed by some

to be possessed by the devil.

- It sounds like something
out of a horror film.

- It said that a
dark demonic force

overtook this woman's body

as she writes a letter in
an indecipherable code.

- [Stew] In ancient Greece,

a cult dedicated to
the God of healing,

promises cures, and
prophetic visions.

- Does the waft of incense.

There are priestly
chance that God

of healing would
come and visit you.

- Anyone can be healed if
they show enough faith.

- [Stew] And in ancient Ireland,

as warriors prepare for battle,

they are visited by
a terrible portent

of their fate.

- [Dr. Megan] She took the form

of a beautiful woman.

She was being seductive.

- Warriors who encounter her

on the eve of a battle know

that on her very whims,

they can either succeed or fail.

- He realized that
he was dealing

with something very dangerous.

(crows cawing)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(spirited music)

- [Stew] 1676.

Sicily.

In the quiet hours before dawn,

within the austere stare walls

of the Benedictine convent

in Palma di Montechiaro,

Sister Maria Crocifissa
della Concezione

kneels alone in
her dimly lit cell.

(ominous music)

Suddenly an invisible
force grips her.

(Sister Maria shrieks)

She draws a piece of
parchment and quill

and begins to write frantically.

The quill scratches feverously

across the parchment,

the sound sharp and grading

in the oppressive silence.

Strange symbols in
cryptic characters

flow onto the page,

but these are not
words from God.

No.

Sister Maria believes
these are words

from the devil himself.

- This letter was written
almost 400 years ago

and it's absolutely
baffled experts until now.

(suspenseful music)

- [Stew] The story of
this strange letter

begins in 17th century Sicily,

an age of great religious
and social turmoil.

- Born as Isabella
Tomasi in 1645,

Sister Maria is the daughter

of Prince Julio
Tomasi di Lampedusa

making her a member

of the privileged aristocracy.

- Isabella was by all accounts,

a deeply religious individual

and at just 15 years of age,

she makes the life
altering decision

to enter into a
Benedictine convent.

- [Stew] Here
she's baptized anew

shedding her former identity

to embrace the name,

Maria Crocifissa
della Concezione.

(suspenseful music)

- Benedictine
convents like the one

that Isabella joined,
were incredibly important

to the social fabric
of 17th century Sicily.

They also were one of the
few avenues of learning

for young women,
places where a woman

could actually learn
to read and write,

an incredibly rare
skill at the time.

- [Stew] Some
believe Sister Maria

may have other reasons
for joining the convent.

- There is some suggestion

that Sister Maria is suffering

from visions of evil
spirits that taunt her,

pushing her to commit sin.

This could explain why she,

the daughter of a prince

would become a humble sister.

Maybe she is
looking for security

from these dark visions
in the house of God.

- [Stew] As Sister Maria's life

in the convent progresses,

her battle with her inner demons

begins to manifest
for all to see.

- After a few years, it
becomes obvious to all

that Sister Maria is different

from the other nuns.

She confides in her sisters

that the devil
himself possesses her

relentlessly trying to
turn her away from God.

(ominous music)

- [Stew] The other nuns witness

inexplicable
behaviors from Maria.

One of the most dramatic
events happens one day

in the convent's chapel.

(ominous music)

As she nears the altar,

she lets out a blood
curdling scream.

(Sister Maria screams)

Eyes wide with terror
at unseen horrors.

- The other nuns at the
convent are terrified

and the question on
everyone's mind is,

"Is Sister Maria truly
possessed by the devil?"

- 17th century Sicily

was a deeply religious society

and one of the perennial fears

within that society
was devil worship

or the influence of
demons in people's lives.

- We have elements of
ritualized possession,

which are not
unsavory or salacious.

The idea of being used
in a consensual way

in order to make
proclamations to communities,

that's something that
takes place in a lot

of contemporary religions
all around the world.

So it's not an uncommon thing,

it's not an impossible thing,

but the tendency to make
it evil is something

that we really need
to be careful of.

(Sister Maria screams)

- When Maria starts
exhibiting unusual

and abnormal behavior,

it concerns her fellow nuns

and they ascribe her
behavior potentially

to her being in
league with the devil.

- You're already
in this environment

that says that anything

that is not
specifically Christian

or Catholic is evil or wrong,

and whatever is going
on with this sister

has the potential to be really

quite dangerous for her.

- [Stew] Throughout her
16 years in the convent,

other unsettling events occur.

But nothing could
prepare the sisters

of the convent in
Palma di Montechiaro

for what happens next.

- Maria is found in her chamber.

Her face smeared with ink,

and in her trembling hand
she holds this letter.

- The other nuns
stare in disbelief

as she emerges from a trance.

- [Stew] Exhausted and frail,

Maria gasps that Satan
has possessed her,

forcing her to dictate
a series of letters.

She confesses that
she has no memory

of what she wrote during
this demonic episode,

that it was not her hand

that moved her to write,

but that of the devil himself.

- When the letter is pried

from Sister Maria's
grasp and examined,

the other sisters are in shock.

The parchment is scrawled
with a baffling mix

of archaic glyphs and
ancient languages.

Latin, Greek, Arabic,

all intertwined in
a strange jumble.

The script is indecipherable

and whispers ripple
through the convent.

This is Satan's handwriting.

(ominous music)

- The convent is enveloped

in this miasma of fear,

and yet the historical records

then go deathly silent.

We don't really
know what happened.

Yet, we are certain
that Sister Maria stayed

on at the convent executing
her religious duties.

- The letter is
examined by the church,

but no one can make sense of it.

It becomes a curiosity of sorts

and is kept at the
convent for centuries

after Sister Maria's death.

It's a puzzle

that seems frustratingly
impossible to solve.

- [Stew] For nearly 400 years,

linguists and code
breakers have desperately

tried and failed

to decipher Maria Crocifissa's
mysterious letter.

- So fast forward, it's now 2017

and we have the
LUDUM Science Center,

which is this kind of
private research facility

in Italy that
decides that it wants

to take a crack at
decoding this letter.

- The researchers at LUDUM led

by Daniele Abate
tried conventional

code breaking techniques
to decipher the letter,

but nothing really panned out.

They knew that many
of the characters

in the letter came

from specific ancient languages,

but they couldn't find
any correspondence

to any languages
that Sister Maria

would've been fluent in.

- [Stew] To finally
crack the code,

the researchers at
LUDUM had to turn

to an unlikely and
potentially dangerous source.

The dark web.

- The dark web can be seen

as almost a black market
section of the internet.

It's kind of this
underground section

in which a lot of
illegal activity occurs.

So not necessarily the
part that you and I

might be engaging with.

- [Stew] In this CD cyber realm,

researchers learn that
a powerful code breaking

software has been leaked

and it may be the perfect tool

for deciphering this letter.

As the computer screen flickers,

there was a breakthrough.

The 400 year old
mystery could be solved.

- The software managed to decode

most of the letter, about 70%.

- [Stew] Slowly,
the jumbled words

of Sister Maria's letter come

into focus as they are decoded

for the first time.

- And as the researchers

read the unveiled words,
they were in shock.

- [Stew] "Humans are responsible

for the creation of God.

This system works for no one.

God thinks he can free mortals.

Perhaps now, Styx is certain.

God and Jesus are dead weights."

- Such blasphemous
thoughts are unthinkable

for a nun to entertain,

let alone commit to writing.

- [Stew] Did Sister
Maria write this

or are these words
as many believed

written by the devil?

- This letter is
so antagonistic,

it could be some sort
of antagonistic entity.

Christianity has
displaced deities

from prior traditions.

A lot of the beings
that people are relating

to potentially are beings
of ancestral connection

and who have had very
long-term relationships

that have now been bastardized,

displaced and just
completely torn apart.

So there's anger.

(eerie music)

- [Dr. Christian]
Sister Maria's writing

is very strange.

On one level, it feels almost

like a more modern atheistic

philosophical
approach to the world.

It also references
ancient Greek mythology

ideas combined in ways

that we would just never expect

from a 17th century nun.

(ominous music)

- [Stew] The mention
of Styx in the letter

adds another strange
layer to the story.

In Greek mythology,

the river Styx
separates the land

of the living from
the realm of the dead.

- Whether that is a callback

to the enduring importance
of Greek belief,

Greek mythology, or
whether it is some sort

of reference to
what the underworld

and what the
afterlife actually is,

either way, it's clearly
not the prevailing

Abrahamic belief of the time.

- [Stew] Could this
imply that Satan

or some other unspeakable
entity is poised

to prevail in the
eternal struggle

between good and evil?

(dramatic music)

While dark visions
like those experienced

by Sister Maria
were once attributed

to demonic possession,
modern medicine now

offers a more
plausible explanation.

- Perhaps the most
relevant ailment

would be schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia can
cause a dissociation

between sort of
imagination and reality.

So someone might hear voices,

and this is a very common one.

We all have voices
in our head, right?

We all speak to
ourselves all the time

and we hear these voices,

but we think they're our voices.

For the schizophrenic,

it feels like that
voice is coming

from some external source

and that is a very
powerful feeling.

That feels like you're
being spoken to.

If you're a religious being

and if the words
are tempting you

or suggesting things

that are against the
teachings of the church,

then the natural
notion would be Satan.

This is Satan tempting me.

- [Stew] While some
speculate that the writing

of this letter was beyond
Sister Maria's control,

whether from the
influence of the devil

or the effects of schizophrenia,

others have theorized
that she knew exactly

what she was doing.

But to create such
a complex letter

using various ancient languages

is a difficult undertaking.

Could Sister Maria
be capable of this?

- Generally speaking,
literacy rates

in the 17th century
were very low

compared to today.

That being said though,

a woman like Maria

given her aristocratic
background

and also given her
education she would've

received upon entering
into the convent,

would have had the ability

or at least access to learning

many of these languages.

And so it's not beyond
the realm of possibility

that she did in fact
write this herself.

- [Stew] While Maria
may have had the ability

to create this letter,

why would she write
it in the first place?

- There could have been

rather than Satan, some real

psychological distress
she was experiencing

and perhaps this was
frustration with the church,

perhaps it was even a feeling

of personal failings around
her own spirituality.

- At the time in the 17th
century we're dealing

with a world that
had been divided

by religious ideas in a way

that was profoundly disruptive

to political stability

as well as religious stability.

It raised a lot of questioning

about what constituted truth.

And so perhaps on one level,

this letter is an expression

of that sense of
disorder and disruption

to traditional understanding

of the divine order

and the place of
people within it.

(Sister Maria cries)

- What's particularly scary is

that if this letter
had been decoded

while Sister Maria was alive,

she would've been
damned as a heretic.

- [Dr. Megan] Here she is
rejecting the traditional

assumptions of the power of God.

It's a highly dangerous idea.

- At the very least,

she would've faced
quite serious punishment

within the convent herself,

but it's also likely

that she might've
faced charges of heresy

from the larger
church authorities.

- [Stew] Could Sister
Maria have employed a code

of her own creation
as a safeguard

against the discovery

of these rebellious thoughts?

- It was certainly

in Sister Maria's best interest

that this letter
remained encoded

throughout her lifetime.

- It's almost tailor made
for Hollywood, right?

It's a strange
confluence of kind

of modern horror
meets ancient horror

coming together in
a perfect moment.

- [Stew] For now, the
matter of the devil's letter

remains open to interpretation.

But whether Sister
Maria's internal struggles

drove the creation of
these cryptic writings

or that she did in
fact have interactions

with unknown forces, we do know

that she was profoundly
changed by it.

- After the incident where
Maria wrote the letter,

she seems to be
miraculously cured.

She no longer exhibits
any of her strange,

unusual behavior
and by all accounts

becomes the perfect nun.

- We have this
notion in psychology

called catharsis
when you can sort

of get that all off.

That's a critical
step to healing.

Perhaps this feeling
of frustration

with the church and annoyance,

she found a way to
release that in ways

that didn't cause
negative consequences,

and so she was able
to get the release

and then go to a life

that was much more calm,
much more peaceful.

- It said that when she
finally died in 1699,

her last words were,
"Holy, holy, holy."

- [Stew] Her final words

perhaps echo her
ultimate redemption,

the quiet triumph of a soul

that finally found peace.

While Sister Maria's
possible encounter

with spiritual forces
has dark undertones,

the same cannot be said

for the spiritual influence

of the ancient Greek God
of healing and prophecy.

In ancient Greece,

a blind man named
Alcetas of Halieis

makes a pilgrimage to
the Oracle of Epidaurus,

hoping to find a cure
for his condition.

(suspenseful music)

He is guided into
the inner sanctum

of the temple complex
and instructed to sleep.

(suspenseful music)

As he sleeps, he is
visited in his dreams

by the God of healing
who places his hands

on Alcetas' eyes.

Then Alcetas wakes up.

And to his shock,

he can now see cured by
the God's healing hands.

- We know about this
story because it survives

on an inscription in
the temple complex

at Epidaurus, along with
other such inscriptions

of the healing powers

of this ancient Greek holy site.

- [Stew] The Oracle
of Epidaurus located

in the Peloponnese
region of Greece

holds significant
historical importance

as a major healing sanctuary.

(ominous music)

An oracle is a mystical gateway

through which Gods can
communicate with people.

This term can refer
both to a holy person

like a priest or priestess,

or to the location where
that person presides.

- The oracles were
hugely important

to the ancient Greeks.

Before they embarked on any kind

of major undertaking,

particularly going to war,

they would consult the oracles

to find out what
was going to happen.

They wanted to know
exactly what the chances

of success were and the
only way they could do it

was via the priests
at the oracles.

- [Stew] Established
around the 6th century BCE,

the temple's purpose
is to provide healing

through a combination
of divine intervention

and practical
medical treatments.

- It's one of the closest
things to a hospital

that we'll find in
the ancient world.

It is said that the God
of healing resides there

and will heal anyone who comes

and shows enough faith.

- The kind of conditions
that people would look

to get cured in
these healing temples

would've been arthritis,

you might get infertility,

even baldness,
believe it or not,

was something that
people sought cures

for from the gods.

(water pouring)

- The gods are imagined
as participants

in the everyday lives of people.

Rituals, sacrifices, ceremonies,

all these ways of
acknowledging the gods

and being in a kind of communion

with them is really important

to ancient Greek life.

(suspenseful music)

- [Stew] This marriage
of the spiritual

and practical worked

to create a holistic
healing environment

that has a long
history in this region.

- The Oracle of
Epidaurus is associated

with a site

that had been an active
site of devotion,

dating back at least to
the (indistinct) period.

- [Stew] Over time,
the presiding deities

assimilated into the God Apollo

and by the 6th century BCE,

the site became associated

with his son Asclepius,
the God of healing.

Thought to have begun
as a mortal man,

Asclepius became highly
skilled as a healer,

surpassing his teachers
and is believed

to have had the
extraordinary ability

to bring people
back from the dead.

- Asclepius was known

as a particularly
prolific healer

who had such an
incredible track record

that he became a threat
to the Olympians.

- [Stew] According
to Greek mythology,

Asclepius's resurrection
abilities led

to a population boom,

prompting Zeus the chief deity

of the Greek
pantheon to kill him

in order to maintain balance.

(clouds rumbling)

Yet still from the
5th century BC,

his alleged healing
powers promoted

by a loyal cult of followers,

beckons herds of pilgrims
across the Greek world

to temples named in his honor.

- Healing was such
an important function

of divinity in the ancient world

that it's not surprising

there are many temples dedicated

to this God in particular,

including one in Pergamum.

We know a little bit

about the internal
operations of this temple

as a healing facility
from the later writings

of a Greco-Roman
order named Aristides

who came and visited.

And what he describes
here is a place

with dedicated rooms
for sleep therapy.

We have the use
of sound therapy.

Diet and exercise was
also of a concern,

treatments that not only
would be familiar today

but were quite sophisticated.

- [Stew] Within
the temple complex

at the Oracle of Epidaurus,

a dedicated group of
priests and physicians

work collaboratively
to bridge the gap

between the divine
and the practical,

ensuring that visitors

receive comprehensive care.

- Getting ill in
the ancient world

was a pretty grim business.

I mean, you didn't
have the healthcare

that we have today
or the knowledge.

So you in desperation
would go to one

of these healing temples.

- The Oracle of Epidaurus
really is a site

that draws together
multiple different ways

of attending to people's health,

a kind of multi-pronged approach

or a holistic approach to
the process of healing.

It is surrounded by these
mineral rich springs

that are renowned

for their own
healing properties.

You have also the element
of spiritual belief

and so you're also tapping

into people's ability to appeal

to a higher realm as
a way of attending

to their physical health.

- [Stew] The priests
oversee religious ceremonies

and interpret the
divine messages

received by the visitors.

Physicians and healers

apply practical
medical knowledge

such as improving
diet and exercise

and administer herbal remedies.

Records of this practice
still remain etched

into the walls of the sanctuary.

- If you go to
Epidaurus, in the temple,

you'll find these things called,

cure inscriptions, which
are basically records

of the work that was
being done at the temple.

It was very organized

and approached very seriously.

- [Stew] One of the
most effective tools

used by the priests and healers

at Epidaurus is
the power of sleep.

- That is your most
vulnerable state

is when you're asleep

and it is sometimes
the only time

where your consciousness
gets out of the way.

And just that allows
you to release

enough of your guard
to maybe open up.

- The healing would
occur through a kind

of dream work which
may have a resonance

with modern forms of
psychotherapy working

through the power of suggestion,

tapping into the abilities

of the brain and the body

when the subconscious
is brought into play.

- So the dreaming allows you

to have new information

which often leads
you to healing.

- And then you wake
up in the morning

and maybe you are
convinced you feel a whole

lot better and
you exit believing

that you have been cured.

- [Alexis] It's so important

to remember the
context of this time.

Medicine is not in
any way, shape or form

what it is today,

so the idea of people being able

to go and get
essentially a diagnosis

through a dream for
whatever ailment it is

that they're suffering from

is something that gives
an immense place of hope

because it's like, "Okay,
wait, there's a way

that I can seek some
form of alleviation

from whatever it is
that's impacting my life."

- [Stew] But what if the priests

of the Oracle of
Epidaurus were able

to control the very
dreams of their patients?

Some proposed that the priests

and physicians were able

to use the amazing acoustics

of the temple complex
to implant ideas

into the minds of their
sleeping patients.

- The picture that's
painted is a picture

of extreme suggestibility

from a psychological
perspective.

- When people believe
that they can go somewhere

and be healed,
their consciousness

is already set up for healing.

That belief alone
is the first step.

- We know through
placebo effects

and other things how
powerful the brain can be

to even combat
physical ailments.

One notion is called

the activation synthesis model,

which says things are activated

in our brains, concepts,

and then those things
are woven into a story.

We do know that the
content of our dreams

can be affected by the context

in which we're dreaming,

so if they could in
the right way manage

to activate certain concepts

in the person's mind
without waking them,

there is the potential
that those concepts

could then become
integrated in the dream.

(spirited music)

- [Stew] The Oracle of
Epidaurus served the people

of the ancient world
for hundreds of years.

Is the source of
its healing power

its direct connection
to the gods?

Or, was it the
generational knowledge

of the priests and physicians

who called the
sanctuary their home?

- A good analogy
for understanding

what it would've been
like at these temples

is our modern day spas.

- For the average visitor there,

this had to be a context
of peace and stability

and security and
safety and support

that was probably
unlike anything

that they had experienced
and therefore,

that opens you up
to suggestions.

- [Tony] You would've
been pampered

by the temple attendants.

They were treated like royalty.

What wasn't to like?

- [Stew] The Oracle of
Epidaurus leaves a legacy

that can be seen
in modern medicine

highlighting the integration

of physical and
spiritual wellbeing.

To this day,

we associate the God
Asclepius with healing.

The rod of Asclepius
is still used today

in many nations across the globe

as a symbol for the
medical profession.

Whether by divine intervention

or other means, the
Oracle of Epidaurus

would be a popular
healing destination well

into the second century CE.

But the temple's reign

as the premier healing center

of the ancient world
would not last forever.

- Eventually, the temple
falls into decline

and this is accelerated

by the rise of Christianity

and the political
takeover of the region.

In the 4th century,

emperor Theodosius
passes an edict

that bans all traditional
Greco-Roman religions

and their practices,
and this leads

to a closing of temples
across the region,

including the
temple of Epidaurus.

After it's closed,
it falls into disuse,

it's abandoned, and
eventually it's destroyed

by an earthquake.

- When you ban a religion,

when you ban a spirituality,

you're saying that it is wrong

and it is not of the
way of the people,

and so the only thing
that happens there

is all of the healing goes away.

For me, it's sad to hear

that this was
happening way back then

because I know
this so intimately.

I mean, up until the seventies,

if you had more than
three indigenous people

together at any moment
in time in North America,

you were considered
as inciting a riot.

We were told that the only way

of life we've ever
known was wrong.

I wonder what would
happen in the world

if that hadn't taken place,

like from the very beginning

if we were just allowed to heal

and to practice what
cared for our community

and not what separated

and controlled our communities.

(birds chirping)
(ethereal music)

- [Stew] The prosperity brought

by the healing center
allowed Epidaurus

to construct other buildings,

including the theater renowned

for its exceptional acoustics,

which continues to host
performances today,

bridging the past
with the present.

- The Oracle of Epidaurus

is now a UNESCO
World heritage site

attracting archeologists,
historians,

and tourists who
seek to understand

ancient Greek religion
and healing practices.

- [Stew] The Oracle's
legacy endures as a symbol

of humanity's quest
for health, knowledge

and a connection
with the divine.

The Oracle of
Epidaurus is an example

of the healing power
of the ancient gods.

But not all Gods worked

to the benefit of mankind.

Some gods were portents

of death and destruction.

(Irish music)

In the mist shrouded
hills of ancient Ireland,

a tense hush falls over
the land as hundreds

of warriors prepare
for imminent battle.

(soldiers marching)

On one side,

an entire army marches
forward to attack.

On the other side, one
man stands defiant.

His name is Cú Chulainn,

the legendary hero of Ulster.

As he readies for battle,

a spectral figure
appears before him,

a goddess whose presence

is both a prophecy and a peril.

This is the Morrígan.

- Prior to the conquest
of the Roman Empire,

most of Europe was dominated

by Celtic culture.

From Spain and
Portugal in the south

to England and
Wales in the north,

everywhere was
dominated by the Celts.

The Celts had a rich
cultural history

and a large pantheon of gods,

one of which was the Morrígan.

(spirited music)

- The Morrígan is
a Celtic goddess

that can sometimes appear

as a beautiful young woman

or can be a very,
very old gnarled lady.

- [Stew] Originating
from a culture

of oral history, many
details of this powerful

deity have been lost to time.

The traces of the
Morrígan to survive

have been documented in
ancient Latin manuscripts

and Irish medieval texts
like the "Ulster Cycle",

preserving the legendary
folk tales of the Celts.

- The Morrígan appears
in a number of tales

across the British Isles.

In England, she's known
as the washer at the ford

who is washing bloody
armor in a river.

And in a lot of the stories,

she's even said to be
a kind of shapeshifter

who can shift from human
form into bird form.

- We're talking about a culture

in which the supernatural world

is directly involved
in the human world.

And the gods, the many
gods are direct actors

including in battles.

And the figure of the Morrígan

was one of the most feared.

- The Morrígan is
no ordinary deity.

She's the very
embodiment of war.

- [Stew] The dark
prophetic power

of this goddess is highlighted

in the most famous
tale involving her

where she clashes
with the mythical hero

of Irish legend, Cú Chulainn.

- Cú Chulainn is
one of the great

mythic figures in
Celtic literature.

- He is the Irish Samson,

the Irish Hercules,

a demi-god, a warrior figure,

but also a kind of tragic figure

in Irish pathology.

- [Stew] This warrior is born

under the name Setanta

to the mythological
mother figure, Deichtine,

and in some tales, the God Lug.

(Irish music)

- As a child, he earns his name

from killing the hound
of the smith Culann

in self-defense
and then offering

to take the hound's place

until a new one can be reared.

According to legend, he trains

with the warrior women
Scáthach in Alba,

which is modern day Scotland,

mastering martial arts
and supernatural powers.

His growing reputation

for heroic deeds sets the stage

for his eventual encounter

with the Morrígan.

(ominous music)

- He is like many
heroic figures,

incredibly rash and impetuous.

He's somebody who throws himself

into the heat of a battle,

and so he embarks on
one great mission,

the so-called The
Cattle Raid of Cooley.

- He is defending
Ulster by himself

due to the incapacitation
of his fellow warriors

because of a curse.

He has to face off
against the invading army

of Queen Medb of Connacht,

another rival Irish kingdom.

The stakes are immense.

The fate of his homeland
rests on his shoulders.

(dramatic music)

- [Stew] But before
the confrontation,

the Morrígan, the
goddess of war and fate

appears to him.

- The appearance of the Morrígan

on the battlefield
was not a good sign.

- Warriors who encounter
her know that she holds

and weaves their fate
on her very whims.

They can either succeed or fail.

- The Morrígan appears
to him in the guise

of a beautiful young maiden,

and she attempts
basically to seduce him

and he just tells
her to go away.

He's not interested in
any seduction right now.

- The appearance of the
Morrígan to Chulainn

was clearly an attempt
to gain his attention.

And so to reject this God

was to reject her power.

It was a direct affront to her,

and that is a dangerous game.

(suspenseful music)

- [Stew] While the
worship of the Morrígan

is most prominent in Ireland,

elements of the
Morrígan's archetype

are evident across
Celtic Europe,

such as an ancient Gaul

where deities like Cathubodua

or battle crow
share similarities

with the Morrígan,

particularly the
association with crows

and ravens as symbols
of war and prophecy.

- In Britain, Queen
Boudica famously

invokes a similar
goddess Andraste

when she's about to
fight the Romans.

This shows that
while the Morrígan

may not be universally worshiped

across Celtic culture,

what she represents
is a deep connection

between war and spirituality

and the idea that the outcomes

of warrior's fates is
determined by the divine.

(crow cawing)

- [Stew] According
to oral folk tales,

the sight of the Morrígan
was one met with fear

for Celtic warriors
throughout history,

but it also had the
potential for greatness.

She offers a chance

to confront one's
destiny to rise

above fear and embrace the role

fate has carved out.

For some like Cú Chulainn,

she's both adversary

and guide testing their
courage and resolve.

After rejecting
the Morgan's offer

of love and support,

Cú Chulainn faces
the repercussions

of spurning the
powerful goddess.

- You have to imagine
that Cú Chulainn

in that moment, once
he realized that

that beautiful
woman who was trying

to seduce him was in
fact the Morrígan,

realized that he was dealing

with something very dangerous.

- So while Cú
Chulainn is literally

battling an entire army,

the Morrígan is at the same time

trying to take him down.

(dramatic music)

- [Stew] She first transforms

into an eel wrapping
around his legs

as he crosses a river
attempting to trip him.

Cú Chulainn strikes her
breaking the eel's ribs.

She then takes
the form of a wolf

driving a stampede
of cattle toward him,

but he wounds her
with a sling stone

injuring her eye.

- She eventually decides
to take on the form

of a heifer, but Cú
Chulainn breaks her leg

showing that even the Morrígan,

the goddess of
fate can sometimes

be thwarted by it.

(ominous music)

- [Stew] Despite her efforts,
Cú Chulainn continues

to defend Ulster valiantly

and defeats the
army of Connacht.

But while Cú Chulainn has
seen victory this day,

the Morrígan will not forget.

- Cú Chulainn is
successful in many battles

and he gets this well-deserved
heroic reputation.

But eventually, like
all heroic figures,

he meets the end.

- [Stew] In the end,
Cú Chulainn is defeated

by a magical spear commissioned

by the vengeful sons of
the men he had killed.

- And the sign

that his life is
finally ebbing away

is when a crow lands
on his shoulder.

It is the Morrígan in
one of her many forms,

and she's there
enjoying this moment.

- [Stew] While the story
of Cú Chulainn is one

of the most famous
tales of the Morrígan,

the goddess is a staple

of Irish mythology appearing

to influence the fate
of warriors across time.

But whether these battlefields

were truly transformed
by her touch

is still a matter of debate.

- Scholars believe
that the Morrígan

might be part of this
kind of human tendency

to see symbols and kind of omens

in different moments.

One such omen might be
this natural presence

of crows and ravens
on battlefields.

- Crows, ravens, it's something

that is seen around the world.

I think it's really interesting

that the Morrígan
in this context

is a shapeshifter because ravens

and crows for us as
Anishinaabe people

are often shapeshifters as well,

so they do have this connection

to darkness or to spirit.

- There's something
about the crow

that has given it a reputation

across Europe as a
bird of misfortune.

That distinct sound,

that black feathered
body, the beak,

the look in its eyes,
the crow equals death.

- Our brain likes to look

for causal relationships,

and one of the ways it does that

is to begin by looking
for associations,

things that connect, that seem

to go together in some way.

We know apparently
in battlefields

where there are lots of
dead that draws crows

and ravens who are scavengers,

so they're likely
there literally

to feed on the corpses,

but that association can be used

to suggest some role beyond that

like a messenger of the dead.

- There's also this
sense that these birds

are always around
before and after,

so human beings enter
into these situations

and the birds are
there to witness

who lives and who dies.

The perception is
the birds are somehow

drawn to this, which makes
them overseers of life

and death in a certain way.

- For Cú Chulainn, his
last moments to be visited

by a crow on a shoulder
was the ultimate sign

of the superiority
of divine power.

He could not beat a
God, and so here again,

he's humbled in
his moment of death

by the Morrígan.

- [Stew] While the
Morrígan held great sway

in Celtic Ireland,

her influence waned as
a new faith took hold.

- Over the centuries,

the expansion of Christianity

across Western Europe
will slowly erase

so much of this
ancient Celtic culture.

Christian churches will
replace sacred groves

and other holy Celtic sites.

Yet in some places
there's still reminders

of this Celtic past,
particularly in Ireland.

- [Stew] Yet the character

of the Morrígan persists
in the collective memory

and appears in many
forms across stories

through the centuries.

- We find her reappearing
as Morgan le Fay

in the Arthurian legends
as the sister of Arthur,

and here she has many
of the same elements

that she had that we saw

in the tales
involving Cú Chulainn.

She is unpredictable,
she is shapeshifter.

She also is able to
communicate and prophecy.

- We also see the
Morrígan as a kind

of playable character
in video games as well

as a villain that is in
the "Dr. Strange" series.

- So the Morrígan is something

that has captured
our imaginations,

this evil female
shapeshifting figure.

- I'm not a huge fan

of the beautiful goddess coming

with the terrible message,

or she can be an old hag,

that's what they'll say.

So I wonder if that depiction

of the Morrígan would
come from the Celts

or if that's just the way

that it has been told to us,

and maybe even
they're telling it now

because that's how we see women.

- [Stew] While
the Morgan's power

has waned over the centuries,

her grip on our
imagination remains

just as the image of the crow,

as a portent for death and fate

remains a powerful
symbol to this day.

From these other worldly cries

to the divine visions,

promising health
to ancient pilgrims

and the devilish letter
left by a tormented nun,

prophecy seems to
imbue the battleground

where good and evil
wage their eternal war.

(celestial music)

(celestial music)

(celestial music)