Original subtitles

hey there i'm mike regneta this is crash

course mythology and today we're

continuing our round the world tour of

mythical features of the natural world

today we behold

trees and yes technically trees do

appear in gardens like the ones in the

garden of eden but trees have a

mythological richness all their own also

they're so nice and shady they deserve

an episode all to themselves right tote

so tranquil don't worry

we'll fix that

[Music]

so if you've been watching this series

closely you'll remember some of the

trees we've already met like the tree of

knowledge of good and evil from eden

that was the one tree yahweh told adam

and eve not to eat from and then they

did it's the one that hosted a serpent

which told eve to eat the knowledge

apple which might have actually been a

quince or a fig or a pomegranate in

which filled eve and adam both with the

knowledge that they were naked as you

may recall that didn't work out well and

it's the reason we now have pain in

childbirth and infinite weeding but the

tree of knowledge is hardly the only

mythically significant tree we've also

met yggdrasil and we're about to

encounter asvata two trees which contain

the whole of cosmology in their roots

and branches we've talked a bit before

about yggdrasil the great ash tree where

odin hangs himself to learn the secret

of runes between the tips of its

branches and its roots exists the entire

cosmos from the beginning to the end of

time yggdrasil has three great routes

one reaching to asgard where the aesir

and light elves live one to jotunheim

the home of men dark elves dwarves and

giants and the last to niflheim where

hell the person rules over the land of

the dead hell the place yggdrasil is

both a tree of knowledge and a tree of

life connecting and sustaining all the

plains of the norse universe it's

foretold to be one of the few things to

survive ragnarok and from its bark

mankind will be renewed fittingly

yggdrasil teems with life and activity

on its top branches lives an eagle and

on top of that eagle

a hawk down at the base of the tree

lives neither a dragon who gnaws on the

roots of the tree and baddies on their

way to hell a naughty squirrel named

ratatosk lives among the branches

carrying insults back and forth between

the eagle and the dragon making them

even more insulting along the way indian

mythology also features a tree that

represents the entire cosmos in the

vedas and the upanishads we find a giant

inverted tree whose roots reach to the

sky and whose branches cover the earth

this cosmic tree asvata often called a

bodhi tree represents brahman the

supreme cosmic spirit in full and

glorious bloom aswatha is further

described in the mahabharata which

explains sprung from the unmanifested

arising from it only as support the

tree's trunk is bodhi enlightenment or

awakening its inward cavities the

channels of the sense the great elements

its branches the objects of the senses

its leaves its fair flowers good and

evil pleasure and pain the consequent

fruits this eternal brahma tree is the

source of life for all beings whether

upside down or right side up these trees

have particular structures which can be

interpreted as containing the entire

universe while also providing delicious

and occasionally dangerous snacks

sometimes though these trees represent

far less than the whole world or

universe trees are also often involved

in myths about personal transformation

and it makes sense trees have an annual

cycle of change and many even seem to

die and come back to life each year

we've already seen one tree

transformation myth in the story of

totes pal osiris although that one is

complicated because osiris is entombed

in a coffin which is then enclosed in a

tree

for another tree's formation we're

heading to greece for daphne and apollo

the myth of daphne and apollo begins

with apollo making fun of eros whom you

may know better as cupid here's a tip

though don't make fun of babies with a

bone and arrow because babies with a

bone and arrow are dangerous in revenge

eeros loses two magic arrows one of gold

and one of lead the gold one is for

apollo and it makes him fall in love

with the nymph daphne so far so cupid

but then he shoots daphne with the lead

arrow and as soon as daphne sees apollo

she is deeply and madly

disgusted by him apollo pursues daphne

and daphne rejects him apollo is

persistent and daphne keeps shooting him

down mortal men might take the hint but

apollo is a god and gods do not take

hints before you know it apollo is

literally chasing daphne across greece

not especially interested in the

advances of a god she despises daphne

cries out to her father penies the river

god

for help asking him to make the earth

swallow her up or transform her into

something else

both are preferable to sex with apollo

her dad goes for the transformation

option turning daphne into a laurel tree

apollo looks at the tree and realizes he

loves

this tree after some rather

uncomfortable and unfortunate tree

molesting he decrees that the laurel

will forever be his symbol

and daphne

well we don't know how daphne feels

about it she's a tree now but my guess

is that she is not super thrilled with

this outcome a different tree

transformation myth takes us to a part

of the world we haven't visited yet

vietnam here the story of tun lang and

tao is both a transformation story and

an etiological story explaining a

traditional vietnamese marriage custom

ton and long are two brothers they're

not twins but they're very

very similar almost no one can tell them

apart except for their friend tao the

daughter of the village teacher she

learns which brother is which by staring

deeply into their eyes she knows the

older brother tan is the extroverted one

while the young lang is quiet and

thoughtful one day tao realizes that tan

is in love with her before she knows

what to do ton's parents have come to

ask for tao's hand she and her parents

agree ton and tal are married and tao

travels to live with her new husband's

family ton is happily married but still

loves his younger brother so he tries to

include long tongue asks long to come on

walks with him and tao but the younger

brother always refuses tao is sensitive

to the emotions of the two brothers and

one day she realizes that despite his

quiet exterior lung is deeply in love

with her eventually his desires become

too much to bear so he moves to a remote

mountain to garden and to right and i

mean hey

we've all been there after 10 days

without his brother tan is beside

himself with worry and goes to search

for him leaving tao behind after another

10 days tao becomes worried and goes to

search for the brothers she heads to the

mountains up a treacherous path to a

river that's too fast and wide to cross

there's no ferry and the weather is

starting to turn so she knocks on the

door of a nearby hut and let's find out

what happens next

in the thought bubble inside the hut tao

meets a kindly old couple she asks them

if they've seen two men one dressed in

white and the other in green yes the old

man says about a month ago my wife found

a man dressed all in white sitting by

the river he was weeping and acting as

if he was embracing someone but it was

only the air it began to rain so she

came back to the house to fetch a rain

jacket for him i brought the rain jacket

the old woman says and asked the man to

put it on and join us in the house he

said nothing so i laid the jacket down

beside him the next day the man in white

wasn't there but where he had been

sitting there was a strange white rock

ten days later another man this one

dressed in green came by and asked if

they'd seen a man dressed in white we

showed him the rock and told him the

story the old man says the man in green

cried that his brother had turned to

stone he embraced the rock and wept

bitterly and when another storm came

through he like his brother refused to

leave the spot the next day the man in

green was also gone and by the rock

stood a new

tree that had not been there before the

tree seemed to be protecting the rock

the next morning tao goes down to the

river she kneels by the rock and

embraces the tree crying into its leaves

when the couple wakes up tao is nowhere

to be found but they do find a new vine

with its roots deep in the ground

twisting up the tree as if embracing and

supporting it and when the old couple

pluck a leaf from the vine its smell

reminds them of the young woman who had

spent the night in their hut thanks that

bubble this sweet but tragic story of

love and devotion doesn't end there

though one summer afternoon the king

comes to the river and sits on the

strange rock under the strange tree

supported by the strange vine he asks

his attendant what sort of tree is it

and orders him to pick one of its fruits

another attendant tells the king the

story of long ton and tao explaining the

white rock represents long's pure heart

the tree represents ton's attempt to

protect his brother and the vine shows

tao's love for her husband the king

tastes the fruit wrapped in the leaf of

the vine mixed with a bit of the rock

and finds the taste most agreeable

strange that he enjoyed eating rocks but

afterward he declares that the love of

these two brothers and the married

couple is so strong that it has produced

a lovely fruit and from that point the

fruit and the leaf and the rock would be

used at marriage proposals and weddings

as a symbol of both love and fidelity

mythological trees vary in size and

meaning some are large enough to contain

the whole world others are slender

plants meant to represent a single young

woman or man deciduous trees with their

cycles of birth and death lend

themselves to metaphor as does their

shape with branches reaching towards the

sky and roots burrowing into the ground

trees can live for hundreds if not

thousands of years much longer than

humans so it makes sense that they might

come to represent something greater than

the relatively frail human form but

poignantly they also serve as a retreat

for humanity when the sorrows of

unrequited love or the threat of abuse

become too much to endure thanks for

watching and see you next time we're

going to talk about mythical cities

check out our crash course mythology

tote tote bag and poster available now

at dftba.com

crash course mythology is filmed in the

chad and stacy emmigolds studio in

indianapolis indiana and is produced

with the help of all of these very nice

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free trial thanks for watching and if

crushing despair turned me into a tree

i'd want to be groot