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Why Do So Many Myths Say “DON’T LOOK BACK”? — Transcript

by The Three Pillars · 5,621 words · 998 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Imagine you are given a simple command.
0:03Don't look back.
0:06Just keep walking forward.
0:09Whatever you do.
0:11No matter what you hear. No matter what
0:12you see.
0:14Even if you hear your children calling
0:15your name.
0:16>> [music]
0:17>> Or your loved ones crying out in agony.
0:19Just keep walking. And don't turn
0:22around.
0:24Do you think you could do it?
0:26>> [music]
0:26>> It might sound simple enough.
0:29But time and time again.
0:30In stories from ancient Greece, Korea.
0:33The Middle East. And countless other
0:35places.
0:36People fail the simple instruction. Over
0:39and over again.
0:42Across thousands of years. [music]
0:44There have been hundreds of stories from
0:45around the world.
0:47All with the same warning.
0:48>> [music]
0:49>> Don't look back.
0:52Perhaps more interesting than the
0:53prevalence of this command [music] in
0:55myths from across the world.
0:57Is the fact they almost always fail it.
1:00So today.
1:02We're going to look at several of these
1:03stories. [music]
1:04And examine what happens when the
1:06characters disobey the seemingly
1:08straightforward command.
1:10Before asking.
1:11Why this particular warning appears so
1:13often in stories from cultures separated
1:16by thousands of miles.
1:18And thousands of years.
1:21Because the most intriguing part.
1:23Isn't that they are told not to look
1:24back.
1:26It's the fact they always do.
1:38>> [music]
1:46[music]
1:51[music]
1:54>> The most famous story with this command.
1:56Is that of Orpheus and Eurydice.
1:59One which I'm sure many of you would
2:00have heard before.
2:02The version I will be using is from
2:04Ovid's great work, The Metamorphoses.
2:07The main character in the story is of
2:08course Orpheus. He was the best musician
2:11of all time. Nothing could resist the
2:14beautiful melodies that came from his
2:15wonderful voice
2:17paired with his masterful playing of the
2:18lyre.
2:20There was one thing that Orpheus loved
2:21as much as music
2:23and that was his wife, Eurydice.
2:25Their wedding day was the happiest day
2:27of his life
2:28until the god of marriage services,
2:30Hymen,
2:31who Orpheus had called to bless his
2:33marriage, delivered some devastating
2:35news.
2:36Hymen didn't bless the marriage as he
2:38usually would
2:39and his torch, which he brought with him
2:41to every wedding and would burn bright
2:43when the marriage was to prosper, could
2:44barely hold a flame
2:46instead sputtering out fumes that
2:48brought the attendees to tears.
2:50Unsurprisingly,
2:52this was a very bad omen for Orpheus and
2:54Eurydice's marriage
2:56and it wouldn't take long for that bad
2:58portent to come to fruition.
3:01A few days after their marriage,
3:03depending on which version you are
3:04reading,
3:05either Eurydice was walking through the
3:07grass with her naiad companions
3:09or she was running away from the
3:10shepherd Aristaeus, who, enamored by her
3:13beauty, was chasing her down to assault
3:15her,
3:16when, in both stories, she was bitten on
3:19the ankle by a snake and very shortly
3:21after died.
3:24Unsurprisingly, this devastated Orpheus,
3:27who, after a period of intense mourning,
3:30decided he was going to do the
3:31impossible
3:32and bring his wife back from the
3:33underworld.
3:35Making his way past countless ghosts who
3:37were wandering aimlessly through the
3:38land of the dead, he finally enters the
3:41lair of Persephone and Hades.
3:44He stood before these great gods of the
3:45underworld
3:47and he took out his lyre
3:49and started to sing.
3:50>> [music]
3:51>> He sang his story to the gods. He sang
3:53about the death of his beloved Eurydice.
3:56He sang about the wonder of Amor, the
3:57god of love, also known as Cupid,
4:01and tried to remind Hades and Persephone
4:03about when they themselves were also
4:05captivated by Amor,
4:07when Hades
4:09abducted Persephone in the events that
4:11led to her being trapped in the
4:12underworld with him.
4:14Orpheus begged the king and queen of the
4:16underworld to return Eurydice to the
4:18land of the living.
4:20And if they didn't, they could take his
4:22soul as well.
4:23He would rather die than leave without
4:25her.
4:26What happened next is nothing short of
4:28legendary.
4:30The entire underworld, this pit of
4:32darkness and despair, was filled with
4:34emotion.
4:36Ovid describes how the surrounding
4:37ghosts started to weep, and how the
4:39various criminals trapped in the fields
4:41of punishment did something that was
4:42meant to be impossible.
4:44They stopped what they were doing.
4:47Ixion, who had been sentenced to be
4:48chained to a spinning fiery wheel for
4:51all eternity, stopped spinning.
4:54Tantalus stopped reaching for water,
4:56which was cursed to always retreat just
4:58out of his reach, leaving him
5:00perpetually dying of thirst.
5:02Sisyphus stopped pushing his rock and
5:05instead sat on top of it and watched,
5:07transfixed by Orpheus's melodies.
5:10The Furies themselves even felt their
5:12face become damp with tears.
5:15Hades and Persephone, feeling the effect
5:18of Orpheus's lyrics
5:20and seeing what it had done to everybody
5:22else in the underworld, summoned the
5:24ghost of Eurydice.
5:26They said that Orpheus could do as he
5:28wished and return with Eurydice to the
5:30land of the living,
5:32except for one simple condition.
5:35He must not look back.
5:38Unsurprisingly, Orpheus accepted this
5:40condition instantly
5:42and started to make his way back from
5:44the underworld.
5:46For this next section, I'll be quoting
5:47directly from the original Latin using
5:50my own translation.
5:51They took the sloping path in absolute
5:53silence.
5:55It is steep, obscured by dense shadowy
5:57fog, and closer to the border to the
5:59real world above.
6:02It's at this point that doubt starts to
6:04creep into the back of Orpheus's mind,
6:06teasing him with questions.
6:08What if the gods lied to him? Is
6:10Eurydice even truly behind him?
6:12It is a well-known fact that the Greek
6:14gods weren't exactly the most honorable
6:15bunch, and they certainly wouldn't be
6:17above such a cruel prank.
6:20Here, Orpheus makes a mistake that would
6:22come to define him.
6:25Afraid that Eurydice had faltered
6:27[music] and eager to see her, the lover
6:29turned his eyes, and instantly Eurydice
6:32dropped back, reaching out her arms,
6:34struggling to hold and be held.
6:36>> [music]
6:37>> The unhappy man could snatch at nothing
6:39except the vanishing air.
6:41And now, dying for the second time,
6:44there was no complaint to her husband,
6:46for what could she complain of except
6:48being loved?
6:49And for the last time she said,
6:51"Farewell."
6:53A cry that could hardly reach his ears,
6:55>> [music]
6:55>> and returned again to that same place.
6:59So goes the story of Orpheus and
7:01Eurydice.
7:03So, why couldn't Orpheus abide by that
7:05simple instruction?
7:07He had managed to do the hard part. He
7:09had used his superhuman powers of music
7:11to convince the king of the underworld
7:13himself, and yet he still failed at his
7:15task at the final hurdle.
7:18Why did he turn around?
7:20Although this subject has received a
7:22decent amount of scholarly attention,
7:24it is still something that I think is
7:26criminally under discussed in
7:27scholarship.
7:29If we take a surface-level look at the
7:30story,
7:31the reasons for Orpheus's look back is
7:33clear.
7:35It all stems from that classic human
7:36flaw,
7:37doubt.
7:39Orpheus was worried that Eurydice may
7:40have faltered. However, we don't see
7:43anything in the text that suggests that
7:44she had in fact tripped.
7:46Instead, Orpheus was filled with doubt
7:49over the words of Hades and Persephone.
7:51>> [music]
7:52>> He was worried he had been tricked and
7:54looked back to verify Eurydice was truly
7:56behind him.
7:57This could definitely be seen as an
7:59allegory for keeping faith in the
8:00divine.
8:02If Orpheus had just completely trusted
8:04the words of the gods, he would have
8:06escaped the underworld with Eurydice and
8:08lived the rest of their lives together.
8:11Instead, [music]
8:11by turning around, he went against the
8:14orders of the gods and Eurydice paid the
8:17ultimate price.
8:18This could also be a warning against the
8:21problem of loving too hard.
8:23As after all, it was because of his love
8:25for Eurydice that Orpheus turned around
8:27as he was desperate to see her.
8:30Here, scholars have linked Orpheus
8:32turning around to his status as a poet.
8:34As poets have to face their muses and
8:36audience and thus Orpheus turned to look
8:39at his audience, his muse, Eurydice,
8:42[music]
8:42and his selfishness caused her to return
8:44to the land of the dead.
8:47An interesting point to note is that
8:49Orpheus had been a known figure in myth
8:51since at least the 6th century BC with a
8:54fragment from the lyric poet Ibycus
8:56which simply lists Orpheus as Orpheus,
8:59famous of name.
9:01But unfortunately, that is all that
9:02survives.
9:04However, the concept of Orpheus saving
9:07Eurydice and specifically being
9:09instructed to not look back is first
9:11found in Roman times with Virgil's
9:14Georgics and Ovid's Metamorphoses.
9:17The latter being the basis for my
9:18earlier translation.
9:20So, the concept of not looking back in
9:22this myth seems to be maybe a Roman
9:25invention
9:26added to an earlier Greek myth concerned
9:28with Orpheus.
9:29Anyways, we could spend hours reading
9:32into the reasons behind Orpheus's
9:33actions.
9:35And I'm excited to see what you guys
9:36have to say in the comments below.
9:39At this point, you might be thinking
9:40that the don't look back command is
9:42simply an unusual feature of the Orpheus
9:44story.
9:45>> [music]
9:46>> However, if we turn to our next source,
9:48we can see this motif appear again.
9:51We have another story of somebody
9:53fleeing from one world to another.
9:55We have another divine command, that
9:57same don't look back.
9:59And once again,
10:01they turn around.
10:04Next, we have a famous story from
10:05Genesis, the first book of both the
10:08Hebrew Bible
10:09>> [music]
10:09>> and the Old Testament, about the wife of
10:11a man called Lot,
10:13as part of the wider story of Sodom and
10:16Gomorrah.
10:17The actual story is only a very small
10:19section of the wider narrative.
10:21So, at first, let's cover a brief bit of
10:23context for people who don't know the
10:24story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
10:27Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities who
10:30were plagued with sin and violence.
10:32And perhaps most scandalously,
10:34inhospitality. [music]
10:35God decided that these two cities
10:37deserved to be destroyed for their
10:39transgressions against the divine.
10:42However, Abraham pleaded on behalf of
10:44the cities,
10:46as he knew his nephew, named Lot, lived
10:48in Sodom.
10:49And God agreed that the cities would be
10:51spared if there were [music] 10
10:53righteous people within them.
10:55God sends down two angels, and that is
10:57where our story starts.
10:59The two angels arrive in the city of
11:01Sodom, where they encounter Lot, who
11:04invited them into his [music] house and
11:06made them some food.
11:08Before they went to bed, however, all
11:10the men from Sodom, both young and old,
11:12[music] had surrounded Lot's house,
11:15demanding the angels be brought out so
11:17they could have sex with them.
11:19Lot refused to let them do something so
11:21scandalous, and [music] instead offered
11:23to give over his own daughters,
11:25which is interesting, I guess.
11:28But the mob stayed and kept on demanding
11:31for the angels to come out.
11:33The angels blinded the men outside and
11:36realized that there were not enough
11:37righteous people to save the cities.
11:38[music]
11:39So, they ordered Lot to take his wife
11:41and two daughters and flee before God
11:44razed the cities to the ground.
11:46The angels gave the family a simple
11:48instruction.
11:50Flee for your lives. Don't look back and
11:52don't stop anywhere in the plain.
11:55Flee to the mountains or you will all
11:57[music] be swept away.
11:59Lot instead asks if he can flee to the
12:01nearby village of Zoar as he would not
12:04be able to reach the mountains in time.
12:06And the angels agree.
12:08For the next section, I'm going to quote
12:10directly from the New [music]
12:11International Version of the Bible.
12:14By the time Lot reached Zoar,
12:16the sun had risen over the land.
12:20Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur
12:22on Sodom and Gomorrah
12:24from the Lord out of the heavens.
12:27Thus, he overthrew those cities and the
12:29entire plain,
12:30destroying all those living in the
12:32cities
12:33and also the vegetation
12:35>> [music]
12:35>> in the land.
12:37But Lot's wife looked back
12:39and she became a pillar of salt.
12:43And so goes the slightly anticlimactic
12:45story of Lot's wife.
12:47Just one small half sentence as she
12:49quite [music] casually just turns into a
12:51pillar of salt, you know, as you do.
12:54Although she is unnamed in the Bible,
12:56she's known as Ado or Edith in some
12:58Jewish traditions.
13:00But why did she look back? And why is
13:02she punished?
13:04Well, if we look at the original Greek
13:06and Hebrew text, we can perhaps get a
13:08better idea.
13:10In the Greek manuscripts, the verb they
13:12use to describe the look from Lot's wife
13:15is epiblepai, which can also mean to eye
13:17with envy.
13:19While the Hebrew verb nabat
13:21can also have the implication of
13:23regarding with pleasure.
13:25With this added context, which we don't
13:27get in a new international version
13:28translation, we can see that Lot's wife
13:31turned back out of longing for her city,
13:34perhaps to look one last time at the
13:36place where she called home, Sodom,
13:38before it was destroyed.
13:40Thus, God punished her for two reasons.
13:43One, because she dared to go against the
13:45order of the angels, and by proxy, the
13:47word of God, who commanded her not to
13:50look back.
13:51The second reason was because even
13:53though Sodom was a city filled with sin,
13:56she still held some sort of love and
13:57desire for it.
13:59Even though [music] God was trying to
14:00give her a new life, a better life.
14:03All he asked was for her to let go of
14:05her past home,
14:07but she couldn't. She gave [music] in to
14:09the temptation of looking back,
14:11and thus, she was punished.
14:13The choice of punishment may seem
14:15bizarre,
14:16being turned into a pillar of salt.
14:18However, there may be a real-life
14:20explanation for this.
14:22The real locations of the cities of
14:23Sodom and Gomorrah are debated,
14:26but if they ever did exist, they
14:27certainly were somewhere along the Dead
14:29Sea,
14:30a place with several different natural
14:32salt pillars,
14:33many of which have since been named
14:35after Lot's wife.
14:37Thus, it is [music] likely that this
14:39story is an example of a legend
14:41explaining a geographic feature.
14:44So goes our second story with that
14:47dreaded command, "Don't look back."
14:50You might be thinking to yourself that
14:52two stories might simply be a
14:53coincidence.
14:55However,
14:56there is actually a name for this
14:57pattern.
14:59In his gargantuan work, the Motif Index
15:02of Folk Literature,
15:04folklorist Stith Thompson cataloged
15:06several thousand motifs found in myths
15:09and folklore from around the world
15:11across six huge volumes.
15:14In this, we can find a whole section
15:16titled The Looking Taboo,
15:19and more specifically, a motif
15:21classified as C331,
15:24taboo
15:26looking back.
15:28We'll touch a little bit more on this
15:29later,
15:30but for now,
15:31let's turn our attention to a story from
15:33the other side of the world.
15:36The next myth we're going to cover is
15:38called the legend of Jangjamok Pond,
15:40which is a Korean folk myth of unknown
15:43date.
15:44In fact, not much at all is known about
15:46this myth from what I can understand.
15:48It is a result of widespread oral
15:50tradition,
15:51so I cannot seem to find any one
15:52standardized copy of the story,
15:55nor much information about the
15:56background and origin of the myth
15:58itself.
15:59So, if there are any Koreans in the
16:00comment section that can give more
16:02information, that would be amazing.
16:04Anyways, the story of Jangjamok Pond
16:07goes something like this.
16:09Long ago, there was a wealthy landowner
16:11who was a Jangja, or rich man.
16:14However, despite all of his wealth,
16:17he was notorious for being extremely
16:18cruel and greedy. And he would always
16:20refuse to help the poor or give
16:22hospitality to monks or travelers who
16:25would come onto his lands.
16:27One day, a Buddhist monk came onto his
16:30land asking for food.
16:32He held out his bowl to the Jangja,
16:34hoping for the wealthy man to fill it
16:36with food. Instead, the Jangja filled
16:38the monk's bowl with cow dung and chased
16:40him away.
16:42However,
16:43the wealthy man's daughter-in-law, who
16:45had witnessed her father treat the monk
16:46with such disrespect, was horrified and
16:49secretly followed the monk and instead
16:51filled his bowl with rice,
16:53hopefully after cleaning it.
16:55The monk thanked the daughter-in-law and
16:58told her that a great disaster would
17:00soon fall upon her house.
17:02And she should bring everything she held
17:03precious and follow the monk straight
17:05away.
17:07Shortly after, when the daughter-in-law
17:09rejoined the monk,
17:10the man told her to not look back, no
17:13matter what.
17:14As they were walking down the path away
17:16from the house, the earth started to
17:18tremble and thunder started to rumble.
17:21She heard screams and crashes behind her
17:23coming from her house.
17:25Startled and fearful of what had
17:27happened, the daughter-in-law turned her
17:29head and looked behind her.
17:31What she saw stunned her.
17:34The wealthy man's house had collapsed
17:36and a pond was forming in its place
17:39with the landowner and all his
17:40possessions sinking into the watery
17:42depths.
17:43As soon as the woman looked back, she
17:45turned into stone.
17:47Apparently,
17:48in different places in Korea, they call
17:51certain ponds Jangjamot or rich man's
17:54pond
17:55named after this tale of the wealthy man
17:57who drowned along with the house and
17:59riches which he treasured so much.
18:01Often, if there was a fitting rock
18:03nearby, they would call it, please
18:05excuse my mispronunciation,
18:07Myeonuri bawi or daughter-in-law rock.
18:12The meaning behind one part of this myth
18:14seems glaringly obvious, the punishment
18:17of greed.
18:19The rich man dared to disrespect the
18:20Buddhist monk and never gave charity to
18:22anyone.
18:24And thus he was punished to drown
18:25alongside his house and all of his
18:27possessions.
18:29The reason behind the punishment of the
18:30daughter-in-law, however, is less
18:32obvious.
18:33I mean, she did go against the command
18:35of a monk who told her not to look back.
18:38But doesn't it seem a little extreme to
18:39turn her to stone because of it?
18:42Well,
18:43clearly the moral failure is not on her,
18:45but is instead man.
18:47So why was she punished?
18:49To answer this, we need to look at the
18:51link between all three of the myths we
18:53have seen so far.
18:54And that link [music] is the concept of
18:56boundaries.
18:58All of these stories are concerned with
19:00the movement of the main character
19:01across boundaries.
19:03With Orpheus, it is the boundary between
19:05the land of the living and the land of
19:07the dead.
19:08Whereas with both Lot's wife and the a
19:10from Jangjamot pond,
19:12it is to do with the boundary between
19:13the old world and the new world.
19:16In the story from Genesis, Lot's wife is
19:18leaving behind her old life, her old
19:20city, for a new life in a nearby
19:22village.
19:23Similarly, the daughter-in-law from the
19:25Korean tale is leaving behind the old
19:27world, her father-in-law's house that's
19:29been turned into a pond, for a new,
19:32better life by following the monk.
19:35In all of these myths, the characters
19:37who have been instructed not to look
19:38back
19:40go against this command when they are in
19:41the liminal space between these two
19:43worlds.
19:45Orpheus was right on the edge of the
19:46underworld, mere moments away from the
19:49land of the living.
19:51Lot's wife looks back after she had left
19:53her old life in Sodom, but before she
19:56had reached the safety of a new life in
19:58the village.
20:00The same with the Jangja Mot story. The
20:02daughter-in-law turned back before
20:03safety had been reached.
20:06Clearly, there's a link between all
20:07these myths of the main character
20:09turning away in the liminal in-between
20:11space between their old world and their
20:14new, better world.
20:16When someone violates a sacred boundary,
20:18i.e., a command from the higher divine
20:20power,
20:21while they are in this in-between space,
20:24they become fixed in that place, stuck
20:27there forever.
20:28For the case of Lot's wife, she is stuck
20:30in that liminal space as a pillar of
20:32salt.
20:33For the daughter-in-law, a stone.
20:36For Orpheus, it is not him that receives
20:38the punishment, as that would be too
20:40kind. He himself said he would give up
20:42his life if he could not bring Eurydice
20:44back.
20:45Instead, it is his beloved that must
20:47take on his punishment.
20:49And Eurydice is instead [music]
20:50sentenced to an eternity in limbo, in
20:53the land of the dead.
20:55By looking at it with the context of
20:57other similar myths, we can see it's not
20:59just because the daughter-in-law turned
21:01back that she was punished, but instead
21:04because she turned back in the sacred
21:05liminal space in between the boundaries
21:08of a future and past life, that she was
21:10cursed to be stuck in that space
21:12forever.
21:14This idea of not looking back at a
21:16boundary also seemed to have made its
21:18way into everyday ancient life.
21:20Pythagoras, the famous philosopher and
21:22polymath in the 6th century BC,
21:25supposedly said (I say supposedly
21:27[music] because this is only survived in
21:29the work of Diogenes Laertius some 700
21:31years later, among several other pieces
21:34of advice such as don't stir the fire
21:36with a knife and always roll your
21:38bedclothes up).
21:39But anyway, getting back to the point,
21:42Pythagoras supposedly said, "When you go
21:44abroad, don't turn round at the
21:46frontier."
21:48Meaning don't turn around and look back
21:49into your native country when at the
21:51border with a foreign one.
21:53This piece of advice can pretty much be
21:55applied to the command given to the
21:57characters in the myths we have
21:58discovered,
21:59as they were also told not to look back
22:01when at the border between their
22:02homeland,
22:03the land of the living for Orpheus, the
22:05city of Sodom for Lot's wife, and a
22:07father-in-law's home for the Korean tale
22:09of Jang Hwa and Hong Ryon,
22:10and a new or foreign place, the land of
22:13the dead for Orpheus, the new village
22:16for Lot's wife,
22:17and a new life of safety with the monk
22:19for the daughter-in-law.
22:21However, they all failed [music] this
22:23simple instruction
22:24and paid the price.
22:26The reason why one must not look back
22:28during this movement of crossing the
22:30border from one place to another is
22:32perhaps quite clear. One must not dote
22:34on the past. Instead, they must keep
22:37their attention on the future,
22:39as if you keep on looking behind you, if
22:41you keep on obsessing of your past life
22:43and your past mistakes,
22:45you will be stranded,
22:46>> [music]
22:46>> unable to reach the safety and salvation
22:48of your future life, as you're so
22:50worried about your past.
22:52So you will become stuck in this
22:53in-between space,
22:55as if you'd been turned into a pillar of
22:57salt, or your skin turned into stone.
23:05Moving on from the myths we've covered
23:07so far, we have a couple other tales
23:09from different peoples from across the
23:10world
23:11all containing a command of don't look
23:13back.
23:15I found this next story in a book titled
23:17Where Animals Talk, West African
23:19Folktales, and supposedly it is a myth
23:22from the Fang people, an ethnic group of
23:24around 1 million people from countries
23:26such as Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and
23:28Cameroon.
23:29This myth was transmitted to the author
23:31of the book, Robert Nassau,
23:33by an elder of a different tribe, the
23:35Benaka tribe,
23:37who wrote down several myths from the
23:38Fang people, which Nassau then
23:40translated. Most of the myths are
23:43concerned with things such as how
23:44certain animals got their unique
23:45features,
23:47and the myth we're going to cover is no
23:49exception.
23:50It is titled A Lesson in Evolution,
23:53and it goes like this.
23:55Shrew and Lima were neighbors [music] in
23:57the town of beasts.
23:59At that time, the animals did not
24:00possess fire. Lima said to Shrew, "Go
24:04and take fresh fire from the town of
24:06mankind."
24:07>> [music]
24:08>> Shrew consented, but said,
24:10"If I go, do not look while I am gone
24:13toward any other place except the path
24:15in which I go.
24:16Do not even wink.
24:18Watch for me."
24:19So, Shrew went and came to a town of men
24:23and found that the people had all
24:24emigrated from that town.
24:26Yet, he went on and on seeking for fire
24:30and for a long time found none. But, as
24:32he continued moving forward from house
24:34to house, he at last found a very little
24:36fire on a hearth.
24:38He began blowing it and kept on blowing
24:41and blowing, for the fire did not soon
24:43ignite into a flame.
24:45He continued so long at this that his
24:47mouth extended forward permanently with
24:50the blowing.
24:51Then he went back and found Lima
24:53faithfully watching with his eyes
24:55standing very wide open.
24:57Shrew asked him,
24:58>> [music]
24:58>> "What has made your eyes so big?"
25:00In return, lemur asked him, "What has so
25:03lengthened your mouth to a snout?"
25:06Here, although not a direct command of
25:08not looking back, we can see that the
25:09shrew told the lemur not to look
25:11anywhere but straight ahead.
25:13And it could be that the lemur must have
25:14looked somewhere else, such as behind
25:16him, and thus his eyes grew, explaining
25:19why lemurs have such big eyes.
25:22This is certainly a much less depressing
25:23tale than the other ones we've covered
25:25today.
25:26And it's one of my favorite examples of
25:27an etiological myth, or a myth that
25:30explains why something is the way they
25:31are.
25:33Now, another folktale comes from the
25:35tribe of the Inuit people in Greenland,
25:37and it is titled The Revived Who Came to
25:40the Underworld People.
25:42This story is centered on a husband and
25:44wife and their son,
25:45>> [music]
25:46>> as well as an old couple who were
25:47without children, all living together.
25:50The son, unfortunately, dies while
25:52they're out fishing, and rather than
25:53keeping to the Inuit custom of holding
25:55five days of mourning, the parents of
25:57the dead child leave before the fifth
25:59day is up, not only going against their
26:01sacred custom, but also leaving the old
26:04couple alone to fend for themselves with
26:06nobody to provide food for them.
26:09The old couple then dig up the body of
26:10the dead child, and after chanting
26:12incantations over the body, the boy is
26:14brought back to life.
26:16The old couple ask the boy to look after
26:18them and provide food for them,
26:20and the boy goes home with the couple,
26:21gets a kayak, and becomes their
26:23provider.
26:24The father of the revived child later
26:27comes back to see what happened to the
26:28older couple,
26:30who he expected to had long starved to
26:31death.
26:32But he was surprised to see bits of skin
26:34and blubber that had clearly been
26:36stripped from the carcass of a seal.
26:38So, he asked the old couple who had
26:39caught the seal for them.
26:41When the couple replied it was the man's
26:43own dead son,
26:44he threatened to kill them as he thought
26:46he was being mocked.
26:47However, he soon saw the impossible.
26:50His son was back alive again.
26:52As he went to touch his son,
26:54the old couple screamed out for him to
26:56stop. However, they were too late. The
26:58father touched his son on the shoulder,
27:00and the son instantly dropped down
27:02>> [music]
27:02>> dead.
27:03The old couple went about doing their
27:04magic incantations once more,
27:07and the son was revived for a second
27:08time, and attacked his father.
27:11So, his father ran away in shame.
27:13Some time later, the revived son was to
27:15be married to a woman of a different
27:17tribe.
27:18And the older couple wanted to come with
27:19him, so they wouldn't be left on their
27:21own again.
27:22The son agreed, and loaded the older
27:24couple up on his kayak, with one
27:26condition,
27:28that when they approached the rock which
27:29enclosed the abode of his wife-to-be's
27:31tribe, they do not look back.
27:34As this will stop all of them, including
27:36the son, from being able to find the
27:38entrance.
27:39The couple agreed, and they set [music]
27:40sail. And when they reached the cliff on
27:42the son's kayak, the cliff opened,
27:45revealing a utopia with many houses and
27:47a pebble beach, with large piles of
27:49flesh and skin for them to eat. However,
27:52when the old couple saw this, in their
27:54delight, they forgot the son's warning,
27:56and they turned around.
27:58Instantly, the beautiful town
27:59disappeared, and their boat instead
28:01smashed against the side of the cliff,
28:03throwing them all down in shock. The son
28:06then said that he and the old couple
28:08must remain apart forever,
28:10and the couple should build their house
28:11on a nearby cliff,
28:13and the tribe of what was meant to be
28:14his wife will provide them with food.
28:17The couple did as he said, and they were
28:19indeed looked after by the tribe.
28:21Meanwhile, the son was left to find a
28:23new wife.
28:25To me, this story seems to be
28:26startlingly similar to that of the myth
28:28of Orpheus.
28:29Both involve someone being brought back
28:31from the dead.
28:32Both involve that same command of don't
28:33look back.
28:35And both, as with every other story,
28:37involve the main characters going
28:39against that command at the very last
28:40hurdle. Right before Eurydice reaches
28:43the land of the living in the Orpheus
28:44myth, and right before the family
28:46reaches the utopia in the Inuit tale,
28:49this also fits nicely into the
28:51discussion we had earlier about the link
28:53between a liminal space between worlds
28:55and the don't look back command.
28:57As here, very similarly to Orpheus, the
29:00Gangnamut story, and Lot's wife, it is
29:02as the family about to cross the
29:04boundary into the new world, into a new
29:06utopia, that they look back
29:09and they are forbidden from crossing
29:10that frontier.
29:12We have covered five different stories
29:14where the characters are told not to
29:15look behind them.
29:17And in every single case, they failed to
29:19follow that command.
29:21Clearly, there is a lesson behind these
29:22myths that is taught in communities from
29:25ancient Greece to Korea to Greenland.
29:27But what might that lesson be?
29:30Picking up on what we were speaking
29:31about earlier,
29:33one such lesson is that we must not
29:34dwell on the past.
29:36The physical act of looking back might
29:38also reflect the metaphorical act of
29:40looking back on the past, which we can
29:42often get caught up in and can
29:44negatively affect our present. Perhaps
29:46the best example of this is in the story
29:48of Lot's wife.
29:49Not only does she physically look back
29:50on her home, the city of Sodom, but she
29:53is also reflecting on a time there with
29:55a sense of envy, as we discussed earlier
29:57when talking about the use of the verb
29:58epiblepe. We can also see this allegory
30:01in the story of Orpheus.
30:03If we look at Virgil's version of the
30:04myth in his Georgics, we see him use the
30:07Latin verb respicio, which not only
30:09means to physically look back, but also
30:11to look back in time. So when Orpheus is
30:13looking back at Eurydice, he's looking
30:15back on his lifetime with her and
30:17reflecting on their time together,
30:19rather than accepting the fact that she
30:21has passed on to the underworld.
30:23This is obviously the whole basis for
30:25the myth. Orpheus cannot accept that his
30:27wife has passed away and instead travels
30:29to the underworld to try and rescue her.
30:31However,
30:32he must accept that she has died and
30:34there's nothing anyone, not even
30:35Orpheus, who can charm inanimate
30:37objects, can do.
30:39It's a lesson in grief.
30:41It is only when somebody reaches
30:42acceptance, that fifth and final stage
30:45of grief, that they can truly get over
30:47their loved one's passing away.
30:49I'm sure there are several other reasons
30:51behind the prevalence of the don't look
30:53back command in myths and folklore.
30:55And I would be interested in hearing
30:56yours in the comments below.
30:58Unfortunately, it seems to be a rather
31:00understudied topic in academia.
31:02Obviously, myths such as Orpheus and
31:04Lot's wife have been studied vigorously.
31:06But it doesn't seem to be really any
31:08paper or treatise covering the similar
31:10themes in these myths with the tales
31:12from Greenland to Korea.
31:14Like I mentioned earlier,
31:16the Motif Index of Folk Literature
31:18characterizes thousands upon thousands
31:20of different motifs [music] from
31:21folklore from all over the world.
31:23Characterized under number C300 to C399
31:27is what Thompson calls the looking
31:28taboo.
31:29And in number C331, we see taboo looking
31:33back. Here we can at least put a name to
31:35this phenomenon. The motif of the
31:37command don't look back is a type of
31:39looking taboo, specifically focused on
31:41looking behind you.
31:43To conclude, all of these myths are
31:46different.
31:47Each character has different reasoning
31:49behind their actions in these myths.
31:51However,
31:52what is the same in every single one are
31:54two things.
31:56One is that command of don't look back.
32:00The other is the fact that they always
32:02do.
32:03It's hard to find a specific reason why
32:06this is so prevalent in these myths.
32:08However,
32:09I believe there's something in that
32:11liminal space, the in-between world
32:13between the old and the new frontier.
32:17It seems to be always in this liminal
32:19in-between space that the people turn
32:21around. And then they are punished.
32:24There is something ancient in the idea
32:26of not looking behind you at the
32:27frontier. As we saw in the quote from
32:30Pythagoras,
32:31I would also argue that the moral of
32:33some of these stories also has to do
32:35with the age-old saying of live in the
32:37now. All of these people in their myths,
32:40by looking behind them, focus too much
32:42on their past,
32:43sometimes out of grief for their lover
32:45or longing for their prior life,
32:47instead of focusing on their present.
32:50And they paid the price for it.
32:51And that's something I think we can all
32:53learn from.
32:54I hope you've enjoyed this video.
32:56Goodbye.
33:00>> [music]

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