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Transcript: 20260322-History Is Inquiry - Vol. I - With Dr. Ammon Hillman @ladybabylon666 ​
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Stones and serpents.
OSific.
Forement.
Mimos
Hillman
Dr.
History is inquiry.
Appreciate how it is.
Oh my god.
So ammon um
What does the word history originally means? Historia in Greek is a question that you present to an oracle and this is a special question that will give you an understanding of your future. The oracles direct civilization
Toward justice toward democracy. um they infamously kill tyrants and the oracles have that power. The historia is the inquiry that we bring to our existence. And that's why it's so important that Cleo, this great muse of the Greek speakaking world was the muse of history, the muse of inquiry.
>> So I think that will be a if we can have like a good idea from you of what phology does. I know that you have an approach very that that I love which is like it's not about the the methodology or all of that you know so I would love for you to give your view of what what is your art and your craft of biology and what that is a very important tool for us to understand what is going on now and and what hap because of what happened before also and what is the connection with
What we lost, what we have, you know. So, phology will give >> philology is something that has included many people over a lot of time and these people are part of the same religion. They're drawn through different fields to the formation of the spoken word and particularly
Particularly of mother Greek.
The very concept of having something mysteriously beautiful to describe is what drives that Greek tongue.
And the only way to approach that ultimate defined beauty is through that language. If you do not love that language, it's because you have not seen her in her perfection. And so you get many people who are philologists over a long time. Some of them more linguists, you know, some of them more mythographers,
Some of them more historians, philosophers, but they're all doing the same universal art of philology. And once you comprehend how that complexity of mother Greek lends to such a beauty, you can't you're always going to be hooked. And whether you're a romantic author who's, you know, writing things about Frankenstein or whether you're a scientist who is studying the natural world, um, you can't help but be led through that love of those words, an understanding of how those words are the medium of the writer of everything, the one who writes
Out this story. Those words are her medium. That's what she uses. This is why they call her and it's not me saying this, it's them. And that's why they refer to the muse is because she is that authoress of the reality. So loving
Those words is worshiping and adoring the muse. And it's the earliest temple cult in Greece, right? The muses are all over the place. They start everything. You can't have the oracles without them. You can't have any sort of museum without them. So that philology
Um can't just be defined dryly as a science of words. Um you really have to see how it has acted historically. And there are some great great philologists that you would you may feel more comfortable calling rock stars than philologists, but they're philologists to the core. Um yeah, I love it. I'm on and um but let's say
What uh the definition of a person that is going into an institution and is getting into into it and he would like to study ancient Greek. um what what will be like that kind of definition to explain like to understand like what let's say I'm going to study u engineering you know they will give me some outline about what is all about so how how is this uh phology you have to study >> if you if you want to become a philologist today you have to go to a university's classics departments and classics departments offer you a degree
In classical philology and that is the study of Greek and Latin. need to get your you have to have your Latin too. But >> right, but um that real you know uh the real heart beating heart of everything is in the Greek. And so in order to do that you have to go to a classics department at a modern university and you get all the way through a PhD. And the PhD qualifies you to be able to translate ancient Greek over a period of about 3,000 years. Right? So
>> 3,000 >> This is the degree that will allow you an avenue into philology. It is specifically classical philology and uh every university's well the programs now are being dissolved because the people who um are supposed to be learning the Greek are finding that it's very difficult. Princeton just recently uh cut off their own classical Greek program because they're graduates apparently are not up to the challenge. But that's the way that it is and um yeah that's what classics is classical philology >> also this this understood this from you
Also which is when we say classical we're actually talking about like a time frame isn't it >> what what is it classical >> it is it is it is um really you're talking about the language that influenced um modern Europe That's bas basically what you're doing. um the civilization but people will say classical civilization then you can talk about yeah specific times right so what what
I'm concerned with as a classical philologist and I think what applies what's helpful to other people is that we're looking at Greek from 1600 BC down to about a th00and uh anodominy that's the real target for the Greek so we're going all the way from Masonian Greek down to Byzantine Greek. >> Okay, >> which some people say, "Oh, that's too modern, right? You can't classical Greek's got to be older than Byzantine." And when they do, they overlook all of the Byzantine scholars like the one that I just found last night, Nicholas. I
Can't remember his where he was from. Nicholas of somewhere. Yeah. Anyh who >> so so yeah that would be the time frame from 600 BC till like um the end of the Byzantine empire like like the end like thousand >> the peak the no the peak of the philos the Byzantine philosophers who tried to restore the beauty and the superiority
Of ancient Greek. um they were actively working to try to elevate it from its from its direction down to commonality back up to what it was in the fifth century BC. The thing that you have to know about Greek is everybody
Loves the fifth century. That seems to have been the peak both for the civilization, for the development of democracy, for all of the all of the media, the theater, everything that was uh uh um artistic. >> That's all. >> Yeah. Fifth fifth century BC is when that's flourishing. So the height of the Greek language, ancient Greek, is considered to be fifth century Attic Greek, that's Greek from Athens.
And um it's not, we don't love that period because that's all we've got. We have Greek from all over the place. Um but the grammarians and the people who were studying the history and the basic sciences those people are agreeing that the purest form of the language is from the fifth century. It has the least um it has the least common
Tendencies. Um it's not trying to become universal. it's still trying to maintain its ability to coin terms. So, um, that's one thing that's very important when you're studying classical philology. You have to realize that Greek has a life and goes through ages and reaches peaks. And the peak seems to have been the time when people could invent the most words. It was seems like to be very common that um even Romans were were um
Were kind kind of it was like normal to go and train with somebody that will teach you how to explain something. thought like >> like to be an anor I don't know how to say it in in >> rator in Greek right
Is a rhetorical person >> they will train that stuff like like normal thing so what person will be teaching to this this other person will be how to express the logos >> correct correct how to use how to properly use the logos Exactly. >> And that that branches then into philosophy, not only law and rhetoric, but philosophy as well. >> But it has to do with with the with with some kind of ability to be able to express something with your words. >> Correct. >> Talking.
>> Correct. >> Okay. Like >> correct. >> But you can say an idea in many different ways. >> Right. >> So that Okay. >> And it's why barbarians are barbarians. It's because their language is just bar bar that it doesn't it's not able to reach that height and pull down that reality out of the invisible. It's not able to do it. The barbarians can't do it. They have lists of [\\h__\\h] in their palaces. That's it. Right? So,
People say even the Romans and um you must realize that the Romans are sitting at the feet of the Greeks. all of those Greek colonies in Italy. They're the ones bringing them their own alphabet, right? It's a Greek woman supposedly that brought the uh Italians, the Latin tribe, their alphabet um because they didn't have one because they're too busy building hots and stuff, you know. So, it Latin really sits at the feet of Greek. uh and >> and what that >> that that whole uh situation there
Because obviously we get Spanish from Latin um we there's a lot of roots obviously and we know that Latin comes from Greek ancient Greek language so that this at what point will this was this happening like I'm sure it was like a couple of hundred years maybe or more. No, the the people who posit the existence of Indo-Uropean,
They're the ones who tried to figure out what you're asking. Like which language is coming from which and I know Spanish and Spanish and French their their um romance languages right there. So these people put together in the 1800s, early 1900s, they're putting together a picture of where all these languages come from. And it looks like Greek and Latin are both related to the same mother tongue that who knows what the hell it is. We'll call something Indo-Uropean, but we don't have any proof or existence. All of that theoretical stuff is just theory.
>> Okay? >> It's just theory. What what do we have as evidence for the languages, right? How do we know what comes? That's all we've got. Whatever they wrote that we kept that's managed to freaking survive.
That's all we've got to represent what those cultures were doing literally with the logos. That's it. And what we find is all over Italy there's little tiny dialects that drizzle out over time and Latin becomes stronger as Greek protects
It protects it around around in these little colonies these little Greek colonies because the Greeks are already literate nobody is literate before the Greeks and when I say that I mean literature I don't mean written words. You can have written words, right? And people don't understand there's only 19,000 unique words in Egyptian.
Everybody thinks >> 19,000. You can find that on the TLG. The TLG has all of those stats. And there's only 19,000 unique word forms. That's Oh my god. That's nothing. That's how can you have a vocabulary with that? You have to ask yourself why it is that the Greek literature survives so abundantly. It's obvious because it's the language that had the best adaptability, the best suitability. It was the easiest used to do the to get your the best bang out of, right? And it just it just squashes
Other languages. So knowing that knowing that all we can say is yeah Latin was it was there developing you know and the Greek was influencing it somehow. Do they use similar words? Yeah they do. Do they have a common parent? Maybe right?
What does that say? That's not very satisfying. All we have, all we really have evidence-wise, and I'm kind of weird about this cuz most classes are not going to argue this, but I'm going to argue that all we really know about antiquity is coming through these words. That you really can't get into their minds without these words. That that's the key. And so, that's really all the evidence we have. We can look at their buildings. We can look at their archaeology. Great. But if you want to know what they were what they were really existing and living for and
Being, then you have to get into those words. And that's why philology is so important because if you don't do that, you can create anything you want. You can create a religion around a guy that was killed for the sake of being a some kind of trafficker and you can build a religion out of him. >> Mhm. >> Right. You can influence things. you can change history, you can use propaganda. And they were fighting part part of what classes don't see is that the the drive
In antiquity for purifying the language and keeping the purest language which is essentially saying the most complex and the best adapted tool. Right? That's it. keeping things at that level um is the is the object of civilization and if you don't have that your civilization breaks down and I know nobody would agree with that today nobody's going to say you mean your civilization is only there because of your language
Unfortunately that seems to be the reality >> because they're trying to purify it all the time in antiquity >> but can you first give me this this golden nugget please which is >> yes >> this people think that in ancient Greece sometimes uh in discussions I have um that they were like kind of illiterated like uh people at that time doesn't know how to read how to how to write you know and and so what do you think about that that idea >> if if people were illiterate or largely
Illiterate we would not have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of pages of Greek if they were illiterate. They must not have been going to the libraries they were building and they must not have been involved in education because onethird of the earliest Greek education is language. So um to say that they're illiterate is just it's usually the monists who do that. Christian people who have a Christian education, Western Christian education tend to float that stupidity out there. But it's not true. We wouldn't have all these
Documents if we'd if they didn't. And they just haven't read anything from antiquity because that's all dude that's all the kids education is. They have to be able to read Homer dog, right? And there's music involved there. And when we're done with that, we're going to go get naked and wrestle. So, welcome to the ancient world. Beautiful.
Everything that is happening in the scientific um scene you like scene or whatever where they're the edge of it sounds much alike as what they were talking about like about especially the ptocratic like um the the whole idea of the multi-dimensional stuff the timelines and all of that you know it was >> yeah why aren't they this is something maybe you can help me on this because I've never heard like I've asked people I've never heard like a decent explanation but all these mathematician
Like you were saying prescratic kind of philosophy slashmagic >> driven group these people who are into the religions too you know and the you know some of them don't eat meat some of you know what I mean >> and they follow they follow the mystery these people consistently
Talk about um traveling through time >> and it was annoying when I first started reading in Greek. I was like it's annoying and after a while I was like Jesus I don't know I I just don't know. I mean it
Some guy like Pythagoras who's the genius who's who's bringing into words a 2 + b 2= c^2 just a basic
Principle of geometry he's bringing it to the world and they're saying that he supposedly is time traveling >> in the process. How the [\\h__\\h] Cuz he lives for like 200 years. his different lives. Some say, "Oh, he lived earlier." Some say, "Oh, he lived later." But they all talk about it like he lived for like 200 years. And the Greeks noted, right? Oh, it's he went into a cave at a certain point. These philosophers, they're going into caves and traveling through time. And I don't know if it's
Because they're high on something that they're dealing with in the caves because you don't go to the ca who's in the caves, the oracles, right? The priesthoods, the Melissi, >> the right, the Malissi, very infamously, the priestesses of Demeter, the bees, right? That's where they go is the cave. That's where the echnic priesthood originates from the cave. That's where those caves are in Thrace that are have the Bakic pillars around them. You go into this cave, it looks like a vagina. You go into it. What were they doing there? Well, I don't know,
But it says in the text that that's where their oracles operated. >> Cave of cave of trfonius. >> They were saying also that he was remembering past lives or something like that, >> right? What the [\\h__\\h] is that all about? >> I I found that reference the other day like he supposedly he remembered that he was a woman, he was a man, he was a child, he was a stone or whatever. there was something there that gave us mathematics or philosophy.
That's exactly that's exactly why it bothers me because these are people like Pythagoras who are you know he doesn't just accept or believe anything right he's he's all based in science and nature and I think that's what that modern connection is you're talking about there it's a it's a natural process we're describing we talk about the oracles and three you're talking about pharmarmacaya and the oracles this is a natural process that is something that you can actually do. It's not a belief system. It's not a cultural idea or some, you know,
Philosophy or something. It's an act >> that you can perform. And this act does things that very smart people once said can cause changes in time. >> That you can project yourself through time.
So now I understand that probably well I don't fully understand but probably they were just finding all of this through their connection with nature. So probably that's why they were going to a cave or to a special beach or under the special moon and because it's all over there, you know, I mean like make some snow and and >> Yeah. Don't forget though that in the middle of all that cuz that sounds kind of fatalistic like well it's just part of nature so I can I should be able to reproduce. It sounds totally fatalistic
But yeah, you're exactly right. It is totally part of nature. But imagine this now. Outside of all of that is one individual who exists through time that you cannot see but she is there and she perpetuates the mystery
Right now. Think about it. They're thinking about this architecture because if they can understand okay there's other there's an unseen what they would call wait what they called not wood what they called the unseen and that dimension can be manipulated and all you have to do is come through the initiation to be able to get your workers permit to where you can then work
Let me give you Example, vampires. Vampires go right back. And I was just searching for the Mormon Lucina, who's this very mysterious lady who loves the blood and um bodily emissions of boys. Now you say, "Wait, wait a minute. What?" Um, I can tell you more about her and how she survives on blood, but if I tell you that she is alive now
And then that she is one of these immortals that lives by the ambrosia, they are around you and they are invisible, but they can be made visible. This is the power of the mongus to make them visible. So
Um something that they did very well in the Dracula that just came out by Luke Bant that um he pictured the he portrayed a female in a state of vampirism where she was heightened uh charged sexually and that was her thing. She was the succubus.
>> She was living within that disguise. He must have had access to Appalonius of Tyiana because he brought that character back completely. Who are these people? I just told you time travel. They're talking about time travel. Well, remember all of that is based around the existence of these invisible other dimensional
>> Yeah. >> entities that are around you all the time. And you can influence those according to their own text. You can influence those. You can manipulate and the whole incubus thing is the perfect that's the that's the heart of all this necromancy stuff that they're doing because remember Cersei Fox Odysius it's all part of the deal. If you haven't been there, you haven't been to see the queen. That's the point, right? So
Where are >> can we can we go there and can we just go there like like we said before like the you're connected with the necromancy and and these entities that you are talking about now the succubus the inkos um >> could you give us like a bit of what what we're talking about when we are talking about this >> sure so they're primarily sexual
You know they say the Dimmon. They call them dones. The powers that are in the air that are invisible. Aortos. Those invisible powers are attracted
To certain passions. They don't have eyes or ears. They can't see or smell or feel. What attracts them is passion. What is that inner um drive, right? that you have got as a living being, as an organism, you feed off that drive that you those drives that you have, they they have like radiation. Anyway, um there's a particular class of the donese that are drawn by a sexual energy and people have been writing about them for a long time. Not only did the ancient Greeks write about them, but the Byzantine scholars wrote about them and um like King James wrote an entire work
On these de different classes of demons, particularly the sexual classes. And where is he getting all of this stuff? He's getting it from antiquity because it's when the language is at its most crisp that they're able to identify and really create the science of demonology for lack of a better word. But when I say that, you have to understand that those are the powers that cause illness, right? So they're integrated into the medicine, what you and I would call the medicine of antiquity. You mean they're
Casting out demons when they're performing medical operations? Absolutely. That's a whole part of it, right? And that priestess, if you're a melancholic person, that priestess can cast out that demon for you. It's all a science. She's going to give you some drugs and she's going to perform some kind of operations. They're going to have stuff being fumigated. [\\h__\\h] you may step on a snake while you're there. You know what I mean? You've got to you've got to appreciate all the different um levels of medicine levels of science and tech and medicine that are,
You know, included in this one big thing of the mystery. Anyway, the in the incubus and the succubus are those demons, those powers that are drawn by that sexual energy and that desire. It's
Not just sexual. I don't mean to sound like a guru and from India or something. I'm not, you know, I'm not describing some kind of chakra or something. No, no, no. What I'm saying is within the intelligent universe where
There is order, what the Greece called cosmos, there are forces that are charged with carrying out these particular passions. and that these invisible forces can be accessed by what you and I know as the visible. So um the whole bach right leading to Aphrodite, what do you think? Do you think that the Bakant women are succubi? They have a reputation for being extremely sexually charged, Christed, and carrying around baskets with dildos and snakes in them. They're known for killing people, for sacrificing people. It's just total
Strangers. They're known for invading communities, right? They're known for hostilities.
They're known for taking hostages particularly. And what do they do with those hostages? Most of them end up dead, but it's what they did to them before they killed them that really matters. Now, is that the type of world that doesn't appreciate life as much? I don't know if you want to make that judgment. I guess you can in this particular case, but um this is not the world that we're familiar with. This is what's coming out of the text. And um it's just, you know, I can't
All you need to do is look at one ancient formula for a cream that you put on on the head of your penis that will cause you to hallucinate once you've introduced it to somebody's rectum or vagina and have entered into citus with them. This is gonna when you see a description of this, it's not technology that we understand, >> right? It's it's it's it's involving things that we don't understand. And if you want to if you want to put yourself in the in your place, read Aristotle for 10 minutes and realize these [\\h__\\h]
People. If it's aliens, I don't care, right? I I don't really care anymore. extradimensional. I don't care. The fact is they have an access to a knowledge and a technology that we don't we no longer possess. We no longer use >> and Yeah. Yeah. >> It's amazing.
>> What is pharmace? The concept of pharmaca is the use of natural elements to affect your surroundings. It is most essentially magic. It is often translated straight up as sorcery, but it is specifically in all the references that I've seen it. It is most basically the use of the elements in your environment to manipulate nature in a way that you desire. It is magic. Um, and those elements are the drugs, what you and I would call the drugs. Drugs that are found in plants, drugs that are found in soils, drugs that are found in living
Venoms. This natural world with its elements can be a tool for manipulating your existence within the cosmos. So, let me give you an example. the the best example of pharmarmacaya and you'll see it associated with this all the time is the erotic magic. So you want somebody to be attracted to you. Say you're Jason and you're off to seduce media. You can use the elements of nature in order to hedge your bets. You can drug her in order to abduct her and rape her and bear children with her.
Okay, this is the thought process that pharmarmacaya facilitates. Most of these things that you call sorcery and witchcraft, they're they're the use of the natural elements of the world in order to affect an erotic response.
So all of the creams, all of the perfumes, all of the um savves and ointments that we're going to be using or that Cersei is going to be using or the temple of Aphrodite is going to be using. This is the magic, the sorcery that brings us that real mystery. You truly cannot be inspired until you've
Been manipulated by that witch. And that witch uses pharmarmacaya. So people would say today pharmarmacaya is the use of drugs in antiquity. Something like that. The use of drugs in antiquity. Um, but because they have a red text that talk about pharmarmacaya and all the sorceresses that are involved and all the magic that's involved, they don't see the predominance of sex. They don't see the predominance of what they call filtra, the use of specific sex drugs, right? That are meant for one thing. Jason sails to Kulkus, right? Um, but before
He does, he stops off at Limnos and he rapes one of the locals. And he does so by drugging her. And why? Because Jason was trained by the greatest theian big cocked centaur that there was.
And what what was his magic? It was all the drugs. He actually gives her. The Greek says he he drugs her and rapes her. So um that's what the language is showing us for Pharmarmacaya. That's who's using it. You know people think because of medieval images of the witch they think they think witchcraft is you know some
Whatever a pot and a stick and a >> Yeah. And when we talk about when we talk about the witch now, it's is like this this this same thing through time through all the the prohibition or whatever how the things were changing through time. Um the witch like all of all of these uh this medicine woman became what they will call the witch a thousand years after or a thousand or 2,000 or whatever. these witches, this herbaria idea, this um this medicine
Woman idea that we know now as like the I don't know like the thousand like the 16th um century like the witches the hunt hunting or whatever >> disconnect this seems to be like the same
They became that for the for for for the society. >> Yeah. kind of thing. Or or >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We lost our image. We lost our image of what all these different all these different pharmacists were. We we we don't really understand. We think that there were something from, as you said, the 16th right century. No, no, no. We're talking about a different time and we're talking about very different principles, you know, that are floating in the culture governing. There's nothing weird about a mother going out
To her cultivated garden and picking up her opium um slashing it and waiting for the milk to drain from it so she can collect it and give it to her daughter because her daughter's having pain during her ministration. and this is what you do. Um there's it's that's just a you know that's just a part there's a religious component to that that you don't see because the earth there is the giver of that element and so therefore what are you doing you're following Gaia right and of course you would because you're
Initiated into the mis the great mysteries right the great mother is what it's all about the you see there's no just like we talked about before generalizations suck and anybody who gives them to you they're just full of [\\h__\\h] it's like giving you methodology, right? You know, screw that. Just give me the evidence. Let me figure out what it what it says or doesn't say. The the problem is we can't see how witchcraft sorcery actually function because we're looking through a very hostile lens of Christianity that has portrayed taken
That figure and created for us the modern concept of the witch. >> Yeah. So, it's not fair because those all of this stuff is coming through that um religious mystery that's being propagated over time. And so, you know, this it's studyable, it's traceable. You can examine it, break it down just from the uh I do the words, other people can do the why, you know, the plants, all the plants that are involved. You were talking about the mythic liturgy. You got to bring plants.
Can you talk a bit to us about um this oracle technology? Can we call it? >> Yes. Yes. Uh what has emerged through the Greek language is a system for carrying out or executing a mystery. And that system involves the use of instruments that are meant to alter
Your perception to guide you from the visible to the invisible. Those different instruments are things like the music, the drug use, the incantation along with the environment in which the person, the natural location where the oracle is being performed. All of these things influence the imagery that is being brought. Remember this is all idolatry. the creation of the adelon, the creation of the image. So this tech that we're talking about when we're talking about oracles is the image that is induced in the person. The initiate becomes
Born again through this visionary process. Their ability to create an aid alone is absolutely essential as a part of the technology of the right.
So you may not think that creating a mental image is a part of the technology of a religion, but the religion's mystery performance is meant to bring you that adalone. That aid alone will purify you. That aid alone will reset you. It'll give you memory. It'll allow you to be able to advance beyond
The common. It's an elevation in the same way that the Greek language itself is an elevation of the common. So the you cannot distinguish you cannot take away the language itself from the right. The very songs themselves include
Melodies, rhythms that are all essential to create this adelon in the mind of the participant. Mhm. >> So the technology that we're talking about is really all focused on bringing that person to that climax, that moment of orastic, eyeopening understanding of the cosmos where you can step outside of yourself, right? And be transported to that invisible reality. It's not so much that you're moving there, it's that you're gaining the ability to visualize it.
So that familiarity becomes your new birth. And the process is so well engineered with these tools that it can be administered. The mystery can be administered to as many people as we want. We have a standardized
Procedure using this technology. We know exactly how to take you off the street and to bring you to the point of new birth and enlightenment. >> Oh. So yeah. >> Yeah. But what were you were going to add something? >> No, just you got to consider the drugs. Please consider everything even the motions of the priestess because part of this is coming through >> something that we get ends up with us in the fifth century or sixth century as pantomime
>> Pantoime. So, we're getting motions and we know that some of these magic texts, for example, in the EGM that those texts have something to do with a sound that has been described as a popping and a hissing. We know that there are certain noises. they're incorporated into the right that you and I maybe just call noises, but for some reason it's important for the person to experience these in order to achieve whatever death and rebirth that the that the right is meant to achieve. So these are
All technological elements of the right. If you don't have the right drugs, it's not going to work. If you don't have the right song, it's not going to work. If you don't have the right priestess, the one side of the tech that you may want to add that everybody leaves out is that that priestess is providing her own body fluids.
>> So that's another element of >> that's a bet a bit of of of next question here. And uh would it will be like how there was a system I mean who is this oracle how that system worked? Um this oracle is a person that study to be an oracle is randomly choose. How is this system of the oracle? >> No this not randomly chosen. So who is the oracle and how do they become oracles? It is a process of education.
These are girls who at a young age have been dedicated to the temple, right? So either their parents gave them up to the temple as as adoptions or what happened what happened commonly was aristocratic families would give their daughters to the temple because the temple would then enter them into an education in dance in astrology
In music and the history that we see the oracles producing is obviously a product of their education. When they come out and say, "No, you can't have tyrants. They're not good for your government, right? They have been learning things while they're being educated in the in the temples." So, and there's all sorts of different temples that will have um oracular
Elements to them. And so, a girl is taken and educated for a certain number of years. They say the standard rule for oracles and you can read this kind of stuff in authors like uh Plutarch. The standard rule for oracles was that the first 10 years was their education.
The second 10 years was their performance and the third 10 years was their time where they were in charge of teaching the new members. So you only perform between the ages of 10 and 20. These oracles are between that age gap. That's when they're performing and after that they hand it on to the next group. And once they've exited that third decade, they're done. They can go off and do whatever they want. It is essentially a career path.
But in the process, as we're told over and over again, they are selected. Not all of these girls who are educated in the system become oracles, oracular priestesses. >> Okay? >> The selection process for them is more rigorous. And I'll just give you one example. Um, I've thought this was interesting. You cannot have a a blemish. No facial blemishes whatsoever.
No freckles. Freckles meant you can never dance as an oracle. Period. That's it. So they had standards like this. Height was another one. No short oracles, >> right? Sometimes you think why? What? You know, is there something is it does it have something to do with the fact that they're dancing? Is it I don't know. Is it what are their standards? I don't know. But they have all of these um the oracles can't be considered ugly. They have to be beautiful. They have to be closest to the divinity that is possible.
So all sorts of um >> so they were they were being like this is a great place that you will send your your your child to kind of thing. She'll be educated. She since and you are telling us 10 years 10 years 10 years. So this is starts like very when they're like
>> Newborn you can dedicate a newborn >> newborn. >> Okay. So it's amazing and uh so the performing part of it that what I understand of what we have talked about in the past is um this performing 10 years of it. What will that mean? That's when the priestess is actually composing. What what is she doing? She's making song. So she has people who will come to her during the day and she has a schedule for people to come and these they have to enter their they get one question.
It's their one inquiry histori. their one inquiry and she will produce compositionwise verse she'll produce a song in response to their question and their song her song will be written down and that's the oracle you got yours get the hell out right you have to go through a process of purification you can't just walk in >> right you're basically vetted in the process so she is answering ing all of these inquiries. That's what her job is. But the funny thing is is don't don't forget they're
Not distinguishing their religion, their medicine, their science. They're not distinguish their music. So she becomes elevated when she becomes an oracle. And these elevated positions are what the aristocracy is looking for, right? That's what they want >> because now she has now she has power and did you know she becomes sacrosan when she becomes an oracle and speaks or sings for the god the first time she becomes sacrosan
Right the Romans preserve this in their vessel virgins right those are the oracles that keep the hearth of Rome and so it's a it's you know people want it for their of course You would want this for your kid, but if your kid has freckles and can't stand the drugs, you know, and we have accounts of them running off >> running off the edge of the hill and killing themselves on drugs and whatnot, right? It's okay. >> Um some this is this is a um um girl
That is being trained every day is like um being teached about the logos probably also music. Um so the best education you can have uh you've been trained physically to be able like do you know how to like physically dance very fit >> how to dance >> and there's this other very important topic probably which is like how to handle drugs as you said how to handle the the the the that technology that they were using let's say let's call it that way maybe >> right and they're having that technology
Applied to them from birth. Right? So, um for example, the the Eidic priesthood, they do the arm slashing and the covering of the wound with the venoms. They're doing this from the time that they're young. I I know that one of the Excuse me. I know that. Let me take that out. I'm sorry. >> I burned the pizza.
Here. I've been leading in a couple more minutes. Um,
What a what a knucklehead. I'm sorry. >> They they um I've read of groups that were like I think it was the bears who worship Artemis. They start at like seven I think it is. >> And by the Yeah. like seven is the like the adoption starts at seven. So the mother will raise the child until at 6 and then they'll go through a ceremony, send them off to the bears and the bears will turn this kid into somebody who by the age of 10 will be able to fight in public like mixed martial arts fight.
So there are different emphases within different priesthoods. That's the that's the priesthood of Artemis, right? That's that >> how it is >> like we will have like a bunch of different places that they are doing this or or or not that much or like everybody was going to specific spots or specific places that we know that the priesthood is you can bring your little girl to it or whatever. H how that we have some sources talking about that like where >> how common Yeah. How common are these
Pre priesthoods? It's so common that just about every king's daughter becomes the head of the priest priesthood whatever it is whether it's a masculine divinity or feminine divinity. And this tradition goes it's it permeates the literature. Every every aristocrat every ruling aristocrat's daughter is in these priesthoods. It's priestess so and so. It's all these priestesses who are getting traded and abducted. It's all these priestesses that are ending up being responsible for tyrants getting killed. And so, um, how common is it? It I can't give you
Numbers or quantify it, but I can tell you it's all over Greek literature. There there are priesthoods even if you just look at fifth century Athens and you look at say drama, just go through the dramas of the three biggies. esophagles and Uripides and count up the priesthoods that are in it, right? You're going to be surprised. They're in everything.
>> So, how common were they? you know, an archaeologist wrote uh wrote a great work on oh I think it was a she was working on temples of Hera. I think it was and talking about the influence of the priesthoods because you know even they it looks like that the temples of Hera were the first you know athletics really the first Olympics that they were doing that kind of stuff with their female priesthoods.
So, the fact that we have all of these female warriors, all of these females that are involved in combat directly, and you read in the text and you think, well, that's odd. The the Greeks are not making a big deal about the fact that this woman is fighting alongside them. All of those priesthoods are contributing not only to military action, but also to um like hunting, and they're the ones who are getting involved in the big hunts. the the Greeks can't kill um their big scary
Caledonian boar or whatever the hell it was without Adal Atlanta being there to be able to to spear the thing cuz she she's the best hunter. Everybody knows that. So, and why would she be she's the she's one of those [\\h__\\h] aristocrats who can afford >> to be put into a system and raised through the ranks to the top. the best training >> to be that cream of the crop. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's training. Where is she getting her training? The Greek chorus itself, don't forget this. The Greek
Chorus itself is a piece of technology that people don't appreciate. >> It is a religious machine that is meant to purge the audience. And the chorus is working together with the language. They're the priest. They're the essentially the priesthood that's representing Dionis right there on the stage. It's essentially their church, right? That's happening as the priest of Dionis sits there and oversees it. So all of that tech is being used within the within the mystery and the performance of these initiations and these healings and >> seems seems to be. So yeah, like when
When well the first time you talked about to me that this was like six months ago, first time we talked about you were talk talking to me about Clemnestra and I I have read Escilus before. So even when I was talking with you, I I was actually reading it again, you know, because of this whole thing and to try to but it it didn't crack anything to me to be honest. I was just like reading it again. You know, I'm reading a story after that and one time
We talked and you said to me like now you understand what I asked you about the Draina and and and and you told me like now now you understand why Clinton the Clinton Minister did what he she did and everything. So that kept in my mind for a while and um and and I think it was like two months ago I picked again the same book and and then I started to to to read it again. Um, it's such a different like the the let's say when when this guy when Agamemnon
Gets to the after the war to his house with this girl and he's saying like this girl is the only thing he took as the most important thing that he to like a treasure from Troy or what was this woman or child with I don't know like that it was a woman like Cassandra you So then she starts screaming some stuff. So I I've read I I read that like five times before,
But last time I I read it was like, okay, this is the [\\h__\\h] priesthood we're talking about. I mean, like what? >> She's the daughter. She's the daughter of Pryam, the king of Troy. >> Exactly. and he took her and and and he says that he's the most precious thing that he took from after the biggest war ever
And it was this woman. I don't know. Maybe wasn't that old, you know. Maybe probably right. She wasn't. >> She wasn't. She wasn't. But she >> she already had because she was in that 10 to 20 year age, she already had established her reputation as an oracle. Her brother was also considered a prophet. Mhm. >> And so when she was abducted and taken back, she was the target of the Drakina, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. She was a competing oracular arm
Of the mystery. And this bo this bozo had brought her into the kingdom, >> right? >> Yes. >> Oh my. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't know if you remember because I I I I had this conversation with an artist in in Athens when we were recording. She's a dancer >> and >> Yeah. >> And she asked me and and I gave her a bit of I mean I g I told you what she said to me about the chorus because I was telling her about everything we were been talking about and she was like
Blown away about it. She actually had a bed of ancient Greek in because if you are studying in Athens uh dance, you will have a bed of it. You know, you have to do the the tragedies. She was a dancer and um and she told me that the chorus will represent like the the mind of the people like the um like the everybody that is watching what is going on kind of thing like this is the cor mind of the of mankind or whatever of the you know so It's usually the bridge.
It's usually the bridge between the actors and the audience. The chorus is is like, okay, sometimes they're the common sometimes they're the common people on the street. Sometimes it'll be like all of the servants of the queen. It'll be like a chorus. It'll be sometimes it'll be a chorus of women who are being brought as slaves back from Troy. So they all have the same kind of perspective that the audience it's like the the playwright wants you to get your perspective through that chorus. So the chorus comes in and feels the actors out
So that the audience can kind of experience the actors through that chorus. Definitely. >> Yeah. That's def definitely. Now the thing that I like though is it's a process of purification. That's how they describe it. like that chorus is somehow supposed to be purifying you as you're sitting there watching them. And if you'll notice, they go through transformations.
They come to points where they realize what's going on where the >> even in that same situation like with with with Cassandra and Hestra when they are discussing this the chorus is changing his mind at some point. It's like at first it's like are you doing this? So it's not like a just like an omnisient entity
>> Like is is interacting with the what what is going on >> right in in the bakkeye of Uripides the chorus is kind of that springboard um for us to be able to experience what the initiate who follows Dionis experiences and Dionis kind of talks back and forward with them and and it's Uh, it's so obvious that you're supposed to, as the viewer, you're supposed to be sucked into that chorus. It's like the point of, you know, where the movie like gets into you and you have a commonality
With it. That's that's exactly that's how she's describing it. I'd say that's gorgeous and straight on beautiful, classical, perfect. >> Yeah. And another important thing that that makes what we are doing now I'm and I'm very grateful is to be able for me to engage again with that text. I needed a bet a bet up if not that I'm trained on it, you know, but a bit of small training, you know, like you need to see what this is about and what you know and then you pick up
The same thing that you already read and you will it's completely different where you read it. I mean when when I >> figure out figure out how to translate that to your documentary production where you're putting the audience in the place of that chorus. figure out what the maybe that's what you know that's why you're doing that in your mind. Did you go to Clyde Nestra's dream the drachinus dream in the coy the cup bears
>> Libation bears? Yeah, go to the like go to the second in the trilogy after Agamnon. Go to the second one and >> yeah, go to the second one after aimnon is another play and thin the humanities. So it's the co the cup bears the queue and thin the humanities. Go to that middle play and in it you're going to see Kleinestra have a dream as the draina and it involves the communion. So, >> okay. >> You must see you must see that it look for the dragon queen's dream. That's What I'll say. >> Okay, I will.