Miscellaneous Myths: Astraea

Summary

The speaker, who identifies as a 'jack of all trades, master of none,' discusses their skepticism towards 'fakelore' and their passion for debunking myths. They recount their initial doubts about the Greek goddess Astraea, who was believed to be the last immortal to live among humans during the Golden Age. Despite their suspicions, they find that Astraea's story, including her eventual departure to the heavens and the prophecy of her return to herald a new Golden Age, is genuinely supported by ancient sources like Aratus's 'Phaenomena' and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.' The speaker also reflects on the political and religious manipulation of Astraea's prophecy throughout history.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker identifies as a lifelong learner but not an expert, with a particular interest in Greek mythology.
• 🕵️‍♀️ They have developed a 'spidey-sense' for detecting 'fakelore', or false historical attributions, in various fields of art.
• 🌟 The speaker expresses frustration with forgeries and false attributions that complicate the research of genuine historical and mythological content.
• 📚 They recount their skepticism towards the myth of Astraea, the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity, and precision, due to its seemingly modern tropes.
• 📖 The speaker's initial suspicion about Astraea's story is based on its thematically coherent divine domain, which contrasts with the more complex and varied roles of gods in actual mythologies.
• 🗝️ Upon further research, the speaker finds that Astraea's story is indeed supported by ancient sources like Aratus's 'Phaenomena' and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'.
• ⏳ The myth of Astraea reflects a nostalgic view of a past 'Golden Age' and a critique of the moral decline of humanity through the ages, as depicted in the transition from the Golden Age to the Iron Age.
• 🌌 Astraea's retreat to the heavens and her transformation into the constellation Virgo symbolizes the end of a utopian era and a longing for a return to innocence and justice.
• 📜 The prophecy of Astraea's return, associated with the return of a Golden Age, has been co-opted throughout history to support various social, cultural, and political agendas.
• 🔮 The speaker concludes that while they were initially skeptical of the prophecy's authenticity, its realness is underscored by its historical utility and the tendency of people to interpret it according to their own contexts.

Q & A

What is the speaker's self-perception regarding expertise?

The speaker perceives themselves as not an expert but rather someone who loves learning new things and has a broad but not deep knowledge, often referred to as a 'jack of all trades, master of none.'

Why does the speaker develop a sense of skepticism when encountering new stories?

The speaker develops skepticism because they have encountered many forgeries or fabricated stories in their research, which are often given false historical contexts to seem more impactful and exotic.

What is the significance of Astraea in Greek mythology according to the script?

Astraea is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity, and precision, and is associated with the constellation Virgo. She is noted for being the last immortal to live with humans during the Golden Age in Greek mythology.

Why does the speaker initially doubt the authenticity of Astraea's myth?

The speaker doubts Astraea's myth because her thematic coherence and the narrative of her being the last immortal to leave humanity feel unusually modern and well-constructed, which contrasts with the complexity and inconsistencies found in traditional mythologies.

What sources does the speaker reference to verify Astraea's myth?

The speaker references Aratus's 'Phaenomena' and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' as sources that support the mythological aspects of Astraea's story.

How do Aratus and Ovid describe Astraea's departure from Earth?

Aratus and Ovid describe Astraea as leaving Earth during the transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, as she becomes disheartened with humanity's increasing conflict and violence, eventually retreating to the heavens to become the constellation Virgo.

What is the prophecy associated with Astraea's return?

The prophecy associated with Astraea's return suggests that she will come back to Earth, signaling the beginning of a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity.

How does the speaker view the use of Astraea's prophecy in different historical contexts?

The speaker views the use of Astraea's prophecy as politically and religiously useful, noting that it has been co-opted throughout history to support various social, cultural, or political agendas.

Why does the speaker find the modern application of Astraea's prophecy frustrating?

The speaker finds the modern application of Astraea's prophecy frustrating because it is often used dishonestly to support agendas without acknowledging the original mythological context or the fact that it has been manipulated over time.

What is the speaker's final conclusion about the authenticity of Astraea's myth and prophecy?

The speaker concludes that Astraea's myth and prophecy are indeed part of ancient Greek mythology, but their prominence is largely due to their usefulness in various historical contexts rather than their inherent significance in the original myths.

Outlines

00:00

🧐 The Skeptical Enthusiast's Dilemma

The speaker begins by expressing their love for learning new things and their skepticism towards their own expertise. They describe their experience with Greek mythology and their ability to detect 'bullshit' in stories that claim ancient origins but are often fabricated to seem exotic or mystical. The speaker discusses their frustration with such forgeries, which complicate research and can lead to the spread of misinformation. They admit to sometimes being duped by stories that sound too good to be true but turn out to be genuine, setting the stage for the discussion of Astraea, a constellation and goddess they initially doubted but later confirmed as real.

05:01

🌌 Astraea: The Celestial Virgin of Justice

The speaker delves into the mythological background of Astraea, the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity, and precision. They recount her role as the last immortal to live among humans during the Golden Age and the expectation of her return to Earth, signaling a new Golden Age. The speaker's initial skepticism stems from Astraea's thematically coherent divine domain, which seems too neatly tailored compared to the more complex and varied roles of gods in actual mythologies. They also question the modern-sounding narrative of Astraea being the last to leave humanity as it implies a structured worldbuilding not typically found in classical myth. The speaker's research, however, confirms Astraea's existence and attributes in ancient sources like Aratus's Phaenomena and Ovid's Metamorphoses, challenging their preconceptions.

10:01

📜 The Political Prophecy of Astraea's Return

The final paragraph explores the prophecy of Astraea's return as a symbol of a new Golden Age, which the speaker initially finds suspicious due to its potential for political and religious manipulation. They note that such prophecies are rarely found in ancient mythologies and are often used by modern writers. However, historical texts like Virgil's fourth Eclogue support the prophecy, associating Astraea's return with the reign of Saturn and a new golden era. The speaker highlights how this prophecy was used throughout history, including by the Holy Roman Empire and during the Renaissance, to support various social and political agendas. They express frustration with the misuse of such prophecies for dishonest purposes, even when they are rooted in ancient sources.

Keywords

💡Astraea

Astraea is identified as the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity, and precision in Greek mythology. She is noted for being the last immortal to live among humans during the Golden Age. In the video, Astraea symbolizes the idealized past and the potential for a return to a utopian era, which is a central theme. The speaker's initial skepticism about Astraea's story reflects the video's broader exploration of myth and authenticity.

💡Golden Age

The Golden Age refers to a period in Greek mythology when life was idyllic, and humans lived in harmony with the gods and nature. In the script, it is mentioned as the time Astraea lived among humans before they became morally corrupt. The concept ties into the video's discussion of historical and mythological narratives that are often idealized or romanticized.

💡Mythology

Mythology encompasses the collection of myths and stories from a particular culture that often involve gods or supernatural beings. The video uses Greek mythology as a backdrop to discuss Astraea and the broader themes of historical accuracy versus the romanticization of the past. Mythology serves as a framework for exploring the origins and evolution of cultural beliefs.

💡Fakelore

Fakelore is a term used in the script to describe fabricated stories or myths that are presented as authentic传统文化 or historical accounts. The speaker expresses frustration with fakelore because it complicates the process of researching genuine myths and can perpetuate misinformation. The concept is central to the video's critique of modern interpretations of ancient stories.

💡Virgo

Virgo, in the context of the video, refers to both the constellation and the zodiac sign. Astraea is associated with the constellation Virgo, which is highlighted as part of the Zodiac enamel pins collection mentioned. This connection underscores the video's blend of astronomical and mythological themes.

💡Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien is referenced in the script as an author whose works, like 'The Silmarillion,' contain elements reminiscent of classical mythology, including a fall from grace narrative. Tolkien's influence is used to draw parallels between modern fantasy literature and ancient myths, emphasizing the video's theme of the enduring nature of mythic storytelling.

💡Aratus

Aratus is mentioned as the author of 'Phaenomena,' an ancient Greek work that provides astronomical information and supports the mythological account of Astraea. His work is used in the video as evidence of Astraea's authenticity, contrasting with the speaker's initial skepticism and highlighting the video's investigative approach to mythology.

💡Ovid

Ovid, a Roman poet, is cited for his work 'Metamorphoses,' which also contributes to the myth of Astraea. The video uses Ovid's account to further validate the story of Astraea and to discuss the different layers of mythological narratives that build upon one another over time.

💡Prophecy

Prophecy in the video refers to the prediction or forecast of future events, particularly Astraea's return to Earth, which is said to herald a new Golden Age. The concept is used to explore the way myths can be adapted or reinterpreted to serve various social, cultural, or political agendas, as seen in the video's discussion of Astraea's prophecy.

💡Iron Age

The Iron Age is one of the Ages of Man in Greek mythology, characterized by war, hardship, and moral decline. It is contrasted with the Golden Age in the video to emphasize the deterioration of human society and values over time. This concept is used to reflect on the speaker's own era and the human condition.

💡Zeus

Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek mythology, is mentioned to illustrate the complexity and diversity of divine roles in ancient myths, as opposed to the more focused domains of modern fictional deities. Zeus's multiple roles serve as a point of comparison to Astraea's seemingly singular domain, highlighting the video's exploration of mythological consistency and authenticity.

Highlights

The speaker embraces not being an expert and enjoys learning new things.

They have a 'spidey-sense' for detecting false stories or 'fakelore' online.

The speaker discusses the phenomenon of attributing false historical or cultural contexts to increase a story's impact.

They express frustration with the spread of misinformation due to fabricated ancient origins.

Astraea is introduced as a figure from Greek mythology, associated with justice, innocence, purity, and precision.

Astraea is described as the last immortal to live with humans during the Golden Age, according to myth.

The speaker was initially suspicious of Astraea's story due to its modern-sounding tropes.

Astraea's thematic coherence as a deity is highlighted as unusually clean compared to other mythologies.

The idea of gods living among humans is explored, contrasting with the common Greek mythological narrative.

The speaker's research confirms Astraea's mythological support from ancient sources like Aratus's Phaenomena.

Astraea's retreat to the heavens and becoming the constellation Virgo is detailed.

The speaker discusses the political and religious utility of Astraea's prophecy throughout history.

Virgil's fourth Eclogue is mentioned as a source of Astraea's prophecy.

The Renaissance's use of Astraea as a symbol for powerful queens is highlighted.

The speaker concludes that their suspicion was due to the prophecy's utility, not its inauthenticity.

Transcripts

I'm not an expert. This is one of my favorite things about myself.  

I love learning new things, I'm not so good at  continuing to learn old things. When they coined  

that phrase about being a "jack of all trades,  master of none," they were talking about me. 

But even though I'm not an expert, being,  as they say, in the sauce about Greek  

Mythology for the better part of a decade has  inadvertently given me something of a feel for  

the terrain. So when I'm out in the wilds of the  internet hunting down fun new stories to tell,  

sometimes I get a little bit of a whiff, you  know? Just the faintest smell of bullshit. 

Every field of art has its forgeries - works  that their creators thought wouldn't be impactful  

enough if they were presented on their own  merits, so instead they have a whole historical  

context stapled onto them after the fact. This  painting isn't just nice, it's a lost Da Vinci.  

This story isn't just a fun little tale, it's an  ancient native american legend. This bite-sized  

anecdote isn't just a slice of good advice,  it's an ancient chinese proverb or something. 

There are so many of these, and they make me so  mad, not just because their supposed "ancient  

origins" are frequently blatantly chosen for  their tropey exoticization to make them seem  

foreign and mystical and hard to contact the  supposed source to corroborate. But mostly they  

make me mad because they're lies! They muddle an  already extremely complicated field to research,  

and if I get duped by one - which has happened  - I end up perpetuating misinformation! 

So I've developed a bit of a spidey-sense  for when a story feels a little too new  

to be true. The time-traveling goat-fish we  discussed back in the Zodiac video? Too many  

bits of that story that just did not fit  the tone of the classic Greek greats. The  

greek goddess of torture and punishment  that tumblr made up for funsies? Smelled  

that spiral-bound-notebook-doodle OC a mile off. But. I'm not an expert. And that means sometimes  

I stumble into something that sounds too good to  be true, and when I go digging, it turns out to  

be real. And that is such a rare joy for me that  I cannot wait to tell you about this one. So today  

let's talk about Astraea, the constellation Virgo  - which is now available in our crowdmade shop  

as the lastest installment in our Zodiac enamel  pins collection! Get em while they're gettable!

To start our journey, I'm gonna do the  one thing you're never supposed to do:  

I'm going to read you a few lines from  Astraea's wikipedia page. I just want you all to  

understand why I started off suspicious. Astraea "is the virgin goddess of justice,  

innocence, purity and precision." "Astraea, the  celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals  

to live with humans during the Golden Age, one  of the old Greek religion's five deteriorating  

Ages of Man." And, last but not least, "According  to myth, Astraea will one day come back to Earth,  

bringing with her the return of the utopian  Golden Age of which she was the ambassador."

So, this is fine. Everything here is totally  plausible. Except it's got this vibe that a lot  

of "fakelore" - which is what it's called, which I  love - shares, which is this sort of surprisingly  

modern set of tropes. For one thing, Astraea's  godly domain is extremely thematically coherent  

while still covering a decent amount of ground.  A god of both justice and innocence makes a lot  

of sense, those two things are connected, and  looping in "purity" plays well with the rest of it  

too. The thing is, real mythologies frequently do  not do that. Zeus is a god of the sky and storms,  

but he's also the god of divine hospitality  and the maker of heroes. Poseidon is the god  

of the ocean and also earthquakes and  horses. In Greek mythology, it's very  

common for gods to either have about a million  seemingly unrelated divine characteristics,  

or to have one single concept as their entire deal  - for instance, Eos is the goddess of the dawn,  

and that's basically all she does. But modern-day  fictional deities in fantasy settings are  

purposefully written and worldbuilt to cover a  single neatly-partitioned slice of the universe,  

and they usually get given a tightly-woven set  of godly duties that all thematically resonate  

with one another, or a singular gimmick that  gives them a nice, simple personality to play  

with. A quick scroll through the gods in dnd  communicates that pretty cleanly. You want a  

god of justice? Human shaped or dragon shaped,  we gotcha covered. You want a god of the sea?  

We got like three of em. If you don't mind a bit  of a crowd, we can bring in all our gods of war- 

So Astraea's extremely thematically  clean divine domain was a little bit sus,  

and the thing about her being the last immortal  to still live with humanity was also, to my eyes,  

suspiciously modern. It implied, again, some  hard worldbuilding that just generally isn't  

found in classical mythology, which was built  up slowly over the course of thousands of  

years of changing generations of people. In  Greek mythology, the gods aren't walled off  

from humanity. The only time a no-interference  clause comes up explicitly is in the Trojan War,  

and even then it's constantly ignored. Throughout  the entire rest of the corpus of greek mythology  

the gods are constantly dealing with humans -  popping in to help out directly or sire more  

kids or spawn a few monsters in case everyone  was getting a little too cozy. So this idea  

that the rest of the gods had dipped out of the  mortal world early on, while Astraea - this pure,  

wonderful goddess of goodness - had lived  with humanity through their waning morals  

but had eventually reached her breaking point  and reluctantly turned her back… it felt, to me,  

very unusual. In fact, what it really felt like  was reminiscent of some of the stuff Tolkien got  

up to in the Silmarillion. That's right, bitches,  I've actually read it now! It's fine. Anyway,  

I was getting Big Fall Of Numenor energy  off this bit, and I wanted to know more.

So of course, the first thing I did was go looking  at the sources. And, to my genuine surprise,  

all of this stuff is mythologically supported. So  it probably had Tolkien energy because Tolkien had  

read the same things I did. Aratus's Phaenomena,  a book of constellations and general astronomy  

information written between 300ish and 250 BCE,  lays it out pretty clearly, with a few bonus  

details provided by Ovid's Metamorphoses a few  centuries later. Astraea, an immortal goddess,  

makes the unusual choice to live among humans  in their earliest days - a pastoralist golden  

age where the land is bountiful, conflict is  nonexistent and everything is wonderful all  

the time. Hilariously, one explicit way the  writer communicates that this is a simple age  

of boundless idealism is that nobody has even  considered building a boat. Don't go into the  

ocean, everyone! That's where the sin lives! Ovid adds the detail that this golden age was  

when the titans ruled the world under Saturn, aka  Kronos, father of Zeus, who, of course, overthrows  

Kronos and ushers in the age of the gods - which,  embarassingly, is considered a downgrade from a  

golden age to a silver one. Zeus nixes the eternal  springtime and introduces a seasonal breakup,  

forcing the fledgling humans to start constructing  homes to shelter during extreme temperatures and  

invent agriculture to not starve. Astraea's not  super happy with the events of the silver age,  

and she's disheartened that humanity is  becoming increasingly more conflicted.  

Her primary godly move is to advocate for mercy  and understanding when justice is called for,  

but she's not happy with the silver age, and  she likes its sequel even less. The bronze age,  

quickly followed by the iron age, sees  humanity discover the evils of war and money,  

which from Aratus's perspective is just war  with extra steps. Disgusted with humanity's  

newfound penchant for violence and - even worse  - seafaring - Astraea finally turns her back  

on humanity and retreats to the heavens  above, becoming the constellation Virgo.

And that's all fine and dandy! Ovid's source  alone is good enough for me - he may be biased,  

but this isn't the kind of story  he tended to dubiously embellish,  

and Aratus's source just adds even more  legitimacy, proving that Astraea wasn't  

just a roman concept and dated back to ancient  greece. Plus, these stories have some fascinating  

implications about the vibes the writers  were living through. Aratus and Ovid both  

were firmly of the opinion that they were living  in the shitty, terrible iron age. The world had  

once existed in this beautiful, primeval,  pastoralist state where the land provided  

everything humanity needed without requiring  any work. But a divine overhaul and a tragic  

downfall into petty selfishness and greed had  left humanity constantly at war with itself,  

miserable and hungry and cruel. And sailing!  Are there no depths to which we won't sink?! 

And there's a lot here that I think  is super interesting. Like - again,  

getting back to the trope perspective. When a  modern western writer wants to communicate that  

an empire is unimaginably powerful and decadent  - they make it look like rome. Aesthetically we  

associate it with an empire at the height of its  glory. And the writers from that civilization were  

like "this is disgusting, I wish we could  go back to eating berries in the woods."  

Amazing. I guess the grass is always greener  on the other side of the Course of Empires.

But, okay. We've got that settled. Astraea  was a real deity, she was associated with  

justice and innocence and purity and stuff.  But it was really that last bit about Astraea  

that made me profoundly suspicious. You  know, the prophecy. *musical sting* See,  

there are some mythological prophecies that  perpetuate out into the modern day. But  

there are not many. Most of them take the form of  "this true king is buried in this mountain and he  

will rise again in his country's greatest hour of  need," which is conveniently self non-fulfilling;  

when, in response to whatever current crisis  is rearing its ugly head, the dead guy fails  

to bust outta his mausoleum with sword in hand,  it just kicks the "greatest hour of need" down  

the road and implies he won't wake up until things  find a way to get even worse. So these prophecies  

can hang around in cultural perpetuity without  too much trouble. In myths, prophecies are usually  

short-term tragedy-bait - whimsical little bites  of the near future that only exist to doom their  

hapless protagonist into meeting their destiny  on the road they take to avoid it. Prophecies are  

one of those things that modern writers cannot  get enough of, but they are, in my experience,  

very unusual in mythology. I mean, you can tell,  because I haven't used that "the prophecy" musical  

sting joke in eight real years! That's a  good bit and I just never get the chance! 

And the reason why "this mythical figure has  an ongoing prophecy about them" is especially  

suspicious is because it's the kind of thing  people love co-opting to support whatever social,  

cultural or political agenda they think they can  most convincingly staple it to. Especially one as  

vague as "her return will signify the dawn of a  new golden age." Bitch that could mean anything

But, shockingly, this bit is also real! Virgil's  fourth Eclogue says it in plain latin - "Virgin  

Justice", aka Astraea, returns, and  with her the reign of Saturn - again,  

Kronos - and an accompanying golden age.  Even more than that, Virgil's funky little  

prophecy - credited to the "Cumaean sybil" - says  that this ringing-in of a new golden era will be  

accompanied by the birth of some amazing kid who  will personally lead this world to paradise. And  

he was coincidentally writing this around 40 BCE,  so within a few scant decades this little tidbit  

was going to reach its first pile of people  really, really eager to explain how it totally  

applied to their personal choice of messiah. The  popular read, for the record, is that Virgil was  

actually writing about the predicted future kid  of Mark Antony and Augustus's sister Octavia,  

a union that would've handily stitched two thirds  of the triumvirate back together, but this is what  

happens when your prophecies are vague. They get  jesus'd. Which - not to criticise - I feel like  

a good oracle should've probably seen coming. And it somehow managed to get even vaguer. See,  

once the renaissance started and there was a whole  crop of powerful queens popping up across Europe,  

it became extremely hip and cool to conflate  every single one of them with Astraea,  

returned in the form of this one lady to usher in  that new golden age everyone was talking about,  

and to prove conclusively that their empire  was just as amazing and wonderful as the great  

empires of the ancient past had been in the glory  days. The holy roman empire hasn't fallen off,  

guys! It's just as good as it was before!  And now it's got "holy" in front of it! 

Anyway, the short of it is I was right to be  suspicious of this prophecy thing, not because  

it wasn't a real part of the early mythology, but  because its promincence in the story of Astraea is  

100% the consequence of it being so politically  and religiously useful so many times. Which is  

also dishonest, but the classy kind of dishonest  that cites its sources and makes me even angrier.