Hellmouths | Strange Christian Art
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 มี.ค. 2022
- “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” - Dante's Inferno, Canto III.
Across Christian art, the entrance to Hell is depicted as a giant mouth. A gaping set of jaws that devours the souls of the damned. These Hellmouths are everywhere, cropping up in manuscripts, prayer books, and paintings. Even in early theatre productions, where giant mechanical mouths were constructed in medieval town squares. The Christian Hellmouth is a disturbing image and a useful deterrent against wrongdoing. It appeals to a very basic human instinct: don’t get eaten. In this life, or the next.
But where did this frightening image come from? Many believe that the Hellmouth has its roots in Norse mythology, With its hellish ideas of man-eating wolves and devouring dragons. It seems like Viking beliefs about the afterlife seemed to have made their way into Saxon Christianity, as seen in examples like the Gosforth Cross, and in parallels between Satan and the dragon Nidhogg.
I'm thrilled that so many of you enjoyed my last video, so I am hoping to make this into a little series. Before then, I'll be taking a small Spring break next week, but it shouldn't disrupt my upload schedule. Thank you all for 579k subscribers!
H.
P.S. This video isn't an April fool's joke!
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Sources & Further Reading:
Infernal Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Charters by Petra Hoffman (PhD Thesis)
research-repository.st-andrew...
Examples of Hellmouths
jessehurlbut.net/wp/mssart/?ta...
Welcome to the Medieval Hellmouth: Hellmouth Illuminations and their Correlation to Fantasy and Pop Culture
ctlsites.uga.edu/hargretthour...
The Bad Place: a Visual History of Hell
artuk.org/discover/stories/th...
Adapting the Hellmouth in the Office of the Dead from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves: An Experiment in Using a Dramaturgical Approach to Medieval Studies by Tatiana A. Godfrey
scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/vi...
Medieval Special Effects
www.medievalists.net/2018/08/...
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Music:
Intro - Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian by Peter Pringle
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTs...
The Inspector by David Celeste
Via Epidemic Sound
Erudition by Ambre Jaune
Via Epidemic Sound
Wandering Soul by Gabriel Lewis
Via Epidemic Sound
Outro - Peaceful Ambient Music by CO.AG
th-cam.com/channels/cav.html...
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
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Find me on Social Media:
Twitter:
/ hochelaga_yt
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/ hochelaga_yt
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![[UNCUT] ฝันรักห้วงนิทรา | EP.3 (1/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zVXAFD1OLZg/mqdefault.jpg)
You can definitely see why so many different cultures use similar imagery to this. In a time when being eaten by an animal was still a very real, everyday possibility for many people, I imagine it was a pretty universal fear. Same goes for fire, disease, famine, etc.
You can get eaten by an animal today. It happens.
Or maybe just a comment of how the darkness and the problems associated can be interpreted as all consuming
Fun fact: Hellmouths aren't just medieval! A modern Hellmouth appeared sometime in the 90s in Sunnydale, California ;)
Beat me to it 😅.
Yessssssss!
that's exactly what i thought of too haha
I think I can drawn one
I've been rewatching those events the past month or so xD #history
Really enjoying this series on strange Christian art. Would love to see a video on alchemy in medieval art.
Yeah, get a colab with Esoterica!
Yea
OH BOY.
As a spiritual alchemist describing alchemical art is...
Intensely involved.
But man is it fascinating.
@@alchemicmercury Couldn't agree more. I've just finished C. Jung's book Psychology and Alchemy and I've been blown away with how much alchemic philosophy is "hidden" in medieval art.
yes please more alchemy content
I think hellmouths are meant to be taken metaphorically as opposed to literally. The idea that sin and evil “devour” those who participate in them, leading to their ultimate damnation.
I think that given the hundreds of years that they were part of Christian iconography plus the general confusion of literal and figurative meaning that tends to arise in Christianity there is likely not a singular way they are "meant to be taken" that all the artists shared.
I'm sure some of the artists thought of them as a metaphorical representation, but the people viewing might have not, and some of those people might have become artists themselves, and some of their viewers may have taken it metaphorically despite the now literal intention, and so on and so forth.
Plus the recreation of hellmouths on stage with special effects certainly suggests that for a lot of people the mouth as entrance to hell was a literal thing.
I agree considering many different cultures and time periods contributed art such as this, so some are meant to be literal and others metaphorical.
I learn more towards metaphorical, even the figures and statues outside cathedrals are usually meant to be seen as metaphorical than literal
@@eoincampbell1584 indeed, the second your share your art it is no longer yours and it takes on new meaning for each individual who sees/reads/experiences it.
Dr. Bright, are you even allowed to lurk around YT comment sections??
"Your sins devour you to Hell"
Yep. I like it metaphorical
This iconography probably originated by one of the most ancient fear humans experienced since the birth of time: the fear of being eaten by some beasts.
That also explains why so many cultures who most of them didn't even have any contact with eachother share regardless the same myth.
Counterpoint: Vore
@@copiusgore3252 So vore fetishist are the strongest?
@@conq1273 doom guy
I'd love for you to make videos on the series about:
- Baby Jesus with muscles
- Saints doing weird stuff e.g. GETTING EATEN
- The lamb (humanoid) of God
- General paintings of saints holding their heads, having axes on their heads, and taking off their skin.
If anyone's wondering, there's probably more, so feel free to reply. Hopefully, these things can get their own video :)
What about the lamb?
Maybe I do have a type
heh, swoll baby Jesus is coming for you, kiddies
hearing "baby Jesus with muscles" without context sounds funny lol
@@naenaedmysteries not as funny as "with mussels"
“Don’t get eaten.” Best advice I’ve heard in a while!
AoT characters would agree
I think my favorite example of hellmouths has to be the album art for Ghost's Prequelle. It is not one, but 3 hellmouths, all fused together, with the top half of a satanic cardinal fused in for got measure, which also has a city both on top of and within it, and also happens to have six gigantic bat wings
I second this!! Loved the cover art as it was and once I got it LP sized I sat there for the entire albums runtime taking in all the small details.
I always kinda pictured it as the Cardinal riding on top of the three-headed rat hellmouths, seemed like a thing he’d do tbh.
Great taste my friend >:)
I adore Prequelle and Ghost as a whole. Glad to see this
Bro on jah they have some banger album covers
Ghost's album covers are so cool, and then i'm not even talking about the music yet
yo i love ghost!! i should look at the album covers more cause i've really only gotten a good look at impera since thats the only one i own physically
Interesting. As an italian, I was always told that this imagery came from roman mythology. Virgil's Eneid was one of the few classics of antiquity that survived in medieval Europe, because it was believed the poet predicted Christ's birth and life. In it’s sixth book, the hero Eneas journeys to the Underworld to speak with the dead, an the Sibyl, the powerful priestess that leads him down, calls the entrance to the Afterlife "the Maws of Orcus". Orcus was probably an old latin word for the Underworld, but later on became an actual God of Death, similar to the main Roman god of the Afterlife, Dis Pater (also known as Pluto). This is also where our modern words Ogre or Orc come from.
Prob because they all have influence from Proto Indo European religion and Dyēus Pətḗr or the sky father
in my coutry, when old italian people get lost or confused they say "we step in the orcus trail". They explain to me that the orcus trail could drive you to madness and despair, and many people get lost because of it and have never seen before. However, no one knows who exactly is this guy orcus, but now your comment give me a good hint!
Always thought 'ogre' was from the biblical Greek for anger (ὀργή or ogre)?
@@j.g.4942 you made me curious, so I did some research, but there doesn't seem to be much to support that theory. The earliest attestations of the word ogre come from 13th and 14th century Italian, where it is "Orco". The form "Ogre" first appears in 12th century "Perceval, li contes del Graal" but it isn't sure if it's not just a play of words, Ogres being inhabitants of the kingdom of Logres. The first "official" use of this form is by Charles Perrault, in his "Mother Goose tales". I can't really find any connection with the greek texts of the Bible.
@@cramerfloro5936 wow, thanks!
I made a connection between the two when looking at an interlinear bible; perhaps it's just a coincidence then.
Though it is an interesting connection nevertheless I find
Medieval art is so cool and strange. It reminds me of old Japanese art.
indeed
I’d have thought the concept of a “hellmouth” might also be attributed to the description of the Leviathan, whose mouth is supposed to be filled with fire and one of the gates to Hell.
It always amazes me when I read up on different religions or mythologies and find so many similarities, and there's a very slim chance that the civilizations that wrote them had any contact with each other. Mass media as it is today didn't exist back in the 3rd Century or 12th Century, so there's a very slim chance that the Norse, Egyptians, and Japanese would have collaborated on their beliefs.
While any one individual might not have traveled, there were people who traveled for a living, and people who were stationary loved stories from outsiders. Multiply that by hundreds of years…
Because theres some inherited truths about reality
They all come from the same source my dude that's how (only my theory) they are all talking about the same cataclysm that wiped out all the mega fauna and caused sea levels to rise by 100 ft in a matter of like ten years or something people all over the world would have been warning the future generations of the same thing I've heard that Jesus , chrishna and probably more are all based on the same cosmic events as well like aurora's or something it a pretty wild, brain melting rabbit hole to go down but well worth it
It's kinda fun, because there's civilizations that didn't had really a contact with each other and still have at least one creature/God that is similar to another culture.
You should definitely read all of Joseph Campbells mythology series, including "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" if you haven't already. I'd include some of Carl Jungs works, particularly "Man & His Symbols".
Those people who were saved by Jesus from hell mouth are the luckiest people ever lived
I hope you realize that Jesus and hell are mythological avatars.
you could call them lucky. poor bastards had to subsist in Limbo for 2000 years at least
@@DrumWild well! I believe in Jesus
@@FrankieAmadeian. but they escaped a place where no one could escape
@@youknowwhat4851 "no one could escape"? lole not anymore
i really loved an old encyclopedia-like book named "into the unknown" when i was a kid. i find it strange that a lot of the things you discuss on your channel also came up there.
Very interesting. Keep it up!
Very interesting yes, but to say that Jesus went to hell to save the souls of people who died before his crucifixion is a myth, contradict Christian beliefs.
I love this channel! It has a wonderful way of making me interested in things that I didn't know existed.
This is my favourite channel. These videos can never bore!!! Thank you so much for all the effort put into the making of them.
lol.. tell me why I got the notification, after I started watching the video 🤦♂️ .. either way, another amazing video, thank you!
The Wheel of Samsara being devoured by Mara, The Demon, is quite more present in Buddhism than the Hellmouth in christianity. Actually, the Wheel of Samsara was one of the first things that got me in Buddhism, because my grandma had (she gave me) a book with tibetan thankgas.
There is also Apep from Egyptian mythology, which might've informed Níðhöggr and Jörmungandr, since Apep is depicted as a sun-devouring serpent, and the sun, personified as Ra, who was the deity of all three realms (sky, earth, and the underworld) and seen as one of the most important deities in the pantheon, thereby making Apep the "devil".
There also exists the wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson who chase the sun and the moon, respectively, to devour them, and thereby might also be a reference to Apep in a way. Further, the wolves may also have been inspiration for the hellmouths, as they're seen as great devourers, similar to Fenrir who devours Óðinn during Ragnarok.
It's quite interesting that the world-devourer theme is recurring throughout basically all religions.
Wow! It's a bit relatable to a myth in Hinduism. Hindus believe that the eclipses occur because a snake swallows the Sun and moon on the day of respective eclipses
I'd like to think that the Norse thought of things on their own.
Yeah all people eat and get eaten
I absolutely love your presentation style, and your production values are better than some tv documentaries. I love this channel, it's so underrated.
Found this channel yesterday and it was like finding a gem, thank you SO much for these videos, this matter interests me greatly!
The artwork is one of the things that drew me to this channel. I find myself pausing a lot to look up whatever piece of art I see and if I can buy a print of it. Love it.
Your stuff is ahhhh!!!! Favourite TH-cam channel. I use what you show as inspiration in my dnd campaign that I'm writing because everything you put out is just so interesting! Love your stuff dude keep up the great work!
Love the new series and I have enjoyed the channel's contents for more than a year now! Looking forward to more and Keep it up!
I love your channel and I love this series!!
I love weird art and weird history and it’s always fun to see and learn something new while watching your videos! ❤️
The earliest Christian literary depiction of the Hellmouth is found in the Gospel of Nicodemus, a 4th or 5th-century apocryphal text. It also depicts the Harrowing of Hell episode in story form.
6:27 I'm no professional, but I really believe the idea of Nidhogg eating souls of criminals only came AFTER the christianization of the norse mythos, being an evidence of the contrary
Yes it's clearly Christian in nature
@@stylesheetra9411 Paganism is older than christianity, and baby Christian stories and traditions have pagan roots
I really love these videos by Hochelega, I would definitely love to watch longers versions of these if you ever decide you to make them.
another hochelaga video uploaded. nice. very nice. love your videos man. bite-sized videos are a treat. hope to see more and ill see you when the next video gets on
Love your videos on these topics, thanks for the thorough analysis
Just be aware that in Italy you study Dante's inferno since the 6th grade and to graduate in Lettere (literature) you have to know the all text BY MEMORY. They'll litteraly open the book in any pagine and read to you a terzina (dantesque Verse) and you have to know where it is and to contestualize it. THEY ARE CRAZY
So love your vids! Dante has been one of my favourite “historian/philosophical/ political” writers, basing everything in his own sort of mythos- but it makes more sense than Scientology for instance~
The most brilliant of minds appear to never be born of the appropriate times. Thought provoking as always & thank you!
Always stoked to see your videos!! AWESOME as per usual!
Phenomenal as always, these videos keep me wanting more!
Hellmouths have always been one of my favorite subjects in art. Thanks for the video.
I Binged Like Half You Channel Last Night. Pleasant Surprise To See A New One
Yes! More strange Christian art!
I drop everything I'm doing when I see a new video from you. I love your videos I'm not religious but I find it so fascinating.
Reminds me of Moloch as depicted in Cabiria (1914). Also the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin.
Really love your content! So engaging. Thank you.
Always so excited when you post such interesting videos :D
I like Medieval depictions of Hell. I just like the aesthetic to it. I like the Hell mouths, the demons and the tortures I see within them. I certainly don't want to end up there.
Mr. Fossil If you don't want to go to Hell, embrace salvation through Jesus Christ if you haven't already.
@@dianalindeman1644 , I do believe
@@MrFossil367ab45gfyth PTL! Always glad to read something from a fellow Christian!
I love your videos, please make more of those.
I can't believe I am only just being recommended this video from my favourite content creator. I never even got a notification even though I have had smashed the bell button ages ago.
Such an interesting topic! Thank you for covering it!
Love that ending line. Keep this content coming good sir!
this is my lucky day, first internet historian uploads new video and now you !
We love you! Keep this amazing content coming
Top notch work... Really enjoying this series... Thanx
Can you please make a video on the time before the flood, focusing on the topics like sons of God and the giants?(Attempt 2)
Love these videos. Such quality 🙏
This was very enlightening!!!! Great work!!
“Don’t get eaten.”
Hochelaga confirmed to not be into vore.
So weird I didn't even see any of your videos in my subscriptions and or anywhere else. Been subbed for a while.
Love your videos man, keep it up
bro this is my favorite channel so far
so cool!! I love learning this kind of stuff thank you :D
Ghost's Prequelle cover art has a wonderful depiction of a Hell mouth🐺🔥🤘
Videos like these get me excited to weigh in from the Christian point of view.
Christianity did not borrow the hellmouth from the Norse, it was already present in the hebrew religion.
The harrowing of hell is a good example of that: Before his crucifixion, Christ tells the Pharisees that he will perform the "sign of Jonah", which is a reference to the Hebrew story of Jonah that gets eaten by a sea monster and is then spit out again after three days. Being swallowed by a sea monster is a universal symbol for dying. As you said, the image of being eaten by a beast pops up in many cultures. The image of Jonah being swallowed by the whale was used on the graves of early Christians in the roman catacombs, long before the Norse influenced Christianity on the British Isles. This seamonster imagery also connects to the fish as a symbol of Christianity and of the Resurrection, the apostles as fishermen fish out people from the depths of the dark ocean, i.e. from Hades.
But you are absolutely right to say that the Norse did influence, that there was syncretism. This syncretism is normal for Christianity, but that's a different topic. What is important to note is that both Christianity and European paganism inhabited the same symbolic reality. All these cultures shared a mythological language that they all understood. The hellmouth is part of that language, but also the canine warriors you mentioned. These are symbols of the stranger and is referenced in Matthew 15:27 as Christ talks with the Canaanite woman (i.e. the stranger.. or the canite?..) (Here again is that moving outward part of Christianity that integrates the outside cultures). Also very relevant is the story of St. Christopher, the dog headed man. He's the patron saint of travelers, i.e. those who are in strange lands.
The Norse pagan influence on Western Christianity unfortunately went too far. The Western depiction of hell as a place where demons punish the wicked is not a properly Christian concept. Eastern Christianity continues the Hebrew concept of "sheol", a place of forgetting (which relates to the story of Jonah as his rescue was brought about by God remembering him). There is a concept of the lake of fire, Gehennah, but that's intended for the demons, not for people.
It's a bit more complex than that, but in general Western Christianity got a lot more pessimistic starting from the 11th century, focusing on the Crucifixion. Eastern Christianity remained optimistic and focused on the Resurrection.
Lord of Spirits?
@@consideringorthodoxy5495 yeah but mainly Pageau and some history books
@@lGalaxisl ahh. A pageauvian in his natural environment.
Really dope video can't wait for the next one
This show is so amazing! I really enjoy learning from them.
saw this uploaded while drinking my morning coffee. Its gonna be a good morning.
medieval history is so extremely interesting to me, please make more
Fascinating. I know a little bit about many lores, but I just watched Cracow Monsters on Netflix and knew absolutely nothing about Slavic lore. That would be an interesting video!
Bruh, you have very interesting videos and topics and a very nice way of presenting.
I am looking forward to a lot more of your videos !
As a person that studies Egyptology, mainly focused on temple architecture, decoration and function I have two somewhat specific topic suggestions for you. Can you please talk a bit about christian baptism ? In Egyptian temples we often see purification rituals carved on the walls - I am guessing that there is a strong relation over there but I have never gotten myself around to research these things as Christianity is chronologically situated "in the end" and "after" the classical pharaonic culture.
Another thing - images of saints (and even Christ, if I am not mistaking) with a bulls head ? Or just some videos about early christian sects and their differing ideas ? (talking EARLY, early)
Once again, thanks and keep up the good work !
this is one of the best youtube channels out there right now
i think you could make a sick video on 'kalevala' the finnish national epic, it has some cool imagery and a pretty epic plot 💯
or just old finnish mythology
Yeah, another interesting video uploaded by hochelaga!
Video production is top notch as always
Excellent as always
Just commenting to help with the algorithm. Great video as per usual.
Love this channel
Awesome and fascinating video. Thanks.
Thanks for the video, really interesting!
Amazing vids!
this is so cool thank you for your work
Favorite series so far!
I love your conclusion at the end
Love your videos
3:27 *satan tossing back a sinner to his cooking demons* ITS FUCKEN RAAAWW
Reminds one of the Sarlacc Pit of Star Wars fame. A 'true' Hellmouth in its own right if ever such an Eldritch horror were to exist.
would love to see you make a video on witches and the occult in northern renaissance art or depictions of memento mori throughout early art history!
Another video my grandma hates,
love the vids man, keep it up
I love this kind of videos!
Damn man, I love your vids
Your videos are so goddamn good.
I believe hel was also apart of the preChristian Anglo Saxon cosmology, and not a concept brought by Vikings.
People forgot the English were also northern Germanic, and shared many cultural similarities with the Norse.
Hey! I love your videos. You should make a video about Mythological Island
I really enjoy your videos
Please make more videos this is awesome 😃
more of this content! thank you!
thank you for this video♥️
Great series!
Could you do more videos about early Christian mythology? It's really useful for my art. :D
Great topic!
Would love to see a series of known/ not well known artists !
Hello hohelaga, i love any of your content. Commenting for algorithms
A few days ago I thought about Phil Helmuth, "poker brat", and how he embodies his name. Then I wondered specifically about the origins of the a name "Hell mouth".
Today I thought about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I didn't look anything up, but I attempted to type their names, and "furnace". That's it.
Then this great video got recommended. Posted only 3 weeks ago.
I had no idea this was a thing.
Thanks!
Hi! Great video!
A little suggestion: Try covering the topic of “the black Madonna”, the prevalence of dark-skinned images of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus in many pilgrimage sites throughout the world.
It’s just cultural adaptation. There’s images of Asian Jesus and Mary too. I believe the Catholic Church supports it.
The people who lived in the Levant during Jesuses time had lighter skin than the people who currently live in that land today, as they had relatively more European and Phonecain admixture, as apposed to the Arabs who came out of the desert.
Hey I’m not sure if you already did a video about this but I would like for you to do a deep dive around Angel numbers and the meanings I love and use those numbers but I don’t want to be using the wrong ones to create peace happiness and love thank you I love your videos!!!❤️
Thank you for all your work. 💚🇨🇦🏴☠️