Summary
Ever see an Indiana Jones movie?
For more on relic theft, see Patrick J. Geary’s Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages.
Annotations and Corrections
1/ The episode where we talked about St. Nicholas was episode 23 (a Christmas episode). The oil is kind of said to be myrrh, but it’s not… but it is a weird thing.
For more on this phenomenon (not reserved for St Nicholas—there are other saints who are myroblytes), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myroblyte_saint
2/ Great fictional versions of the Grail lore: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and I will add the short story “Chivalry” by Neil Gaiman.
3/ The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. I recommend the Diana Burgin and Katerine Tiernan O’Connor translation (1996), but apparently there have been some more recent ones that are also good.
4/ There are a lot of places with magical springs; I think I was thinking of Lourdes. You can apparently buy Lourdes water online for $6.99 and have it shipped directly to your house.
5/ We talked about the eucharist in episode…a lot of them. [The search engine on the website will find them all!–Jesse]
6/ It’s good to be the king. [Thank you Mel Brooks!–Jesse]
7/ From Maria Headley’s translation of Beowulf (since I have become her acolyte), lines 26–51 (with a few omitted here because typing them is tedious):
Scyld was iron until the end. When he died,
his warriors executed his final orders.
They swaddled their king of rings and did just
as the Dane had demanded, back when mind
and meter could merge in his mouth.
They bore him to the harbor, and into the bosom
of a ship, that father they’d followed, that man
they’d adored.
[…]
They laid him by the mast, packed tight in his treasure-trove,
bright swords, war-weeds, his lap holding a hoard
of flood-tithes, each fare-coin placed by a loyal man.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
His shroud shone, ringed in runes, sun-stitched.
I’ve never heard of any ship so heavy, nor corpse
so rich.
[…]
No man knows,
not me, not you, who hauled Scyld’s hoard to shore,
but the poor are plentiful, and somebody got lucky.
8/ Some of the Greek heroes mentioned:
Herakles, aka Hercules: you know him, there was a Disney movie about him.
Asclepius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius You know that medical symbol that looks like a caduceus but only has one snake? That’s the rod of Asclepius. That’s this guy. Son of Apollo + someone. [His mom’s identity–or even if he has a mom–is dependent on the myth.–Jesse]
Orestes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orestes son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, brother of Electra. Eventually kills his mother and her boyfriend, Aegisthus. [And gets chased by the Furies!–Jesse]
Pelops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelops king of Pisa (in myth); his father was Tantalus, who you might also remember from Greek myth.
9/ Oedipus at Colonus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_at_Colonus
10/ The Oedipus Rex song, by Tom Lehrer.
11/ In what is arguably the best scene in any bible ever, Elisha summons the bears in 2 Kings 2:23–24. The story of a guy who touched him rising from the grave is 2 Kings 13:20–21.
12/ The big black cube is the kaaba, which means “cube.” It’s a building. You can go inside it, although it’s kept closed during hajj. (I mean, maybe you can if you’re Muslim. They don’t allow non-Muslims in Mecca.)
The connection with Abraham is that he and Ishmael repaired it. [Isaac is the favored son of Judaism and Christianity, and Ishmael is the favored son in Islam.–Jesse ]
Topkapi Palace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace (Scroll down to the Privy Chamber for the sacred relics.)
Abraham’s pot: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/abrahams-pot-is-displayed-at-topkapi-palace-on-july-03-2018-news-photo/991960532
Joseph’s Turban: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/josephs-turban-amongst-sacred-trusts-is-displayed-at-news-photo/991960876
Muhammad’s swords and bow: https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/prophet-muhammads-swords-and-bow-are-displayed-in-their-news-photo/991960842
13/ Muhammed lived 570–632. Solidly early medieval.
14/ The Wailing Wall, also known as the Western Wall, is a wall in Jerusalem that was once a retaining wall for the Second Jewish Temple. We’ve sort of alluded to before (in…discussions of Jesus, actually) that Jews used to have a big temple where all the ritual stuff went down, and after the Romans expelled all the Jews from that general area (the diaspora) and destroyed the temple (70 CE, not 76 like Em suggests), Judaism evolved into the rabbinical religion we know today. But Jews like to go back there and…cry, I guess. Also, the wall is known in Arabic as al-Buraq, after the legend that this is where Muhammed tied his winged steed before he ascended to heaven.
Interesting how Judaism and Islam are incredibly tied together in these two stories. [In SO MANY STORIES. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are three siblings who have trouble getting along and really wonder which one dad loves more.–Jesse]
15/ We talked about Angkor Wat in episode 14. We talked about Perugia in episode 1!
16/ Śarīra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aar%C4%ABra The term “sarira” is a generic one for Buddhist relics, but you can see photos of the pearl-like objects Jesse mentions on this page.
17/ The monk was named Thich Quang Duc, and he self-immolated on June 11, 1963, at what is now the corner of Nguyen Dinh Chieu St. and Cach Mang Thang Tam St. (Be warned that if you go to that wikipedia page, there is a picture of the self-immolation, and you might find it disturbing. I mean, it’s also on the Rage Against the Machine album, I guess. You should also find it disturbing that the US was propping up a regime so bad that someone did this as a form of protest. OKAY.)
That page also has a photo of a memorial for TQD, but it is very different from what was there when I was living in VN in 2006–2007ish, when there was really quite a small stupa that you could easily go past without noticing it.
18/ We’ve talked about St. Catherine of Siena in episode 6, note 37.
I don’t know anything about those particular bodies, but I think that “incorrupt,” for saints, doesn’t always mean “incorrupt.” Check out this video Caitlin Doughty of Ask a Mortician made on the topic. (They’re talking about the modern guidelines, which date from 1734! I ALSO don’t know if old bodies got reassessed when the new guidelines were issued!
19/ We discussed Jesus’ foreskin in episode 6, if I recall correctly. It’s not in the notes, but I think it’s in the episode. Is this the weirdest note I’ve written to date? Hmm.
20/ The Veronica (vera icon) is parodied by Forrest Gump: https://youtu.be/tOHr85z9k64
[I can’t believe Jesse said that “Veronica” is derived from “Bernice” and just strolled on past that. They both mean “bringer of victory,” but I’m not sure what the other connection is.–Em]
21/ I guess I should note that Dr. Katie, friend of the pod (well, friend of Jesse’s anyway) was/is not just a pathologist but a medical examiner. The difference is that a pathologist can look at the mole your doctor just lopped off and tell you if you have cancer, and a medical examiner can tell you if you were murdered. If you meet anyone who is a medical examiner, be sure to invite them to parties—they have excellent stories.
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