Hellmouths | Strange Christian Art

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.

Really enjoying this series on strange Christian art. Would love to see a video on alchemy in medieval art.

Fun fact: Hellmouths aren't just medieval! A modern Hellmouth appeared sometime in the 90s in Sunnydale, California ;)

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.

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'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 :)

“Don’t get eaten.” Best advice I’ve heard in a while!

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

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.

Medieval art is so cool and strange. It reminds me of old Japanese art.

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.

Those people who were saved by Jesus from hell mouth are the luckiest people ever lived

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.

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.

This is my favourite channel. These videos can never bore!!! Thank you so much for all the effort put into the making of them.

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.

I love this channel! It has a wonderful way of making me interested in things that I didn't know existed.

Very interesting. Keep it up!

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.

lol.. tell me why I got the notification, after I started watching the video 🤦‍♂️ .. either way, another amazing video, thank you!