00:00All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.
00:12Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most unsettling myths
00:18from across ancient Rome. We'll be diving deep into spoilers for various mythological tales,
00:23so consider this your warning.
00:33Number 10. Sisyphus and his boulder.
00:40Sisyphus was a king who notoriously infuriated the gods, and even one-upped them multiple times.
00:46He even managed to cheat death. As a result, Jupiter and the other gods taught Sisyphus a lesson
00:51by banishing him to the underworld. But being sent there wasn't the end of his punishment.
00:57Sisyphus was then forced to move a large boulder up a hill, yet every time it got close to the
01:02top,
01:02it rolled back. He's basically caught up in an endless loop for all eternity.
01:07Though Sisyphus is actually primarily known in Greek mythology,
01:10much of that mythos was ported over whole cloth to Roman mythology.
01:14So when it comes to looking at Greco-Roman mythology as a whole, Sisyphus is one heck of a cautionary
01:20tale.
01:21Hey! Does he ever get to the top of the hill?
01:27Huh. I'll let you know.
01:31Number 9. The Dinner with Trimalchio. In the late 1st century, Roman author Gaius Petronius Arbiter
01:38wrote a book called The Satyricon. In it, there's a segment called Cena Trimalchionis,
01:44from Latin that roughly translates to Dinner with Trimalchio. This dinner in specific was basically when
01:50several guests took time to tell spooky stories.
02:03Some of these stories involve some bizarre plot points, like someone becoming a werewolf, and another
02:09about witches transforming a boy into straw. The dinner is obviously a bit disturbing because of
02:14these details, but it's also a bit strange because of the layers to this. Think about it. This is a
02:20fictional tale from ancient Rome about fictional characters who tell scary stories to each other.
02:25This whole entry is basically Myths Gone Meta.
02:28On the scene, there's a company that represents a meme. An actor does the father, another does the son,
02:35another does the rich. But as soon as the comedy is finished, the fake face disappears,
02:40returns to the true story.
02:56The Roman Emperor Nero has a complex legacy. Besides being a widely hated tyrant, he may also be the
03:04source of terror beyond the grave. When he died, he was laid to rest in the Mausoleum of the Domitzi
03:09Inobarbi, known today as Pynchion Hill. Many stories over the centuries spoke about strange
03:15things happening near where he was buried. There were tales about citizens being plagued by screams
03:21of ghosts and other apparitions. The source of the evil which festered around that area was widely
03:26believed to be from Nero's corpse. Some stories even say Nero himself became a ghost who's haunted
03:32Rome too. Was his corpse really a beacon for evil? Who knows? But one thing for sure is he's pretty
03:39unpopular. As dawn broke, he watched as they dug his grave. Then some Roman soldiers approached,
03:46and with the help of a slave, he stabbed himself through the throat. His last words were,
03:53what an artist dies with me. Number seven, Romulus and Remus.
04:08While many Roman myths were carried over from Greek mythology, some are exclusively 100% Roman,
04:14like this one. The story of the twins who founded Rome is steeped in tragedy. Romulus and Remus were
04:20children of the god of war Mars and a woman named Rhea Silvia. To escape getting murdered, they were sent
04:26away as babies and raised by a female wolf. As they grew into men, they eventually founded Rome together.
04:47This isn't a rags to riches tale, though. The brothers eventually butted heads, which led to Romulus
04:52shockingly murdering Remus. Some interpretations also say afterwards, Romulus became a deity called
04:58Quirinius. Honestly, it's a little unfair. Yeah, you founded Rome, but you also killed its co-founder,
05:05who was your own brother. Not cool, dude.
05:07No one shall challenge your power now, and the city that you shall build be as great as the one
05:15I dreamed of.
05:17Number six, the abduction of Proserpina. Pluto was head over heels in love with Proserpina,
05:22the goddess of the spring. But instead of being normal and trying to get to know her better and
05:26ask her out politely, Pluto abducted her. He pulled up to Earth in a wicked chariot and dragged her down
05:32to
05:32the underworld. Proserpina would soon become his queen. However, her mom Ceres wasn't happy. When
05:38Proserpina was abducted, Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, subjected the Earth to extremely harsh
05:44conditions. This led to a deal where Pluto would let Proserpina stay on the surface for a certain
05:49amount of time every year. It's actually the mythological explanation for the spring and winter
05:54seasons. Besides that, this tale is perhaps the oldest example of an extremely unhealthy love story.
06:06Number five, Saturn usurping Kylus. Saturn, the titan of time, had some legendary beef with his dad,
06:13Kylus, a primordial sky deity. Instead of working through their problems like a normal family would,
06:18Saturn instead used a scythe to slice Kylus' lower regions apart. Ouch. Kylus didn't exactly die,
06:26but the attack from Saturn marked a noticeable shift in power. Kylus was no longer calling the shots now,
06:31and soon Saturn took over the throne. What makes this downfall more disturbing is that it was actually
06:37Saturn's mom, Terra, the personification of Earth, who encouraged him to betray his dad. This is because
06:43Kylus cast his and Terra's other kids, the Cyclopses, into Tartarus because he hated them. Evidently,
06:50this decision backfired big time. Don't piss off, Mother Nature.
06:55Number four, Lycaon's Transformation.
07:08The Roman writer Ovid's poem The Metamorphosis covers the cautionary tale of Lycaon,
07:13He was the king of Arcadia who had doubts about Jupiter's divinity. As a result, he had the bright
07:19idea to invite the god of thunder for a meal, however, it was secretly human flesh. He thought
07:25that if Jupiter was really omniscient, then he would know what he was being served was bad.
07:39When Jupiter discovered the truth, he was so disgusted that he turned Lycaon into a wolfman.
07:45This monstrous moment is widely considered by many to be the origin of werewolves. It's a grim yet
07:51finning punishment for Lycaon and his arrogance. You can't just rage bait the leader of the gods and
07:57expect to get away with it.
08:06Number three, Juno drives Hercules mad.
08:18The queen of the gods, Juno, has a lot of reasons to be upset. Her husband Jupiter notoriously cheats
08:24on her, and has countless other children through numerous affairs. That being said,
08:28Juno took things way too far when she vested her frustrations out on one of Jupiter's sons,
08:34Hercules. Her own anger caused her to infect Hercules with a stretch of madness. This temporary
08:40dose of insanity made him violently kill his own wife as well as their kids. This isn't the only
08:45time that Hercules had some violent tendencies. In a different fit of rage, he also killed Linus,
08:51his music teacher. However, the murder of his own family obviously took things to a much more
08:56disturbing level. Juno's rage is deadly. Number two, Apollo's Brutality.
09:11We mentioned the metamorphosis earlier with Lycaon, but another brutal tale in that book exists about
09:16Apollo. Apollo is an interesting deity, because he's simply Apollo in both Greek and Roman mythology.
09:22So, not only is he the same in both cultures, he's also the same level of ruthless.
09:27During the tale of Marcius, we learn about a competition between him and a fawn named Marcius.
09:33Whoever wins could do whatever they wanted to the loser. It sounds problematic, to say the least.
09:38When Apollo wins, he flays Marcius, and then nails his injured body to a pine tree.
09:44The lesson of this story is supposed to be to not challenge the gods,
09:48but maybe another lesson is to stay the hell away from Apollo.
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10:111. Saturn eating his own children
10:14There's bad fathers, and then there's Saturn. Not only did he steal the royal throne from his father,
10:19Kylus, he also inherited the title of mythology's worst dad ever. Well, at least that's what we think.
10:26When he discovered a prophecy saying that one of his children would overthrow him, he decided that
10:31devouring his kids would be the only logical solution. We don't have to explain why eating your kids is
10:36terrifying. But the real kicker is that his son, Jupiter, survived. That's because his mother,
10:42Ops, hid him away and tricked Saturn into eating a rock instead. Eventually, Jupiter grew up and
10:48managed to defeat Saturn and free his siblings, thus fulfilling the prophecy. Yeah, this is one
10:53really dysfunctional family. Are there any disturbing Roman myths we missed? Be sure to creep us out in the comments!
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