I love this theme that the world was created not by intentional design, or even pure accident, but by slapstick shenanigans.

I'm from Australia, and time and time again we've heard a native Aboriginal story about why the Raven is black which is quite different from this. In that story, all the birds are black. Then, when one of the birds is injured, all the birds except the raven gather around to make sure they're ok. For some reason, the injury of said bird (i think it was a dove?) explodes and spills colours of all the birds standing around (cause australian birds are really colourful) and so all the birds, except for raven, because he wasn't with them cause he's grumpy, were now really colourful. Anyway, that's may story. Just wanted to share that.

Thank you for featuring Raven! I'm from Alaska and Raven is a very important figure in most Alaska Native mythology. It's nice to hear it included in this series. :) One comment: it would be helpful if you could say the tribe each story came from. Although many of the stories are similar across cultures (I've heard multiple versions of how Raven turned black), each version is unique, and giving credit to the group it came from is not only respectful, but helps viewers who want to learn more.

"Don't poop competitively." -Mike Rugnetta, 2017

I really like that constellation story.

Native American myths are so meta. "I'm gonna do this so people talk about it"

There is also a Navajo story about Coyote and the stars. Alth kii daah (in the past), the night sky was only black so the Diyin Dineh (Gods) went to work to place the stars in the night sky. They sat around a blanket on the ground that had precious stones (or embers, versions vary) on top of it. One by one they picked them up and placed them in the sky. They were very careful with where they placed them as they wanted to place them in specific places. Coyote happened upon them so he walked up and sat down with them. He asked them what they were doing and they told him. Excited he stayed and watched them as they continued placing the stars in the sky. The work was very tedious though and Coyote became upset with frustration. He complained that they were taking too long so grabbed an edge of the blanket and flapped it in the air (like you would a bed sheet). The other Diyin Dineh could only look on as the stars flew into the sky landing in random places. The Coyote happy with himself wandered away.

Coyote has quite a few good stories. One of my favorites is when Coyote goes to visit his friend Spider, and he has a terrible nightmare. (Mildly NSFW below) Spider comforts him, and asks what has scared him so. Coyote says that in his dream he was hiding in a bush across a cart trail, spying on a beautiful woman; tall, shapely and dressed in gorgeous beadwork. Spider is confused; this doesn't sound so bad. Coyote says that seeing her excited him; he grew tremendously, so much so that he was able to reach across the cart trail and put himself inside her; she was surprised at first, but began to enjoy herself. Spider is very confused; "brother, in what world is this a bad dream? I'm envious of you!" Coyote continued, looking grim. "Before we finished, I heard the sound of a wagon. A covered wagon with steel shorn wheels passed between us." Spider looked ill. "You're right, brother. this is a terrible dream."

If it's any constellation, they were very pretty stars.

Where I'm from the native peoples ( kxtunaxa) we have a coyote myth. The story goes that one day this bug sea serpent like monster ate a baby bird, so the birds brother sent to the other creatures in the earth. The other creatures agree to help hunt down the sea serpent and get the bird back. Coyote is the most acxious of the creatures, and when he stumbles appun the monster, instead of getting the others, he throws his spear into the monster, whose blood forms the rivers of the world.

2:12 Guys I'm sorry but those aren't rose hips. Those are rose flowers, the rose hipo is the fruit that's left after the petals fall off.

That's so Raven. Mythology is awesome.

Another popular Raven story is where he takes the form of an old man's grandson to steal the boxes containing the sun, moon and stars, releasing them into the sky.

There are so many stories about the stars...whatever mythological version that is. Here in the Philippines,the dipper was left on a cloud by a female deity and she completely forgot about it.When the cloud went back to the sky the dipper was brought along and got stuck in the sky.

There is a great indigenous Australian story to how the birds got their colours. All birds were black until a dove got its foot caught and it started to swell. All the other birds tried to help dove except for the mean crow who didn't care. When the doves wound burst all the birds were covered in colour, except for the crow and that's why it's black.

Oh cool. I was waiting for Coyote to show up in the tricksters. I had always heard he was responsible for scattering all the stars in the night sky because he shook a blanket they had been laid out on. Nice story and totally poop-free - sorry it didn't make the cut.

A lot of wolves in America now are actually wolf-coyote hybrids. Don't know how that's relevant but this reminded me of it.

I remember a coyote story where he either tricks king buffalo with pitty or somehow earns his favor, and is given a buffalo from which he could eat, king buffalo tells coyote that he can cut the fat of the buffalo every night and that every morning it would be restored as new, but warned that coyote must never take more than the back fat. Coyote followed the buffalo king's advice for a while, and remains well fed for days, but one day he finds him self craving the delicious marrow in his buffalos bones, believing himself deceived by king buffalo he decides that he will it the buffalo whole this night and boil it's marrow from it's bones, and that night he was well fed, but come morning the buffalo did not return. The coyote fearful of what this would mean for him devised a lie of how he had lost the buffalo and journeyed to the buffalo king in the hopes to receive another buffalo from which he could eat, after many hungry nights he finds the buffalos, but is surprised to see the one he ate among them, still coyote tries to lie to the king and claim it was mot his fault, but the buffalo king tells the coyote that he broke his rule and would receive no other buffalo from him no or ever, the end.

Can I just give a big thumbs up to Crash Course for making super disgusting stories PG without completely eliminating half the tale? Love you guys.

Quoth the Raven, "Don't poop competitively."

Another Alaskan story about how Raven got his black feathers: Raven and Snowy Owl were once great friends. Raven made Snowy Owl a beautiful white dress with black beaded spots. Snowy Owl decided to return the favor, and began to make a lovely dress for Raven. However, when it came to to fit the dress, Raven would not hold still. Raven kept jumping around, so Snowy Owl put a pot of burning whale blubber over Raven's head as a threat to keep Raven still. Raven kept jumping anyway, and the pot was spilled all over Raven's new dress making it all dirty and black. Henceforth, all Ravens are black and the two birds are enemies. I like this story because it is an explanation not only for the color of the bird's feathers but also for why ravens mob snowy owls.

There is a story about Coyote creating the world as well. You should also compare Iktomi with Anansi

I live in Greece and I always watch your videos(especially mythology,chemistry,physics and anatomy). Please make videos for mathematics I love it so much(especially geometry)

"Don't poop competitively." - I think I've finally found my epitaph.

Coyote is still a trickster and respected animal in Mexico. Some rural communities believe that a coyote has the power to put you in a trance and get you lost in the wilderness. Human smugglers are called coyotes because they share similarities with the animal. Charmer, trickster, and guide.

Fire Weed at 8:54 One of my favourite plants. It is beautiful and edible (though not tasty). I miss seeing it now that I am down south in Ontario now. Also rose hips are the fruit, not the flowers. They are red, round or oblong, with long brown or green sepals on the end (often about the same length as the fruit itself). They can taste alright but the seeds shouldn't be eaten because they are covered in small hairs that like to cling to parts of the digestive system and cause a condition known as "itchy bum" when expelled. It is worse than the name implies.

In Peru, there is a story about a mountain/place called Atoghuarco. It is about a fox that tricks a young girl into marriage. Maybe you could investigate about Southamerican stories. I would really like to hear about that. :)

The parallel involving bears with the "Big Dipper" between Native American and Greek mythology is uncanny. Ursa Major (The Great Bear) is a larger construction of the same constellation.

It could have been also teaching kids to know nightshade berries vs rosehips both bright red one will make you very sick the other has lots of vitamin c and tastes like sweet oranges.

Raven's water story reminds me of a myth from Norse myth, long story short, Odin has stolen some mystical mead that makes the drinker a great poet by turning into a bird and taken it into his mouth. He is soon found out and runs away, getting chased by the guy who made the mead. In the chase, Odin spills some of the mead into our world and even swallows some of the mead, eventually passing it out in mid-air. Those who drank the good mead became great poets, while those who drank Odin's you know what, were known to become horribly crappy poets

I think that’s it’s cool you did a raven myth as I actually live in Sitka and have learned many interesting native Alaskan myths mainly for the Tlingit people (native people from sitka and around that area) I think it would be great if you did one about raven stealing the stars. But thank you for including the myth.

I'm a little upset that the entire unit on Tricksters didn't mention God of Tricksters, Sun Wukong. Am I the only one that is a little bummed they made no mention of The Monkey King???

there's a legend in arcadia bay that states that the raven must always be respected, but never trusted

Insert poop joke? What does Star Trek and toilet paper have in common? They both scan the surface of Uranus for Klingons.

There's one story where Nanabush gets a skunk to teach him to fart so that he could hunt, before farting around absolutely everywhere, hunting nothing, and leaving the forest smelling horrible.

That was the most beautiful thought bubble animation (and story).

Sweet! All that's missing is a video about Filipino or Scottish mythology

It was great hearing the story about why the raven is black. Some clans from the Australian Indigenous communities have stories about the crow that is very similar to the Native Americans.

Native Americans stories are always hilarious and entertaining. Yet at the same time have depth on the human animal.

You missed out on Sheogorath! Best trickster

Thank you for featuring Raven! Raven is my spirit animal and I've always loved stories about him. My favorite is "Raven Brings Light to the World", which comes from the tribes of the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska.

i love how the big dipper contains bear(s) in multiple myths.

I was sure CC would have used the firebringer myths since both coyote and raven have a version of the tale with each as MVP.

So where can an adult find these myths that you can't show on a "family friendly" KZfaq channel?

As a fan of Betsy Lee's "No Evil" series, which is based on Native American myths, this was just about my favorite episode of Crash Course ever!

That's the great thing about trickster characters. They can be clever protagonists, self-interested antagonists - whatever makes a good story :)

I liked crash course before, but I officially love it for the play on words regarding "raven" as in That's So Raven

So in 1000 years do you think there will be a genuine church of Superman? Will their archaeologists try to hunt the fabled lost city of "metropolis" and instead of taking the stories metaphorically will actually think that Jimmy Olsen was the writer of the comics and that he had first hand accounts and knowledge of the virtuous man who could fly and taught us how to care and love one another?

I just realized that in the background, they keep adding more and more deities as each episode goes, lol

7:03 is that why the stars are called Ursa Major (Big bear) and Ursa minor (little bear ) ?

Interesting stories. Especially loved the one about coyote & the arrows.

Anyone ever heard of Gunnerkrigg Court? It's a webcomic which has Coyote and other trickster spirits like Reyardine and Ysengrim as important characters, and it's really fascinating.

I often make up stories about my dog where he does human things, but he still has dog form... and no one thinks it's weird for him to be pretending to be a human. His name is Marinero (Spanish for sailor) and he often acts like one. You can often find him in bars in port towns causing trouble, getting into fights, arm wrestling, drinking heavily, cursing, and chasing women, as well as peeing in inappropriate places on inappropriate things. He's a good dog though.

A much better story than a man cursing some pigs to jump in a river and drown.

Thoth blushing when he knows goddamn well he watched Set eat Horus' Jizz Salad in front of everyone and laughed about it

I love how you say sexytime. It makes learning about coyotes vomiting and pooping over a buffalo even better.

If you are doing an episode about heroes I would recommend mentioning Väinömäinö, the Finnish national hero, and protagonist of the Kalevala.

I had a nightmare of Coyote eating Raven Entrails of life on my plate and I ate them Interested in what I see Try that Rorschach test on me Have you seen the beauty of the Enticing beast

The content of the stories are based on the audience. The poop is just something that is used to keep the children of a village interested in the story and listen to it closely to hear the moral. That is not the only thing used but it is one that elders used a lot because it was funny and worked to keep the children focused on the story. The ones that are about sex and death were told for adolescence and young adults who were at the age to start understanding and learn those topics of that stage of life.

Four wolves make up the handle, two wolves and two bears make up the bowl. Well there are seven animals in the story and seven stars in the constellation, so you might want to recount.

In the words of the Demi-God, Maui, "You're Welcome." :D

Oh oh! About this Loki story, this is how i see it: So Balder mother cares so much for him, but leaves out one little harmless thing like the mistletoe? Realy? that sounds an awefully lot like a personal weapon if she would ever need it. Be reminded that the gods did not object when a mistletoe dart/arrow was thrown/shot (depends on the story). This implies that they dont know it can kill Balder. So what does Loki do? He exposes the gods for the shitbags they are. He uses Friggs dirty tactics against her, he punishes the rest of the gods for acting so damn irresponsibly as throwing darts at each other, he punishes Balders hybris by letting him suffer the consequences of agrreing to be thrown at and probably knows that Hel will give Balder a chanse to return. Hel is Lokis daughter after all. Good chanse is he knows exacly how she will react. And yea he might shapeshift to a giant to make sure it works, but i dunno. I think the lesson here is that noone lives without enemies, and it is foolish to think so, even for the most beloved. Thus he is not the worst, he is a balancing force to the gods arrogance and ignorance.

+CrashCouse You should do at least an episode or two involving Celtic mythology. That will be a little harder since it's not recorded as well as say Egyptian, Greek, or Norse; but it would still be awesome!

Can you do a video on the myths of dragons that are seen as deities and how they affect on the world like niddhog biting the world tree in Norse mythology to bakunawa devouring the sun/moon and causing the eclipse in Philippine mythology.

These are the tricksters I've been waiting for.

Raven's and Coyotees are both very smart and tricky animals.

What about the Kitsune??? I want more episodes about tricksters!!

Hank Green should host this episode. It would have so much MORE fun. Poop volcanos! 💩🌋!

I hope they do a video about the Dreamtime.

Crash Course must become a television series!

I am tlingit from Sitka, Alaska. So cool to see us mentioned!

Why no coverage of raven stealing the sun and moon from the greedy man to bring light into the world? That is also one of the ways raven became black.

I love CrashCourse mythology and CrashCourse.

I enjoy the tale of the constellations. Because it speaks to what I think it means to be Native. That when we are gone, people will look to America and remember us. We want to be remembered, and whatever happened to us. We were here, once upon a time.

Could you do a video about Asian tricksters if you haven't already? In the Philippines, we have Pilandok (mouse-deer).

"Don't Poop Competitively" is my new fav quote.

That's So Raven! Awesome shout-out!

Fun fact: white (not albino) ravens do exist in the wild. However, they are very rare.

"He poops as hard as he can"

Finally, a story about Raven!!

In French, the Big Dipper is called "la Grande Ourse", which means the Big Bear in the feminine gender, which means it's a female bear. Its analog constellation, the Little Dipper, is called "la Petite Ourse", which, as you can guess, means the Little Bear in the feminine too.

I am now officially caught up with all crash course mythology videos, now I wait

I love this series sooo much

Ah, the ancient, honorable tradition of poop chute competitions. I'm so proud.

I was happy with Coyote being my spirit animal, but this truth is somewhat harder to swallow...

World Mythology is my favorite crash course.

Wow, I did not know some of these stories and I can see why. That poop story is just wow.

9:40 I would've written it that Raven looks up and realizes that the area where Petrol was bathing....ran into the spring.

I love this series, it’s so fascinating

I love this series, but I must point out that rose hips are the fruit, not the flower, of a rose plant.

5:13 the incest just makes it EXTRA family friendly

"Don't poop competitively"oh thanks,I get to follow that advice right now

In the Cherokee tradition our trickster is the Rabbit. He shares many stories with Coyote

The arrow ladder is just like star shooter from tlingit mythology. Its about a boy who's friend is stolen by the moon and retrieves Hansel and Gretel style

EEEEEEEEEEE THE SOOT BIRD STORY!!! I was told this as a little kid!! I love Native Alaska stories

hes back! i thought i would never see him again! ❤❤❤❤

Mythology about Coyote and Raven are really interesting. I like it.

I love this and any mention of the Raven stories but...those drawings look more like little blackbirds or some other small corvid. Ravens are HUGE and have feathers over the tops of their beaks, a large fluff of feathers at their throats, finger-like wings, and a curved beak. Y’all basically drew a black dove.

Is that why the Big dipper is called "großer Bär" (big bear) in German? 🤔🐻

Aside from the part about the dog poo, the story about why Ravens are black is actually really cool. I think I'll tell that one to my future kids.