The Lizard-Man of Lee County

It was on this date twenty-one years ago that a local legend was born here in swamps of the Carolinas. The Lizard-Man of Lee County, South Carolina (a.k.a. the Lizard-Man of Scape Ore Swamp, a.k.a. the Bishopville Lizard-Man) was first sighted by teenager Chris Davis (1971-2009) on June 29th 1988 around 2:00 am. Davis claimed that the seven-foot-tall, green skinned and red-eyed creature came at him while he was changing a tire on the side of the road. After Davis’ initial sighting others began to pour in as detailed in the following video uploaded from ETVRoadShow via YouTube…

Well first things first, according to CNN the blood samples from the Rawsons’ car turned out to be that of domestic dog, not a Lizard-Man.

Also while “reptilian humanoids,” as they are called, can be found in various forms throughout world mythology I would like to take a moment to reflect on their enduring presence in both sci-fi and horror films and television, the most famous example undoubtedly being the Gillman from Universal Studios' three The Creature from the Black Lagoon films. In 1980 director Barbara Peeters updated the Creature premises in her sexploitation piece Humanoids from the Deep. The Gillman was also featured in 1987’s cult classic The Monster Squad. Then there was the popular sci-fi TV series V which ran from 1984 to 1985 and featured alien visitors who were reptilian in nature. In fact, all these reptilians in the 80s have to make one wonder if Chris Davis’ sighting wasn’t just a byproduct of popular culture. Even Davis’ famous sketch of the Lee County Lizard-Man with its cone-like head and three fingers seems to resemble a Sleestak, the lizard-men from TV’s Land of the Lost (1974-1976), perhaps just a little too much.

Coincidence?

But whatever the origin, the legend of the Lizard-Man of Lee County lives on as a beloved southern urban legend which will certainly continue to be told for years to come.

Pictures:

1) Chris Davis’ original drawing of the ‘Lizard-Man.’
2) A more detailed rendering of the creature as seen in an Atlanta, Georgia newspaper.
3) A Sleestak from the original Land of the Lost TV series, note the cone shaped head.
4) Sleestaks, still with their cone shaped heads and three fingered claws, as seen in the new 2009 Land of the Lost movie.

For More on the Lizard-Man of Lee County:

Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th-Century (1989) by Janet and Colin Bord
Unexplained! (1999) by Jerome Clark
Mothman and other curious encounters (2002) by Loren Coleman
Monster Spotter's Guide to North America (2007) by Scott Francis
Weird Carolinas (2007) by Roger Manley

Mythology in Music: Clutch's "Release the Kraken"

Clutch is a four man American rock band which has been performing together since 1990. They have had eight CDs released with a ninth, Strange Cousins from the West, set to hit stores next month. Clutch is known for their unique sound which combines both hard rock and blues/funk influences. Their lyrics are also equally thought provoking and often contain references to history, mythology, science-fiction, and religion.

The song "Release the Kraken" off their 1999 album Jam Room draws its influence in part from the actual Greek myth of Perseus but mostly from the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, a loose retelling of the same story. Clash of the Titans was directed by Desmond Davis and featured special effects by Ray Harryhausen, who also produced the film.

Clash of the Titans’ biggest, and perhaps most iconic, addition to the myth of Perseus was that of the Kraken; a monster from Norse mythology, not Greek. It is also interesting to note that Harryhausen’s Kraken looks nothing like its mythological namesake but rather like a multi-limbed version of another one of Harryhausen’s monsters; the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

The following video was created by YouTube user sidewalkhawg and features "Release the Kraken" played to clips from Clash of the Titans.

The italicized words in found in the "Release the Kraken" lyrics were taken from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1995), page 819.

Sources: "Release the Kraken" lyrics found at http://www.stlyrics.com/.

What's the matter brother, does the drought got you down?

(Open up the bomb shelter, sweep it on out)

Sing to the ocean in the afternoon haze,

Up the iron pillars, rise in the waves.

Andromeda is weeping. Inside one teardrop swims

Brave Useless in training less a millimeter thin.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

GET THE SACRIFICE ON!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

GOOD GOD Y'ALL!

Useless the Younger we pray for you.

You know we got your back in whatever you do.

Bathysphere bobbing in Eyeball Bay,

Black lash crashes, forty foot waves.

Cepheus is holding Cassiopeia's free hand

As the Kraken breaks the surface making bee-line to the land.

In Greek legend the son of Zeus and Danae

He and his mother was set adrift in a chest,

But rescued by the intervention of Zeus.

He was brought up by KING POLYDECTES,

Who, wishing to secure Danae, got rid of him by encouraging him

In the almost hopeless task of obtaining the head OF THE MEDUSA!

With the help of the gods he was successful, and with the head,

Which turned all that looked on it into stone, he rescued Andromeda

And later metamorphosed Polydectes and his guests to stone.

Do You Believe In Centaurs?

The “Centaur Excavation at Volos” is an exhibit which has been on permanent display at The University of Tennessee’s John C. Hodges Library since May of 1994. Located in the Jack E. Reese Galleria, the centaur was brought to the university by two men; art Professor Beauvais Lyons and Neil Greenberg, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. Lyons and Greenberg first began raising funds to have the centaur brought to the university in 1992 and by 1993 the two professors had gain enough financial backing to purchase the centaur. The installation of the exhibit took one year.

Centaurs are mythological creatures featured in the legends of Greece and Rome. They were said to be the offspring of either the goddess Hera (Juno) and Ixion or the children of Centaurus; the deformed son of Apollo who lived amongst the Mares of Magnesium. As a people the centaurs dwelt amongst the mountains of Erymanthus in Thessaly as well as the Clyon countryside. Considered to be kind, hospitable, sporting, generous, and wise the centaurs were well received, the most famous centaur perhaps being Cheiron who tutored many of Greece’s greatest heroes including Aesculapius, Achilles, Jason, Meleagor, Nestor, Peleus, and Theseus. He also instructed the famed necromancer Faust, postmortem.

The centaurs were not without their faults however, having a practically nonexistent tolerance for alcohol centaurs where prone to drunken brawls. In one particularly notable episode a group of intoxicated centaurs manage to get into a fight with the legendary hero Hercules, who was also inebriated at the time. Being little match for the famous strongman the bulk of the centaurs where slain but one named Nessus managed to escape. Nessus would later take revenge on Hercules by attempting to rape his second wife Deianira. Hercules kills Nessus with an arrow dipped in Hydra’s blood before he can do the deed but not before convincing Deianira to smear some of his poisoned blood on Hercules’s cloak which he tells her will insure her husband’s everlasting fidelity. Once Hercules places the cloak on his back he is immediately seized with unbearable pain and kills himself via immolation.

So is the centaur from Volos real?

Well despite the display itself and an impressive accompanying University website the truth is that the centaur is an elaborate fake created from a human anatomical skeleton and the bones of a Shetland pony. The mock excavation itself was created by William Willers, professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh, in the mid-1980s and it was Willers who sold the skeleton to Professors Lyons and Greenberg. According to Lyons the purpose of obtaining and displaying the skeleton on a college campus was to test the critical thinking skills of the students. On the centaur’s official website Professor Greenberg notes that “Our CENTAUR is implausible at one level, but inevitable at another” in that hoaxes such as the centaur from Volos are touted out all the time as being ‘evidence’ of otherwise incredulous claims – just consider last year’s Georgia Bigfoot hoax for a recent example.

In the end perhaps Professor Lyons sums it up best when he asks; “Just because something is in the non-fiction section, does that make it true?”

Sources:

Giants, Monsters & Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth (2000) by Carol Rose.

Don't Know Much About Mythology (2005) by Kenneth C. Davis

Library hails centaur’s 10th anniversary (2004) by Maggie Anderson

The “Centaur Excavation at Volos” Offical Website

Angelic Genitalia

You read that right! This is an entire blog post dealing solely with the question of the existence of sexual organs on the heavenly host. Why, you might ask? Well what got me thinking about this subject was actually director Kevin Smith’s 1999 comedy Dogma. In the movie Dogma angels are depicted as being “as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll,” as the angel Metatron (Alan Rickman) eloquently puts it. Despite how the rest of their body may appear physically the angels and other supernatural beings in Dogma are repeatedly depicted and described as being both sexless and incapable of sexual activity.

However, this is not always the case. On the other end of the Hollywood spectrum is the 1996 film Michael in which the archangel Michael (John Travolta) is introduced with all his sexual organs intact - albeit concealed beneath his boxer shorts. He is also seen throughout the film engaging in casual sex with a number of different human women.

Then there are those films that opt for a thoroughly different approach. The award-winning HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003) envisions angels as hermaphrodites. In Tony Kushner’s original play of the same name The Angel of America (Emma Thompson in the mini-series) is described as “possessing many phalli and a multitude of vaginas” and engaging in sexual congress with newly ordained prophet Prior Walter.

Likewise the archangel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) in the movie Constantine (2005) is depicted as androgynous, as is the devil (Rosalinda Celentano) in Mel Gibson’s religious blockbuster The Passion of the Christ (2004). Constantine was based on the DC/Vertigo comic book series “Hellblazer” so its interesting to note that while angels in the DC Universe are depicted in the same genitalia-less manner as those in Dogma they are mysteriously also seen as capable of engaging in sexual intercourse (See “Hellblazer” #46 and “Lucifer” #50 for two examples).

Of course, there are a vast number of films about angels where the subject of angelic sexual anatomy never comes up at all. We have no idea what the sexual status of Clarence (Henry Travers), the iconic angel of the yuletide classic It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), is.

But which of the above views is right?

Well considering the fact that angels are mythical beings to begin with, all views maybe seen as in some sense correct. Asking whether or not angels possess genitalia can be seen as tantamount to asking whether or not unicorn horns are hollow – you would first need to obtain a unicorn (living or dead) before you could proceed. Taking this into account then perhaps the question we should be asking is not which “view is right” but which view mirrors the classical conception of angels as found in ancient near-eastern myths and legends.

Though scholars are still in dispute over exactly where the idea of angels came from, for all intents and purposes it is generally agreed that the beings which we today identify as angels first appear in the religious myths of the Jewish people some 6,000-years-ago. In the Hebrew Bible and other related non-canonical literature angels are depicted as being all male[1], something which may come as a surprise to people who are used to seeing angels depicted as female whether it be on greeting cards or in Victoria’s Secret catalogs.

In Hebrew the term for angel (Heb: mal'akh, lit. ‘Messenger’) is masculine, furthermore angels are referred to in the books of Genesis, Numbers, Job, and Psalms as the “sons of God” (Heb: bene ha-elohim). Whenever an angel appears before someone in the Hebrew Bible they are always described as appearing as a “man.” Also all named angels have masculine names: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael (Tobit), Uriel (1st Enoch), etc… and are described as holding what where at the time seen as male jobs: Michael is a soldier, Gabriel a messenger, Raphael a doctor, etc…

Then there is what maybe one of the most controversial passages in the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis 6:1-2 & 4 we read of how in the days before the flood of Noah “the Sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.” The implication here being that angels are capable of sexual intercourse with human women. This theme is further elaborated on in two apocryphal texts; 1st Enoch (c. 2nd BCE to 1st cent. CE) and Jubilees (c. 2nd cent. BCE). Both texts tell of the Watchers (Heb: irin, Lit: “those who watch” or “those who are awake”) a group of angels sent to earth to watch over mankind but whose unbridled lust for human women forces them to abandon heaven so that they may engage in sexual intercourse with them.

In some ways this premises is also revisited in the 1998 film City of Angels in which the angel Seth (Nicholas Cage) falls in love with a mortal woman but must first “fall” and become human in order to be with her.[2] While the angels in 1st Enoch and Jubilees don’t become human after leaving heaven they do manage to spawn the world’s first giants and teach humans the secrets of the occult. Lastly it should be noted that a careful reading of Jubilees 15:27 also seems to suggest that in addition to being fully equipped sexually angels are also created circumcised.

The idea of angels as sexually endowed and potent beings continued on until the 4th-Century C.E. Early Christians apparently shared in the myths found in Genesis 6, 1st Enoch and Jubilees as reference to them can be found in the New Testament. Most notable is the epistle of Jude who quotes from 1st-Enoch directly (see Jude 1:14-15) but also Paul who states in 1st Corinthians (11:10) that women should restrain from vanity least they entice the angels to sin again. However, as Christianity continued to grow as a religion the need to distance itself from both Judaism and Greco-Roman paganism (with its own hypersexual Olympian gods and goddesses) became more apparent. One way of doing this was to redefine angels as celibate.

In the 13th-Century, Catholic theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas declared in his Summa Theologica (1266-73) that angels were without both sex and gender and that though they can assume bodies, as human’s possess, they do not exercise the functions of life in them. This line of thinking about angels has been continued right on through to present day and appears in Protestant evangelist Billy Graham’s best selling book Angels: God’s Secret Agents (1975).

Medieval art likewise portrays angels as androgynous and it is not until the Renaissance that depictions of both male and female angels being to appear. It is interesting to note, however, that while Christian theologians and artists appear to have been troubled by the notion of sexually defined angels they had no problem with the concept of sexually defined demons. Myth, folklore, theology, and art all testify to the pervasive medieval belief in both incubi and succubi; male and female demons whose infernal job was to tempt their human sexual opposites with, well, sex.[3]

As for the tales of Genesis 6 and its related apocryphal texts Christianity saw these stories as best left forgotten. Those theologians who did bother to address these scriptures either explained the story of the “Sons of God” and the “daughters of men” away as the work of fallen angels/demons or reinterpreted the “Sons of God” as referring to the righteous descendents of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son, and the “daughters of men” as being from the wicked line of Cain; the first murderer. Today many Christian resources on angels, such as Kenneth Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr.’s book Sense and Nonsense about Angels and Demons (2007), don’t even mention Genesis 6.[4]

In the end, the question of sexuality amongst angels is perhaps one that will never be fully resolved. As was demonstrated at the start of this essay storytellers over the past 20-years have seen fit to reimagine the sexuality of angels in all kinds of new, old, and bizarre ways. Some like Kevin Smith, who is a practicing Catholic, will continue to reinforce the Christian notion of sexless and genderless angels while others will look back to Genesis 6, 1st Enoch, and Jubilees for their cues. In each and every case, however, it is important to remember that some statement is ultimately being made about how we as a culture view our own sexuality….

Bethany: “Sex is a joke in heaven?”

Metatron: “The way I understand it it’s mostly a joke down here too.”

- Dogma

Pictures:

At Top: The Metatron (Alan Rickman) maybe the Voice of God in Dogma (1999) but he's still “as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll.”

Middle: Unlike some angels Seth (Nicholas Cage) has no problem getting down with the ladies.

Films: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) directed by Frank Capra, The Prophecy (1995) directed by Gregory Widen, Michael (1996) directed by Nora Ephron, City of Angels (1998) directed by Brad Silberling, Dogma (1999) directed by Kevin Smith, Angels in America (2003) directed by Mike Nichols, The Passion of the Christ (2004) by Mel Gibson, Constantine (2005) directed by Francis Lawrence.

Sources: The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 1 & 2 (1985) translated by James H. Charlesworth, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (2004) translated by George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, Angels A to Z (1996) by James R. Lewis and Evelyn Dorothy Oliver, The Lost Bible: Forgotten Scriptures Revealed (2001) by J.R. Porter, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (2003) by Tony Kushner, Sense and Nonsense about Angels and Demons (2007) Kenneth Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr., & “Can angels have sex with people?" at http://www.carm.org/

Special Thanks to Dr. Barbra Thiede for pointing out Jubilees 15:27 and to Brent Starnes for pointing me towards Faraway, So Close!

_______________________________________________________
[1] The idea that angels are all male is a concept that Hollywood also seems to find aesthetically pleasing. Considering the numerous films made over the years featuring angels the only two which I could find which feature decidedly female angels were the 1993 German film Faraway, So Close! and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, though interestingly in the latter’s case the angel in question was portrayed by actor Doug Jones. The long running American TV series Touched by an Angel (1994 to 2003) also featured decidedly female angels.
[2] Also released in 1998, The Prophecy II depicts angels and humans as capable of interbreeding. This was the sequel to the 1995 film The Prophecy which stared Christopher Walken as the archangel Gabriel.
[3] Interestingly Fr. Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, in his book Demoniality; or Incubi and Succubi (1879), describes the incubi as; “corporeal angels who allowed themselves to fall into the sin of lewdness with women.” a line which seems to call back to tales of Genesis 6, 1st Enoch, and Jubilees.
[4] A common Christian justification for the view that angels are both sexually undefined and impotent are the gospels of Matthew (22:30) and Luke (20:34-36) in which Jesus tells his followers that in the kingdom to come the resurrected dead will “neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” However, as common sense, and some apologetists, will tell you marriage has never been a prerequisite for sex.

Elves

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
Nobody said elves were nice.
Elves are bad.”
- Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies (1992)

Today when people think of elves there is a good chance that one of two images will probably come to mind. One will be the tall, blond, pale skinned and pointed ear elves of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy based on the books by famed fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien. The other image will be that of the diminutive and cute elves of Christmas, such as those seen in Rankin/Bass’s beloved yuletide special Rudolph the Red–Nosed Reindeer.

As it would turn out both images are a far cry from the elves found in the myths and folklore of Britain, Iceland, Scandinavia, and Western Germany.

Originally, the term elf denoted all types of fairies. A classic example of this is the well known German fairy-tale the "Elves and the Shoemaker” in which the diminutive cobblers in question are not actually elves but rather an entirely separate race of supernaturals known as brownies.

Eventually the term elf would come to signify a certain class of tiny, humanoid beings who could shape-shift at will and who dwelled in forests, hollow tree trucks, old long-barrows and ancient burial mounds from which they emerge at night to dance in the light of the moon. It is unclear exactly how small elves were thought to be since many legends describe elves and human interbreeding which gives one the impression that they were at least large enough to properly perform sexual acts with adult humans. In England male elves are described as looking like old men while female elves are described as having the appearance of young beautiful women.

Amongst the many different mythologies which tell of elves it is the elves of Teutonic mythology (called Alfar) which are the most fully developed and of which we know the most about. Teutonic elves are divided into two groups; light elves (Liosalfar) and dark elves (Dökkálfar) or black elves (Svartálfar). Dark elves are described as having been born from the maggots who fed on the flesh of the dead giant Ymir. Their skin was “darker than pitch,” they lived underground, and worked as blacksmiths for the gods. Interestingly these dark elves were also seen as bringers of fertility and were thus the object of religious worship – something we certainly don’t associate with elves today.

According to Prof. Jesse L. Byock of the University of California there is evidence to suggest that elves were seen as being just as important as the gods (especially amongst the common folk) and were the subject of a widespread cult in both Scandinavia and Iceland. The 11th-Century Christian poet Sigvat Thordarson describes being turned away from a farmstead in Sweden where he sought shelter because the farmer’s wife was sacrificing to the local elves. An example of such a sacrifice can be found in Kormak’s Saga, a 10th-Century Icelandic work which describes a healing ritual in which a bull would be slaughtered and the blood smeared upon an elf mound and the meat left as a meal for the elves.

In contrast to the dark elves are the light elves that are described as being “whiter than the sun.” These elves did not live underground or in forests but rather in a celestial realm called Alfheim. However unlike there dark brethren, these light elves are largely undeveloped characters. So undeveloped, in fact, that some mythographers have even questioned whether they were actually ever believed in at all.

Perhaps the biggest misconception about elves is that of their very nature. People today often perceive elves as friendly, cheerful, even noble – very different from the troublesome and even down right malicious characters found in myth and folklore.

In Iceland, for example, elves were routinely blamed for the theft of babies, cattle, milk, and bread. They were also believed to be capable of enchanting young men and keeping them prisoner in their realm for years at a time – ala Rip Van Winkle.

Elsewhere in Europe, elves were blamed for a wide variety of problems, many of which are remembered by the folkloric names they were given. Elves were seen as responsible for much mundane troubles as hiccups, tangled hair (called Elf Locks) and nightmares (Elf Dreams) as well as much more serious issues such as birth defects (Elf Marked), strokes (Elf Twisted), splenomegaly [an enlargement of the spleen] (Elf Cake) and disease amongst farm animals (Elf Bolt).

Even when acting in a manner that some may describe as charitable elves still proved to be a handful, Danish folklore describes elves rewarding housewives who keep a clean home but at the same time not hesitating to pinch some bread from the kitchen.

Like all fairies, elves are vulnerable to iron and may also be driven away by an “elf cross” which can take the form of either a traditional cross or in some cases a pentagram.

So what of our modern day conceptions of elves?

Well to start with the tradition of ‘Christmas elves’, like that of the alleged elves in The Elves and the Shoemaker, is actually something of a misnomer. Actual elves have never been associated with Santa Claus, toy making, or Christmas. The characters which we call ‘Christmas elves’ today with their red and green clothes and pointed hats are actually relatives of the Norwegian nisse (or gnomes) and the Swedish tomtars who do have a connection to the character of Santa.

As for Tolkien’s elves, who since their inception have successfully managed to completely reshape the appearance and behavior of elves in popular-culture, they are something else entirely. Tolkien first began writing about elves as early as 1917 in his Book of Lost Tales and would later incorporate them into both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien’s elves came about as the result of the fluid mixing of various mythological ideas most notably; Teutonic light elves, the Celtic fairy-gods or Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Christian conception of angels. For Tolkien, elves were tall, blond, pale skinned, spoke a variation of Finish, had Celtic-sounding names and, most importantly, possessed pointed or “leaf shaped” ears. If any one fact should convince anybody of the mark Tolkien left on the popular conception of elves it should be that prior to Tolkien there is no mention of elves having pointy ears.

For the vast majority of people today elves are no longer a subject of fear or worship but rather simply characters in fantasy fiction and role-playing games, and the elves depicted within are always decidedly post-Tolkien. However, this is not to say that some fantasy authors have not made an attempt to move back to the more traditional, more malevolent elves of myth and legend – as the opening poem by acclaimed British fantasy/humor author Terry Pratchett shows.

It is also of interest to note that according to a June 2004 episode of Journeyman Pictures, a London based independent news site, that 10% of Icelanders currently profess to believe in elves and fairies, while another 80% say that while they don’t necessarily believe in them they still don’t want to mess with them.

And Finally a Bit of Dorky Myth-Science Trivia from Terry Pratchett…

Question: What color is elf blood?

Answer: Elf blood is green. Since iron is lethal to elves (as it is to all fairies) it would be impossible for elves to have hemoglobin-based red blood which contains iron. Copper-based green blood is used by some animals such as arthropods and mollusks so it’s the obvious alternative.

Pictures:

Center: Elves dance through a field in Swedish painter August Malmström's (1829-1901) painting Älvalek (1866)

Bottom: Orlando Bloom as iconic Tolkien elf Legolas from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films.

Sources: Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia (1996) by Carol Rose, Sagas of the Norsemen: Viking & German Myth (1997) by Jacqueline Simpson, et al., The Prose Edda (2005) by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse L. Byock, The Vikings: Life, Myth, and Art (2004) by Tony Allan, The Annotated Hobbit (2002) by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson, Lords and Ladies (1992) by Terry Pratchett, and the "Elves and the Shoemaker" at SurLaLune Fairy Tales.com