The Devil's Tramping Ground

I'm taking a break for a bit from mythology to go into legend.  I figure the two are close enough to count.  It was the day before Halloween, we had a teacher workday, and my family and I decided to take a road trip.  We had originally planned to drive up to the mountains in North Carolina and look at the leaves, but as we were very tired, low on money, and it looked like it was going to be a drizzly day, we decided to do something else.  When I checked the web for places to visit in my home state, I was drawn to a mention of The Devil's Tramping Ground.

For those of you who are non-North Carolinaers, two things: 1. I feel sorry for you.  This is one fantastic place to live, and 2. The Devil's Tramping Ground is a place that everyone around my age learned about in 4th grade social studies.  In 1949, a book came out called The Devil's Tramping Ground and Other North Carolina Mysteries and every fourth grade teacher scared us with stories from it.  Once I remembered that place, I thought, hey! what a great place to visit right before Halloween!

A little background - the Devil's Tramping Ground is a little place out in the middle of nowhere where nothing grows in a circle about 40 ft in diameter.  It is said that if you put anything in the circle (including a tent you are sleeping in) it will be moved outside the circle by morning.  Animals do not enter the place.  Apparently it has been that way ever since Chatham County was discovered before 1800.  Due to it's reputation, it is also said that Satanic rituals are performed there from time to time.  The legend says that nothing grows there and nothing stays there because at night, the devil walks around in a circle, thinking up new ways to ruin mankind. Another, lesser known or liked legend is that it is a place where some local Native Americans were buried and they resent anything being on their eternal resting place.

I got directions from this site: http://deviljazz.tripod.com/DevilsTrampingGround.html

So I packed the car up feeling strangely like an idiot.  Here I am taking my wife and kids to some devil infested, Satanic ritual place.  Talk about father of the year, huh? What is the worst that could happen? What we should have seen when we arrived was this:

But as people keep stealing the signs, the state no longer spends the expense.  Instead, we pulled the car over in front of the woods where the circle is and saw this:

Nice jaw bone, huh?  And check out that spinal column in the upper corner.  Well, my kids are thinking this is super cool and can't wait to see the actual circle.  Me, I'm wondering if the people who did this are hanging out nearby.  That horror movie image is now heavy on the brain.

When we get there, my oldest says, "This is it?"  Here is him showing how thrilling the circle was:

I'm not sure what he expected to see.  He has been watching a lot of Scooby Doo lately, so no telling.  You can see where someone lit a fire the night before.  I thought at first that that proves things don't disappear, but then I read when I got home that the legend says that things only disappear from the outer rim, there the devil actually walks.  Stuff can stay in the center.

Now my younger child was a bit reluctant about stepping in the circle (quite possibly the smart one - takes after his mother - but I am sure that my genes will surface in him soon).  His desire to get his picture taken, however, outweighed any fear of the circle.

Note his cool Spider-Man shoes with the interchangeable black and red webs!  There was another guy who had shown up to check out the circle as well.  I told the kids that he was the devil coming to walk the circle.  They left him alone.

Outside the circle are many paths, but since this is really private property, we didn't feel the need to trespass any further.   Plus the freaks that left the bones might be out there.  Double plus that would leave freaks in front of us and the aforementioned devil (which I had by now convinced myself was the real deal) behind us.  Forget that!

Just outside the circle are two things:

Thorns

And trash

Lots of trash from drunks coming up at night to people seeing if the legend is true.  I don't know about the devil walking around it, but I can tell you this: there was no trash, no anything except freshly fallen leaves in the area where the devil supposedly walks, there were no animals around (except for the skeleton remains), and the place was quiet (well, except for two very loud little kids who kept following me around).

I would love to hear from you if there is a similar place where you live.  Have you been?  Post a reply!

Happy Halloween guys (or happy Samhain, or happy Pomona, or whatever you are celebrating today).

*Note* After posting this entry, the local TV news did a segment on the circle.  Just to prove to you that all of the above is NOT a lie, check out the clip:

Bobbing for Apples

O.K., so I'm surfing around on the Internet, totally shirking my duties, and I run across this Roman mythology connection to Halloween.  It seems that there was a holiday called Feralia that was designed to give peace to the dead.  Sacrifices were made in honor of them, prayers said, and all that good stuff.  The problem is that it was celebrated on the 21st of February.  Hmmm....

I dug a little further and found that Pope Boniface IV replaced this celebration with All Saint's Day.  This was observed on the 13th of May.  O.K., getting closer....

Then, Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1st (I suppose to coincide with Samhain). Alright.  Now we're talking.  But, you may say (out loud if you are a little strange), why did you title this entry "Bobbing for Apples?"  Well (I might say back to you if you are a bit schizophrenic), it comes from me typing Feralia into Google.

It seems that there was another Roman festival that might have been pulled into the Halloween celebration the same way as Feralia.  This festival was to the goddess of fruit trees, Pomona.  She was associated heavily with apples.  The theory is that her festival on August 13th was pulled into the Samhain makeover and all that is left now is the bobbing for apples part.

So, dress up your kids or yourself, your dog or cat even, and have fun this Halloween.  Just make sure that while you are engaged in all that tricking and treating stuff that you take some time out to bob for an apple or two and remember poor Pomona, who lost her holiday.  I fear it is pretty much gone forever, as I do not foresee a It's the Great Apple, Charlie Brown coming anytime soon.

By the way, the goddess Pomona does live on and can be found at her blog, Goddess of Pomona, although she very much downplays her deitic roots.

Another Family Tree

A new way to check out the family tree of the gods.  It is fun the play with, not as good for full fledge research, but a fun way of seeing who is related to whom.  When you roll your mouse over a name, the children pop up with their own circles.  Give it a try.  The web address for this is:

http://www.webexhibits.org/greekgods/index.html

I give it a 3.5 lightning bolts out of 5.

Love Stinks

O.K., Get this -

Wouldn't you think that immortality would be pretty cool?

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I'm trying to trick you by saying you won't die, but you'll grow continually old. O.K. then, how about immortality AND eternal youth?

Pretty good now, huh? Alright, let's sweeten the pot a little by also throwing in nightly consorts with a super Greek Goddess hottie. For all eternity. Like ever and ever. Now I'm cooking (if you are so inclined, you can think of a super hot Greek god, but for the purposes of our story I need the goddess angle.

For all that it sounds, this predicament stinks for a chap by the name of Endymion. He was young man who was granted all these things. Problem is, he is asleep! Yep. The guy sits down by a tree and dozes off (probably worked a long day, you know how that goes). So he's there, asleep, and Selene, a goddess (titan, if you will), all hot and beautiful, goes by him. See, she takes care of the moon and so goes by that way on a regular basis. Well, she sees him and falls in love. The problem is, by the time she goes back, he'll probably be gone. So Zeus makes him fall asleep for all eternity, makes him immortal, and keeps him young. They stick him in a cave for safe keeping and every night (well, most nights) she goes by and, well, holds hands and stuff. Poor guy just can't remember any of it!

Works out great for her, though. He doesn't care if she goes shopping, does sleep around on her (well, he does a lot of sleeping), and they never get into fights. It's like a match made in heaven. Of wait! It was!

Whic Greek God Are You?

I found this site that had one of these little quizzes. I usually ignore them because often they are just attempts to get your e-mail address and other contact information, but this one wasn't. It was just what it said it was. A little quiz. I took it and to my disappointment, I turned out to be Hermes. I was hoping for one of the big three, but no.

Take the quiz yourself and then come back here and leave a comment telling me which god or goddess you are!

http://www.hunch.com/which-greek-god-am-i/?SEMref=google&kw=greek%20gods&gclid=CI2Cy9TAzp0CFSEFswodqCWPsA

What Are You Going As For Halloween?

I never dressed as a mythological figure for Halloween, unless you count the year as a kid a made a mummy outfit out of toilet paper. It wasn't exactly mythology and it was an awful costume. I thought I would take the time to look on the Internet for real mythology costumes. There were several sexy goddess costumes that could be bought pretty much anywhere, but one stood out from the rest.


As you can see, I got this pic from http://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/coolest-centaur-costume.html. If you go there, you'll find how she made this costume (the fur took over 40 hours alone). Pretty neat. Can't say that I am that dedicated to mythology or to Halloween to spend that much time on a costume, but pretty neat all the same.

How about you? Anyone here go as a mythological figure for Halloween or a costume party? Post a comment and let me know!

Good Advertisement

This is an little poster that shows that when the ad is this good, who cares about facts? It mentions that the first time anyone showed a viking with a helmet with horns was for an opera. However, I can imagine Frigga looking at Odin in a big horned helmet before going out to eat and saying, "Are you wearing that?"

You can see it bigger at:
http://bionicteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/vikings.jpg

Great Bellowing Bards!

I posted the link to the Celtic Myth Podcast a while ago, but did not get around to reviewing till now. Mainly because I just around to listening to it. This show is great for any lover of mythology. Sure, you don't get the Greek and Roman stuff you're probably used to, but the Celts were just as crazy, if not more so, than the others.

The show is broken into two segments: 1. news and updates and 2. the story. The story is not just talked about. It is told in a way to make any bard from the olden times hang his head in shame. With some musical background, a few sound effects, and conversations in different voices, the stories come alive in a way that myths rarely do. Don't believe me? Shame on you! But hear for yourself. I've linked to the promo. Listen to it and get hooked. The promo you want to listen to is the the 1 - 42s. It is worth the minute of your life!

My review - 5 out of 5 lightning bolts

Killing In-Laws and Other Universal Past-Times

I think this is a kind of funny myth.  Ixion, the King of Lapiths (a really, really, really old city in Thessaly) fell in love with a girl named Dia.  To get her, he promised this really valuable present as a bride price.  Now, when it came time to pay, for whatever reason, Ixion doesn't pay.  That's not the funny part.

Well, the father-in-law, not being the better man in this, decides to steal his horses.  This makes the holidays really uncomfortable for all involved and relationships just go to Hades in a hand basket.  Ixion, however, tired of all the conflict decides to invite his father-in-law to a dinner.  No, he doesn't pull a Tantalus and feed him mystery meat.  He instead lures the guy to fire area and pushes him onto a bed of hot coals and watches him burn to death.  That is not the funny part.

The funny part is that Ixion is NOT punished by Zeus for this.  In fact, Zeus feels pretty bad for the guy since everyone back on earth was treating him like he did something wrong (I mean, come on - it was only an in-law, right?).  He lets him hang out in Olympus for a while.

To get a few more chuckles out of this, what does Ixion do to repay Zeus?  He starts hitting on ol' ox-eyes herself.  Hera.  Of all the goddesses, he chooses the big man's main squeeze.

Zeus, suspicious of this, creates a cloud with a remarkable resemblance to Hera.  He called the cloud Nephele (really creative name, it means "cloud").  Ixion puts his move on the Hera cloud and gets it pregnant (don't ask me how - can you imagine how complex sex ed must have been for a poor Greek lad living in myth times?)!  Well, Centauros was the result and from him we get most centaurs.

Now, killing your father-in-law gets rewarded.  Hitting on a cloud in the shape of Hera, that gets your butt fried by a thunderbolt.  That and you get expelled from Olympus.  And you get strapped to a wheel that is on fire and constantly spinning.  I wonder if on his wheel if he gets to tell Tantalus, "Oh, you think you have it bad.  What I would give to just be a little hungry!"

Morale of today's post: Kill your in-laws.  Stay away from sexy clouds.

Tantalizing Lip Butter?

Tantalizing Lip Butter.  The jar itself is a strange thing.  I assume that it is some very thick chap stick type stuff that makes your lips super sexy (the Yes! gives me that strange idea).  I, being male, have never tried lip butter much less tantalizing lip butter.  I do remember Suzy Chapstick commercials when I was younger...  Ah Suzy, where are you now?

Anyway, on with the post.  As tantalizing as Suzy Chapstick may be, she is not mythology and we must continue on with our quest.  Back to the tantalizing lip butter.  For that matter, we don't really even care about the lips or the butter (although butter might have something to do with our tale).  "Tantalize" comes from a poor chap in Greek myth mentioned in our last post (which was so long ago - sorry, been busy).

Tantalus hated the gods.  Why?  Who knows?  There are a few ideas floating about such as he was invited to eat with the gods and just couldn't get enough of a good thing.  Some say he resented not being able to be a god (with his father being Zeus he figured he ought to be able to hang out with the deities).  The actual reason doesn't matter.  What does is that he HATES the gods.

Now Tantalus must have been loved by them and he must have kept his hatred a secret.  Just like Montressor he feels that revenge is best when the victim does not know it is coming.  He invited the gods to eat dinner with him (mayhaps to return the favor) and instead of cooking up a nice pork dinner or even a delectable beef stew, he cooked his own son (I;m sure he used butter and he did cook the lips - just to tie it in with the previous paragraphs).  The gods, of course, realized this trickery and would not eat.  Well, most of the gods.  Demeter evidently is a pig since she ate her portion before waiting for anyone else to start.  They take the pieces of meat and reconstruct every part but the part that Demeter ate.  Now, if you are thinking dirty at this part of the story, you are in the wrong culture - that would be Egyptian.  The part they no longer have is the shoulder.  Demeter, a little ashamed I imagine at her dinner table etiquette, builds an ivory shoulder and they bring the son back to life.

To punish Tantalus for his evil deeds, Tantalus is trapped in a pool of water in Hades.  Some say that there is a huge rock hanging over his head to keep him in terror of dying, but I don't really like that version.  The more common idea is that he is constantly thirsty, but whenever he bends his head down to get a drink, the water drains down so he can't get any.  He is also hungry.  There are fruit trees which have fruit dangling from branches just within reach, but whenever he reaches for them, a wind blows the fruit just out of reach.  

Thus the word tantalize means to keep just out of reach.  Which brings us back to the poorly named lip butter, as it is obvious from the yes yes yes! part that these lips are not meant to be kept out of touch.  Oh well, I guess our friends at The Body Shop just don't get mythology...