Cerne Giant
This hill figure of giant is located on the hillside in Cerne Abbas village, in Dorset,
England. The pricipal dimensions of the giant figure are as follows : height 54.86m,
shoulders 13.41m across, head 7.15m, eye 76Cm in diameter, club 36.57m.
Unlike some of the other hill-figures, it has not changed in size to any appereciable extent
since it was first surveyed and introduced in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' in 1764(1)
. See the plan of giant appeared in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' on the picture below.
It is thought to be the god Helith (Helis, Helith or Heil), or possibly (Phoenician) Hercules. The small, banked enclosure at the upper right may be an Iron Age tomb and was long the site of May Day celebrations. The festival is held at the first of May, celebrated with the traditional Maypole, remained the most overtly sexual of vestigial ancient ceremonies. A siteline taken up the Giant's penis on May Day points directly to the sun rising over the crest of the hill, and toward the Maypole that once stood in a rectanglar enclosure above, where the revelers greeted the day after a wild night(2).
It has been a prototype of the primitive man, with a crab-tree club in his hand.
A large club in his right hand and a left hand raised, two nipples, glans of phallus (penis),
phallus with the testicles, but why expressed two nipples inclined?
This figure of man and the geometrical figure of five circles looks like the constellation
of Orion ; two nipples and glans and two testicles, otherwise two shoulders and phallus
and two knees.
At first, I think, the typical Orion pattern, two nipples (Betelgeuse [α] & Bellatrix [γ]), two testicles (Saiph [κ] & Rigel [β]), glans (lion belt) are drawn with circles. And then added shouldres, club, arms, legs and lastly head with lines. But what are the lines between the shoulders and nipples? I think they are the survived lines of the shoulders and neck at the first drawing. Now, the head is Meissa [λ], the shoulders are Betelgeuse [α] & Bellatrix [γ], the right hand with club is the star [χ], left hand is [ο], two knees are Saiph [κ] & Rigel [β], erected phallus (penis) is triple stars (red lines in the picture of Orion) with Trapezium [θ] and glans is Alnilam [ε], side ribs are Alnitak [ζ] & Mintaka [δ].
The constellation of Orion has been thought as 'The Great Orion Hunter' against the Bull
(Taurus) on the right side since the ancient period. Orion has got the meaning of the offense
and the defense. The Cerne Giant, I like to guess, had made for a symbol of the
constellation of Orion. It was thought as a mark of village, or a display of their strong
power enough to defend. But I could not imagine why on the hillside, facing to the sky.
(photos taken in 1987, written in Feb 1997)
(reproduced aero photo ; Lucy R. Lippard, 'Overlay', Pantheon, 1983.)
(quote from) ; (1) Morris Marples, 'White Horses and other Hill Figures', Alan Sutton, 1981.
(2) Lucy R. Lippard, 'Overlay', Pantheon, 1983.
Copyright (c) 1997 by kbyon
