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 Motoring in Dorset sometime ago, I came across the massive fertility figure above Cerne Abbas, and it was in the news too! Indeed, the village was agog, thanks to a scheme providing the chalkland ‘Giant’ with a female companion.
Most Cerne residents regard the idea as a bit of harmless fun. But a row broke out as to which iconic female should be the model for the Giant’s partner. A poll by the Mid Dorset District Council showed the young favouring Kate Moss, while Nigella Lawson was older people’s choice.
The Cerne Giant is an archaeological enigma. Nobody knows when it was cut into the hill-side. The most probable thing was that the Giant was the work of Roman invaders representing the god ‘Hercules’. Dated between 180 and 193 AD, the Emperor Commodus believed himself to be a reincarnation of the god.
Whatever its origin, the Giant has given rise to a wealth of myth and folklore. He emerged in Henry Vlll’s time, at the dissolution of the monasteries. The then abbot was accused of ‘keeping concubines in the cellar of the abbey’. The Giant was cut into the hillside in that year by monks as a caricature of their disreputable abbot.
So Cerne Abbas has become world news. The authorities have objected to ‘change of use’ of the land, and a plan to etch the Giant’s outline in daffodils has also come to nothing. As, in all likelihood, so will his female companion.
We can instead say with St Paul, ‘Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God...’ In other words, nothing can stop God’s love reaching into those nooks and crannies of our lives where even the most caring of human loves cannot go. So the Cerne Abbas Giant and his proposed goddess won’t be our anxiety.
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