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Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset, 1985. The giant chalk figure demands respect, with his huge crab-tree club raised to strike, yet his origin and identity remain a mystery. According to local legend, a real giant was once killed on Trundle Hill and the people from Cerne marked the spot where he fell by outlining him. Probably the figure is Celtic-Roman in origin, perhaps dating 100 BC to AD 200, and could represent the Celtic god Helith or his Roman counterpart, Hercules. The giant stands 180 feet tall, measures 44 feet across the shoulders, and carries a 120-foot club. His erect penis is 30 feet long (not surprisingly since Hercules had 50 wives and his issue was prodigious). Through the centuries, barren women who wished to conceive often spent the night within the outline of the giant’s penis.
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