“PAZUZU, THE DEMON ‘THE EXORCIST’ MADE FAMOUS” and More True Stories! #WeirdDarkness

Listen to ““PAZUZU, THE DEMON ‘THE EXORCIST’ MADE FAMOUS” and More True Stories! #WeirdDarkness” on Spreaker.

IN THIS EPISODE: The Exorcist is widely regarded as one of the most influential horror movies of all time. Even now, half a century after its release, it continues to terrify audiences, in large part due to its horrifying practical effects and iconic antagonist: Pazuzu. (Pazuzu, The Demon ‘The Exorcist’ Made Famous) *** Latoya Ammons and her family claim to have experienced demonic possession that began when they moved into what became known as the “house of 200 demons” in 2011. (The Haunting on Carolina Street) *** In the eerie depths of 1920s Los Angeles, a sinister tale unfolded, shrouded in secrets and steeped in darkness. It all began with May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth, who claimed to receive divine revelations from the angels Gabriel and Michael. Thus emerged the enigmatic Blackburn Cult, a group entangled in a web of prophecies, tributes, and whispered mysteries. (The Blackburn Cult) *** 19th-century freak shows brought both the extraordinary and the macabre to captivated audiences far and wide. Among the peculiar spectacles of these exhibitions stood a man whose skeletal frame defied all norms of human anatomy… as his skeleton and skin appeared to be the only parts of his anatomy intact. (Seurat, The Living Skeleton) *** In the heat of summer in 2008, a mysterious creature washed ashore on a beach in Montauk, Long Island, sending shockwaves through the community. What began as a simple sighting by local resident soon exploded into a media frenzy, with wild theories and speculation running rampant. (Hot Montauk Summer) *** While epic Hollywood films often depict gladiators as men, the truth is far more captivating. We’ll step into the arena with the women who dared to defy convention and enter the gladiatorial games. (Gladiators Of The Fairer Sex)

SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Pazuzu, The Demon ‘The Exorcist” Made Famous” by Austin Harvey for All That’s Interesting:https://tinyurl.com/3myts9h4
“The Blackburn Cult” by Troy Taylor from the book “Taking Up Serpents: American Cults, Messiahs and Madmen”: https://amzn.to/4ak7SUG
“The Haunting on Carolina Street” sources: https://tinyurl.com/2cvyfu46, https://tinyurl.com/bdzz467u,https://tinyurl.com/39u7b79f, https://tinyurl.com/35uvhbp6
“Seurat, The Living Skeleton” by Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet: https://tinyurl.com/mr4xwp9k
“Gladiators Of The Fairer Sex” by Paul Chrystal for Ancient Origins: https://tinyurl.com/ptzpv46v
“Hot Montauk Summer” by TheGhostInMyMachine.com: https://tinyurl.com/2b74wzpx
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library.

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“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” — John 12:46
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Originally aired: March 26, 2024

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

INTRODUCTION=====

Ancient Mesopotamia, where gods and demons held sway over the fates of mortals. Among these dark figures, one name stands out: Pazuzu. Known to many as the sinister force that possessed a young girl in the iconic film and novel, “The Exorcist,” Pazuzu’s origins trace much further back than that. His tale is more than mere legend; it is etched in time through ancient artifacts and inscriptions. From amulets to statuettes, his likeness adorned the possessions of those who sought his protection, a testament to his enduring presence in the hearts of ancient believers. Yet, as the centuries passed, Pazuzu’s influence waned, and today, he is considered but a relic of a bygone era, remembered primarily through the lens of popular culture. But don’t think he doesn’t have power… don’t you begin to think that.

I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.

SHOW OPEN=====

Welcome, Weirdos – this is Weird Darkness. Here you’ll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.

Coming up in this episode…

Latoya Ammons and her family claim to have experienced demonic possession that began when they moved into what became known as the “house of 200 demons” in 2011. (The Haunting on Carolina Street)

In the eerie depths of 1920s Los Angeles, a sinister tale unfolded, shrouded in secrets and steeped in darkness. It all began with May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth, who claimed to receive divine revelations from the angels Gabriel and Michael. Thus emerged the enigmatic Blackburn Cult, a group entangled in a web of prophecies, tributes, and whispered mysteries. (The Blackburn Cult)

19th-century freak shows brought both the extraordinary and the macabre to captivated audiences far and wide. Among the peculiar spectacles of these exhibitions stood a man whose skeletal frame defied all norms of human anatomy… as his skeleton and skin appeared to be the only parts of his anatomy intact. (Seurat, The Living Skeleton)

In the heat of summer 2008, a mysterious creature washed ashore on a beach in Montauk, Long Island, sending shockwaves through the community. What began as a simple sighting by a local resident soon exploded into a media frenzy, with wild theories and speculation running rampant. (Hot Montauk Summer)

While epic Hollywood films often depict gladiators as men, the truth is far more captivating. We’ll step into the arena with the women who dared to defy convention and enter the gladiatorial games. (Gladiators Of The Fairer Sex)

The Exorcist is widely regarded as one of the most influential horror movies of all time. Even now, more than half a century after its release, it continues to terrify audiences, in large part due to its horrifying practical effects and iconic antagonist: Pazuzu. (Pazuzu, The Demon ‘The Exorcist’ Made Famous)

If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter, enter contests, connect with me on social media, listen to my other podcasts, listen to FREE audiobooks I’ve narrated, plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you’re struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!

STORY: PAZUZU, THE DEMON ‘THE EXORCIST’ MADE FAMOUS=====

In the film, ‘The Exorcist,’ Pazuzu is a demon who possesses the body of a young girl named Regan, transforming her from an innocent little girl into a foul-mouthed, blistered nightmare who expels green slime from her throat and twists her head a full 180 degrees. Although Pazuzu itself is only seen briefly, the few fleeting moments of its on-screen appearance leave a lingering impression.

But Pazuzu was not created for The Exorcist. In fact, Pazuzu has appeared in lore since the first millennium B.C., dating back to ancient Mesopotamian religion — and he was no less terrifying then than he is now.

In ancient Assyrian and Babylonian religion, Pazuzu was the king of wind demons, a dichotomous evil entity who simultaneously brought famine and destruction and warded off other demons. Per the Encyclopedia Britannica, the earliest archaeological evidence of Pazuzu, discovered in the grave of a royal woman near present-day Iraq, dates back to the eighth century B.C.

Images of Pazuzu are similar to those of other Mesopotamian demons, but with some distinct characteristics. Pazuzu’s head takes on a more rectangular shape and features horns, heavy eyebrows, a two-pronged beard, and an open canine-like mouth displaying his teeth and tongue.

Notably, this was the first known Mesopotamian iconography to merge multiple animal components; prior to Pazuzu, iconography typically only featured a single animal body part on a human body.

The ancient Assyrians and Babylonians regarded Pazuzu as an evil demon of the underworld who could control the wind, bringing famine during the dry seasons and storms and locusts during the rainy season. Ancient humans tried to offset Pazuzu’s destructive nature by offering prayers to him, hoping that he would contain the winds and use them for more benevolent purposes.

Although Pazuzu was considered to be evil, he was not evil incarnate. Pazuzu was regularly seen as a protective force as much as a destructive one, and he was invoked for protection from other demons — in particular, protecting pregnant women and children from the demoness Lamashtu, who was said to viciously murder young and unborn children.

As noted in World History Encyclopedia, the word “demon” in ancient times had a slightly different meaning from the current understanding. Following the spread of Christianity, demons are considered to be the spawn of Satan, creatures from Hell who enact their evil will over the humans of Earth as well as in Hell.

To the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, however, demons were simply spirits. The word itself derives from the Greek word for spirit, “daimon,” and refers to lesser immortal beings that act as supernatural intermediaries between gods and humans. Demons might be sent to punish mortals, or else to encourage them to fulfill their duties.

As such, not all demons were necessarily evil, and even those who were, like Pazuzu, often had several layers of complexity to their personalities.

Perhaps the most baffling thing about Pazuzu is just how difficult it is for archaeologists to determine his origin. Unlike with many other supernatural beings throughout history, there is no real trace of how the common iconography of Pazuzu evolved.

Based on the archaeological record, depictions of Pazuzu seemingly sprung up, fully realized, out of nowhere. Pazuzu’s appearance did not change over time; it was as if the world simply came to an understanding about who he was and what he looked like.

This makes it difficult for historians and scholars to pinpoint a precise location or moment in time in which these depictions took shape, though it’s likely that Pazuzu iconography originated in Egypt or Mesopotamia.

And while full-body statuettes of the demon certainly exist, it is far more common to see his likeness portrayed only as a head, usually as an amulet or an adornment on other pieces of jewelry.

In one instance, a Pazuzu statuette was found in an abandoned house, hung directly across from the entrance, leading historians to believe it had been put in place as a protection from other demons.

Amulets and other iconography of Pazuzu have been found in locations ranging from the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran to the Greek island of Sámos, while written sources describing Pazuzu began to appear around 670 B.C.

Often, these amulets and pieces of jewelry depicting Pazuzu are inscribed on the back with the images of other Mesopotamian deities, usually those considered to be allies of humans. Scholars believe this may have been done to protect the wearer and redirect Pazuzu’s power away from humans.

Pazuzu is known to us today largely due to The Exorcist, but the widespread prevalence of his iconography throughout the ancient world shows that even in his time, he was a well known and fairly popular demon. Pazuzu is also the only prominent Mesopotamian demon or deity to make its way into Hollywood films — and there may be several reasons for this.

Notably, while numerous statuettes of Pazuzu have been discovered throughout the years, no one has ever found a full-sized statue of the demon. It was believed by the Assyrians and Babylonians that depicting the likeness of a being from the underworld attracted that being’s attention.

Because of this, few likenesses of other demons, such as Ereshkigal the Queen of the Dead, were ever even made. Moreover, the size of the image also determined the amount of power it contained.

The Mesopotamians believed that the small statuettes and charms depicting Pazuzu drew small amounts of his power to protect them, as they were honoring him by wearing the protective charm, and that when invoked, he would direct that power at those who had not invoked him.

Pazuzu’s status as a protector likely contributed to the widespread circulation of his iconography and, subsequently, his modern day prominence. But that still doesn’t fully explain why other Mesopotamian demons didn’t weather the course of time to the same degree.

The simplest answer is also the most obvious: Christianity.

As Christianity swept across the world, the devout no longer had a need for protective demons, and Christians naturally wanted belief in the old ways to disappear in favor of their new monotheistic religion. Demons of the old faith were relegated to Hell — after all, anything from the underworld had no place in the holy world of Heaven.

In fact, the New Testament frequently saw Jesus Christ driving demons back to Hell, and that has been echoed throughout time in various forms of media — including, of course, The Exorcist, in which a priest invokes the Bible to drive the demon Pazuzu back to Hell.

BREAK=====

Coming up… Latoya Ammons and her family claim to have experienced demonic possession that began when they moved into what became known as the “house of 200 demons” in 2011. (The Haunting on Carolina Street)

But first… in the eerie depths of 1920s Los Angeles, a sinister tale unfolded, shrouded in secrets and steeped in darkness. It all began with May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth, who claimed to receive divine revelations from the angels Gabriel and Michael. Thus emerged the enigmatic Blackburn Cult, a group entangled in a web of prophecies, tributes, and whispered mysteries. (The Blackburn Cult) That story is up next!

STORY: THE BLACKBURN CULT=====

On October 7, 1929, the body of a 16-year-old girl named Willa Rhoads was found buried beneath her adopted parents’ home in Los Angeles. She had not been murdered – Willa had died from an infection caused by an abscessed tooth – but the circumstances of her illegal burial were what caught the attention of the authorities. It also didn’t help that her parents were connected to one of the most notorious Southern California cults of the 1920s.

The story of the cult began in 1922 in L.A.’s Bunker Hill area, when May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth, began to receive revelations they claimed came directly from the angels Gabriel and Michael. Their claims went on to say that they were the first “two witnesses” described by John of Patmos in a vision that became the Book of Revelation. She added that Michael and Gabriel were dictating a book to them that would reveal all the secrets of the universe. When the book was completed, the Seventh Seal would open and an “apocalyptic event” would occur on earth. The book would be called “The Seventh Trumpet of Gabriel,” although May later changed it to the slightly different “The Great Sixth Seal.”

Around these announcements, May and Ruth founded a religious group that they called the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, or what the newspapers later called “The Blackburn Cult.” The “Great Eleven” referred to a proclamation by May that, after the apocalypse, the world that remained would be ruled by eleven queens from mansions located on Olive Hill in Hollywood.

Believe it or not, this nuttiness attracted a lot of people. May and Ruth gathered many followers and demanded tributes of money and property from them so that they could finance and continue their great work.

While the book that was supposed to have been “The Sixth Great Seal” was never published, May did, eventually, publish a book called “The Origin of God” in 1936. It contained some of the elements of her early revelations. However, by the time the book came out, the Blackburn Cult had spun out of control, plagued by rumors of strange happenings and mysterious deaths.

Weird claims and accusations involved sex scandals, animal sacrifices, “whirling dervish” ceremonies, and the story that a member of the cult named Frances Turner, who was paralyzed, was placed in a sort of homemade oven for two days, resulting in her death. And then there were the disappearances. Several cult members were said to have mysteriously vanished, including Samuel Rizzio, who was married to Ruth Blackburn. He went missing right after allegedly striking his wife and was never heard from again. Some claimed that May had poisoned him, but whatever happened, his body was never found.

But perhaps the strangest story associated with the Blackburn Cult was the attempted resurrection of Willa Rhoads.

Willa died in 1926 from an infection but May and Ruth promised her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Rhoads that she could bring their daughter back to life. Willa’s body was mummified with ice, salt, and spices and buried under the floorboards of their home with the bodies of seven dogs, sacrificed to “represent the seven tones of the angel Gabriel’s trumpet” and ensure the resurrection.

Not surprisingly, it didn’t happen. It took three years, but Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads eventually lost faith in the Blackburns and had Willa’s body removed. The police were called when the exhumation occurred, and Willa’s body was taken to the medical examiner for an autopsy. It was discovered that her death had been a natural one and no charges were pursued against the Rhoads family or the Blackburns.

What ultimately landed May Otis Blackburn behind bars, albeit briefly, had nothing to do with dead bodies or resurrections. In 1929, Clifford Dabney, a former member of the cult, charged May with defrauding him of $50,000 that he had given her to help her write her book.

The district attorney started an investigation, uncovering additional fraud claims from Blackburn’s other followers and discovered that she had bilked them of more than $200,000. Ultimately, May was convicted of eight counts of grand theft. She appealed the ruling, which found its way before the California Supreme Court in 1931. The higher court overturned the original verdict on the grounds that the evidence relating to the cult’s bizarre activities had no bearing on the charges of grand theft, and that it was impossible to prove whether May had, in fact, taken the money in bad faith.

May was released after appealing her case in 1931, but the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven was effectively finished. She did go on to publish “The Origin of God” in 1936, but by then, her followers had abandoned her. She died in Los Angeles in 1951, a footnote in the bizarre history of Southern California.

STORY: THE HAUNTING ON CAROLINA STREET=====

In November 2011, Latoya Ammons, along with her mother Rosa Campbell and three young children, embarked on what they hoped would be a fresh start in a quaint one-story home on Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana. Little did they know, their new abode would become the center of chilling events that would shake their beliefs and test their sanity.

The first ominous sign came in the form of a swarm of black flies that descended upon their screened-in porch in the dead of winter. Despite their efforts to rid themselves of the pests, the flies kept returning, a harbinger of the strange events to come.

The true terror began one night in March 2012. At around 2 A.M., Ammons and her family were jolted awake by the piercing screams of her 12-year-old daughter. Rushing to her room, they were confronted with a sight straight out of a nightmare: the young girl was levitating above her bed, unconscious and seemingly under the influence of some malevolent force.

This incident marked the beginning of a series of inexplicable and horrifying occurrences that would plague the family. They reported hearing phantom footsteps, discovering mysterious wet bootprints, and witnessing shadowy figures prowling throughout their home.

Desperate for answers, Ammons and Campbell sought the assistance of clergy members and performed rituals to cleanse their home of the evil spirits. However, the sinister presence only seemed to grow stronger, targeting the children with increasingly disturbing manifestations.

Their plight caught the attention of local authorities and medical professionals, who were initially skeptical of their claims. Yet, their doubts were dismissed when they witnessed firsthand the inexplicable phenomena occurring within the walls of the Carolina Street home.

Reports surfaced of the children speaking in unearthly voices, exhibiting superhuman strength, and defying the laws of physics. These chilling accounts sent shockwaves throughout the community, prompting an investigation by the Department of Child Services and eventually garnering national media attention.

As the scrutiny intensified, so too did the intensity of the haunting. The family found themselves caught in a nightmarish cycle of fear and uncertainty, unsure if they would ever find respite from the relentless onslaught of supernatural activity.

In a desperate bid to reclaim their lives, Ammons and her children underwent multiple exorcisms, performed by Reverend Michael Maginot in a final attempt to banish the evil that had taken hold of their home. And, miraculously, it worked. The dark cloud that had loomed over Carolina Street lifted, allowing the family to finally break free from its sinister grip.

In 2014, Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans paid $35,000 for the home in Gary, Indiana, then had it demolished two years later. But the chilling, bizarre mystery surrounding the structure continues to live on despite its destruction.

“Something was inside that house that had the ability to do things that I have never seen before — things that others carrying the highest form of credibility couldn’t explain either,” Bagans told the Indy Star in 2016. “There was something there that was very dark, yet highly intelligent and powerful.”

Today, the house on Carolina Street stands no more. But its story continues to send chills down the spines of those who hear and believe it. And for Latoya Ammons and her family, the harrowing ordeal served as a stark reminder that some mysteries are best left behind you.

As they reflect on their ordeal, they offer a word of caution to those who would dismiss their story as mere fantasy: “When you hear something like this, don’t assume it’s not real because I’ve lived it. I know it’s real.”

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns… 19th-century freak shows brought both the extraordinary and the macabre to captivated audiences far and wide. Among the peculiar spectacles of these exhibitions stood a man whose skeletal frame defied all norms of human anatomy… as his skeleton and skin appeared to be the only parts of his anatomy intact. (Seurat, The Living Skeleton)

Plus… While epic Hollywood films often depict gladiators as men, the truth is far more captivating. We’ll step into the arena with the women who dared to defy convention and enter the gladiatorial games. (Gladiators Of The Fairer Sex) These stories and more on the way.

STORY: SEURAT, THE LIVING SKELETON=====

Freak shows were a very popular medium of entertainment in Europe and the United States of America for the major part of the 19th century. These formally organized exhibitions presented people with various physical deformities and anomalies, such as conjoined twins, people with extra limbs or no limbs, midgets, giants, as well as fabricated human exhibits such as cannibals and savages. “Living skeletons” were part of the freak show’s repertoire as well. These were often men with unusually thin bodies.

One of the most famous ‘living skeletons’, or ‘human skeletons’ as they were sometimes referred to, was Claude Ambroise Seurat.

Claude Seurat was born in Troyes, in the department of Champaign, France, on the 10 April, 1797. At birth, Seurat seemed healthy and normal, but as the child grew, he began to display symptoms of bodily wasting. At the age of ten, Seurat was “as healthy as other children, except that his chest was depressed, and he was much weaker”. By the age of fourteen, his frame “dwindled away to the skeleton form”, which it ever afterwards retained. At the age of 28, he was reported to be 5 feet 7 inches tall, and weighed only 78 pounds (about 35 kg).

Seurat’s case excited great interest in France, and a number of medical men offered Seurat’s father considerable sums of money to acquire the body of Seurat after his death. But Seurat’s father refused, stating that in the event of his son’s death, he should be peacefully consigned to the cemetery of his native city.

In 1825, Seurat travelled to London to be exhibited at the Chinese gallery in Pall Mall. One of the visitors, William Hone, who went to attend the exhibition wrote:

“I was instantly riveted by his amazing emaciation; he seemed another ‘Lazarus, come forth’ without his grave-clothes, and for a moment I was too consternated to observe more than his general appearance. My eye then first caught the arm as the most remarkable limb; from the shoulder to the elbow it is like an ivory German flute somewhat deepened in colour by age; it, is not larger, and the skin is of that hue, and, not having a trace of muscle, it is as perfect a cylinder as a writing rule. Amazed by the wasted limbs, I was still more amazed by the extraordinary depression of the chest. Its indentation is similar to that which an over-careful mother makes in the pillowed surface of an infant’s bed for its repose. Nature has here inverted her own order, and turned the convex inwards, while the nobler organs, obedient to her will, maintain life by the gentle exercise of their wonted functions in a lower region. Below the ribs, the trunk so immediately curves in, that the red band of the silk covering, though it is only loosely placed, seems a tourniquet to constrict the bowels within their prison-house, and the hip-bones, being of their natural size, the waist is like a wasp’s. By this part of the frame we are reminded of some descriptions of the abstemious and Bedouin Arab of the desert, in whom it is said the abdomen seems to cling to the vertebrae. If the integument of the bowels can be called flesh, it is the only flesh on the body: for it seems to have wholly shrunk from the limbs; and where the muscles that have not wholly disappeared remain, they are also shrunk. He wears shoes to keep cold from his feet, which are not otherwise shaped than those of people who have been accustomed to wear tight shoes; his instep is good, and by no means so flat as in the generality of tavern waiters. His legs are not more ill-shaped than in extremely thin or much wasted persons; the right leg, which is somewhat larger than the left, is not less than were the legs of the late Mr. Suett, the comedian.”

Contemporary physicians regarded Seurat as a case of “marcores, an early obliteration of the lacteal vessels and mesenteric glands.” Richard Park, a senior registrar in gastroenterology and general medicine in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, suggests that there is little evidence for malabsorption, and the emaciation was likely caused by inadequate oral intake of food (Seurat’s daily intake of food amounted to a penny roll and small quantities of wine) due to dysphagia, which is evident from a description of Seurat by William Hone:

“In eating, he masticates his victuals very much, taking small pieces, as the passage to the stomach would not admit of any great repletion, and in drinking the same precaution is required, otherwise suffocation would ensue… a slight impediment to his swallowing with despatch, of such morsels as are not cut very small.”

Seurat also suffered from a number of congenital deformities such as Sprengel’s deformity, which was first identified in 1891, sixty six years after Seurat’s exhibition in London. Park believes that Seurat may have been the earliest recorded case of Sprengel’s deformity. Seurat may also have had Klippel-Feil syndrome, a triad of short neck, low posterior hair line, and reduced neck movements.

A year after his exhibition in Britain, Seurat went back to France where he became part of a travelling circus that arrived in Bordeaux in 1826. His last recorded performance was in 1833 at Dinan in Brittany, after which Seurat disappeared from the public eye. Nobody knew where he went, but it was rumored that he went back to London, where he died, after which Sir Astley Cooper performed the necropsy. Seurat’s skeleton was allegedly placed in the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, although there are no records of Sir Astley Cooper’s findings nor of Seurat’s skeleton in the college museum.

Writing in 1868, historian Gilbert Richard Redgrave commented: “I have not yet been able to ascertain the date of his death. Who knows whether the poor fellow may not still be going the round of the French fairs?”

STORY: GLADIATORS OF THE FAIRER SEX=====

It may all have started when female sword fighters performed at funerals in the very early days of Rome. There may also be some connection between women participating in chariot racing and women gladiators. The Greek Heraean Games were pivotal: they were a four-yearly female sports event dedicated to Hera and founded by the legendary Queen Hippodameia; they would later become a template for the Olympics and continued for centuries until suppressed by the Christians. Apart from the usual foot races, javelin throwing and so on, the games included female chariot races. According to Pausanias’ Description of Greece Hippodameia assembled a group known as the ‘Sixteen Women’ to organize the Heraean Games, during which the women competitors, incidentally, wore men’s clothes. A first-century AD inscription from Delphi records that two young women competed in races, possibly those at the Sebasta festival in Naples in the Roman Empire and during Emperor Domitian’s reign there were races for women at the Capitoline Games in Rome in 86 AD.

There is a tendency to think of gladiators only as men, thanks largely to some epic Hollywood films. However, women were not uncommon competitors in the amphitheaters around the Roman world, playing out the phony fights and grappling in close combat, much to the delight and carnal titillation of the audiences: the nearest the modern world has come to it, is probably female wrestling. The women were usually warm-up acts providing light relief in between the top-of-the-bill, crowd-pleasing gruesome and gory acts.

Women gladiators might have shared their particular stage, for example, with an elephant walking on a tightrope – as at games arranged by Nero in honor of his mother, Agripinna the Younger, whom he had recently murdered. Roman historian Tacitus expresses outrage by female participation: ‘Many ladies of distinction, however, and senators, disgraced themselves by appearing in the amphitheater’. The fact that these were rich women and had no need of manumission or celebrity suggests that they did it for the adrenalin. The historian Dio tells of another spectacle in which Nero, entertaining King Tiridates I of Armenia, put on a gladiatorial show featuring Ethiopian men, women and children. Petronius describes a woman who fights from a chariot booked for a gladiatorial show at a festival.

Women gladiators were just one of many variations on a theme put into the arena to keep the baying crowds entertained. In the hundred-day games staged by Emperor Titus, women competed in a battle between cranes and one between four elephants – just a handful of the 9,000 beasts slaughtered in one single day, ‘and women took part in dispatching them.’ They must surely have participated in Trajan’s games in 108 AD which lasted 123 days and in which ‘eleven thousand or so animals both wild and tame were killed and ten thousand gladiators fought’. Martial, in his De Spectaculis, describes women battling in the arena, one dressed as Venus. Another, as a venatrix, animal hunter, subdues a lion: ‘Caesar, we now have seen such things done by women’s courage’, he marvels. Statius describes in his Silvae ‘the sex untrained in weapons recklessly dares men’s fights! You would think a band of Amazons was battling by the River Tanais’.

The Romans would appear to have held their show dogs in higher regard than women fighters. While some men were incredulous at the thought and sight of women fighting in the arena, Roman audiences seem to have had no qualms about domestic dogs. In one of his epigrams, Martial tells the sad story of the hunting dog, venatrix, Lydia, who was raised amid the amphitheatrales, trainers at the amphitheaters; she loved her job and was loyal to Dexter, her trainer. Age did not wither her; rather she was killed by a lightning-quick goring from a huge, slavering wild boar. Lydia had no complaints; she could not have asked for a nobler death.

Emperor Domitian put on ‘hunts of wild beasts, gladiatorial shows at night by the light of torches, and not only combats between men but between women as well’, and, Dio adds, ‘sometimes he would pit dwarfs and women against each other’. Statius sums it all up with: ‘Women untrained to the rudis take their stand, daring, how recklessly, virile battles!’ The rudis was the wooden sword given to a gladiator when he was freed after a series of conspicuous victories. Martial praises Titus for showing women fighting like Hercules. Juvenal sardonically describes ‘Mevia’, hunting wild boars in the arena ‘holding her spear, breasts exposed’. Elsewhere he was more scathing: “How shameful is a woman wearing a helmet, who shuns femininity and loves brute force. . .. If a sale is held of your wife’s effects, how proud you will be of her belt and arm-pads and plumes, and her half-length left-leg shin-guard! Or, if instead she prefers a different form of combat, how pleased you will be when the girl you love sells off her greaves! . . . Hear her grunt while she practices thrusts from the trainer, wilting under the weight of the helmet.”

Nicolaus of Damascus mentions women gladiators. Nero dealt with annoying senators by threatening to have their wives thrown into the arena to do combat. Marriage guidance at its best? In addition to performing, women were also, if the men are to be believed, seduced by the sheer sexuality exuded by some male gladiators. Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, was smitten by a gladiator and finally confessed her passion to her husband. The upshot was that the gladiator was slain and Faustina was made to bathe in his blood, and then to copulate with her husband still covered in blood. Much earlier Juvenal highlights this libido for gladiators in his tirade against women which in turn chimes with Ovid’s assertion that some elite women were partial to ‘a bit of rough’, and with Petronius who in his Satyricon has Chrysis describe how some well-to-do women burn with desire for men of the lower orders: “There are some women, you see, whose lust is triggered only at the sight of slaves or messenger boys with their tunics belted right up high. Gladiators in the arena, a mule driver covered with dust, an actor in the shameful exposure of this performance – that is what it takes to get some females heated up.”

These women even go so far as to lick the wounds of the flogged. Some women bribed guards to allow them access to the gladiator billets. Excavations in the armory of the Pompeii gladiatorial barracks unearthed 18 skeletons in two rooms, presumably of gladiators; but they were not alone. There were also the bones of a woman wearing gold and expensive jewelry, and an emerald-studded necklace; she clearly was not there just to serve the rations.

The gladiator, usually a slave and inhabiting the lowest level of Roman society, was seen as something of a fascinating paradox with magical qualities. His blood was used as a remedy for impotence, an aphrodisiac and any sensible bride would have her hair parted by a spear to ensure a fertile married life – ideally one that had been dipped in the blood of a defeated and dead gladiator. Medical authorities had it that drinking a gladiator’s blood or eating his liver cured epileptics. Only gladiators, it seems, were given vasectomies.

Despite their lowly station, some became celebrities and were depicted in mosaics and sculptures, on lamps and tombstones: graffiti was scrawled by them and about them: ‘Crescens the Netter of young girls by night’. Gladiators were all the rage. But, even in victory, a gladiator remained what he was; infamis and a slave, unable to escape his ranking alongside criminals, whores, actors, dancers and similar so-called dregs. The paradox and irony were not lost on Tertullian in De Spectaculus: “Men surrender them their souls, and women their bodies, too.” Archaeological evidence for the sexualization of gladiators has been found in the shape of a multitude of objects depicting phalluses: a phallus-shaped terracotta gladiatorial helmet; a stone relief from Beneventum, showing a heavily armed gladiator in combat with a huge phallus. The very word gladius /sword, carries unmistakable sexual connotations and is sometimes slang for phallus. The famous bronze figurine from Pompeii shows a menacing gladiator using his sword to fend off a dog-like beast which is growing out of his huge erect phallus. Juvenal relates, with contempt, the sorry tale of: “Eppia, the senator’s wife, [who] ran off with a gladiator . . . And what were the youthful charms which captivated Eppia? What did she see in him to allow herself to be called ‘a she-Gladiator’? Her dear Sergius had already begun to shave; a wounded arm gave promise of military discharge, and there were sundry deformities in his face: a scar caused by the helmet, a huge wen upon his nose, a nasty humour always trickling from his eye. But then he was a gladiator! It is this that transforms these fellows into Hyacinths! It was this that she preferred to children and to country, to sister and to husband. What these women love is the sword”.

In 11 AD an attempt to ban senators and women performing in amphitheaters and on the stage was unsuccessful. The law decreed that ‘no female of free birth of less than 20 years of age and for no male of free birth of less than 25 years of age to pledge himself as a gladiator or hire out his services’. In 19 AD the Tabula Larinus prohibited the gladiatorial recruitment of daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of senators or of knights, under the age of 20.

Nearly 200 years later in 200 AD Septimius Severus barred any female from fighting in the arena, monomaxeiˆn, because, as Dio reports, ‘women took part, vying with one another most fiercely, with the result that jokes were made about other very distinguished women as well. Therefore it was henceforth forbidden for any freeborn woman, no matter what her origin, to fight in single combat’. This came about after Severus’ visit to the Antiochene Olympic Games where he would have seen traditional Greek female athletics. His attempt to impress the mob in Rome with a similar extravaganza was met with derision from the crowds in the Colosseum.

In September 2000, the Museum of London announced that they had discovered the grave of a female gladiator, from the first century AD, in Southwark – the first ever to be found, although it is hotly disputed that it is actually a woman gladiator. A shard of pottery has been discovered with the inscription ‘VERECVNDA LVDIA LVCIUS GLADIATOR’ / ‘Verecunda the woman gladiator, Lucius the gladiator’, but this may just be the paraphernalia typical of a woman who was married to or a mistress of a gladiator.

The British Museum has a first–second-century AD marble relief commemorating the release, missio, from service of two female gladiators, with ‘stage names’ Amazon and Achillia. It was found in Halicarnassus, (modern Bodrum in Turkey). They are armed with swords and shields, and are advancing towards each other to attack. The gladiatrix on the right has lost her head – damaged, not decapitated. They are standing on a platform, and below on each side a spectator can be seen. It is inscribed above and on the platform in Greek with the two names and the word apeluthesan, telling the fight was a draw. They have the same equipment as male gladiators, but without helmets and are heavily armed with greaves, loin cloths and belt; they carry a mid-sized rectangular shield and a dagger in their right hand which is protected by the manica (arm protection); the galege (armlets) of both women are at their backs on the floor; their hair is cropped in the style of a slave and their breasts are bare. Such a spectacle must have been prestigious for it to be commemorated in this way.

An epigraph from Ostia praises Hostilianus as the first to ‘arm women’, mulieres, in the history of the local games. A bronze statuette, now in the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, which has always been thought of as representing a female athlete holding a strigil, may actually depict a female gladiator, a thraex, a kind of gladiator who fought with a short, curved dagger, a weapon that can be confused with a strigil.

It seems likely that female gladiators came to the arena by a number of different routes. Some would have been slaves, coerced into the profession by their masters, the lanistae; others would have volunteered and received the requisite training in the gladiator schools, ludi; others still may have just been thrown in there as a punishment: damnati ad gladium, ‘damned to the sword’.

Women would not have faced men: rather, they would fight from chariots with the bows and arrows characteristic of the Amazons, mulierem essedariam, Diana and Atalanta; alternatively, as noted above, they may have been pitched against dwarfs, presumably the intention being to attempt to match, physically, like with like.

There is evidence that not all gladiatrices trained in the ludus like their male counterparts but in the Collegia Iuvenum – paramilitary associations set up to train free men, and women, in martial arts. Three Latin funerary inscriptions indicate female participation in these schools including one for Valeria Lacunda, who died aged 17.

And yes, I know I butchered just about every non-English word in this story, but you’re not paying for this and I don’t care. If you feel that strongly about it you can come and throw me to the lions.

BREAK=====

Up next on Weird Darkness… In the heat of summer 2008, a mysterious creature washed ashore on a beach in Montauk, Long Island, sending shockwaves through the community. What began as a simple sighting by a local resident soon exploded into a media frenzy, with wild theories and speculation running rampant. (Hot Montauk Summer)

STORY: HOT MONTAUK SUMMER=====

The following was written and posted by The Ghost In My Machine, which you can find at TheGhostInMyMachine.com…

There’s a truly astonishing array of “weird nature” pages on Wikipedia — the kinds of pages that prove that the truth is often stranger than fiction. One of my favorites, though? It’s the brief and puzzling entry on the so-called “Montauk Monster” — the mysterious creature carcass that washed up on a beach in Montauk, Long Island, New York during the summer of 2008.

It ultimately wasn’t that mysterious; there are numerous reasonable explanations for what exactly the thing may have been, and no evidence at all to suggest that it was anything other than what those reasonable explanations suggested. But for about month in 2008, folks couldn’t get enough of this strange story, and the many outlandish theories floating around about it.

The paper trail for the story begins on July 23, 2008, although the story itself — allegedly, at least — began some 11 days earlier, on July 12 (a Saturday, for the curious). That day, Montauk resident Jenna Hewitt, then 26 years old, and a handful of friends reportedly spotted the beached creature as they were searching for a place to sit down on Ditch Plains Beach. One of the group had brought a digital camera, Hewitt said, which she borrowed in order to snap a few pictures.

We wouldn’t learn about Hewitt and her friends until a bit later, though. On July 23, the story that ran in the print edition of the East Hampton Independent — the first outlet to publish anything about the creature — simply stated, in glorious, intentionally overwrought prose, that residents “feared the worst when a malformed carcass washed up on the beach at Ditch Plains in Montauk, fomenting all manner of speculation… and… and… terror. Not to mention revulsion.” A photograph accompanied the piece, printed in black and white and captioned with the following: “This was found on the beach in Montauk last week. Can you say ‘EWW?’”

The piece — which is very funny, by the way — floated a handful of speculations about what the creature could have been, from the fanciful (Satan!) to the substantially more likely (a racoon that had degraded due to, y’know, being in the water for so long, per Larry Penny, director of Natural Resources for the Town of East Hampton). But it wasn’t a long piece, nor a particularly in-depth one, and that probably would have been that… if it weren’t for Gawker.

I’m talking about Old Gawker here — the one that shuttered in 2016, not the later iteration. (Full disclosure: I used to work for BDG, which purchased Gawker at auction in 2018 and relaunched it in 2021; I was long gone by the time the relaunch happened, though, so I have no insight into the inner workings of Gawker 2.0… which has also been shuttered as of February 2023. So… there’s that.) At the time, the site was only around five years old, and new media was in its “post random stuff with maybe a paragraph of description and call it a day” phase. And that is exactly what Gawker did when the photograph of the strange creature ended up in their inbox: They ran a very short piece consisting only of the image and a short paragraph under the headline, “Dead Monster Washes Ashore In Montauk” on July 29. It was filed under the tag, “GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR HELL DEMONS.”

Gawker may still have been in its early years, but it had major reach even then, and as a result of the site’s quick take on the beached Montauk creature, the story spread far and wide. A wide array of both local and national outlets picked it up, as did blogger after blogger. In fact, following Gawker’s use of the word “monster” to describe the creature, one such blogger coined the name by which it’s now known: On July 29, cryptozoologist Loren Coleman concluded his short post at the Cryptomundo blog with the sentence, “For now, it remains the ‘Montauk Monster.’”

The name stuck.

It was around this time that Jenna Hewitt entered the picture: In a piece published on July 31 at Newsday, which primarily serves the Long Island counties Nassau and Suffolk (where Montauk itself is located), she recounted her tale of spotting and photographing the Montauk Monster. “We didn’t know what it was,” she told the outlet. “We joked that maybe it was something from Plum Island.” The picture, it seemed — the one that had taken the internet by storm — was hers. She confirmed this to be the case in an interview that aired on local Hamptons program The Juice on Aug. 1.

By “Plum Island,” by the way, she meant Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a federal research facility located on the titular island in Gardiners Bay not too far away from Montauk itself. It’s part of the Directorate for Science and Technology arm of the Department of Homeland Security, and run in partnership with the Department of Agriculture. The reason Hewitt joked about it is because of what it studies: Livestock — specifically foreign animal diseases in livestock. The implication in Hewitt’s comment was that the creature could have been a test subject from Plum Island… or perhaps an experiment. One that had gone… a little bit sideways.

Naturally, the idea gained quite amount of traction with conspiracy theorists, particularly since the “monster” hadn’t yet been satisfactorily identified.

In fact, a huge amount of information about both the story and the creature was then, and remains still, not quite confirmed, although we’ve got a few ideas — some better than others. One of the many Newsday pieces published about the Montauk Monster, for instance, suggested it could be anything from a waterlogged dog to a movie prop or something similar made of latex. A second Gawker post published the same day as the first proposed that it might be a marketing stunt for a Cartoon Network show called Cryptids Are Real, but this proposal was debunked the following day by New York Magazine. Perhaps most befuddlingly, claims began circulating that Montauk Monster had something to do with the film Splinterheads, which was shooting in Montauk at the time. Those claims were quickly debunked, as well, however.

But for all the talk of the Montauk during the summer of 2008, there… wasn’t really a satisfying conclusion to the whole thing. Or much of a conclusion at all, really. Several experts made appearances in the news coverage, including paleozoologist Darren Naish and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, all of whom arrived at more or less the same explanation: That the “monster” was really just a heavily waterlogged and decayed racoon.

Notably, this is the same extremely plausible theory that was floated in the very first article published about the creature — the one from the July 23 issue of the East Hampton Independent. Ultimately, we just sort of… came right back around to where we started.

Still, though: Hot Montauk Monster Summer remains a favorite on the books, and even though there’s no thrilling conclusion, the fact that it was such a low-stakes mystery was sort of what made it fun in the first place. On one level, I suspect we all knew that it was probably just a dead mammal that had spent a little too much time in the water, rather than a mutant or a science experiment gone wrong.

The Plum Island facility, by the way, isn’t long for this world; in fact, by 2008, when the Montauk Monster was taking the world by storm, plans had already been put into motion to retire it in favor of a newer facility. DHS had made the announcement almost three years earlier, in September of 2005; the new facility, the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, subsequently completed construction in Manhattan, Kansas in 2022.

The weirdest thing to me about the whole story, though, is this: The Montauk Monster was reportedly removed from Ditch Plains Beach by an unknown person not associated with any local agency or cleanup crew the same day it was found… and no one knows where it went.

Not really, at least. Per Jenna Hewitt, speaking with Newsday on July 31, 2008, “A guy took it and put it in the woods in his backyard; he has a big backyard. The thing is rotting there.” But she declined to identify who this “guy” with the “big backyard” was, and no one has reported anything else about it.

To be perfectly honest, you could use that point to make the argument that the whole thing may have been a hoax in the first place — either it was a fake latex creature, or the photo was a fabrication in and of itself.

Photography experts have said that the photo didn’t bear the hallmarks of a Photoshop project, and the racoon argument is pretty solid, too.

But still.

What if?

…What if?

SHOW CLOSE=====

Thanks for listening (and be sure to stick around for the bloopers at the end)! If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do! You can email me and follow me on social media through the Weird Darkness website. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find information on sponsors you heard during the show, listen to FREE audiobooks I’ve narrated, get the email newsletter, find my other podcasts…. Also on the site you can visit the store for Weird Darkness tee-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise… plus, it’s where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, addiction, or thoughts of harming yourself or others. And if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell of your own, you can click on TELL YOUR STORY. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

All stories on Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes.

“Pazuzu, The Demon ‘The Exorcist” Made Famous” by Austin Harvey for All That’s Interesting

“The Blackburn Cult” by Troy Taylor from the book “Taking Up Serpents: American Cults, Messiahs and Madmen”

“The Haunting on Carolina Street” was a conglomeration of several articles I found and I’ve linked to all of them in the show notes.

“Seurat, The Living Skeleton” by Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet

“Gladiators Of The Fairer Sex” by Paul Chrystal for Ancient Origins – and I’m sure he knows better how to pronounce those names than I do.

“Hot Montauk Summer” by TheGhostInMyMachine.com

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness.

Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… Proverbs 10:7, “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.”

And a final thought… “A man is not old until (his) regrets take the place of (his) dreams.” –John Barrymore

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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