tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post3686777503295892418..comments2024-03-22T21:58:18.933+00:00Comments on ShukerNature: THE SMILE ON THE FACE OF THE CHESHIRE CATAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15628598508836601012noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-63338854351186034352021-12-03T19:17:12.220+00:002021-12-03T19:17:12.220+00:00How fascinating to read of all the grinning cats i...How fascinating to read of all the grinning cats in Cheshire, especially the disappearing one in the church! I may have to visit the church just to see it, although I would not feel comfortable kneeling at the altar.<br /><br />I wonder if the grinning cats go back to John Catheral or as far back as the Katti, or even if Catheral's surname may have come via some route from the Katti, perhaps via a placename. I can only speculate, but I do think racial memories can sometimes be very long. In Roman times, South-East England was home to a cult of the Egyptian Hercules. (A cult was no bad thing in those days.) In the 17th century, in roughly the same area but about a thousand years after this cult must have been suppressed, the Long Man of Wilmington appeared. The Long Man's two staffs were originally farm implements of the correct type to represent the Egyptian god Osiris in his role as inventor of agriculture -- identifiable as the same god as the Egyptian Hercules. As to why the Long Man appeared in the 17th century, a potential motivation for such a non-traditional monument may be found in England's civil war, in which Oliver Cromwell was known as England's Hercules.Ethan Gardenerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477704222423568933noreply@blogger.com