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Throughout history, humans worshiped hundreds of deities. The cult of Glycon, a human-headed snake, arose in second-century Asia Minor. Founded by Alexander of Abonoteichus around 160 CE, the religion worshiped Glycon for a century or more after Alexander’s death. It was all a fraud. Glycon’s human head was a sock puppet.
All we know of Alexander comes from Lucian of Samosata, a Syrian writer. At the request of a friend, Lucian told Alexander’s story in a letter around 180 CE, about ten years after Alexander’s death. The letter makes plain Lucian’s contempt for Alexander, calling him “a man who does not deserve to have polite people read about him, but rather to have the motley crowd in a vast amphitheater see him being torn to pieces by foxes or apes.” Physical evidence, though, confirms the existence of Glycon’s cult.
Alexander was born around 105 CE in Abonoteichus (now ?nebolu, Turkey), a Black Sea port. Lucian claims Alexander was a child prostitute. He was part of a traveling medicine show as a young man, “practicing quackery and sorcery, and ‘trimming the fatheads,'” according to Lucian. He and another man went to a part of Macedonia with many large, “tame and gentle” snakes. They bought one of the best as part of a scheme to create a prophetic shrine and oracle.
They traveled to Chalcedon, now part of Istanbul, and buried bronze tables in a temple to Apollo. The tablets said Apollo and his son Asclepius, the god of medicine, would soon dwell in Abonoteichus. The tale quickly spread, and Abonoteichus began building a temple to host those gods.
Following his return home, Alexander one night buried a goose egg in the mud around the new temple’s foundations. The next morning he ran into the marketplace clad only in a loincloth, jumped atop an altar, and loudly proclaimed the physical presence of Asclepius was about to appear. Alexander then ran to where he’d buried the egg, followed by a crowd. Praying to Asclepius and Apollo, he pulled out the egg and broke it open. When a tiny snake fell into his hand, the crowd shouted, welcomed the god, and began praying to him. Alexander took the snake home and secluded himself.
Growing crowds, “all of them already bereft of their brains and sense,” Lucian wrote, surrounded the house. After a few days, Alexander let people in. He sat with the large Macedonian snake coiled around this neck, the tail extending over his lap onto the floor. The head, though, was under his arm. Alexander held a snakehead with a human appearance in the dimly lit space where the head should be. The head was linen. painted to look “very lifelike.” Alexander used horsehair to open and close the mouth and dart a forked black tongue in and out. Alexander proclaimed, “Glycon am I, the grandson of Zeus, bright beacon to mortals!”
With the snake emerging from the egg only days before, its growth appeared immense. Moreover, it had a human head and seemed entirely under Alexander’s control. People could touch the snake, but not the head, to verify it was real. The tale soon brought people from broad areas of Turkey and Greece.
Word of the cult spread as the temple neared completion. Alexander announced Glycon would begin making prophecies. He told people to write in a scroll what they wanted to know and seal the scroll. Alexander took the scrolls into the now completed temple. Lucian described various methods Alexander used to open the seals covertly. Alexander answered the questions, resealed the scrolls, and returned them. The recipients, of course, were amazed. Oracles like Glycon didn’t work for free. Lucian reports that each question cost 1 1/3 drachma, and Alexander brought in 70,000–80,000 drachma a year. Historians estimate that the traditional value of a drachma was one day’s pay for a skilled worker.
 Statuette of Glycon in Museum of Anatolian Civilizations Alexander also knew how to keep people interested. He later announced Glycon would make his prognostications aloud. Lucian reports he passed a tube made of crane windpipes through the head. Someone outside the room answered the questions by speaking spoke into the tube, giving the puppet a voice. Oral predictions didn’t come “promiscuously,” Lucian wrote, “but only to those who were noble, rich, and free-handed.”
There also were so-called “nocturnal” responses. Alexander said he slept on the scrolls, and Glycon provided replies in his dreams.
The prophecies varied. Many spoke of success and good fortune, while others dealt with treating illnesses. Some, according to Lucian, were “obscure and ambiguous, sometimes downright unintelligible.” He also claims Alexander was not above issuing later predictions negating or superseding ones that had proved wrong.
With the money Glycon was bringing in, Alexander hired agents to spread the word of the cult. The oracle’s fame attracted the support of the Roman proconsul of Asia, who later married Alexander’s daughter. The proconsul helped the cult spread to Rome, where it even attracted Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Some of Alexander’s agents tipped him off about the questions he would receive or the questioner’s wishes. Some of the questions, particularly from prominent people, revealed incriminating information, and Lucian says Alexander wasn’t above using it for blackmail.
Still, Glycon was successful enough that the cult continued to spread even after Alexander’s death around 170 CE. Its followers stretched from the Danube to the Euphrates and lasted for at least another century, although the snake god was now abstract, not palpable.
Lucian’s account makes a case for why it may not be wholly objective. He described the philosopher Epicurus as “truly saintly and divine in his nature, [and] who alone truly discerned right ideals.” In contrast, Lucian said “lying, trickery, perjury, and malice” suffused Alexander’s character. Epicureans steadfastly denounced Alexander’s trickery, and he vehemently denounced them. Still, Lucian’s account seems to go beyond mere philosophical combat.
He reports that Alexander considered him a “bitter enemy.” Moreover, when the two met in person, Lucian took Alexander’s hand as if to kiss it. Instead, Lucian “almost crippled it with a right good bite.” Lucian also claims that when Alexander provided him a ship and crew to return home, the ship’s captain admitted Alexander instructed them to murder Lucian and throw his body into the sea.
Whatever antipathy existed between the two men, the factual basis of Alexander and Glycon is firmly established, according to author R. Bracht Branham. The Antonine Plague, believed to be either smallpox or measles, swept the Roman Empire beginning in 165 CE. Around that time, there was an inscription in Antioch reading, “Glycon protect us from the plague-cloud.”
Several coins show Glycon on one side and the likeness of various Roman emperors who ruled from 160 to the middle of the third century on the other. Many of the coins bear the legend “Glykon” and “Ionopolis” (which Abonoteichus was later named). In addition, statuettes of Glycon are in various museums, including in Ankara and Athens.
“There is no known instance in the pagan world in which a single ‘religious genius’ achieved success equal to that of Alexander,” wrote Branham in his book, Unruly Eloquence. Making it all the more outlandish is the cult was worshiping a sock puppet.
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
(First published at History of Yesterday)
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubez
- We Could Have Changed the World (“The pandemic laid bare the speed at which societal change can occur when the threat is big enough. Conversely, society’s reopening is revealing just how quickly we can slide back into complacency.”)
Blog Quote of the Week
- “The South Dakota GOP has wielded so much power for so long that we’re becoming an incubator of thought so appallingly un-American and un-Christian, but yet so impossible to discuss without dangerously being labeled an enemy or communist or even un-Christian yourself.”
Nonbookish Linkage
- Per the Blog Quote of the Week, this will exceed our whackjob capacity
- A Norwegian company is building a Global Music Vault to preserve the world’s most important music recordings
Bookish Linkage
Every ounce of my cynicism is supported by historical precedent.
Glenn Cook, Shadow Games
This week governmentattic.org (“Rummaging in the government’s attic”) released a response from the Federal Communications Commission to a Freedom of Information Act request for complaints filed about Saturday Night Live. With a cover letter dated “December 21, 2021,” the FCC provided more than 350 pages of documents, which also covered a request for complaints regarding Dave Chappelle’s November 7, 2020, appearance on the show.
Given the response covers 2017 to 2020, there were far fewer complaints than I expected. It also is electronic, so you can’t determine which complaints were submitted in writing and which online. A few, though, plainly are notes of telephone calls to the FCC. Regardless, they’re fun and interesting reading.
As you hopefully know, the FCC has jurisdiction over obscene, indecent, and profane broadcasts on radio and TV. It also has some regulatory authority on political programming. The complete FOIA response is here but I’ve picked out several I found entertaining. They’re grouped below by theme and I occasionally offer some thoughts. Although some are excerpts from sometimes long missives, nothing has been added, removed, or changed.
Some People Don’t Like the “F” Word or “GD”
Many of the complaints stem from language used on SNL, especially with versions of the “F” word. For example, Kristen Stewart said “fucking” on the February 13, 2017, broadcast (although someone from Tulsa thought she was Melissa McCarthy). That prompted a New York City viewer to say, “SNL said the f word. Please put them in jail.” Sorry, sir or ma’am, the FCC doesn’t have the power to jail anyone.
Similarly, on January 14, 2018, a Jackson, Mich., resident wrote: “repulsive F word plain, loud and clear by Sam Rockwell in science class skit. It’s on my DVR, I am offended to a high degree.” My suggestion: Delete it from your DVR so you aren’t exposed to that filth again.
Others really disapprove of using “God” to swear. For example, someone in Pine Level, N.C., had this to say about SNL‘s May 20, 2017, episode:
God’ s Holy Name was taken in vain and no effort was made to bleep it out, this is the second time that I am aware of Saturday Night Live doing this in violation of Federal Law. I have reported their actions before and hope you will enforce the strictest penalty under the law!
Two Florida residents were offended by later broadcasts. “On SNL they said God dxmn, which is highly offensive to Christians,” reported a Riverview, Fla., viewer in December 2017. And on October 1, 2018, someone from Jacksonville wrote, “While a longtime fan of SNL, I had to turn off the NBC show which aired last Sat. when Pete Davidson, used GD for humor. This should be punished.”
Trumann, Ark., was upset with the 2020 SNL Election Special on November 2, 2020. At 11:40 that night, someone wrote, “Saturday Night Live had a skit about the presidential debate where Jim Carey took God’s name in vain. This is RIDICULOUS. There should NEVER EVER be language such as this allowed on television.” That was followed 75 minutes later by this missive:
As an American tax payer and citizen, I am asking/calling upon the FCC and the Department of Justice to investigate “NBC”. Last night on 11/2/2020 an episode of “SNL” (Saturday night live) aired a skit in which the actor Jim Carey blurted out God’s name in vain. I am calling on the FCC/Members of Congress/The Department of Justice and any entity that has control over America’s Broadcasting Airwaves, to send a message that Americans are tired of the morally corrupt, indecent, foul and profane language being speed out over America’s airwaves.
Trumann is a town of only 7,000 or so and these are the only two complaints about this episode in the FOIA material. So that leads me to speculate that, if not the same person, someone else in the original complainer’s household submitted the second complaint.
Turning Racism Inside Out
There were also numerous complaints about racism. If anything, though, they seem to reflect a Trump-era pushback against the focus Black Lives Matter brought to the issue. For example. near the end of 2020, there were numerous complaints about Kanye West and David Chapelle using the word “nigger,” arguing the term is racist no matter who uses it. And at least once that thought had to percolate a bit. On March 2, 2017, a Middleburg, Fla., resident complained about a Dave Chappelle sketch on the November 12, 2016, episode:
In this segment the word Nigger and God Damn was said. I know that SNL is after hours, but I am offended that 1. God’s name was used in vain and 2. That a black person can go say Nigger and not be criticized, but if a white person says it they are held responsible or made to apologize
The floodgates of this “but if I’d said something similar” mindset opened wide open when Michael Che referred to Trump as a “cheap cracker” in a “Weekend Update” segment on October 21, 2017. Many complained that it was equivalent to a white person using a racist term to describe Obama. A Tulsa resident calmly wrote: “fucking racist show, dude called President Trump a cracker GET THE FUCKING RACE BAITING BULLSHIT OFF THE AIR,” Someone in West Jordan, Utah, put it more succinctly, “A black man called my president a ‘cracker.'” A Baytown, N.J, complaint best synopsized what the FCC heard: “Calling a white man a ‘Cracker’ is the same thing as calling a black man a ‘NIgger’ as far as I’m concerned. What are you going to do about it?”
Leave My President Alone
The “my president” part of the Utahan’s complaint hints at what motivated another class of objections — a perception that SNL picked on Trump. A Long Beach, Cal., resident wrote to the FCC in May 2017, saying, “I’m enraged that SNL can publicly, with their lewd and filthy humor, insult the PRESIDENT of the United States. Do your job, this crap needs to stop! Enforce the censorship laws on the books.”
Three months before, a viewer in Butler, Miss., titled their complaint “SNL is disgusting!”
For a public broadcasting company to slander the acting president is the same as slandering the people! It is actually high treason (18 US Code 2381) and I am horribly offend by their acts. They are in act of breaking several constitutional laws set forth in the beginning and the comments made by the actors and the show is completely appalling! They must be stopped now and blocked from public T.V. (which is paid and supported with public funds) and is abuse of such programs.
First, a question for Mr. Butler, Miss. Maybe I’m confused, but who was “acting president” in February 2017??? That aside, NBC’s use of public airwaves doesn’t make it a public broadcasting company. Likewise, that Comcast, which owns NBC, is a publicly traded corporation doesn’t make it a public company. While the Corporation for Public Broadcasting relies on public funds, it has nothing to do with NBC’s programming or SNL. Finally, 18 U.S.C. § 2381 mirrors Art. III, § 3 of the U.S. Constitution, defining treason as levying war against the U.S. or giving aid and comfort to its enemies. “Slander” is neither and the Constitution’s language was intended to avoid turning “ordinary partisan divisions” into treason.
Jumping the Shark
Of course, some complaints contained critical analysis. For example, someone in Kenyon, Minn., told the FCC in late November 2019, “SNL is not entertainment, it is a left wing political party.” In October 2017, a Buras, La., viewer, who apparently doesn’t realize the limits of the FCC’s authority and power, said, “Do what needs to be done: SNL is a limping, wounded dog that needs to be taken out behind the barn and shot.”
Given the complaints the FCC received after that, many people believed that wounded dog bit them, their religion, or their politics. While I haven’t watched SNL in years, you gotta admire something with humor biting enough that many demand a death sentence.
If you are learning anything from the football protests, this liberal whining shit is over.
FCC complaint from Charlotte, N.C., October 1, 2017
During his life, Samuel Clements (“Mark Twain”) became “the greatest humorist this country has produced,” according to the New York Times. It seems Twain still wanted to write after he died in April 1910. He supposedly “ghost” wrote at least three books.
The first book Twain wrote posthumously was appropriately titled Spirits Do Return. Published in Kansas City, Mo. in 1915, Ida Bell White, who remains virtually unknown, wrote the novel. Twain’s role in the book is a bit unclear. The title page says he “inspired” it. In the book’s introduction, though, White explains that never having written a book before, she was helped by “the Spirit World.”
She said she’d attended a “trumpet seance,” where a medium uses a trumpet to vocalize spirit voices. There, “the spirit voice of Mark Twain” talked to her, telling her to
get the materials and he would write me a book—or, rather that he would inspire me and I could write it but he would give me the words to write, which he has done.
The book is a convoluted story of a man wrongfully convicted of murder protected from the barbarity of prison by the spirit of his dead mother. He is eventually released when the real murderer confesses. At the close of her introduction, White says Twain “has promised to write many more [books] for me.” For whatever reason, their collaboration ended. Although three editions of Spirits Do Return appeared in 1915, there’s no record of White having another book published.
 Maybe Twain was working on the most famous of his writings from beyond the grave. This time his co-author was Emily Grant Hutchings, born in Hannibal, Mo., Twain’s childhood home. Hutchings was a self-proclaimed psychic, and the title of the book revealed its source, Jap Herron: A Novel Written from the Ouija Board.
In the introduction to the book, she said during an impromptu Ouija board session in March 1915, “Samuel L. Clemens, lazy Sam” began sending messages. Twain’s spirit subsequently said he wanted to transmit more of his writing to “that girl from Hannibal.” Twain’s choice of Hutchings seems odd because when he received a letter from her in November 1902, he wrote on the envelope, “Idiot! Preserve this.”
Hutchings’ 42-page introduction earnestly details the lengthy process of writing and revising two short stories and Jap Herron. All were dictated letter by letter to Hutchings via medium Lola Hays’s Ouija board. Both women had to place a hand on the planchette, or it wouldn’t move, according to an article in the January 1918 issue of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
In her introduction, Hutchings wrote that they “do not for one moment doubt” that this was Twain’s “actual post-mortem work.” In the story, set in Missouri, Jasper “Jap” Herron runs away from his impoverished and dysfunctional family, and a newspaper editor and his wife take him under their wing. Their guidance helps make him a successful, honorable man.
The September 1917 issue of The Bookman literary journal said the book was “unquestionably in Mark Twain’s style.” Not everyone agreed. The New York Times September 9, 1917, review of the book concluded,
If this is the best that “Mark Twain” can do by reaching across the barrier, the army of admirers that his works have won for him will all hope that he will hereafter respect that boundary.
Twain’s daughter and publisher were less impressed. Both filed lawsuits to prevent the publication of the book. They dropped both suits after Hutchings agreed to destroy all existing copies and not publish it again. It did not end Hutchings career as an author, though. In 1922, a major publisher issued her book, Indian Summer, calling it “her first novel.” It was “a study of a woman, past middle life, who shuns happiness.”
Interest in spiritualism waned in the United States in the 1920s. Perhaps that explains why Twain’s next post-mortem work didn’t appear for another 50 years. Once again, Twain dictated through an Ouija board in Missouri, although this book was nonfiction.
God Bless U, Daughter, by “Mildred Burns Swanson and Mark Twain” was published by the Midwest Society of Psychic Research in Independence, Mo. Swanson and her husband, John, conversed with Twain’s spirit through a “Nona Board,” a homemade Ouija board. The roughly 55,000-word book came from those conversations, in which Twain expressed his thoughts on the afterlife and modern America.
Mrs. Swanson said the book’s title was the way Twain ended their Ouija board sessions. The couple, who hailed from Independence, chatted with Twain at least twice a day, she said in a January 1968 letter sending the book to the New York Times Book Review. Twain dispelled their hesitancy about listing him as an author, she wrote, telling them, “We will demand it!”
Mildred and John Swanson may have been the only members of the Midwest Society of Psychic Research as her letter said the book was self-published. As for the roughly 55,000-word book itself,
Mark chose the blue-green cover with clear, bright yellow lettering. They are favorite colors; the electric cool shades match Mark’s eyes; he adds, “They are also spiritual colors.”
The Swansons had thousands of recorded conversations with Twain and already had “ten extra chapters to go into the next book,” she wrote.
The reports of Twain’s death in April 1910 were accurate. Based on publishing history, though, any thought he wouldn’t continue writing was greatly exaggerated.
A distinguished man should be as particular about his last words as he is about his last breath.
Mark Twain, “Last Words of Great Men”
(Originally posted at Exploring History)
This NHL Season’s Best Headline and Story
Nonbookish Linkage
- Did Michaelangelo start as a forger?
Bookish Linkage
Nothing can be controlled. Only endured
Blake Crouch, Recursion
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