Curse of Black Agnes

In an old cemetery in Montpelier, VT sits a striking monument, marking the gravesite of a wealthy businessman from an age long past. This statue. depicting Thanatos, Greek God of death, caries a curse of untimely death to anyone who sits in its lap.

For whatever reason, this monument is known locally as Black Agnes. It’s not an Agnes, it’s not black, but fine.

Quick and dirty story, rich guy in Montpelier, got even richer by swindling Aunt’s inheritance. Died in 1899, got a nice big memorial site the size of a small playground and topped it with a big sad-looking Greek deity. He must have been quite a guy. Biggest memorial site in the entire Green Mount Cemetery.

People love to come and gawk at it and put pennies in the lap, because it’s an unwritten rule that any famous grave gets pennies or little stones put onto it by strangers who think spirits have been waiting for their magnanimous gifting of a cent. Only the famous ones, of course, the remainder of this lovely old cemetery is penny-free.

Oh, and because it’s cursed. Or haunted. Something… basically if you sit on it you die. There are a few variations of this legend, because there always are, because “legend” is a little known old French word that roughly translates to “shit that someone made up.”

So we went and wandered around an old cemetery because “Covid” and took photos of old monuments, and couldn’t not stop at this one because look at the thing. It really is a neat grave, curse notwithstanding.