Patasola

We have a double feature release! The first one of this week is the terrifying one-legged bloodsucker, the Patasola! How can you guarantee you'd turn into this monster? How is it linked to the sanctity of the forest? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m sorry for the delay on this one, I had a bunch of technical issues as well as a really busy personal schedule - so we’re doing this release in a double feature which I hope you love.

DESCRIPTION:

This monster has the opposite of a double feature, so come along with me into the depths of the South American jungle this week for the Patasola!

The Patasola is generally described as a female demon from South American folklore, who are absolutely beautiful, usually with dark hair and pale skin but hide that they only have one leg, which was clearly amputated and usually either bandaged or an open wound. In this form, she also has cat-like fangs, which she uses to suck blood from her victims - but no one really notices because of the rest of her alluring beauty. In some tellings too, the one leg ends in a cow-like hoof rather than a foot.

But this monster is a shapeshifter, known to make herself the perfect woman for each person looking at her, usually a loved one, as well as transforming into wildlife to get around such as black dogs, cows, jaguars or wildcats. In her true form, she has one breast, bulging eyes, a hooked nose and big lips - as well as these cat-fangs out for all to see, which is supposedly pretty terrifying. 

The Patasola tends to live in mountain ranges, virgin forests which are ones untouched by man or heavily wooded areas and is often considered a nature spirit. Her duty is to protect the area from man, usually miners, millers, loggers, poachers or herders who come to pollute the area in some way. She uses her powers to disrupt any activities, blocking exits or throwing scent-dogs off anything they’re tracking. She is totally unforgiving when humans enter these places, and when they are there in the night with her, she will appear and eventually take the person off the beaten track so that she can reveal her true form and drain the person of their blood. 

When the Patasola does catch someone, it tends to celebrate by climbing to the top of the nearest mountain range and singing the following song;

I'm more than the siren

I live alone in the world:

and no one can resist me

because I am the Patasola.

On the road, at home,

on the mountain and the river,

in the air and in the clouds

all that exists is mine.

Of course, this does mean that these creatures, as well as being spirits, are vampires in some way. However, unlike generic vampires who just want to suck blood for fun, they do this to protect the area they are in. They are usually found throughout Columbia and Ecuador, but have been seen in the thick jungles in all the South and Central American countries.

So how did they get here and how do you become a Patasola? It’s thought that you become a Patasola if you are a ‘bad’ woman - which can equate to doing a load of different, specific things. For instance, you could cheat on your spouse, kill your son or be a temptress to both men and women - which would result in your town chopping one of your legs off and throwing it into the fire, abandoning you in the forest. Once the woman dies, their soul is attached to the jungle and they are destined to haunt it evermore.

They are generic vampires though when it comes to killing them, you could cut off their head and set their body on fire, just set them on fire or stake them through the heart for maximum effect. According to some legends, you could also cut off the other leg and throw this into the fire to banish the spirit, but I couldn’t find many references to that specifically. 

ORIGIN:

Now over to etymology, Patasola is a Spanish word and derives from two root words; pata meaning foot and sola meaning single or only. It does make it quite an easy one this week, I’m sorry it’s not more interesting than that but she means single foot - which is sometimes what I refer to myself as. 

For this monster’s history, we actually don’t know how far this one goes back or when it was first mentioned in folklore. What we do know is that it’s believed that this monster originates from Tolima in Colombia, which we think is related to some real life events that happened, but we’re not 100% sure what did happen. In this part of the world with so much ancient history and differing civilisations, it’s really hard to pin something down. 

It’s also difficult because a lot of these stories were spread through word of mouth within tribes before the Spanish colonisation of this part of South America in 1508 and existed all the way up to 1976 in some parts, so we’re not sure what is localised to indigenous people and what was influenced by the Spanish after the invasion. This area was part of the former Incan empire and home to 87 ethnic and indigenous groups, but would have been influenced by the European mindset as well as Columbia’s folkloric traditions. 

However, we do assume this monster goes back before this and is purely an indigenous tale - but we just don’t know when or why this came about. 

What we do have is the believed origin story, which is from the book La Patasola: The Transformation of a Woman Victim of the Cholera of Love, which I can’t find an original author or date for, but you can read the English translation by Andrea Vera online. 

There was once a beautiful woman called Maria, who was the envy of her town and every man wanted to be with her. She married a man called Henri, and eventually Henri’s boss, Horacio wanted her for himself. Horacio showered Maria with gifts and eventually fell in love with him. Henri eventually walked in on Maria and Horacio in his marital bed, and Henri stabbed Horacio to death. Maria knew she was next and ran down the stairs, where Henri grabbed one of her legs and cut it off with the same knife. He left her bleeding on the floor and decided to go full Medea and also kill their children - so he left to get them from school and poisoned them, but dragged them in front of a semi-conscious and bleeding-out Maria so she could watch her kids die. 

Henri then retrieved his gun, pointed it at himself and said ‘You were the most beautiful thing in my life’ and pulled the trigger. No one in town heard any of the commotion and it was two weeks before anyone thought to check in on them. Maria, completely mutilated and emotionally destroyed, survived by feeding on the blood of her dead family and her soul left. She had become a demon, forgetting her own name and life and only thought of one thing - revenge. She now roams the forest, hunting lone men where she kills them and drinks their blood like she did her husband and childrens’.

This is only one origin story, but it’s really the only one we can find in text to back this up - it’s sad that we don’t really have a date, but it does feel pretty medieval. The other Patasola origins with the cheating or killing their own son also ended in having their legs amputated as a punishment by men - so this is the one thing that runs throughout every story and is of course, the most noticeable thing about her. 

The moral of this story it seems, is don’t be a ‘bad’ woman - even though it most definitely takes two to tango. But it seems that being this evil woman will get your leg amputated and make you a demon - and as well as that, a warning for men to stay away from seductive women, or else you’ll be eaten too. Another is maybe revenge isn’t the best idea, or you might damn yourself, your whole family and your whole continent, so maybe like, don’t do that. 

There are a few mythical creatures in other mythologies around South and Central America that are similar to the Patasola, such as the Sayona of Venezuela, the Tunda of Columbia or Llorona of Mexico - which are all similar stories of female spirits or demons that were scorned by men and now haunt the environments that they were killed in. I’m yet to cover the Sayona and Tunda, but I covered La Llorona a few years back and she is still one of my favourite myth monsters that I’ve covered, with an immortal song about her that I know the words to in Spanish - which I’m pretty impressed by myself for.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we don’t really have much for Patasola herself this week - but we do have seductress ladies who are just out to get you to fill this section up this week. 

For art, there’s not much out there for this monster I’m afraid - but there are a few bits surrounding her within independent art showcases, so I’d recommend checking out the cool monstrous artists you can rely on for the Patasola this week.

There is a gorgeous statue of her called La Patasola in Malokas Park in Villavicencio, Colombia which I recommend having a look at, or visiting if you’re from around here.

In movies, we have; Cool World, The Little Mermaid, Son of the White Horse, Black Widow, Devil Is a Woman, Ghostbusters, Hellboy, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hellraiser: Bloodline, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The World is Not Enough, The Shining, Freaks, Vamps, From Dusk til Dawn, Thirteen Women, Seven, The Chronicles of Riddick, Sinbad of the Seven Seas, The Last Seduction & Ghost Ship.

For TV, we have; Doctor Who, Dexter, Firefly, Oz, Stargate SG-1, Alice in Borderland, Parks and Recreation, Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, The X-Files, Sherlock, Merlin, Once Upon a Time, Spartacus, Supernatural, The Affair, Teen Wolf, Skins, Batman: The Animated Series, Darkstalkers, The Mask, The Hollow, Samurai Jack, The Tick, King of the Hill & The Simpsons.

In video games, we have ones such as; Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Metal Gear, Trauma Centre, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Skyrim, Shin Megami Tensei, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, Ace Attorney, Dark Watch, Wild Arms, Octopath Traveller, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, ActRaiser & Namco x Capcom.

My book recommendation this week is for Mythology of the American Nations by David M Jones and Brian Molyneaux for a wider perspective on American mythology, which includes the Aztec, Mayan and Inca nations too! Or there’s The Mythology of South America by John Bierhorst for some more of that kind of mythos space.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’d love to say yes for this one, and I really love her and want her to be a thing - but the one thing that’s stopping me from saying yes is that she’s a demon, rather than a spirit. 

Yes, sure - she’s also a nature spirit, but she’s predominantly a demon, so don’t you be like ERIN, BUT YOU SAID at me. Demon implies that there is a physical entity just sitting around, and I truly believe that if this kind of entity existed, we would know much more about her than we do unfortunately. 

I kind of want her to exist though, mainly because I love the idea of a scorned woman taking revenge - sorry guys listening, but girl power ya know. But also, the idea that she is the protector of the untouched forests is surely a pretty good thing - and we should believe that some parts of the forest, especially the Amazon where she is, should remain untouched and unlogged for our world’s health and longevity - so you go kill those loggers babe.

Although, on the other side, would I personally like to bump into her? Absolutely not, but I do think she’s a great figure of how revenge doesn’t solve everything and how we should protect some things against man itself, but also men as a gender - just saying.

But what do you think? Did the Patasola tempt men into the South American forests? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

Another great monster from this part of the world, and we all love a seductive monstress, don’t we! This one is pretty silly too, so I’ve really loved covering this one - as well as one from South America which we don’t cover as much as an area.

In our double feature this week, we’re heading over to a religious mythos rather than any certain place - so bring your best clay for the unshakeable Golem from Jewish mythology, which should be available now too.

As a heads up - I’m on my annual two week September break from next week, so there won’t be any new episodes. But we’ll be back on the 3rd October after that with a new monster that I’ll introduce in the Golem episode!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.