Cephalophore

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Saint Denis of Paris
Saint Denis of Paris

A cephalophore (from the Greek for "head-carrier") is a saint who is generally depicted carrying his head in his hands; in art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Handling the halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist. Some put the halo where the head used to be; others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head.

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[edit] Cephalophoric saints

Saint Denis.
Saint Denis.

Perhaps the most famous cephalophore is Denis, patron saint of Paris, who, according to the Golden Legend, miraculously preached with his head in his hands while journeying the seven miles from Montmartre to his burying place.

Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is often depicted with his head on his shoulders, carrying a second head in his hands, although he himself is not a cephalophore. The second head is actually that of Saint Oswald of Northumbria, who was buried with him at Durham Cathedral.

A cephalophoric legend told of Nicasius of Rheims that at the moment of his execution, Nicasius was reading Psalm 119 (Psalm 118 in the Vulgate). When he reached the verse "Adhaesit pavimento anima mea" (Psalms 119:25), he was decapitated. However, the story goes that after his head had fallen to the ground, Nicasius continued the psalm, adding, "Vivifica me, Domine, secundum verbum tuum."[1]

Saint Aphrodisius, a martyr of Alexandria, venerated at Béziers
Saint Aphrodisius, a martyr of Alexandria, venerated at Béziers

The legend of Aphrodisius of Alexandria was transferred to Béziers, where his name was inserted at the head of the list of bishops. Aphrodisias was accompanied by his camel in the hagiographic accounts. As he was preaching, a group of pagans pressed through the crowd and beheaded him on the spot. Aphrodisius picked up his head and carried it to the chapel he had recently consecrated at the site; it is still there as Place Saint-Aphrodise, Béziers.[2] Saint Gemolo is also said to have survived his decapitation, and collecting his own head, climbed on horseback, and met his uncle, a bishop, on a small mountain before he finally died. A legend associated with Saint Ginés de la Jara states that after he was decapitated in southern France, he picked up his head and threw it into the Rhône. The head was carried by the sea to the coast of Murcia in Spain, where it was venerated as a relic (Murcia was the center of this saint's cult).[3]

In The Golden Legend Paul of Tarsus at his martyrdom "stretched forth his neck, and so was beheaded. And as soon as the head was from the body, it said: Jesus Christus! which had been to Jesus or Christus, or both, fifty times." When the head was recovered and was to be rejoined to the body as a relic, in response to a prayer for confirmation that this was indeed the right head, the body of Paul turned to rejoin the head that had been set at its feet.[4]

[edit] In literature

St. Denis's (second from left) has angelic companions showing him polite concern; portal from Notre Dame de Paris (probably 19th century replacements)
St. Denis's (second from left) has angelic companions showing him polite concern; portal from Notre Dame de Paris (probably 19th century replacements)
An illustration of the scene by Gustave Doré.
An illustration of the scene by Gustave Doré.

In Dante's Divine Comedy (Canto 28) the poet meets the spectre of the troubadour Bertrand de Born in the eighth circle of the Inferno, carrying his severed head in his hand, slung by its hair, like a lantern; upon seeing Dante and Virgil, the head begins to speak.[5]

The speaking severed head appears memorably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The motif Head in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature[6] reveals how universal is the anomaly of the talking severed head. Aristotle is at pains to discredit the stories of talking heads and to establish the physical impossibility, with the windpipe severed from the lung. "Moreover," he adds, "among the barbarians, where heads are chopped off with great rapidity, nothing of the kind has ever occurred."[7] Aristotle was doubtless familiar with the story of the singing disembodied head of Orpheus and Homer's image of heads severed so rapidly they seemed still to be speaking,[8] and Latin examples could be attested. A link between Latin poets and the Middle Ages in transmitting the trope of the speaking head was noted by Beatrice White,[9] in the Latin poem on the Trojan War, De Bello Troiano by Joseph of Exeter. Hector whirls in the air the severed head of Patroclus, which whispers "Ultor ubi Aeacides", "Where is Achilles [Aeacides], my avenger?" Some modern authors link the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking with their heads in their hands[10] to the Celtic cult of heads.

[edit] Cephalophores

Saint Denis has two halos in the coat of arms of Krefeld.
Saint Denis has two halos in the coat of arms of Krefeld.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ San Nicasio di Reims
  2. ^ France pittoresque: coutumes et traditions 1908
  3. ^ Saint Ginés de La Jara (Getty Museum)
  4. ^ The Golden Legend: The Life of Saint Paul the Apostle.
  5. ^ "E'l capo tronco tenea per le chiome
    Pesol col mano, a giusa di lanterno:
    E quei mirava noi, e dicea: "O me!".
    Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto 28, 121-123. Longfellow translation, Commentaries from the Dartmouth Dante project.
  6. ^ Copenhagen, 1957.
  7. ^ Aristotle, De partibus animalium 3.10.
  8. ^ Iliad 10.457, and Odyssey 22.329.
  9. ^ White, "A Persistent Paradox" Folklore 83.2 (Summer 1972), pp. 122-131) p 123.
  10. ^ "The stories of St. Edmund, St. Kenelm, St. Osyth, and St. Sidwell in England, St. Denis in France, St. Melor and St. Winifred in Celtic territory, preserve the pattern and strengthen the link between legend and folklore," Beatrice White observes. (White 1972:123).
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