A cephalophore (from the Greek for «head bearer») is a saint who is usually depicted with his own severed head. In Christian art, this should usually mean that the subject in question suffered martyrdom by beheading. Representing the halo required in these circumstances presents a unique challenge for the artist: some place the halo where the head was, others have the halo that carries the halo with the head, and some share the difference. Legends often tell that the saint stood after the beheading and wore his own head. A cephalophore is a saint who is usually depicted with his own head; In art, as a rule, this should mean that the subject in question suffered martyrdom by beheading. Facing the halo in these circumstances represents a unique challenge for the artist. Some put the halo where the head was; Others have the saint who carries the halo with his head. The term «cephalophore» was first used in a French article by Marcel Hébert, «Les martyrs céphalophores Euchaire, Elophe et Libaire», in revue de l`Université de Bruxelles, v. 19. Iconographic term. The cephalophore in religious art (especially medieval Christian) is a decapitated saint who shows his severed head to an audience. Thus, Denis, the patron saint of Paris, is an original and perhaps most famous cephalophore, who, according to golden legend, miraculously preached head in his hands as he walked the seven miles from Montmartre to his burial place.
[4] Although St. Denis is the most famous of the holy head bearers, there were many others; French hagiographic literature alone, the folklorist Émile Nourry counted no less than 134 examples of cephalophoria. [5] Given the frequency with which relics were stolen in medieval Europe, stories like this, in which a saint clearly indicates the burial place he chose, may have emerged as a means of preventing such actions by the Furta Sacra. [6] The pattern head in Stith Thompson`s Motif-Index of Folk Literature[15] shows how universal the speaking severed head anomaly is. Aristotle strives to discredit the stories of the talking heads and determine the physical impossibility, with the trachea cut off from the lungs. «Besides,» he adds, «nothing like this has ever happened among the barbarians, where the heads are cut off at high speed.» [16] Aristotle was undoubtedly familiar with the story of Orpheus` singing disembodied head, and Homer`s image of severed heads so quickly that they still seemed to speak,[17] and Latin examples could be attested. A link between Latin poets and the Middle Ages in the transmission of the trope of the talking head was noted by Beatrice White,[18] in the Latin poem on the Trojan War, De Bello Troiano by Joseph of Exeter. Hector swirles Patroclus` severed head in the air, whispering, «Ultor ubi Aacids,» «Where is Achilles [Aacids], my avenger?» Some modern authors associate the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking head in hand[13] with the Celtic cult of heads. They Might Be Giants has a song about falling in love with a cephalophore. youtu.be/anWrcmKsYI8 Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is often depicted with his head on his neck/shoulders and a second head in his hands.
However, it is not a cephalophore. The second head is that of St. Oswald of Northumbria, who was buried with him in Durham Cathedral. The topos can be traced back to two sources. [1] In a sermon on Saints Juventinus and Maximinus, John Chrysostom claimed that the severed head of a martyr was more terrible to the devil than when he could speak. [2] «Then he compared the soldiers who showed their wounds received in battle to the martyrs who held their severed heads in their hands and presented it to Christ.» [2] The other source was the Western vita of Saint Denis, founder of the diocese of Paris, identified in the text with Dionysius the Areopagite. John the Baptist, the most famous beheaded saint, is not considered a cephalopod because he did not hold his own head in his hands. [3] The term «cephalophore» was first used in a French article by Marcel Hébert, «Les martyrs céphalophores Euchaire, Elophe et Libaire», in revue de l`Université de Bruxelles, v. 19 (1914). The talking severed head appears memorably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.