severed head symbolism
English Public
The motif of the severed or disembodied head has a very ancient history, and can be interpreted in a number of ways. Though often associated with stories of blood, execution or warfare, it can also have further, more positive layers of meaning. For example, skulls dating from as far back as the Palaeolithic period have been found in shrines in many parts of the world. These heads, belonging to holy sacrificial victims or revered ancestors, were worshipped as oracles, miracle workers and powerful intercessors with the spirit realm.1 This ancient tradition can be deeply ingrained. Particularly strong among Celtic peoples, it continues even today in remote parts of the U.K. such as the Pennines. Faces, carved from local stone, can still be placed in special outdoor spots, or set as guardians inside or outside of houses. Stone heads and human skulls have also been found in brooks and streams, continuing an ancient association with water.2
https://whatdreammeans.com/what-does-it-mean-to-dream-about-beheading/
After Christianity had replaced the pagan religions, the worship of a deified, supposedly living disembodied head was no longer acceptable, and this ancient tradition was only able to continue underground. But some images of the severed head remained popular in art and literature. These included heroic tales, culminating in scenes of victors holding up the decapitated heads of their evil enemies. Such stories could be Biblical (Judith beheading Holophernes or David with the head of Goliath) or mythological (Perseus with the head of Medusa). Histories of saintly martyrs decapitated by evil or corrupt persecutors were also common in the Christian tradition. The New Testament story of the beheading of the John the Baptist is probably the best known of these. But though the Baptist was viewed as a holy figure and the forerunner to Christ, he did not achieve the status of the pagan deities. Several relics, each of them supposedly his head, were kept in various Christian churches. They were believed to cure people, but, though sacred, they were not seen as supernaturally alive, and were not worshipped as gods as the ancient heads had been.
The original historic tradition of the supernatural, oracular head remained underground until the late nineteenth century. It then reappeared in the art and literature of the Symbolist tradition, taking on new characteristics appropriate to the time and place. Adding their own visions and interpretations to the traditional ones, the Symbolists depicted living or godlike severed heads in their art for the first time since Antiquity.3
The Symbolists were particularly drawn to two characteristics of the disembodied head. They were attracted, first of all, by the ancient concept of a living head, revered for its holiness, which continued to sing or speak. With its tragic history, this head became an embodiment of purity and martyrdom. In addition, many of these dramatic tales fitted into another recurring theme in Symbolist art and thought. This was the dangerous eroticism of the femme fatale, who brought about the emasculation or destruction of the male victim through her seduction, treachery or violence. This fear of the feminine may have had ancient origins, interrelated with the image of the Great Mother as a source of both birth and death. According to Kristeva, the vulva, associated with the dangerous decapitated head of Medusa by the Greeks, had also been a source of fear among prehistoric peoples. As evidence she sites various artefacts dating back as early as 30,000 BC.4
EXAMPLES OF SPIRITUAL AND SUPERNATURAL DISEMBODIED HEADS IN SYMBOLIST ART AND THOUGHT
Gustave Moreau: 'Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre' 1865. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
For the Symbolists, the Greek myth of Orpheus exemplified both martyrdom and misogyny. In the Christian tradition, the myth had been known chiefly as a tale of the Thracian poet/musician’s failed attempt to rescue his love Eurydice from Hades, but the events which followed this are also an important part of the myth.
There are numerous versions of the Orpheus story. The one in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is probably the most widely read. It includes the history of what happened after Orpheus had returned to the earth’s surface. At this stage, desolate after his loss of Eurydice, the godlike poet and singer went to live in the mountains. Here he renounced women, and took up with youths. This angered the wild Maenads or Bacchante, female followers of Bacchus/Dionysus. These women then acted out the ancient mythological story of the dying and rising god. As they had done with Dionysus himself, they turned on Orpheus and tore him apart. The ancient and widespread myth of the sacrificial god has taken many forms, but in all of them the women, in one shape or another, kill and dismember the young demi-god, and afterwards, as benign and motherly females, they begin to worship and mourn him.
These events were rarely depicted or publicised until the Symbolists began taking an interest in them. Influenced by Edouard Schuré’s book The Great Initiates, the Symbolists viewed the tragic Orpheus as an initiate and magician, as well as a great genius of music and poetry with whom they liked to identify. They associated the mysticism, suffering and divinity of Orpheus with those of Christ, another of Schuré’s great initiates. Scenes from the myth which involved the severed head of the dismembered poet/musician had a particular appeal to Symbolist painters. They frequently depicted the head floating down the river Hebrus, resting on its lyre and singing mournfully. According to Ovid, it eventually reached the Mediterranean, and finally, still singing, came to rest on the island of Lesbos. Here, rescued together with the lyre by nymphs or other young maidens, the head of Orpheus became an oracle, visited and worshipped by the Greeks.
Gustave Moreau was the first Symbolist painter to depict the dead Orpheus. His best known painting of the poet’s severed head dates from 1865. Entitled Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on his Lyre, it shows a benign maiden tenderly carrying the head after it has been rescued. Its eyes are closed as though seeing inward visions appropriate to its future role as a speaking oracle.
The Belgian Symbolist Jean Delville was also drawn to the subject. His oil painting The Dead Orpheus of 1893 depicts the head floating on its lyre over a shallow, rippling sea. The picture is overwhelmingly blue-green in colour, though a closer look reveals other subtle tints. The artist, very aware of esoteric ideas and symbolism, thought of blue as particularly spiritual.5 The water near to the shore is scattered with blue-green seashells, and the lyre is beautifully decorated with small pink and blue pearls. The artist’s wife was the model for the effeminate head of Orpheus, which, like the one in Moreau’s painting, has its eyes closed as though in a trance. According to the myth, the lyre would eventually be carried into the sky by the muses, and would take its place among the stars. Its final destination is hinted at by the reflections of stars which dot the ripples in Delville’s scene.
https://whatdreammeans.com/what-does-it-mean-to-dream-about-beheading/
After Christianity had replaced the pagan religions, the worship of a deified, supposedly living disembodied head was no longer acceptable, and this ancient tradition was only able to continue underground. But some images of the severed head remained popular in art and literature. These included heroic tales, culminating in scenes of victors holding up the decapitated heads of their evil enemies. Such stories could be Biblical (Judith beheading Holophernes or David with the head of Goliath) or mythological (Perseus with the head of Medusa). Histories of saintly martyrs decapitated by evil or corrupt persecutors were also common in the Christian tradition. The New Testament story of the beheading of the John the Baptist is probably the best known of these. But though the Baptist was viewed as a holy figure and the forerunner to Christ, he did not achieve the status of the pagan deities. Several relics, each of them supposedly his head, were kept in various Christian churches. They were believed to cure people, but, though sacred, they were not seen as supernaturally alive, and were not worshipped as gods as the ancient heads had been.
The original historic tradition of the supernatural, oracular head remained underground until the late nineteenth century. It then reappeared in the art and literature of the Symbolist tradition, taking on new characteristics appropriate to the time and place. Adding their own visions and interpretations to the traditional ones, the Symbolists depicted living or godlike severed heads in their art for the first time since Antiquity.3
The Symbolists were particularly drawn to two characteristics of the disembodied head. They were attracted, first of all, by the ancient concept of a living head, revered for its holiness, which continued to sing or speak. With its tragic history, this head became an embodiment of purity and martyrdom. In addition, many of these dramatic tales fitted into another recurring theme in Symbolist art and thought. This was the dangerous eroticism of the femme fatale, who brought about the emasculation or destruction of the male victim through her seduction, treachery or violence. This fear of the feminine may have had ancient origins, interrelated with the image of the Great Mother as a source of both birth and death. According to Kristeva, the vulva, associated with the dangerous decapitated head of Medusa by the Greeks, had also been a source of fear among prehistoric peoples. As evidence she sites various artefacts dating back as early as 30,000 BC.4
EXAMPLES OF SPIRITUAL AND SUPERNATURAL DISEMBODIED HEADS IN SYMBOLIST ART AND THOUGHT
Gustave Moreau: 'Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre' 1865. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
For the Symbolists, the Greek myth of Orpheus exemplified both martyrdom and misogyny. In the Christian tradition, the myth had been known chiefly as a tale of the Thracian poet/musician’s failed attempt to rescue his love Eurydice from Hades, but the events which followed this are also an important part of the myth.
There are numerous versions of the Orpheus story. The one in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is probably the most widely read. It includes the history of what happened after Orpheus had returned to the earth’s surface. At this stage, desolate after his loss of Eurydice, the godlike poet and singer went to live in the mountains. Here he renounced women, and took up with youths. This angered the wild Maenads or Bacchante, female followers of Bacchus/Dionysus. These women then acted out the ancient mythological story of the dying and rising god. As they had done with Dionysus himself, they turned on Orpheus and tore him apart. The ancient and widespread myth of the sacrificial god has taken many forms, but in all of them the women, in one shape or another, kill and dismember the young demi-god, and afterwards, as benign and motherly females, they begin to worship and mourn him.
These events were rarely depicted or publicised until the Symbolists began taking an interest in them. Influenced by Edouard Schuré’s book The Great Initiates, the Symbolists viewed the tragic Orpheus as an initiate and magician, as well as a great genius of music and poetry with whom they liked to identify. They associated the mysticism, suffering and divinity of Orpheus with those of Christ, another of Schuré’s great initiates. Scenes from the myth which involved the severed head of the dismembered poet/musician had a particular appeal to Symbolist painters. They frequently depicted the head floating down the river Hebrus, resting on its lyre and singing mournfully. According to Ovid, it eventually reached the Mediterranean, and finally, still singing, came to rest on the island of Lesbos. Here, rescued together with the lyre by nymphs or other young maidens, the head of Orpheus became an oracle, visited and worshipped by the Greeks.
Gustave Moreau was the first Symbolist painter to depict the dead Orpheus. His best known painting of the poet’s severed head dates from 1865. Entitled Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on his Lyre, it shows a benign maiden tenderly carrying the head after it has been rescued. Its eyes are closed as though seeing inward visions appropriate to its future role as a speaking oracle.
The Belgian Symbolist Jean Delville was also drawn to the subject. His oil painting The Dead Orpheus of 1893 depicts the head floating on its lyre over a shallow, rippling sea. The picture is overwhelmingly blue-green in colour, though a closer look reveals other subtle tints. The artist, very aware of esoteric ideas and symbolism, thought of blue as particularly spiritual.5 The water near to the shore is scattered with blue-green seashells, and the lyre is beautifully decorated with small pink and blue pearls. The artist’s wife was the model for the effeminate head of Orpheus, which, like the one in Moreau’s painting, has its eyes closed as though in a trance. According to the myth, the lyre would eventually be carried into the sky by the muses, and would take its place among the stars. Its final destination is hinted at by the reflections of stars which dot the ripples in Delville’s scene.
by honeylee
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