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A cephalophore (from the Greek for "head-carrier") is a saint who is generally depicted carrying his or her own head; 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. 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). ==Possible origins== The ''topos'' can be traced to two sources.〔As noted by Christopher Walter, ''The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition'', 2003:143.〕 In a homily on Saints Juventinus and Maximinus, John Chrysostom asserted that the severed head of a martyr was more terrifying to the devil than when it was able to speak. "He then compared soldiers showing their wounds received in battle to martyrs holding their severed head in their hands and presenting it to Christ".〔Walter 2003:143〕 The other source was the Western ''vita'' of Saint Denis, founder of the see of Paris, who was identified in the text with Dionysius the Areopagite. Thus, an original, and 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.〔In the rational atmosphere of the Enlightenment, Mme du Deffand observed "il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte", "it's only the first step that matters"; her ''mot'' was repeated in Baron Grimm's ''Correspondance littéraire'', 15 May 1764.〕 Although St Denis is the best known of the saintly head-carriers, there were many others; the folklorist Émile Nourry counted no less than 134 examples of cephalophory in French hagiographic literature alone.〔''Les saints céphalophores. Étude de folklore hagiographique'','' Revue de l’Histoire des Religions'' (Paris), 99 (1929), p. 158-231.〕 Given the frequency with which relics were stolen in medieval Europe, stories like this, in which a saint clearly indicates his or her chosen burial site, may have developed as a way of discouraging such acts of ''furta sacra''.〔"Kephalophoroi saints, of whom there were a hundred or so in Western tradition, usually performed this prodigy in order to indicate the emplacement of the shrine where their relics should be venerated" (Walter 2003:143).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cephalophore」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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