Acephale (people)

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Acephale from Hartmann Schedel's world chronicle . 1493.

Acephale (also Blemmier ) are a headless, mythical people who have appeared in literature and art since ancient times and became very popular in the Middle Ages. Such monstrous human races (also wonder people , Latin monstra) were imagined on the fringes of ecumenism , especially in India and Africa.

Exterior

Late medieval acephales from the church in Dalbyneder . 1511.
Acephale from the Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster (1544)
Church cupboard from Gothems Church ( Gotland )

Acephale have a human form, but they are headless and carry their face on their chest or shoulders. In addition to hairless acephalies, those with fur are also described and depicted. This representation occurs mainly in the late Middle Ages. Through their fur, the acephalies move closer to the wild men who were also often depicted in the late Middle Ages. Clothed acephales also occur, albeit very rarely. Acephales are often armed, for example they carry a club, a spear or sword and shield. In church art it is not always clear whether it is an acephalus. In addition to the actual headless, there are mythical creatures that are often categorized as Blemmians, but actually could be described as cephalopods.

Surname

Acephales are mentioned in many texts, but often simply described without mentioning a name. When they are named, different names are used. Pliny the Elder mentions headless people in two places. In Book V of his Naturalis historia he names headless Blemmyas and in Book VII a people whom he calls oculos in umeris . The term epiphagi is also used. A distinction between different individual peoples is possible, but difficult and not very useful on the basis of the description and representation practice. The term acephale can be used as an umbrella term. In secondary literature they are also referred to as Blemmier (Blemmyer, Blemnier etc.).

Culture

Little is known about the culture and characteristics of the acephalus. Evagrius Scholasticus mentions that the blemmyae people attacked Christian settlements in North Africa between the middle of the 3rd and 5th centuries. That fits the way of representation as a warlike people.

Connection to reality

It is believed that the idea of ​​headless warriors can be traced back to an African people who used body-high, painted shields behind which the head and body could not be seen. The connection with the Blemmyern , an ancient nomad tribe in Nubia, is interesting . In addition, as with all so-called wonder peoples from antiquity and the Middle Ages, the comparison with malformations has been drawn again and again since the early modern era .

Acephale in other traditions

Acephales were already described and drawn in Greek papyri of late antiquity. After an acephale was first worshiped as god and creator, he is later demonized as the demon Phonos . According to Karl Preisendanz, however, this motif has not spread significantly. Rather, as a template for the later stories of acephalus, it shows the spread of the motif of a headless revenant who wanders restlessly after death. In this context, Leopold Kretzenbacher mentions the headless Brezoglavci from the Slovenian tradition. They were often understood as the souls of unbaptized children.

Interpretation in antiquity and the Middle Ages

The acephalus are often mentioned, but rarely interpreted allegorically. Hence, they could be reinterpreted to a great extent. Because of this, only design examples can be given for the acephalas. The interpretation always refers to the formative properties of the respective wonder people. In the case of the acephalus it is the headlessness and their bellicose disposition. As feared enemies, they were represented in a manuscript around 1400.

Interesting in this context is the picture of a urinating or masturbating acephalus in Kundby from the 16th century. Christoph Daxelmüller, however, sees the interpretation of the essence as being rooted in the fact that in medieval art they became “the ultimate representation of demons”.

The headlessness often indicates a lack of mental faculties. In this context, the biblical passage Phil. 3, 19 is relevant, since the acephalus can be used as an example for “people who let their stomach do the thinking”. It even goes so far that, in a late medieval version of the Liber de monstruosis hominibus , they are compared with lawyers who demand excessive fees in order to fill their bellies with it. The Gesta Romanorum , on the other hand, has a completely different interpretation . Here the headless are a symbol of humility.

See also

literature

  • John Block Friedman: The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. Cambridge, Massachusetts / London 1981.
  • Katrin Kröll / Hugo Steger (eds.): My whole body is my face. Grotesque representations in European art and literature of the Middle Ages. (Rombach Wissenschaft - Litterae Series, Volume 26) Freiburg im Breisgau 1994.
  • Claude Lecouteux: Les monstres dans la littérature allemande du moyen âge. Contribution à l'étude du merveilleux médiéval. 3 volumes (I Etude, 2 Dictionnaire, III Documents) (Göppingen works on German studies No. 330 I -III) Göppingen 1982.
  • Salome Zajadacz-Hastenrath: Mythical creatures. In: Otto Schmitt (Ed.): Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte. 61. Delivery, VI. Tape. Munich 1978.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Among others by Honorius Augustodunensis and Konrad von Megenberg , pictured in the churches in Dalbyneder and Råby in Århus.
  2. ↑ z. B. Mosaic floor in the Church of San Columbano in Bobbio, Church in Dalbyneder, manuscript Cotton Vitellius A.XV. London, British Library MS. fol.102v.
  3. ↑ Cudgel in Dalbyneder, spear in Voldby and Nørre Saltum, sword and shield in Bobbio.
  4. ↑ So z. B. Church in Brageac in France
  5. ↑ See e.g. B. Website about Danish lime paintings  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / w1.1396.telia.com  
  6. ↑ For example in Lucidarius I.53, p. 24.
  7. ↑ Pliny: Naturalis historia , Book V, 44 and 46, and Book VII, 23.
  8. ↑ So z. B. at Thomas von Cantimpré . See Zajadacz-Hastenrath Sp. 748 and 751.
  9. ↑ So z. B. Friedman 1981 p.25.
  10. ↑ See Ph. J. Plendl: The Symmelie (Sirenomelie) in humans and animals.
  11. ↑ K. Preisendanz: "Akephalos". Col. 211-216. He also explains the understanding of the sun god Osiris as acephale.
  12. ↑ L. Kretzenbacher: Kynokephale demons of southeast European folk poetry. Comparative studies of myths, legends, mask customs around Kynokephaloi, werewolves and South Slavic Pesoglavci. (Contributions to the knowledge of Southeast Europe and the Near East, Volume 5) Munich 1968. S. 5.
  13. ↑ Antechrist from Bavaria. The Acephalen belong to the "auxiliary troops" of the Gog and Magog , who attack mankind on the day of the Last Judgment. See Kästner p. 230 fn. 36.
  14. ↑ Christoph Daxelmüller: The pious and the unpious. The body as a learning tool and learning image in the late medieval "popular" piety. In Kröll pp. 107–129, p. 126
  15. ↑ Phil. 3, 19: "whose end ruin, whose God is the belly and whose glory in their shame, those who contemplate the earthly."
  16. ↑ Thomas von Cantimpré , copy with additions from the 14th century. MS, Paris, bibl. nat. fr. 15106 with miniatures. Cf. Rudolf Wittkower: Die Wunder des Ostens: A Contribution to the History of the Monsters. In: ders. (Ed.): Allegory and the change of symbols in antiquity and renaissance. Cologne 2002. pp. 87-150. P. 112 fn. 122.