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The Crown of Acanthus (?)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

E. R. Goodenough  and
C. B. Welles
C. B. Welles
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

The study on the “crown of thorns” by H. St.J. Hart has presented a large body of interesting material, with elaborate documentation from previous studies, to show that the crown was made from the long spikes that grow on the base of the rachis, or axis, of the date palm frond. He has illustrated many such crowns from pagan coins, and pointed out that the long spikes were used to represent the radiations which were common for the crown of, primarily, Helios. He concludes that the crown made for Jesus was not one of torture but of mockery, to go with the other appurtenances of royalty put on Jesus by the soldiers. To this Bonner has published an additional note which, quoting from Apuleius, attests the use of such a crown at Lucius' initiation into the mysteries of Isis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 1953 , pp. 241 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1953

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References

1 Jour. Theol. Stud., N.S. 3 (1952), 68–75Google Scholar.

2 Harv. Theol. Rev., 46 (1953), 47fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 III, 17; ed. Wellmann, II, 23f.

4 Wellmann, loc. cit.

5 Enc. Brit., 14th ed., s.v. acanthus.

6 See Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, 1953, III, fig. 23. Cf. the sarcophagi in figs. 238f.

7 Ibid., fig. 21. For other usages on tombs see figs. 30, 31, 37.

8 Ibid., e.g., figs. 448, 4641., 4671., 490, 496f., 510, 518, 556, 571. 574, 584, 590. 592. 619f., 622, 629.

9 Ibid., figs. 472–4.

10 Ibid., figs. 491, 493–5, 497, 500. For the general use of acanthus on synagogues see ibid., Index 1, s.v. acanthus.

11 Ibid., fig. 156; cf. figs. 143, 163, 202, 208.

12 It is quite clear on the sarcophagus of ibid., fig. 248.