Um, Cecil…
I’m confused. You say that halos were introduced into Christian art sometime in the fourth century AD by the Greeks and Romans, but introduced to the Buddhists by Greek invaders in the third century AD.
Was this an early example of insider trading here? Has anyone laid charges yet? If not, is there a way I can get rich over this?
Regards,
Laurie Lounge
Don’t forget a link to Cecil’s column: Who decided saints have halos?
There’s another issue in these dates. What Greek invasion of India in the 3rd century AD? I don’t know of any. Perhaps he means Alexander’s invasion in the 4th century BC and the subsequent Hellenistic reigns.
Ooops… thanks for the catch there. First post and c. So nervous.
I don’t keep track of every rinkydink Greek invasion, so I ignored the other point you made, assumed rather that Cecil was not talking about an invasion in the swords drawn sense, but perhaps some “Madras Madness” package tour touted in Athens to increase the tourist trade to the sub-continent.
I stand by this theory, not out of any strong belief in its veracity, but rather due to a rather ugly obstreperous streak which no amount of laudanum seems to be able to shift.
Regards,
Laurie Lounge
I was also going to add, before the “Preview Reply” button malisciously swapped places with the “Submit Reply” button, that I had a mental image of a Kingfisher-lagered-up Greek defacing a picture of Buddha by adding a halo and, probably, a moustache. Possibly a beautiful Zapata.
That is all.
—=L
Cecil sez:
Hmm…I have heard this before, but it wasn’t “invaders”, just “Greeks”. The context was that Buddhist art from this period has distinct Greek influences.
[fires up search engine]
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Google, “buddhist art greek influence india”, Hit #1. Bingo.
http://www.tourismofindia.com/buddh_art.htm
Cece, I think you need to fix that. This time period was the heyday of the Gupta Empire, but I don’t see anything about an “invasion”.
But heyyyyy, lookie the new talent! Most excellent. Laurie, welcome to the SDMB, I think you’re gonna fit right in here… 
I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that halos had some link to symbology relating to the sun…
There is an optical phenomenon called glory which is possibly the inspiration for the halo in art. You can see it if you are facing away from the sun toward a solid bank of cloud or mist. (You are not inside the cloud or mist. You might be overlooking a mist-filled valley.) You will see your own shadow on the cloud, surrounded by a rainbow circle. Depending on how far you are from the cloud, the circle may appear just around your head, or it may be bigger. If you are looking at the cloud with companions, each of you will see the halo about his own head only.
I have seen this phenomenon once, from a plane descending through open clouds. I could see the shadow of the plane on the cloud it was passing, with the wingtip shadows just cutting through the halo. It’s not a sight you would ever forget.
Reference: Light and Color in the Open Air by Minnaert.
Chava
Thank you, and welcome, Chava.
I agree that somebody wearing a strong optical halo can be an impressive display, even in an age of digital effects, no doubt gave the ancients pause for thought. A really good one is like a light show. Note that glories would be common in ancient societies with smoke-filled rooms.
There are three other factors: defects in our vision tend to create illusionary halos around objects, and since we spend a lot of time looking at heads, it might become a matter of fixation.
We actually have halos of heat and moisture, so it isn’t a huge step for someone to imagine there’s more than natural substance to it.
Psychics claim that people have auras. Maybe these are gullible interpretations of the real physical effects mentioned above, but it’s not hard to imagine this fantasy goes way back to the days of prophets in caves.
I remember reading a different reason for the origin of halos.
Statues would have a circular stone “halo” above the head. The reason for this was (not to put too fine a point on it) to keep the bird shit off.
This halo was then subsequently (and erroneously) added whenever people drew pictures of saints. Now it has become accepted practice to portray saints with halos.
Like laurielounge, I intend to stand rigidly by this theory, despite any evidence brought up by anyone else, just out of sheer pig-headedness.
I keep telling people this over and over again: Ignorance - it’s its own reward.
I bet I know what it was. India was host to the third century World Cup and the invasion was of Greek soccer hooligans. The one flaw in this theory is that football fans are not noted for their artistic inclinations.
OK, I preface this post by saying that I have done no research whatsoever, but here it goes:
It seems that Cecil never answered the original question, other than saying something about halo coming from the Greeks. Where did the Greeks get it? Does it have anything to do with their placing crowns of laurel or other plants on the heads of victorious athletes, emperors, etc?
If this early “halo” was indicative of success, would it follow that the Romans would place a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head as an indication of failure before he was crucified?
I’m sure that there are some theologins out there who can tell me the facts, but this is what I thought about when I read the question!
dtilque says:
I began reading your post and drew mighty breath to bellow huzzahs in your name. But by the end, I realised my mission was to besmirch your name with mud and detritus. Football fans are, of course, noted for their artistic achievements. I’ll cite one example.
The Sisteen Chapel, which as its name implies, was painted in the Sisteenth Century, by Michaelangelo to celebrate Italy’s 2-0 victory over France in the 1634 World Cup Final. In those days, a century took its name from the first two digits of the year. It was only after the Renaissance, a period called the Retorporance (the so called “Iron Pyrite Age” of thought) that it was decided to name it after the first two digits of the year minus one, after Pope James the Simple had misdated his cheques for the first thirty years.
This was the first World Cup contested after the Hundred Years War. One of William Shakespeare’s great regrets, in fact, was not being able to travel away to watch England contest the Cup. There is some evidence that many of his sonnets, were written in honour of his beloved English side. Clearly the whole last act of Macbeth is allegorical, referring to England’s 7-1 hammering of the Scots in a friendly held between Crusades at the behest of Henry VIII, to take people’s attention away from his spousal life insurance scams and his poor dress sense.
I could go on, but my mother wants me.
Regards,
—=L
What grandiloquent repartee! My ears are aflutter with the resonance of the syllables slithering about. Mercy!
–Nott, the easily astounded
I don’t know anything about the ultimate origin of the halo, so I can’t address where the Greeks came up with it, or if they borrowed it from yet another culture.
However, there is good evidence that the Christian convention of representing holy persons with halos is based on imperial Roman practice. Roman emperors were often represented with halos, probably in reference to the sun god Helios or to solar cults, like that of Sol Invictus (popular in the third-fourth century CE). After Rome became Christian, and moved the headquarters to Constantinople, the Byzantine emperors continued the tradition; for example, we find the Byzantine emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora represented with halos in the famous mosaics at Ravenna, dated to 526-547 CE: http://www.ou.edu/class/ahi4263/byzhtml/p03-08.html
If you look around that website a little (follow the links to “Monuments of Ravenna Index”), you’ll find similarly dated images of Christ and saints already wearing halos.
So the boundaries between the political and religious connotations of the halo were often blurred during the Late Roman/ Early Christian periods. It wasn’t till much later, around the Renaissance, that the halo became an exclusively religious symbol (at least for European art).