Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, by Marco Palmezzano (Uffizi, Florence), painting ca. 1490

Crucifixion is an ancient method of deliberately painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead.

Crucifixion was in use at a comparatively high rate among the Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. In the year 337, Emperor Constantine I abolished it in the Roman Empire out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.^[1][2] It was also used as a form of execution in Japan for criminals, inflicted also on some Christians.

A crucifix (an image of Christ crucified on a cross) is the main religious symbol for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but most Protestant Christians prefer to use a cross without the figure (the "corpus": Latin for "body") of Christ. Most crucifixes portray Jesus on a Latin cross, rather than any other shape, such as a Tau cross or a Greek cross.^[3]

Etymology[link]

Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: ana-stauro (ἀνασταυρόω), from stauros, "stake", and apo-tumpanizo (ἀποτυμπανίζω) "crucify on a plank." ^[4] together with anaskolopizo (ἀνασκολοπίζω "impale"). In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means "impale."^[5][6][7] The word xylon "piece of wood" was also used, but for a gallows, not a stake, as in the Aristophanes comedy The Frogs; "if you stumble, at least you'll hang from a respectable tree."^[8]

The Latin term crux may mean a gallows^[9][10] or a stake.^[11]

The English term crucifix derives from the Latin crucifixus or cruci fixus, past participle passive of crucifigere or cruci figere, meaning "to crucify" or "to fix to a cross".^[12]

Details[link]

Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio

Crucifixion was often performed to terrorize and dissuade its witnesses from perpetrating particularly heinous crimes. Victims were left on display after death as warnings to others who might attempt dissent. Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful (hence the term excruciating, literally "out of crucifying"), gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and time period.

The Greek and Latin words corresponding to "crucifixion" applied to many different forms of painful execution, from impaling on a stake to affixing to a tree, to an upright pole (a crux simplex) or to a combination of an upright (in Latin, stipes) and a crossbeam (in Latin, patibulum).^[13]

In some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the crossbeam on his shoulders to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh well over 300 pounds (135 kg), but the crossbeam would not be quite as burdensome, weighing around 75–125 pounds (35–60 kg).^{[citation needed]} The Roman historian Tacitus records that the city of Rome had a specific place for carrying out executions, situated outside the Esquiline Gate,^[14] and had a specific area reserved for the execution of slaves by crucifixion.^[15] Upright posts would presumably be fixed permanently in that place, and the crossbeam, with the condemned person perhaps already nailed to it, would then be attached to the post.

The person executed may have been attached to the cross by rope, though nails are mentioned in a passage by the Judean historian Josephus, where he states that at the Siege of Jerusalem (70), "the soldiers out of rage and hatred, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest."^[16] Objects used in the crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as amulets with perceived medicinal qualities.^[17]

While a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals, writings by Seneca the Younger suggest that victims were crucified completely nude.^[18] When the victim had to urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of passers-by, resulting in discomfort and the attraction of insects. Despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators. Cicero for example, described crucifixion as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment",^[19] and suggested that "the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears."^[20]

Frequently, the legs of the person executed were broken or shattered with an iron club, an act called crurifragium, which was also frequently applied without crucifixion to slaves.^[21] This act hastened the death of the person but was also meant to deter those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses.^[21]

Cross shape[link]

Crux simplex, a simple wooden stake. Image by Justus Lipsius

The crucifixion of Jesus. Image by Justus Lipsius^[22]

The gibbet on which crucifixion was carried out could be of many shapes. Josephus describes multiple tortures and positions of crucifixion during the Siege of Jerusalem as Titus crucified the rebels;^[23] and Seneca the Younger recounts: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet."^[18]

At times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin crux simplex.^[24] This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned. Frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T (crux commissa) or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism (crux immissa).^[25] Jehovah's Witnesses argue that Jesus was crucified on a crux simplex, and that the crux immissa was an invention of Emperor Constantine. Other forms were in the shape of the letters X and Y.

The New Testament writings about the crucifixion of Jesus do not speak specifically about the shape of that cross, but the early writings that do speak of its shape, from about the year 100 on, describe it as shaped like the letter T (the Greek letter tau)^[26] or as composed of an upright and a transverse beam, sometimes with a small ledge in the upright.^[27]

Nail placement[link]

Crucifixion window by Henry E. Sharp, 1872, in St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Charleston, South Carolina

In popular depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus (possibly because in translations of John 20:25 the wounds are described as being "in his hands"), Jesus is shown with nails in his hands. But in Greek the word "χείρ", usually translated as "hand", referred to arm and hand together,^[28] and to denote the hand as distinct from the arm some other word was added, as "ἄκρην οὔτασε χεῖρα" (he wounded the end of the χείρ, i.e., he wounded her hand).^[29]

A possibility that does not require tying is that the nails were inserted just above the wrist, between the two bones of the forearm (the radius and the ulna).^[30]

An experiment that was the subject of a documentary on the National Geographic Channel's Quest For Truth: The Crucifixion,^[31] showed that a person can be suspended by the palm of the hand. Nailing the feet to the side of the cross relieves strain on the wrists by placing most of the weight on the lower body.

Another possibility, suggested by Frederick Zugibe, is that the nails may have been driven in at an angle, entering in the palm in the crease that delineates the bulky region at the base of the thumb, and exiting in the wrist, passing through the carpal tunnel.

A foot-rest (suppedaneum) attached to the cross, perhaps for the purpose of taking the person's weight off the wrists, is sometimes included in representations of the crucifixion of Jesus, but is not discussed in ancient sources. Some scholars interpret the Alexamenos graffito, the earliest surviving depiction of the Crucifixion, as including such a foot-rest.^[32] Ancient sources also mention the sedile, a small seat attached to the front of the cross, about halfway down,^[33] which could have served a similar purpose. A short upright spike or cornu might also be attached to the sedile, forcing the victim to rest his or her perineum on the point of the device, or allow it to insert into the anus or vagina.^[18] These devices were not an attempt to relieve suffering, but would prolong the process of death. The cornu would also add considerably to the pain and humiliation of crucifixion.

In 1968, archaeologists discovered at Giv'at ha-Mivtar in northeast Jerusalem the remains of one Jehohanan, who had been crucified in the 1st century. The remains included a heel bone with a nail driven through it from the side. The tip of the nail was bent, perhaps because of striking a knot in the upright beam, which prevented it being extracted from the foot. A first inaccurate account of the length of the nail led some to believe that it had been driven through both heels, suggesting that the man had been placed in a sort of sidesaddle position, but the true length of the nail, 11.5 cm (4.53 inches), suggests instead that in this case of crucifixion the heels were nailed to opposite sides of the upright.^[34][35][36] The skeleton from Giv'at ha-Mivtar is currently the only recovered example of ancient crucifixion in the archaeological record.^[37]

Cause of death[link]

The length of time required to reach death could range from hours to days depending on method, the victim's health, and the environment. Death could result from any combination of causes, including blood loss resulting in hypovolemic shock, sepsis following infection due to the wounds caused by the nails or by the scourging that sometimes preceded the crucifixion, or eventual dehydration.^[38][39]

A theory attributed to Pierre Barbet holds that, when the whole body weight was supported by the stretched arms, the typical cause of death was asphyxiation.^[40] He conjectured that the condemned would have severe difficulty inhaling, due to hyper-expansion of the chest muscles and lungs. The condemned would therefore have to draw himself up by his arms, leading to exhaustion, or have his feet supported by tying or by a wood block. When no longer able to lift himself, the condemned would die within a few minutes. Experiments by Frederick Zugibe have, however, revealed that, when suspended with arms at 60° to 70° from the vertical, test subjects had no difficulty breathing. Subjects did suffer rapidly increasing pain,^[41][42] which is consistent with the Roman use of crucifixion to achieve a prolonged, agonizing death. Legs were often broken to hasten death through severe traumatic shock and fat embolism.

Survival[link]

Since death does not follow immediately on crucifixion, survival after a short period of crucifixion is possible, as in the case of those who choose each year as a devotional practice to be non-lethally crucified.

There is an ancient record of one person who survived a crucifixion that was intended to be lethal, but that was interrupted. Josephus recounts: "I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician's hands, while the third recovered."^[43] Josephus gives no details of the method or duration of the crucifixion of his three friends before their reprieve.

Ancient crucifixion[link]

Despite the fact that the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, as well as other sources, refers to the crucifixion of thousands of people by the Romans, there is only a single archaeological discovery of a crucified body dating back to the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus. This was discovered in Jerusalem in 1968. It is not necessarily surprising that there is only one such discovery, because a crucified body was usually left to decay on the cross and therefore would not be preserved. The only reason these archaeological remains were preserved was because family members gave this particular individual a customary burial.

The remains were found accidentally in an ossuary with the crucified man’s name on it, 'Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol'.^[44][45] Nicu Haas, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem, examined the ossuary and discovered that it contained a heel bone with a nail driven through its side, indicating that the man had been crucified. The position of the nail relative to the bone indicates that the feet had been nailed to the cross from their side, not from their front; various opinions have been proposed as to whether they were both nailed together to the front of the cross or one on the left side, one on the right side. The point of the nail had olive wood fragments on it indicating that he was crucified on a cross made of olive wood or on an olive tree. Since olive trees are not very tall, this would suggest that the condemned was crucified at eye level.

Additionally, a piece of acacia wood was located between the bones and the head of the nail, presumably to keep the condemned from freeing his foot by sliding it over the nail. His legs were found broken, possibly to hasten his death as described in John 19:31-35. It is thought that because in Roman times iron was rare, the nails were removed from the dead body to conserve costs. According to Haas, this fact could help to explain why only one nail has been found, as the tip of the nail in question was bent in such a way that it could not be removed.

Haas had also identified a scratch on the inner surface of the right radius bone of the forearm, close to the wrist. He deduced from the form of the scratch, as well as from the intact wrist bones, that a nail had been driven into the forearm at that position. However, much of Haas' findings have been challenged. The scratches in the wrist area were determined to be non-traumatic and, therefore, not evidence of crucifixion.^[46] A later reexamination of the heel bone revealed that the two heels were not nailed together, but nailed separately to either side of the upright post of the cross.^{[citation needed]}

History and religious texts[link]

Pre-Roman States[link]

The Orpheos Bakkikos crucifixion, hematite seal reflecting ancient Greek themes, considered to be from the third or fourth century CE,^[47][48][49] although a more recent source concludes that it is from the early Christian era.^[50] Formerly housed at the Altes Museum in Berlin, but lost or destroyed during World War II.

Crucifixion (or impalement), in one form or another, was used by Persians, Carthaginians, Macedonians, and Romans. Death was often hastened. "The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim."^[39]

The Greeks were generally opposed to performing crucifixions.^[51] However, in his Histories, ix.120–122, the Greek writer Herodotus describes the execution of a Persian general at the hands of Athenians in about 479 BC: "They nailed him to a plank and hung him up ... this Artayctes who suffered death by crucifixion."^[52] The Commentary on Herodotus by How and Wells remarks: "They crucified him with hands and feet stretched out and nailed to cross-pieces; cf. vii.33. This barbarity, unusual on the part of Greeks, may be explained by the enormity of the outrage or by Athenian deference to local feeling."^[53]

Some Christian theologians, beginning with Paul of Tarsus writing in Galatians 3:13, have interpreted an allusion to crucifixion in Deuteronomy 21:22-23. This reference is to being hanged from a tree, and may be associated with lynching or traditional hanging. However, ancient Jewish law allowed only 4 methods of execution: stoning, burning, strangulation, and decapitation. Crucifixion was thus forbidden by ancient Jewish law.^[54] The Aramaic Testament of Levi (DSS 4Q541) interprets in column 6: "God [will set] right errors. [He will judge] revealed sins. Investigate and seek and know how Jonah wept. Thus, you shall not destroy the weak by wasting away or by [crucif]ixion. Let not the nail touch him."^[55]

Alexander the Great is reputed to have crucified 2000 survivors from his siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre,^[56] as well as the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Alexander's friend Hephaestion. Some historians have also conjectured that Alexander crucified Callisthenes, his official historian and biographer, for objecting to Alexander's adoption of the Persian ceremony of royal adoration.

In Carthage, crucifixion was an established mode of execution, which could even be imposed on a general for suffering a major defeat.

Ancient Rome[link]

The hypothesis that the Ancient Roman custom of crucifixion may have developed out of a primitive custom of arbori suspendere—hanging on an arbor infelix (unfortunate tree) dedicated to the gods of the nether world—is rejected by William A. Oldfather, who shows that this form of execution (the supplicium more maiorum, punishment in accordance with the custom of our ancestors) consisted of suspending someone from a tree, not dedicated to any particular gods, and flogging him to death.^[57] Tertullian mentions a 1st-century AD case in which trees were used for crucifixion,^[58] but Seneca the Younger earlier used the phrase infelix lignum (unfortunate wood) for the transom ("patibulum") or the whole cross.^[59] Plautus and Plutarch are the two main sources for accounts of criminals carrying their own patibulum to the upright stipes.^[60]

Crucifix, sculpture by Michelangelo, Santo Spirito Church, Florence, Italy (ca. 1494), a depiction of naked crucifixion with the genitals of the condemned exposed

Crucifixion was used for slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. It was considered a most shameful and disgraceful way to die. Condemned Roman citizens were usually exempt from crucifixion (like feudal nobles from hanging, dying more honorably by decapitation) except for major crimes against the state, such as high treason.^{[citation needed]}

Notorious mass crucifixions followed the Third Servile War in 73–71 BC (the slave rebellion under Spartacus), other Roman civil wars in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. To frighten other slaves from revolting, Crassus crucified 6,000 of Spartacus' men along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome.^{[citation needed]} Josephus tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. He also says that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions. In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned could take up to a few days to die. The dead body was left up for vultures and other birds to consume.^{[citation needed]}

Under ancient Roman penal practice, crucifixion was also a means of exhibiting the criminal’s low social status. It was the most dishonourable death imaginable, originally reserved for slaves, hence still called "supplicium servile" by Seneca, later extended to provincial freedmen of obscure station ('humiles').^{[citation needed]} The citizen class of Roman society were almost never subject to capital punishments; instead, they were fined or exiled. Josephus mentions Jews of high rank who were crucified, but this was to point out that their status had been taken away from them. The Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually forbade burial.^{[citation needed]}

A cruel prelude was occasionally scourging, which would cause the condemned to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. The convict then usually had to carry the horizontal beam (patibulum in Latin) to the place of execution, but not necessarily the whole cross.^{[citation needed]} Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding centurion and four soldiers.^{[citation needed]} When it was done in an established place of execution, the vertical beam (stipes) could even be permanently embedded in the ground.^{[citation needed]} The condemned was usually stripped naked—all the New Testament gospels describe soldiers gambling for the robes of Jesus.^[61]

The 'nails' were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 inches (13 to 18 cm) long, with a square shaft ³⁄₈ inches (10 mm) across. In some cases, the nails were gathered afterward and used as healing amulets.

Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 out of veneration for Jesus Christ, its most famous victim.^[1][62][63]

In the Qur'an[link]

The Qur'an mentions crucifixion several times. In Surah 7:124, Firaun (Arabic for Pharaoh) says that he will crucify his chief wizards.^[64] Also, Surah 12:41 mentions Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) prophesying that the king (the current ruler of the land he was stranded in) would crucify one of his prisoners.^[65]

'And the wizards fell down prostrate, crying: "We believe in the Lord of the Worlds, The Lord of Musa and Harun". Firaun said: "Ye believe in Him before I give you leave! Lo! this is the plot that ye have plotted in the city that ye may drive its people hence. But ye shall come to know! Surely I shall have your hands and feet cut off upon alternate sides. Then I shall crucify you every one."' Surah 7:120-124^[64]

'O my two fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, he will pour out wine for his lord to drink; and as for the other, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head. Thus is the case judged concerning which ye did inquire.' Surah 12:41^[65]

In Surah 5:33, The Qur'an mentions crucifixion as a form of punishment. There are four different punishments for the different severities of crime. Crucifixion is the punishment for the robber who kills his victim after robbing him.

'The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.' Surah 5:33^[66]

Japan[link]

Early Meiji-era crucifixion of Sokichi, Yokohama, Japan

Crucifixion was introduced into Japan during the Sengoku period (1467–1573), after a 350-year period with no capital punishment.^[67] It is believed to have been suggested to the Japanese by the introduction of Christianity to the region.^[67] Known in Japanese as haritsuke (磔^?), crucifixion was used in Japan before and during the Tokugawa Shogunate. The condemned, usually a commoner convicted by the local feudal authorities, was hoisted upon a T-shaped cross. The executioner finished him off with spear thrusts from below the ribcage, then the body was left to hang for a time as a public display before disposal.

In 1597, twenty-six Christians were nailed to crosses at Nagasaki, Japan. Among those executed were Paulo Miki, Philip of Jesus and Pedro Bautista, a Spanish Franciscan who had worked about ten years in the Philippines. The executions marked the beginning of a long history of persecution of Christianity in Japan, which continued until the Meiji Restoration introduced religious freedom in Japan in 1871.

The historical novel Silence by Shusaku Endo gives an account of the 17th century Christian persecutions based upon the oral histories of contemporary Kakure Kirishitan communities.

In the early Meiji period (c. 1865-8), the 25 year-old servant Sokichi was executed by crucifixion for the murder of the son of his employer, a store-owner, during the course of a robbery.^[68] He was affixed to a stake with two cross-pieces by tying, rather than nailing.

Crucifixion was used as a punishment for prisoners of war during World War II. Ringer Edwards, an Australian prisoner of war, was crucified for killing cattle, along with two others. He survived 63 hours before being let down.

Europe[link]

During World War I, there were persistent rumors that German soldiers had crucified a Canadian soldier on a tree or barn door with bayonets or combat knives. The event was initially reported in 1915 by Private George Barrie of the 1st Canadian Division. Two investigations, one a post-war official investigation, and the other an independent investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, concluded that there was no evidence to support the story.^[69] However, British documentary maker Iain Overton in 2001 published an article claiming that the story was true, identifying the soldier as Harry Band.^[69][70] Overton's article was the basis for a 2002 episode of the Channel 4 documentary show Secret History.^[71]

It has been reported that crucifixion was used in several cases against the German civil population of East Prussia when it was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of the Second World War.^[72]

Crucifixion today[link]

Theoretically, crucifixion is still one of the Hadd punishments in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran's Islamic Criminal Law, Article 195),^[73][74] although it is not actually applied^{[citation needed]} and there is no example of its use. If a crucified person were to survive three days of crucifixion, that person would be allowed to live.^[75] Execution by hanging is described as follows: "In execution by hanging, the prisoner will be hung on a hanging truss which should look like a cross, while his (her) back is toward the cross, and (s)he faces the direction of Mecca [in Saudi Arabia], and his (her) legs are vertical and distant from the ground."^[76]

Sudan's penal code, based upon the government's interpretation of Shari'a, includes execution followed by crucifixion as a penalty. When, in 2002, 88 people were sentenced to execution, Amnesty International speculated that they could be executed by either hanging or crucifixion. The accused were convicted of crimes relating to murder, armed robbery, and participating in ethnic clashes in Southern Darfur that killed at least 10 people, but Amnesty International believes that the convicted were tortured and did not receive fair trials and adequate legal representation.^[77]

In the 50th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (1994), local bishops reported several cases of crucifixion of Christian priests.^{[citation needed]}

The human rights group Karen Women Organization documented a case of Tatmadaw forces crucifying several Karen villagers in 2000 in the Dooplaya District in Burma's Kayin State.^[78][79]

The crucifixion of a nun in Romania made news in 2005. 23 year-old Maricica Irina Cornici was believed to be possessed by the devil. Father Daniel, the superior of the Romanian Orthodox monastery who ordered the crucifixion, did not understand why journalists were making a fuss over the story, claiming that "Exorcism is a common practice in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests." Father Daniel and four nuns were charged with imprisonment leading to death.^[80]

On 23 November 2009 in Saudi Arabia, a 22-year-old man was sentenced to beheading and posthumous crucifixion, by having his beheaded body tied to wooden beams to be displayed to the public after the beheading. The man was convicted of and admitted to abducting and raping five children, aged between 3 and 7 years, whom he left out in the desert to die.^[81]

On 1 May 2011, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency investigated a dead taxi driver in his late 50s who was crucified in an abandoned mine near Mungyeong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.^[82]

As a devotional practice[link]

Devotional crucifixion in San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines, Easter 2006

Since at least the mid-19th century, a group of Catholic flagellants in New Mexico called Hermanos de Luz ("Brothers of Light") have annually conducted reenactments of Jesus Christ's crucifixion during Holy Week, in which a penitent is tied—but not nailed—to a cross.

Some Catholics are voluntarily, non-lethally crucified for a limited time on Good Friday, to imitate the suffering of Jesus Christ, although the Church greatly discourages this practice. A notable example is the ceremonial re-enactment that has been performed yearly in the town of Iztapalapa, on the outskirts of Mexico City, since 1833.^[83]

Devotional crucifixions are also common in the Philippines. Worshipers drive thin nails through the palm of the hand, a step is used to stand on, and the period is short, not a full crucifixion. One man named Rolando del Campo who was a carpenter in Pampanga vowed to be crucified every Good Friday for 15 years if God would carry his wife through a difficult childbirth.^[84] In San Pedro Cutud, devotee Ruben Enaje has been crucified 21 times, as of 2007, during Passion Week celebrations.^[85][86] Although the country's dominant Catholic Church disapproves of the ritual, the Filipino government says it cannot stop the devotees from crucifying and whipping themselves. The health department insists that those taking part in the rituals should have tetanus shots and that the nails used to pierce their limbs should be sterilized.^[87]

In many cases the person portraying Jesus is first subjected to flagellation and wears a crown of thorns. Sometimes there is a whole passion play, sometimes only the mortification of the flesh.

Famous crucifixions[link]

• The crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth's death by crucifixion by Pontius Pilate (most likely in AD 30 or 33), recounted in the four first-century canonical Gospels, is referred to repeatedly as something well known in the earlier letters of Saint Paul, for instance, five times in his First Letter to the Corinthians, written in AD 57 (1:13, 1:18, 1:23, 2:2, 2:8). Pilate was the Roman governor of Iudaea province at the time, and he is explicitly linked with the condemnation of Jesus not only by the Gospels but also by Tacitus,^[88] (see Responsibility for the death of Jesus for details). The civil charge was a claim to be King of the Jews.
• The rebel slaves of the Third Servile War: Between 73 BC and 71 BC a band of slaves, eventually numbering about 120,000, under the (at least partial) leadership of Spartacus were in open revolt against the Roman republic. The rebellion was eventually crushed, and while Spartacus himself most likely died in the final battle of the revolt, approximately 6,000 of his followers were crucified along the 200 km road between Capua and Rome, as a warning to any other would-be rebels.
• Saint Peter, Christian apostle: according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down at his own request (hence the Cross of St. Peter), as he did not feel worthy to die the same way as Jesus.
• Saint Andrew, Christian apostle and Saint Peter's brother: crucified, according to tradition, on an X-shaped cross, hence the name St. Andrew's Cross
• Simeon of Jerusalem, 2nd Bishop of Jerusalem, crucified either 106 or 107
• Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln was an English boy whose disappearance in 1255 prompted a blood libel against the local Jews. A Jewish man was tortured until he confessed to killing the child. The story of Little Saint Hugh became well known through medieval ballad poetry.
• Archbishop Joachim of Nizhny Novgorod: reportedly crucified upside down, on the Royal Doors of the Cathedral in Sevastopol, Russia in 1920
• Wilgefortis was venerated as a saint and represented as a crucified woman, however her legend comes from a misinterpretation of the full-clothed crucifix of Lucca.

See also[link]

• Crucifixion darkness and eclipse
• Crucifixion in the arts
• Crucifixion of Jesus
• List of methods of capital punishment
• Seven Sorrows of Mary
• Torture

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Crucifixion

• "Forensic and Clinical Knowledge of the Practice of Crucifixion" by Dr. Frederick Zugibe
• Jesus's death on the cross, from a medical perspective
• "Crucifixion in antiquity - The Anthropological evidence" By Joe Zias
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Crucifixion
• Crucifixion of Joachim of Nizhny-Novgorod
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Sebastian Horsley and his mother at a retrospective of his work at Spectrum London gallery, London, 2007.

Sebastian Horsley (born Marcus A. Horsley; 8 August 1962 – 17 June 2010^[1]) was a London artist best known for having undergone a voluntary crucifixion. Horsley's writing often revolved around his dysfunctional family, his drug addictions, sex, and his reliance on prostitutes.

Background[link]

Horsley was born in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of Nicholas Horsley, the chairman of Northern Foods, founded by Nicholas's father, Alec, from 1970 until the role was assumed by Christopher Haskins.^[2] According to Horsley's autobiography, Dandy in the Underworld, his birth name was Marcus, but his mother had decided to change it to Sebastian by the time she had returned from the hospital. His name was officially changed by deed poll in 1967.

Horsley had an older sister, a psychotherapist named Ashley, as well as a younger brother, Jason Horsley.^[3] His mother, the former Valerie Edwards, was a Welsh typist.^[4] After his parents' divorce, Horsley's father married Sabitha Sarkar (married 1975-1987) and Alwyne Law (married 1998). His mother did not remarry but later became known as Valerie Walmsley-Hunter.

As Horsley wrote in his memoirs, following the divorce of his parents in 1975, "Clearly everyone in my life who should have been vertical was horizontal". In an interview she gave to The Sunday Times, Horsley's mother admits that her son's childhood was profoundly difficult, saying, "I don't think Nicholas ever went to bed sober and I was always in a fog. Sebastian and my other two children were accidents and, though it seems shocking to admit, I drank all the way through my pregnancies." ^[5]

In 1983, Horsley married Evelynn Smith (born Evelynn Anne Smith, 8 September 1962 - 18 April 2003), the daughter of a Scottish painter and decorator, and who, together with Meriel Scott, constituted the art and furniture-design company Precious McBane. Horsley and Smith separated in 1990; she died of an aneurysm at age 40.^[6]

The sign at the entrance to the home of Sebastian Horsley

Horsley lived at 7 Meard Street,^[7][8] London, where the sign on the door still reads: "This Is Not A Brothel / There Are No Prostitutes At This Address".^[9]

Art and writing[link]

In August 2000 Horsley travelled to the Philippines to experience a crucifixion, in order to prepare for a series of paintings on the topic. Refusing pain killers, he was nailed to a cross and passed out. The foot rest broke and he only avoided serious injury by being caught by onlookers. A film and photos of the event, as well as his subsequent paintings of crosses, were exhibited in London in 2002.^[10]

In an editorial article in The Observer in 2004, he described his preference for sex with prostitutes, writing "What I hate with women generally is the intimacy, the invasion of my innermost space, the slow strangulation of my art." He also stated that he himself had worked as a prostitute for a while. He argued that prostitution should not be legalized, as that would take away part of its thrill.^[11]

Horsley ran a monthly column in the Erotic Review from 1998 to 2004. In early 2006, Horsley together with Marion McBride began to run a weekly sex advice column in The Observer. Four months later, after graphic discussions of oral and anal sex had led to numerous complaints from outraged readers, the column was discontinued.^[12]

Horsley, a self-described dandy,^[13] praised his chosen home of Soho in an article in 2006,^[14] though he had grown increasingly unhappy at what he saw as the decline of Soho as a centre of loose morals and bohemian bars, bemoaning the closure of haunts such as the Colony Room. Speaking following the death of the Colony Room's last proprietor Michael Wojas in June 2010, a week before his own death, he told The Independent: " The air used to be clean and the sex used to be dirty. Now it is the other way around. Soho has lost its heart." ^[15]

In September 2007, the Spectrum London gallery staged Hookers, Dealers, Tailors, a retrospective by Horsley.^[16] The show documented his diving in Australian shark-infested water and copiously ingesting deadly drugs.^[17]

His memoir, Dandy in the Underworld, named after the T.Rex album of same name (Horsley counted Marc Bolan as one of his idols) was published in the UK by Sceptre in September 2007 and in the USA in March 2008 from Harper Perennial. In it, he claims to have had an affair with the Scottish gangster-turned-artist Jimmy Boyle. Horsley further stated that his late wife, Evelynn, also had an affair with Boyle,^[18] who served as best man at the couple's wedding, according to Horsley's mother.^[5]

A one-man play, Dandy in the Underworld, written and directed by Tim Fountain opened at the Soho Theatre in London on 15 June 2010, one day prior to Horsley's death. The role of Horsley (the sole character in the play) is performed by Milo Twomey.

U.S. entry denied[link]

Horsley was denied entry into the United States on 19 March 2008, after arriving at Newark Airport for a book tour. Immigration officers denied his entry claiming issues of moral turpitude. A customs official said that "...travellers who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (which includes controlled-substance violations) or admit to previously having a drug addiction are not admissible...". After eight hours of questioning, he was placed on a plane and sent back to London. Horsley had told the Associated Press that he had prepared for the visit; his one concession: removing his nail polish.^[19]

Death[link]

Horsley was found dead at his London home on 17 June 2010 of a heroin and cocaine overdose.^{[1][9][20][21]} A friend, the journalist Toby Young, said he believed Horsley's death was an accident: "If it had been suicide Sebastian would not have passed up the opportunity to write a note. It's a tragic loss of life." In an interview in April 2008, Horsley romanticised dying "destitute in the arms of a prostitute," though not immediately dying "if that's alright with you."^[22][23]

His funeral took place on 1 July 2010, at St James's, Piccadilly, and was attended by more than 400 mourners, among them Marc Almond and the writer Will Self. Horsley's coffin arrived at the church in a horse-drawn hearse. Among those who paid tribute to him were Stephen Fry who spoke of his friend's "essential sweetness" and his "brown eyes" that stopped "just short of pleading". The coffin was carried out of the church to the strains of Marc Bolan's "20th Century Boy".

At the inquest on 17 August 2010 the Westminster Coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, decided that "[Horsley] was known to have abused drugs and to that extent he has been the author of his own misfortune."^[24]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sebastian Horsley's Blog
• "Boyle's Boy", a profile of Horsley in The Scotsman, 2007
• Obituary of Nicholas Horsley
• Interview with Valerie (Edwards Horsley) Walmsley-Hunter, The Guardian, 2005
• Article about Horsley and his crucifixion in the Observer, 2002
• Independent books
• 3:AM interview by Sophie Parkin
• Tribute and correspondence by Tony O'Neill
• Sebastian Horsley's interview 2008, Mudkiss Fanzine
• Sebastian Horsley in Conversation with John Robb on TinCan.TV
• Independent obituary

Philip David Ochs ( /ˈoʊks/; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and distinctive voice. He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and released eight albums in his lifetime.

Ochs performed at many political events, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Politically, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat" who became an "early revolutionary" after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.^[1]

After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s. He eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and took his own life in 1976.

Some of Ochs's major influences were Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Bob Gibson, Faron Young, Merle Haggard, John Wayne, and John F. Kennedy. His best-known songs include "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Changes", "Crucifixion", "Draft Dodger Rag", "Love Me, I'm a Liberal", "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", "Power and the Glory", "There but for Fortune", and "The War Is Over".

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Phil Ochs was born in El Paso, Texas, to Jacob ("Jack") Ochs, a physician who was born in New York in 1910,^[2] and Gertrude Phin Ochs, who was born in Scotland.^[3] His parents met and married in Edinburgh where Jack was attending medical school.^[4] After their marriage, they moved to the United States. Jack, drafted into the army, was sent overseas at the end of World War II, where he treated soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge. His war experiences affected his mental health and he received an honorable medical discharge in November 1945.^[5] On his return, Jack, who suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, worked at a series of hospitals around the country, unable to establish a successful medical practice.^[4] As a result, the Ochs family moved frequently: to Far Rockaway, New York, when Ochs was a teenager; then to Perrysburg in upstate New York, where he first studied music; and then to Columbus, Ohio.^[6]

Ochs grew up with an older sister, Sonia (known as Sonny), and a younger brother, Michael.^[7] The Ochs family was middle class and Jewish, but not religious.^[8] His father was distant from his wife and children, and was hospitalized for depression.^[9] He died in 1963 from a cerebral hemorrhage.^[10]

As a teenager, Ochs was recognized as a talented clarinet player; in an evaluation, one music instructor wrote: "You have exceptional musical feeling and the ability to transfer it on your instrument is abundant."^[11] His musical skills allowed him to play clarinet with the orchestra at the Capital University Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he rose to the status of principal soloist before he was 16. Although Ochs played classical music, he soon became interested in other sounds he heard on the radio, such as early rock icons Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley and country music artists including Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Sr., and Johnny Cash.^[12]

Ochs also spent a lot of time at the movies. He especially liked big screen heroes such as John Wayne and Audie Murphy.^[13] Later on, he developed an interest in movie rebels, including Marlon Brando and James Dean.^[14]

From 1956 to 1958, Ochs was a student at the Staunton Military Academy in rural Virginia, and when he graduated he returned to Columbus and enrolled in the Ohio State University.^[15] Unhappy after his first semester, he took a leave of absence and went to Florida. While in Miami, the 18-year-old Ochs was jailed for two weeks for sleeping on a park bench, an incident he would later recall:

"Somewhere during the course of those fifteen days I decided to become a writer. My primary thought was journalism ... so in a flash I decided—I'll be a writer and a major in journalism."^[16]

Bob Gibson was a major influence on Ochs's writing.

Ochs returned to Ohio State to study journalism and developed an interest in politics, with a particular interest in the Cuban Revolution of 1959. At Ohio State he met Jim Glover, a fellow student who was a devotee of folk music. Glover introduced Ochs to the music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and The Weavers. Glover taught Ochs how to play guitar, and they debated politics.^[13] Ochs began writing newspaper articles, often on radical themes. When the student paper refused to publish some of his more radical articles, he started his own underground newspaper called The Word. His two main interests, politics and music, soon merged, and Ochs began writing topical political songs. Ochs and Glover formed a duet called "The Singing Socialists",^[17] later renamed "The Sundowners", but the duo broke up before their first professional performance and Glover went to New York City to become a folksinger.^[18]

Ochs's parents and brother had moved from Columbus to Cleveland, and Ochs started to spend more time there, performing professionally at a local folk club called Farragher's Back Room. He was the opening act for a number of musicians in the summer of 1961, including the Smothers Brothers.^[19] Ochs met Bob Gibson that summer as well, and according to Dave Van Ronk, Gibson became "the seminal influence" on Ochs's writing.^[20] Ochs continued at Ohio State into his senior year, but was bitterly disappointed at not being appointed editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, and dropped out in his last semester without graduating. He left for New York, as Glover had, to become a folksinger.^[21]

1962–1966[link]

Ochs arrived in New York City in 1962 and began performing in numerous small folk nightclubs, eventually becoming an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene.^[23] He emerged as an unpolished but passionate vocalist who wrote pointed songs about current events: war, civil rights, labor struggles and other topics. While others described his music as "protest songs", Ochs preferred the term "topical songs".^[24]

Ochs described himself as a "singing journalist",^[25] saying he built his songs from stories he read in Newsweek.^[26] By the summer of 1963 he was sufficiently well known in folk circles to be invited to sing at the Newport Folk Festival, where he performed "Too Many Martyrs" (co-written with Bob Gibson), "Talking Birmingham Jam", and "Power and the Glory"—his patriotic Guthrie-esque anthem that brought the audience to its feet. Other performers at the 1963 folk festival included Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Tom Paxton.^[27] Ochs's return appearance at Newport in 1964, when he performed "Draft Dodger Rag" and other songs, was widely praised.^[28] But he was not invited to appear in 1965, the festival when Dylan infamously performed "Maggie's Farm" with an electric guitar. Although many in the folk world decried Dylan's choice, Ochs was amused, and admired Dylan's courage in defying the folk establishment.^[29][30]

During 1963, Ochs performed at New York's Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in hootenannies.^[31] He made his first solo appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1966.^[32] Throughout his career, Ochs would perform at a wide range of venues, including civil rights rallies, anti-war demonstrations, and concert halls.^[33]

Ochs contributed many songs and articles to the influential Broadside Magazine.^[34][35] He recorded his first three albums for Elektra Records: All the News That's Fit to Sing (1964), I Ain't Marching Anymore (1965), and Phil Ochs in Concert (1966).^[36] Critics wrote that each album was better than its predecessors, and fans seemed to agree; record sales increased with each new release.^[37]