On this blog we have seen how many paintings and frescoes show Jesus with red hair. And not only Jesus, but also the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, angels, archangels, and sometimes even John the Baptist and Saint Joseph.
Now, we have a poetic reference to Jesus’s alleged red hair.
The poem is by Giosuè Carducci (1835 – 1907), an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was born in Tuscany, near Lucca, and died in Bologna. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Giosuè Carducci in 1900
Carducci was a popular lecturer and a fierce critic of literature and society. In his youth he was an atheist, whose political views were vehemently hostile to the Catholic Church. In the course of his life, his views on religion shifted towards a socially oriented theism and in 1895 he was reconciled to the Catholic Church.
His anti-clerical revolutionary vehemence was prominently showcased in one famous poem, the deliberately blasphemous and provocative Inno a Satana (Hymn to Satan). "Satan" / "Lucifer" was considered by Italian leftists of the time as a metaphor for the rebellious and freethinking spirit. While Inno a Satana had quite a revolutionary impact, Carducci's finest poetry came in later years. His collections Rime Nuove (New Rhymes) and Odi Barbare (Barbarian Odes) contain his greatest works.
He was a Freemason of the Grand Orient of Italy and his father, a physician, was also a member of the Italian Carboneria.
Even during his lifetime, several literary critics expressed negative opinions about his poetry, calling him more of a professor than a poet. Some modern-day literary critics call him a minor poet and nowadays he is little studied in Italian schools.
The poem we are going to see is the ode Alle fonti del Clitunno (To the Sources of the Clitumnus), which is part of the collection Odi Barbare.
The Clitumnus is a river in Umbria, which rises from a
spring within a dozen metres of the ancient Via Flaminia near the town of Campello
sul Clitunno, between Spoleto and Trevi. The spring was well described by Pliny
the Younger, who records his visit toward the end of the first century AD. Virgil
mentions the site too in Book II of his Georgics.
It was visited by Caligula and by the emperor Honorius and even Byron celebrated
the great beauty of the spot. The Temple of Clitumnus, later a church, lies on its bank.
Source of
the Clitunno near Campello sul Clitunno
In this ode, the poet imagines an ancient world (which, obviously, never existed) made of serene country work, of simple family virtues, of friendly divinities linked to nature, of healthy heroism to defend one's land from enemies. But this world is finished, "all now is silent" and the clear river is "widowed".
Why? Because a “Galilean with red hair” took possession of Italy and replace with his faith the ancient one and, for Carducci, the core of this new faith is surrender and sacrifice. According to Carducci, Christian religion is against what people really desire, that is, a simple life of work, study and family love. However, as I said before, this idyllic pre-Christian world only lived in Carducci’s mind, because we know that, actually, it was quite the opposite.
I don’t know why Carducci decided to describe Jesus with red hair, but I’m pretty sure he was familiar with many of the paintings and frescoes where Jesus has this hair colour. Besides, he was a Freemason, so who knows… maybe he knew something we ignore.😉
I won’t quote the whole ode, because it’s very long, but you can read it here, both in Italian and in English. I will only quote three stanzas.
All now is silent, O Clitumnus widowed,
All. Of thy lovely temples one alone now
To thee remaineth, and a vested god there
Thou no more sittest. 108
No more besprinkled with thy sacred river
Lead they the white bulls, proud and patient victims.
Rich Roman trophies to the temples ancient :
Rome no more triumphs. 112
Triumphs no more, since that a Gahlean
With red hair mounted to the Capitohum,
Threw in her arms one of his crosses, saying
— Bear it, and serve thou. — 116
