European Renaissance: Moses Misinformation
I have often seen sculptures of Moses where he is depicted with horns protruding from his head.
In fact, one of the most famous statues of the Hebrew leader was created by Michelangeo—one of the greatest sculptors of both the renaissance as well as any other human era.
Why would Moses, or anyone considered to be on the side of the righteous, have horns? That has long been a question of mine.
It seems this horned depiction is merely due to misinformation.
When translating the Bible from Hebrew, apparently the phrase for “rays of light,” or more idiomatically “halo,” was misinterpreted as “horns.” This is due to one of the words in the original phrase having dual meaning: “karan,” meaning either “ray,” or “horn.” For some reason the translator went with "horn."
And so it is.
So for almost 500 years our eyes have been flooded with images like this, due to a translation issue.
I never would have guessed the answer to be so straightforward; I always assumed I was missing something. I imagine the people’s minds were once also filled with these images, however strange they may have appeared.
Either way, the result is great art—albeit with rather confusing, misrepresented elements—but great art nonetheless.
Now, let's hope there's not a movement to remove all of those horns. Sometimes truth should yield to art.