Ecce homo

"Behold the Man." Nietzsche's autobiography. An interesting rant, composed during his descent into madness from syphilis. Nonetheless, great insight into the body of his work as a whole can be derived from the reading of it.

"Behold the man."

The words spoken by Pilate in John 19:5 as he presents the crowned Jesus to the mob. Paintings which show Jesus at this moment have thus have inherited the name. Nietzsche used the words to announce that he is the Antichrist.

Ecce homo is also the name of the laundry detergent in the film Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown) by legendary Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. Pepa is an actress in a laundry detergent commercial, where she plays the mother of a famous murderer. She helps her son escape from the police by washing all his bloody clothes in Ecce Homo (thus dissolving the evidence).

Some deep-level satire of consumerist desires is probably at work here, but I have no clue what it is.

Ec"ce ho"mo (?). [L., behold the man. See John xix. 5.] Paint.

A picture which represents the Savior as given up to the people by Pilate, and wearing a crown of thorns.

 

© Webster 1913.