For the history of its genesis and its diffusion the reader may consult D'Ancona, _La leggenda di Vergogna e la leggenda di Giuda_ (1869), and papers by W. Creizenach in Paul and Braune's _Beitr. zur Gesch. der deutschen Sprache und Litteratur_, vol. ii. (1875), and Victor Diederich in _Russiche Revue_ (1880). Cholevius, in his _Geschichte der deutschen Poesie nach ihren antiken Elementen_ (1854), pointed out the connexion of the legend with the Oedipus story. According to Daub (_Judas Ischariot, oder Betrachtungen über das Böse im Verhältniss zum Guten_, 1816, 1818) Judas was "an incarnation of the devil," to whom "mercy and blessedness are alike impossible."
The popular hatred of Judas has found strange symbolical expression in various parts of Christendom. In Corfu, for instance, the people at a given signal on Easter Eve throw vast quantities of crockery from their windows and roofs into the streets, and thus execute an imaginary stoning of Judas (see Kirkwall, _Ionian Islands_, ii. 47). At one time (according to Mustoxidi, _Delle cose corciresi_) the tradition prevailed that the traitor's house and country villa existed in the island, and that his descendants were to be found among the local Jews.
Details in regard to some Judas legends and superstitions are given in _Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, v., vi. and vii.; 3rd series, vii.; 4th series, i.; 5th series, vi. See also a paper by Professor Rendel Harris entitled "Did Judas really commit suicide?" in the _American Journal of Philology_ (July 1900). Matthew Arnold's poem "St Brandan" gives fine expression to the old story that, on account of an act of charity done to a leper at Joppa, Judas was allowed an hour's respite from hell once a year. (G. Mi.)
[1] Other forms make him a Danite, and consider the passage in Genesis (xlix. 17) a prophecy of the traitor.
JUDAS-TREE, the _Cercis siliquastrum_ of botanists, belonging to the section _Caesalpineae_ of the natural order Leguminosae. It is a native of the south of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Asia Minor, and forms a handsome low tree with a flat spreading head. In Spring it is covered with a profusion of purplish-pink flowers, which appear before the leaves. The flowers have an agreeable acid taste, and are eaten mixed with salad or made into fritters. The tree was frequently figured by the older herbalists. One woodcut by Castor Durante has the figure of Judas Iscariot suspended from one of the branches, illustrating the popular tradition regarding this tree. A second species, _C. canadensis_, is common in North America from Canada to Alabama and eastern Texas, and differs from the European species in its smaller size and pointed leaves. The flowers are also used in salads and for making pickles, while the branches are used to dye wool a nankeen colour.