As strange and disturbing as it may seem,
throughout history there have been numerous accounts of dog-headed people living in distant lands.
You’ve probably seen images of the Cynocephalus before..
“Cyno”, means dog-and “cephalus” means “of the head.”
For example, you’ve probably seen the Egyptian god Anubis – the God of death and embalming.
Anubis has been found in Egyptian tombs, and has the body of a man and the head of a jackal;
This is a Cynocephalus.
It makes for Interesting folklore.
But what if I told you this:
historically, the detailed written accounts by explorers, conquerors and missionaries - of these cynocephali
in India, Asia, Africa and Europe are actually rather consistent.
In fact, these strange beasts were described in writings as recent as the last few hundred years
...there are clear depictions of cynocephali in the writings of St Augustine, Alexander the Great,
Marco Polo, even Christopher Columbus!
While no skeletal remains of this creature have yet been made public,
there is enough consistent detail describing them to raise a few questions.
Here are some of the stories throughout history of cynocephali – or dog headed man – as described
by those who witnessed – and wrote about them.
The earliest known reference to dog headed humans were found in Libya,
carved into the cliffs and boulders on a plateau 4000 years ago.
Among the rock carvings of giraffes and elephants are two dog-headed men dragging the body of a rhinoceros.
Other images in the area include a dog-headed human carrying a club, with a dog-headed baby at his feet.
In another, one carries on its shoulders, the now extinct ox-like animal, the Auroch.
The first known written accounts of these beasts were given to us by the Greek physician, Ctesias,
in the 5th century BC.
Around this time, this physician returned to Greece from India with very detailed passages of his travels,
and of the cynocephali
..along with accounts of Pygmies and strange Tigers.
In short, he described a civilization of roughly 120,000 dog-headed, dark skinned men and women.
He called them “swarthy” – “with long hairy tails, living in lofty and inaccessible mountains” in India.
“Their teeth were larger than those of dogs, their nails were long.”
Though he heard no language, he claimed they “barked like dogs … and were thus understood by each other.
Ctesius said cynocephali slept on leaves or grass in mountain caves and that they could live up to 200 years.
He noted that given their strength and isolation, they could not be defeated in war,
and that they were very swift, effective hunters, who would pursue and easily overtake their prey,
cooking it by “roasting it in the sun” before eating the flesh.
Ctesius also said they were shepherds – raising sheep, goats, and asses,
procuring milk and whey from their herds.
The richest of the dog-heads owned more sheep, and wore linen,
while the rest wore tanned furless animal skin.
They also ate the sweet fruit “Siptakhora”, which they collected onto rafts along with purple flower for dye.
They sent this annually to the king of India in exchange for bread, flour, cotton, and weapons:
swords, bows and arrows.
One thing Ctesius noted was that they are “extremely just …
like the rest of the Indians with whom they associate.”
He said that they understood the Indian language, but were unable to converse with them,
only barking or making signs with their hands and fingers to reply.
In case that wasn’t enough detail, Ctesius added that the women bathed monthly, and the men –
with the exception of their hands – not at all.
In the same century as Ctesius, there were more accounts of the cynocephali
by Greek writers and historians.
One of them – Herodotus – traveled to the eastern region of Libya
and described where the Nomads inhabited.
He said it was exceedingly mountainous and wooded, and full of wild beasts, naming many of these
– among them, the cynocephali.
The Roman author - Claudius Aelian, wrote detailed accounts of the animals in the region.
When he described the cynocephalus, he said he was an “upright” being
and that he would “injure no man”.
He said the cynocephali “had no speech”,
but would “howl” – and of course, that they understood the Indian language.
He claimed that wild animals were their food, and that they could catch them with ease
exposing them to the sun’s heat to cook them after shredding them into pieces.
He noted, like Ctesius, that they kept goats and sheep, and that they drank the milk of the animals they herded.
He also noted that their speech was “inarticulate, unintelligible”, and “not that of man”.
Claudius Aelian also noted that their whole body was covered with hair,
and that the regions where they lived were so inaccessible, it was very hard to capture them.
He thought it interesting that a cynocephalus would strip the shell off a nut and clean it,
intelligently, before eating it.
He also thought it interesting that a cynocephalus would drink wine, and preferred well-seasoned food.
Like Ctesius, the wirtings were very detailed, and consistent.
A few decades Later, Alexander the Great invaded India,
and,he, too, claimed in letters to his famous philosopher teacher, Aristotle, that he had seen the cynocephali.
He even claimed to have caught some, and described them as “fierce, vicious, barking, snarling beasts”.
In the letter that he sent to Aristotle, he included a manuscript
which we now know as the the famous epic poem, “Beowulf.”
For some 1,500 years following the original accounts of the cynocephali,
many explorers, conquerors, and even Christian missionaries,
claimed to have seen and interacted with these dog-headed people.
Even King Arthur joined the witnesses when he and his army allegedly defeated a band of dog-headed soldiers
in the mountains surrounding Edinburgh, Scotland.
In Orthodox Christian history,
both St. Christopher, and St. Andrew are regularly depicted in ancient artwork with dog-heads.
It was said St. Christopher repented and was transformed to become entirely human.
Of course, now this is all said to be symbolic… but it leaves you wondering.
St. Augustine, who lived in 430, was one of the most influential early Christian fathers.
And he spoke of the existence of the Cynocephali and other peculiar races,
claiming that he personally preached them the Gospel.
And through his accounts, they became recognized as “morally dumb, sometimes even demonic”
– but nonetheless, “redeemable.”
One Italian traveler in the 13th century, and the first European to document the Mongols,
told of an encounter between armies of the Khan and a dog-headed people near Lake Baikal,
in what is now Russia.
He said that “monsters, had “men’s heads, but dogs faces”.
He said they spoke, as it were, in words that were more like the barking of a dog.
One lesser known account of Cynocephali in Orthodox Christianity
was that of the Christian theologian Ratramnus.
One of his monks asked him: What do I do when I encounter the dog-heads? ..
Can I save their souls? Do I preach to them, Or do I look at them as animals?
for the church clearly claimed they were beasts.
Ratramnus was concerned, and he consulted his elder
in “A Letter on the Dog-headed Creatures “
he tries to persuade his superior that the dog heads were in fact “sons of Adam”
and that they should be allowed to convert to Christianity., and not treated as animals.
In another account, The Dominican friar, Vincent of Beauvais,
noted that the Cynocephali was, “an animal with the head of the dog”
but in all other means, would “behave like a man…
and, thus, when peaceful, he would be “tender like a man … but when furious,
would become cruel and could retaliate on humankind”
Later, In the 13th century, the famous explorer Marco Polo describes cynocephali as barbaric cannibals.
In his travels to the island of Angamanian, off the coast of Burma in the Indian Ocean,
he said, the people were without a king .. he considered them “no better than wild beasts.”
And he said the men ”have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes, likewise”;
He described them as looking like “mastiff dogs”.
He said that “though they had many spices”, they were “a cruel generation,”
and they would eat anybody they had caught, if not of their own race.
While the most ancient written accounts of Cynocephali occurred in India and Persia,
sightings moved west over time, and as they did, the stories became more violent,
and the beasts more barbaric.
In the 15th century Christopher Columbus arrived in Haiti to a most unwelcome situation,
where he claimed to see “men with one eye … and others with dogs’ noses who were cannibals,
and that when they captured an enemy, they beheaded him and drank his blood, and cut off his private parts”
It probably comes as no surprise that dog-men have also been reported in the United States.
The Most famous sighting began in 1887, when a “Man wolf” was seen walking upright in Michigan.
He was described as 7 feet tall, extremely muscular, and worst of all, his howl sounded like a human scream.
Somehow, sightings continued for decades in ten-year cycles.
Another case in the US was the Beast of Bray in Wisconsin,
from 1930-s to the 1990’s, in which the beast was described more like a werewolf than a dog.
Given these accounts, It’s safe to say dog-heads are very much alive in modern culture.
In conclusion, we can’t ignore the possibility that some, if not all, these stories
were simply dehumanizing descriptions of foreign people.
Beginning with the ancient carvings in Libya, however,
one can’t help but notice the consistency in the descriptions of these historical
and those more gentle – beasts.
It’s also easy to note the similarities of these cynocephali with Neanderthal man
.. and the similarities of .. certain monkeys with dog-like snouts..
Were these ancient writings distorted descriptions? … or, in fact, is there another explanation?
We know that Cynocephali traditionally represented danger – that of an unknown land or people,
and of a culture that lives on the edge of the map, and the edge of civilization.
Yet, history still reveals many mysteries we’ve only begun to unravel.
John Steinbeck observed,
“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt,
and I’m convinced that dogs think humans are nuts”.
To that we can say, maybe our canine friends know more about us,
and more about our relationship with them, than we do.