Cynocephaly

Strange Matters Podcast

Campfire Audio Productions

Science, History, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

4.4 • 987 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2017

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Strange Matters we discuss the phenomenon of Cynocephaly, the bizarre characteristic of humans that possess a dog-like head. Creatures of cynocephaly have been recorded in human history for thousands of years, dating back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Tales of these human/dog mixes have been seen throughout the middle ages and even up to the modern day. The origins of these mysterious beings remain a mystery, as well as to why stories of them exist all over the world.
Though commonly believed to be a mere myth, some have come up with several logical reasons behind the origins of these creatures to explain their existence and persistence throughout history. Some theories suggest ancient people mistook certain animals to be cynocephali, while others think people portrayed as these half-dog beasts were simply how civilized societies represented foreigners and barbarians. Whether there is any realistic explanations for these fantastical creatures will forever be unknown, but the legends of cynocephaly continue to be an intriguing historical mystery!

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Oh, Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Strange Matters podcast.
0:45.0	Here at Strange Matters we discuss everything that is mysterious, bizarre, and unexplained.
0:50.0	I am Sean and I am joined by my fellow co-host Eric.
0:53.2	What's up everybody?
0:55.0	In this episode we'll be talking about the strange and mythical legend of
0:59.6	Sinosephaly, the phenomenon of humans possessing dog-like heads. These strange creatures have shown
1:06.6	up all around the world at different parts of history, dating as far back as the ancient Egyptians
1:11.6	and Greeks.
1:13.0	Though this may just sound like a bit of a
1:14.8	wherewolf type legend, a beast with the characteristics of sinusophili
1:20.0	doesn't transform or shape shift in any way like a
1:23.3	where wolf they just happen to typically have the body of a human
1:27.6	but also having a canine head
1:30.1	yeah humans with heads of animals is kind of a common theme throughout different mythologies and cultures, like you said all the way back through history.
1:39.0	Egyptian and Greek mythologies like Sean said, but also Japanese and Chinese cultures,
1:46.0	Hindu and even some medieval and Christian artwork depicts the devil as a
1:52.4	humanoid creature with the head of an animal.
1:55.0	And Alexander of Macedonia actually wrote to his teacher Aristotle describing encounters with similar creatures when he was invading the East.
2:06.1	But for this episode we'll specifically be talking about dog heads or sinosephaly, as Sean mentioned. And sinosephaly as Sean mentioned.
2:14.0	And sinosephaly actually has a role in modern literature and culture as well.
2:18.0	So for example, the comic book Ghost Rider has some dog-headed men in it and numerous other fictional books
2:26.8	contain their different versions of dog-headed people.
	...

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