#cynocephaly

headless & dog-headed people

miniature from a historienbibel, alsace, 1422

"Death Mask of Saint Christopher (Cynocephalus)", clay mask.

Did this piece for one of the final projects for my 3D design course! I was inspired by early Christian art that depicts St. Christopher with a dog's head.

There’s an element of character creation in Death Bed: An Impenetrably Medieval Dungeon Game called Misc. Features that isn’t finished yet because more aspects of the game need to be implemented before I even think of figuring out how to represent these mechanically, but it’s basically instead of Traits, there’s certain features you can check or uncheck for your character. These are all things that it wouldn’t make sense for them to have forgotten in undeath and then relearned through leveling up.

Some of these include being a cynocephaly, being really big, being really small, being a lamia, or being some kind of freaky thing that crawls around on all-fours like the bloodhound knights from Elden Ring or the Irthylle knights from Dark Souls 3.

And if you want a real freak, you can even make them left-handed.

Dog-headed humanoids, generally classifiable as cynocephali, are a common presence in mythological contexts around the world, independently developed by dozens of cultures over the centuries. I'm a total amateur/nobody and can't really speak as to this phenomena with any kind of authority, but the liminal state of the dog with relation to humanity - not quite a part of nature, not quite a part of society - seems to have laid the groundwork for these creatures appearing on the murky borders of the map again and again and again, sometimes as saints, sometimes as monsters, usually as shadowy figures at the edge of the known and unknown.

An immensely oversimplified overview of the worldwide prominence of cynocephali in mythology and culture:

— Sámi mythology: Padnakjunne (cannibalistic humanoids with dog snouts) — Old Norse: Ulfheðnar ("wolf warriors") — Turkic mythology: Itbarak (dog headed creatures allegedly located in Siberia) — Chinese mythology: ("Dog Jung" and other human/canine barbarians associated with the extreme west) — Balkan / Bosnian mythology: Псоглав / Psoglav (ghoul-like, cyclopic creatures) — Judeochristian apocrypha: Cynocephali seen in the first and second “heavens” (as punishment for the Tower of Babel)

— Medieval Christianity: Saint Christopher (as well as possibly Ahrakas and Oghan in Coptic religion) — Estonia: Koerakoonlane ("dogsnouters" with cultural origins with the Tsar’s police force) — Europe; Borus (Cynocephali associated with Prussia or Siberia) — Scotland: Wulver (wolf-like humanoid creature, usually benevolent, although its mythological roots are somewhat in dispute) — Inuit: Adlet (mythological dog-legged tribe) — Mainland Europe: Cynocephali — Turkic folklore: Kurtadam (werewolf shamans) — Egypt: Anubis, Wepwawet & Set (among other anthropomorphic depictions of deities)

(Image origins: detail from the Vezelay Abbey (1120), Sts Stephen and Christopher (1700s,) Marco Polo: Livre des merveilles (1400s.))