There is also an ancient Chinese legend about a king's dog who brought home the head of an enemy in exchange for the princess's hand in marriage. The king ignored the dog's claim to his daughter and the dog stated that he needed 28 days in solitary confinement to turn into a human. The princess got curious after 27 days and took a peek. That stopped the dog's transformation and his head remained that of a dog. Strangely, this is a happily-ever-after story with princess and dogman.
Not a good idea you told me that story. That black ethiopian history shows these were a race of blacks. Black skin is what all explorers described them starting with Herodotus in 450bc. Egypt was black ethiopian. Anubis was the father of this race. Now go look at the hieroglyphs now immediately!! Get your mind together by yourself somewhere because you’ll be laughed at. Those other crocodile head and lion head and ram head men (khnum) were real as you and I. The white race wasn’t even in caves yet when these beasts were here. The sahara was an OCEAN then. Let others laugh while you learn. Greeks were not lying when they said the ethiopian was the titans. Nephiliam were black skinned ethiopian. Goliath was one,Nimrod was a nephiliam. Medusa had braids not snakes she was a Naga tribe titan. Write it down and learn it. It’ll take you 8yrs to connect these egyptian studies. It’s amazing. No one will believe it unless you keep studying. It was studied by Napoleon in 1799. Ben Franklin wrote a book about it already before 1799. YACUBS GRAFTED DEVIL is the book. Amazon has it. It’ll never be in the white suburbs library. Never. Everyone go do homework. It’s amazing and fun.
St. Christopher is generally regarded as a giant, or abnormally powerful and tall for the time - as depicted in the works of Andrea Mantegna and other reinessance artists.
@@benjaminmaguire1728 Oh, one must still take care. Modern scientists and intellectuals are studying valuable things. In fact, they would argue that what was stated was valuable. That one shouldn't disbelieve something because you can't see it. However, if you can find no concrete, empirical evidence for it... One should question whether such a thing exists. Here's looking at you "god."
@fillyfresh It's not a bug, it's a feature. Science and empiricism will never state that god *doesn't* exist. Instead, they simply state the truth. There's no evidence that God's *do* exist, nor that the universe requires them to for it to exist.
@fillyfresh What limiting feature? If proof of higher beings is produced in a verifiable and measurable way, I'm perfectly happy to discuss their existence. Faith is just delusion wrapped in a candy coating of social acceptance. Empirical evidence discusses what is. Religion and Spirituality have their place in science. Neurology, psychology, sociology, all viable places for these topics in the halls of science.
6:30 in a twisted way through a hyper religious lens, this is actually kind of sweet. It wasn't super common for ancient peoples to see people with physical disabilities as no less human than anyone else.
@@justforever96 bro ancient Christians are known for how cruel and discriminatory they are. They killed or locked up anything to anyone that didn't look like them, and believe in what they did
@@jakel2837 Sadly this continues through to this day. Even in the "civilized" west certain people encourage killing children diagnosed (via a test that is not always accurate) with Downs Syndrome before they're even born. Hopefully we will one day and hopefully soon see the dignity and innate worth of all people no matter how different.
Fun fact; Chinese have also myth aboot a country of dog headed men, called the Goufeng Kingdom (狗封國) ! They are mentioned in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", also know has Shan-hai Ching (山海经), it's a collection of geographical test, from the antiquity, possibly Han era, that mention different of strange creature, which include several odd looking human like this dog-men.
I had heard of that during my research as well. It's part of what I was thinking about when I said Marco Polo and Oderic could have both been influenced by an Asian tradition associating the dog-heads with the Nicobar and Andaman islands. It's possible they asked around while in China and some tradition had emerged from those tales that they were on those islands. It's interesting to consider
@@studiumhistoriae Glad to hear. But are you aware of the Turkic legend of the "Itbaraks"? They are also dog-headed-men, but they are explicit antagonist to one of their folk heroes.
หลายเดือนก่อน +7
@@studiumhistoriaethen the question becomes is how the Chinese come up with them
@@studiumhistoriae another possible aspect of the said China Men providing reference to Dogmen of them being found in those inhospitable Islands? An awareness of how these Islanders welcomed travelers? Perhaps the Chinese were merely aware the lore originating West of them which is the local of this chain of islands..who can say.
I feel like scholars being overly trusting of Greek and Roman sources led to crazy beliefs that just became entrenched as more time had passed without anyone seriously challenging the accounts
The same sources that are consistently cited to verify historical facts. Just like the cartographers and explorers which we put on a pedestal for their achievements, yet discredit half of their claims. If part of it is false, none of it can be trusted and therefore it should all be placed as questionable history, right? With that logic, no written history should be held to any regard. Nitpicking writings to fit your own confirmation biases.
There was a belief during the Middle Ages, and to some extent before and after, that a source of greater antiquity had more authority. Therefore, for example, Aristotle’s statement that the sun and the planets orbit the earth was considered more credible than Copernicus’ heliocentric model, because Aristotle’s work was much older, and furthermore belonged to the Classical era. And if Herodotus wrote (circa 430 BCE) of dog-headed people, then by gum, there must be dog-headed people.
True. There was plenty of fiction embellishments or symbolism that they used. And later on, both catholics and Muslims were in their world conquer and convert phase, so their depiction of other foreign groups and cultures usually painted them as wild bloodthirsty pagan barbarians who needed their personal religion/God in their life or gave a reason to invade them. So we've those sources I don't trust, despite groups like Persians having alot of good faithful copies or tra stations of various texts from foreign countries, that were preserved to read or copy later on
Misses the symbolism of them. Same as "here be dragons" on the fringes of maps. The margin of the known world is always strange from a symbolic standpoint as it transitions into the fully unknown. It's similar to why medieval texts have weird things like knights jousting on snails and grotesques being on the outsides of cathedrals.
I think TH-cam put this in my recommendations because I've been playing a lot of Dominions 6 lately and have looked up some of the statistics for the units in the game, some of which were cynocephali. And boy am I glad it did, this is very interesting, awesome video.
I think I'm here because the only paranormal lady I listen to does dog man stories a lot. (They also live in swamps). She's just such a great storyteller. But same. This is fascinating.
I am not normally one to leave comments or like videos, but I will here: This video was both entertaining and informative. I've been interested in learning more about this topic since I came across some of the ancient writings about cynocephali, as well as modern accounts of people claiming to have seen "dogmen". I am impressed by your ability to cover this aspect of medieval thought impartially, and in a manner that is respectful, balanced, and well researched. These are the hallmarks of a good historian. Many people today are unable to even consider that those in the past, being influenced by contemporary ideas, had a different view of the world than themselves---and that they are not necessarily inferior or to be mocked for it. It was also pleasant to see relevant historical illustrations. All the best.
Thank you for this one, Adam. I continue to appreciate your scholarly approach. It is obvious you do extensive research, and your presentation rivals television programs with huge budgets. I (and probably many of your subscribers) would be interested in your course of studies, and what are your professional goals re: history and scholarship.
If I killed a wolf, bear, deer, moose, etc. I'd've definitely worn its fur. If a ancient foreigner only saw from a distance(especially given the fear of seeing some fanciful man-beast hybrid making incomprehensible noises/language) it would be pretty easy to talk all sorts of craziness to the boys back home.
Someone could mistake a baboon as a dog-headed human wearing furs from a safe distance. And they certainly eat meat and locals would probably warn travelers that they're man-eaters. Never mind after a few mutations and embellishments in transmission.
Kaz Rowe happens to occasionally mention him in videos too. He wrote about anything, but didn’t seem to have many sources for things (I think there’s instances of misinformation being traced all the way to him with no prev) tasting history has mentioned him a few times too
It's a little bit of a testament to art style throughout history, but I always find conscript art depicting beasts from the distant world to be so interesting.
This is superb research and the best discussion. Thank you for going through all of this with the audience. This is nourishment for everyone who never knew any of this, like ourselves. The best illustrations ever too, thank you for showing such choice selections from the original book pages and the names of the writers.
@@peterii3512they were a race of black ethiopian. They had black skin and worshipped the cattle. Hindu Kushite blacks began ALL INDIA. Krishna translated in Sanskrit means the blackened one. Be careful with this history. It’ll hurt some feelings because they were full blacks. Described by Herodotus in 450bc. Book 2 chapter 17.
v interesting! I'm currently reading De Civitate Dei for my dissertation and I'm in the midst of book 3. If I recall correctly, Augustine has so far used the term about.... 2-3 times, mostly w/ reference to Anubis :O Can't wait to read about his thoughts on disability though!
Scandanavian King to Missionary: "Dog headed people, man that is cray -zee! Hey, want to see the end of the world? It's right up there a little bit north, short walk..."
Seeing ancient philosophers accepting that dog-headed people are real and having discussions over their humanity sounds funny untill you realize that we have angry arguments over whether or not Goku is more powerful than Godzilla.
There is plenty of interesting content on the internet, which is, however, unfortunately badly written or read with mispronunciations, making my inner pedant wince. This is a beautifully, refreshingly eloquent piece and really fascinating. Thanks!
24:20 while it’s a neat theory, the sentinalese wherent originally hostile, they only became hostile after the british in the 1800s kidnapped some kids and elders to take them back to britian. The elders died from illness so the sailors dumped the kids back on the island. (speculation): And i guess surviving children telling stories about the monsters riding the sea beast killing the elders spooked the tribe enough for them to be hostile to all outsiders.
That was a very interesting and well presented mini-documentary. Thanks. I always assumed the dog-headed idea came from egyptian statues of Anubis the Hound of Heaven ( anu 'the One' bis 'voice') the messenger of the gods. At least until I came across a story of a germanic regiment of mercenary dog-headed soldiers who fought for one of the italian city states against another (in the early middle ages). Not a fantastical account but an actual battle report. One possibility is the german mercs were in fact part of some pagan warrior-wolf cult that survived into the christian era. Back when I was an archaeologist I vaguely remember researching a neolithic headhunting wolf cult in central and northern germany that survived up to the 6th century.
I was listening to something a while back, and in northern Norway way up there's an area a big area fenced off where no one can go and some kind of creatures or something it's kept contained up there
Maybe they’re based on people who wear wolf heads as a type of fashion among their unknown culture and traditions. People back then mistake them as inhuman.
These were people with genetic mutations or deformation, they were "monsters" in thier time, some grouped together and created villages, which later would become mythical, but they were just people, like us
Gotta mention, I have seen rare instances of "Kobolds" being depicted as humans but with dog heads, as opposed to the more common draconic depiction. Idk if this is related at all.
The draconic depiction was entirely an invention of 3rd Edition D&D. Kobold is just another word for Goblin. The dog versions were largely a misinterpretation of their 1st edition D&D art.
there was a species of (man sized) giant baboon that once lived in north africa. maybe this is what they were talking about only going by descriptions. chest faced men could be referring to remnant populations of extinct gorillas which have been found in ethiopia. His libyan sources could have taken these tales from oral histories going very far back
I've seen a man who looked like the dog faced character on Dark Angel. I'm not sure if it was a birth defect or burn scars, but I imagine seeing someone like this in the past and thinking it was a whole race of people. I used to see him all the time in the streets of San Francisco.
Since it happened often that languages of people, considered to be savage, were viewed as "less than" if they were not Greek or Latin, is it possible that early scholars referred to their speech as "barking" in order to be derogatory or denegrative of foreigners of the east?
There's definitely a link between them but the appearance and motives between the two in history seem weirdly at odds. The ones in historical accounts sound like they had the concept of civilizations down well and even a unique language among themselves. The ones we see today are like the equivalent of intelligent yet undoubtedly primitive Neanderthals.
@@blackshogun272 I feel like there's deeper reasonings for all this as conspiratorial as that sounds From bigfoot to yowies yetis Goat men dogmen kandahar giants skunk apes as well as old civilizations like gobekli tepe and hidden parts of the pyramids or that sealed tomb with the flood myth to its door from o.o.p.artifacts convenience of disappearing evidence and cover ups by governments and legends myths and folklore coincidental similarities to the missing knowledge of the library of Alexandria and possibly even secret societies like illuminati and knights Templar etc it's all connected
Очень хороший обзор сведений о сабакоголовых людях, все сведения о кеноцефалах имеют правдивые основания. О кеноцефалах упоминали восточные авторы при описании северных земель восточной европы в 9-10 веках. Одно из последних известий о них , это упоминание католических авторов, которые посетили Русь , после нашествия Батыя. Всё это краткие не развернутые заметки. И один из католических авторов отметил, что кеноцефалы сражались с монголами на стороне русских и отмечено, что были храбры в битве. Да кеноцефалы были людьми с деталями одежды, по которым они внешне были похожи на собак или волков. Есть более весомое наблюдение в древнем городе Хабедю были найдены две могилы , где были похоронены люди с головными уборами в виде маски волка или собаки.По-этому всё что писали о кеноцефалах католические и арабские авторы , есть правда. Эти люди исчезли из Европы во второй половине 13 века. Монголы много народов уничтожили по берегам реки Волги.
The catholics and Arabs or Muslims are prob two of the most biased resources because they painted every other foreign group or culture as evil bloodthirsty pagan barbarians that needed religion in their life... specifically their own catholic or Muslim. But I will give credit to both esp the Persians for their translation and record keeping of other texts books scripture fairly faithfully for all to see.
Yeah I believe that they are real and probably what the modern werewolf stories have came from also every culture have some records of contact with them they were warriors I believe they are probably also the dogmen that people are seeing
Is that what he's arguing? That's not the impression I got. But it was a fascinating video about an interesting old belief I didn't know about before now.
Not sure if i ve seen the head of this creature on the church window "Achsenfenster" /"Ostfenster" from Albrecht Dürer and Hans Hirsfogl. (They made really intrressting glasses, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 🤪
Kunokefalos. There is no "c" in Greek,and the "c" in classical Latin is hard. And the "Y" was pronounced "oo".But I know I'm in the minority in using classical pronucniation.
Typically I'll use the classical pronunciation, but the term Cynocephalus is Anglicized often enough that it would have felt forced for me to do so here.
The question of rational souls would have to rest on what sort of brain rested in the quasi-doggy skull, and whether it dealt with things dogs find difficult, like object permanence. And then we’d have to ask whether that head, unlike a dog’s, allowed for speech, and work out the precise relationship of language to thought. Tricky!
All the ancient sources say that cynocephali spoke only in dog sounds. Humans are almost unique in having the form of breath control that allows for our type of speech. We share this breath control (among mammals) only with seals. You can hear a recording of Hoover the talking seal on wikipedia.
@ , so how can we account for Brian Griffin from Family Guy? More seriously, I did imply that the cynocephalous person would have to have a head in some way unlike a dog’s.
The debate about the cynocephali being human and having souls parallels the debate about aliens. Do they exist and do they have souls? I think where ever the aliens are they may have similar concerns about us.
I honestly think the source of the Cynocephali was originally a garbled description of baboons, flavored (and reinforced) by Egyptian depictions of Anubis, and rhen when later explorers saw baoboons, they then *rejected* them as the possible cynocephali, bevause they weren't quite human *enough*, and, "Those ancient writers couldn't all be wrong, could they?"
I agree. And today, it's not unheard of to see pet monkeys in Asia that have clothes on. That's probably a very old practice. And Europeans who aren't familiar with monkeys or baboons might liken them to dog-faced, as the video suggested. Fascinating!
Hi!!! Wow, so interesting video, I just subscribe 1 minute ago and I delect my intellect with the thoughts of all the other videos I will dive in after this one.
ST Christopher is sacred to my mother's family she taught me how he protected us we actually have many of the religious pictures of him that were shown in my mother's house still i believe Bonaparte was a fan of St Christopher and many people through the north of Spain and Southern France they could speak but would bark after every second or third word
@franciscopineda2594 I don't believe my mother would have been happy to hear such a thing she did not even like people from the south of her own country because she said they had some Arab blood from hundreds of years ago st Christopher is very popular in the alpine region of Italy and Switzerland Basque and Corsica they don't like people or anything from the middle eastern countries I had that made clear to me
around minute 16 u speak of this dog headed people tamming other animals, and I immediately remembered this sort of new discovery of baboons stealing dogs from people and raising them as guardian dog. What if this is what ancient people saw, and that's why they called them humanoids
Hans Chrsitian Anderson's Mermaid had no soul, but sought a chance to earn it. The concept of strange creatures, and whether they might have soul's continued till at least the late 1800's...
a short sharp peremptory tone of speech or utterance to advertise by persistent outcry to utter in a curt loud usually angry tone to speak in a curt loud and usually angry tone You can find many examples of bark being used in this manner all throughout literature. Or, if you're feeling the lazy self assured reductionist route: woof woof.
@@studiumhistoriae The video says that old Greek guys described the dog head dudes as "barking", which is modern English. German dogs go "wau, wau" and Greek dogs say "ghav, ghav". I don't know how these ancient guys interpreted a dog, but I doubt it was "bark". Was it described as a dog sound? A cry? An animal noise? How did they land on "bark"
@@omicdog well I can't tell you anything about the Greeks, but Pliny uses the Latin verb "latrare" when saying that they bark. But I don't know what sound they would have used to signify or imitate a dog barking
Most interesting bit of the video for me is the argument from people for their existence and how denying it felt close-minded, feels like the discourse around aliens these days.
Excellent work showing the remarkable intellectual reflection evident in the middle ages! It is surprising to think how much that modern 'intellectuals' could learn from their far removed predecessors, and the lack of arrogant prejudices about what is known and 'known' to be true or possible. And my rational mind tells me that if they, or any 'other' intelligent life, existed then they would possess a rational soul and be loved by God. Subscribed and grateful!
St Christopher is the saint that sometimes is represented with a dog head. He was from Syria. He was a cannanite. In medieval Europe people though that cannanites had dogs heads
I wonder about the cenocephalus as being originally a reference to an actual group of people. Not some kind of cryptozoology thing, nor a misidentification of baboons. Early Medieval English law had a principle of declaring that an individual stood outside of the protections of the law. If a judge ascertained that a person had committed some offence that was so serious that they were not entitled to the protection of the law, they would declare that individual to be, “Caput lupinum”, or “Caput gerat lupinum” (‘wolf headed’ or ‘may he wear a wolf’s head’). This was how one formally became an outlaw. I don’t have any idea what the origin of the phrase is, where it came from or what time it came from. I know that it appears in the _Leges Edwardi Confessoris_ (the laws of Edward the Confessor), so it goes at the very least back to pre-Norman English law; but it has the feel, to me at least, to be of the same cloth as the weregild laws. If anyone can kill the caput lupinum on sight, that suggests that might come from the time of blood guilt and family vengeance. I don’t know if the ideas are related whatsoever; but it certainly seems to open up some possibilities for the earlier references to the cynocephalus as being a metaphor for lawless barbarians (cf the origin of the word ‘barbarian’, as compared with a cynocephalus communicating with barking noises). No proof, of course; just chasing down some common connections.
The origin of the phrase clearly comes from comparison with the status of wolves. Because these animals were making a lot of damage to livestock, there were no laws or customs protecting them. A wolf could be killed anywhere by anybody, and the same would happen to the outlaw. But this is a strictly English thing.
@melanimatejak6821 first and foremost, England is a German country. Secondly, England as a polity has it's origins in not only the Anglo-Saxon invasions but also the danelaw which was a Viking/Scandinavian state. The Scandinavian idea of the outlaw who dresses in animal clothes, the wolf headed (ulfheðnar) or bear shirted (berserkr) would have been very present in the minds of lawmakers of a state which is not only post Germanic but specifically Scandinavian
What would happen if they looked in the mirror? Wouldn’t that help to explain if they have rational souls or not? Would they be able to recognize themselves or at least what they were? Would they attack? Would they fixate? Would they think about what others saw? Would they try to improve their appearance?
There is also an ancient Chinese legend about a king's dog who brought home the head of an enemy in exchange for the princess's hand in marriage. The king ignored the dog's claim to his daughter and the dog stated that he needed 28 days in solitary confinement to turn into a human. The princess got curious after 27 days and took a peek. That stopped the dog's transformation and his head remained that of a dog. Strangely, this is a happily-ever-after story with princess and dogman.
The moral of the story is that furries existed since the dawn of time ahaha
Honestly a whole lot of women prefer to have a dog, and I don't blame them.
Is that how this happened 😂
28 days later
Not a good idea you told me that story. That black ethiopian history shows these were a race of blacks. Black skin is what all explorers described them starting with Herodotus in 450bc. Egypt was black ethiopian. Anubis was the father of this race. Now go look at the hieroglyphs now immediately!! Get your mind together by yourself somewhere because you’ll be laughed at. Those other crocodile head and lion head and ram head men (khnum) were real as you and I. The white race wasn’t even in caves yet when these beasts were here. The sahara was an OCEAN then. Let others laugh while you learn. Greeks were not lying when they said the ethiopian was the titans. Nephiliam were black skinned ethiopian. Goliath was one,Nimrod was a nephiliam. Medusa had braids not snakes she was a Naga tribe titan. Write it down and learn it. It’ll take you 8yrs to connect these egyptian studies. It’s amazing. No one will believe it unless you keep studying. It was studied by Napoleon in 1799. Ben Franklin wrote a book about it already before 1799. YACUBS GRAFTED DEVIL is the book. Amazon has it. It’ll never be in the white suburbs library. Never. Everyone go do homework. It’s amazing and fun.
@harvardarchaeologydept3799 why are you pushing some weird agenda?
Every explorer came back and said "I see no cephili"
Eye roll, followed by a thumbs up.
They came back and said "I have microcephaly"
Love it…..
🤣😂😃🤣😂😃🤣😂😃
St. Christopher is generally regarded as a giant, or abnormally powerful and tall for the time - as depicted in the works of Andrea Mantegna and other reinessance artists.
The thing that stuck with me was the "To only believe in what you could see was considered foolish." This is a valuable mindset.
I completely agree, amazing what modern 'intellectuals' could learn from history like this. This channel is an amazing resource.
@@benjaminmaguire1728 Oh, one must still take care. Modern scientists and intellectuals are studying valuable things. In fact, they would argue that what was stated was valuable. That one shouldn't disbelieve something because you can't see it.
However, if you can find no concrete, empirical evidence for it... One should question whether such a thing exists.
Here's looking at you "god."
@@VinterNacht_It's everywhere. People have been brainwashed into not seeing the exceedingly obvious. Literally blinded.
@fillyfresh It's not a bug, it's a feature. Science and empiricism will never state that god *doesn't* exist. Instead, they simply state the truth.
There's no evidence that God's *do* exist, nor that the universe requires them to for it to exist.
@fillyfresh What limiting feature? If proof of higher beings is produced in a verifiable and measurable way, I'm perfectly happy to discuss their existence.
Faith is just delusion wrapped in a candy coating of social acceptance. Empirical evidence discusses what is.
Religion and Spirituality have their place in science. Neurology, psychology, sociology, all viable places for these topics in the halls of science.
6:30 in a twisted way through a hyper religious lens, this is actually kind of sweet. It wasn't super common for ancient peoples to see people with physical disabilities as no less human than anyone else.
In what other way would you expect someone from that era to think about it?
@@justforever96...maybe spawn of Satan ...?
@@justforever96 bro ancient Christians are known for how cruel and discriminatory they are. They killed or locked up anything to anyone that didn't look like them, and believe in what they did
Ancient people? Albinos in Africa are hunted today, as one example
@@jakel2837
Sadly this continues through to this day. Even in the "civilized" west certain people encourage killing children diagnosed (via a test that is not always accurate) with Downs Syndrome before they're even born.
Hopefully we will one day and hopefully soon see the dignity and innate worth of all people no matter how different.
Fun fact; Chinese have also myth aboot a country of dog headed men, called the Goufeng Kingdom (狗封國) !
They are mentioned in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", also know has Shan-hai Ching (山海经), it's a collection of geographical test, from the antiquity, possibly Han era, that mention different of strange creature, which include several odd looking human like this dog-men.
I had heard of that during my research as well. It's part of what I was thinking about when I said Marco Polo and Oderic could have both been influenced by an Asian tradition associating the dog-heads with the Nicobar and Andaman islands. It's possible they asked around while in China and some tradition had emerged from those tales that they were on those islands. It's interesting to consider
@@studiumhistoriae Glad to hear.
But are you aware of the Turkic legend of the "Itbaraks"?
They are also dog-headed-men, but they are explicit antagonist to one of their folk heroes.
@@studiumhistoriaethen the question becomes is how the Chinese come up with them
@@studiumhistoriae another possible aspect of the said China Men providing reference to Dogmen of them being found in those inhospitable Islands? An awareness of how these Islanders welcomed travelers? Perhaps the Chinese were merely aware the lore originating West of them which is the local of this chain of islands..who can say.
Ok, you win. Dogman was made in China.
There once was a bard with the head of a dog, Snoop was his name.
Are you referring to Sniff Doggy-do?
Pop culture reference hur hur so funnii
I feel like scholars being overly trusting of Greek and Roman sources led to crazy beliefs that just became entrenched as more time had passed without anyone seriously challenging the accounts
The same sources that are consistently cited to verify historical facts. Just like the cartographers and explorers which we put on a pedestal for their achievements, yet discredit half of their claims.
If part of it is false, none of it can be trusted and therefore it should all be placed as questionable history, right?
With that logic, no written history should be held to any regard.
Nitpicking writings to fit your own confirmation biases.
There was a belief during the Middle Ages, and to some extent before and after, that a source of greater antiquity had more authority. Therefore, for example, Aristotle’s statement that the sun and the planets orbit the earth was considered more credible than Copernicus’ heliocentric model, because Aristotle’s work was much older, and furthermore belonged to the Classical era.
And if Herodotus wrote (circa 430 BCE) of dog-headed people, then by gum, there must be dog-headed people.
True. There was plenty of fiction embellishments or symbolism that they used. And later on, both catholics and Muslims were in their world conquer and convert phase, so their depiction of other foreign groups and cultures usually painted them as wild bloodthirsty pagan barbarians who needed their personal religion/God in their life or gave a reason to invade them. So we've those sources I don't trust, despite groups like Persians having alot of good faithful copies or tra stations of various texts from foreign countries, that were preserved to read or copy later on
Misses the symbolism of them. Same as "here be dragons" on the fringes of maps.
The margin of the known world is always strange from a symbolic standpoint as it transitions into the fully unknown. It's similar to why medieval texts have weird things like knights jousting on snails and grotesques being on the outsides of cathedrals.
@@nektulosnewbieyes but let us also explore other perspectives if they exist.
I think TH-cam put this in my recommendations because I've been playing a lot of Dominions 6 lately and have looked up some of the statistics for the units in the game, some of which were cynocephali.
And boy am I glad it did, this is very interesting, awesome video.
I play that game too.
Yeah. I am bored 2.
I think I'm here because the only paranormal lady I listen to does dog man stories a lot. (They also live in swamps). She's just such a great storyteller.
But same. This is fascinating.
I am not normally one to leave comments or like videos, but I will here:
This video was both entertaining and informative. I've been interested in learning more about this topic since I came across some of the ancient writings about cynocephali, as well as modern accounts of people claiming to have seen "dogmen".
I am impressed by your ability to cover this aspect of medieval thought impartially, and in a manner that is respectful, balanced, and well researched. These are the hallmarks of a good historian. Many people today are unable to even consider that those in the past, being influenced by contemporary ideas, had a different view of the world than themselves---and that they are not necessarily inferior or to be mocked for it. It was also pleasant to see relevant historical illustrations. All the best.
Fascinating video about a topic that is only vaguely known about by the public these days, thank you for making it
Thank you for this one, Adam. I continue to appreciate your scholarly approach. It is obvious you do extensive research, and your presentation rivals television programs with huge budgets. I (and probably many of your subscribers) would be interested in your course of studies, and what are your professional goals re: history and scholarship.
If I killed a wolf, bear, deer, moose, etc. I'd've definitely worn its fur. If a ancient foreigner only saw from a distance(especially given the fear of seeing some fanciful man-beast hybrid making incomprehensible noises/language) it would be pretty easy to talk all sorts of craziness to the boys back home.
Someone could mistake a baboon as a dog-headed human wearing furs from a safe distance. And they certainly eat meat and locals would probably warn travelers that they're man-eaters.
Never mind after a few mutations and embellishments in transmission.
Saw another comment mention kangaroos
It is nice to watch this after Sam O'Nella's video and knowing more about Plinny. It gives you context on the type of thing the guy wrote about
Kaz Rowe happens to occasionally mention him in videos too. He wrote about anything, but didn’t seem to have many sources for things (I think there’s instances of misinformation being traced all the way to him with no prev) tasting history has mentioned him a few times too
Pli-ny. PLY- knee the elder.
It's a little bit of a testament to art style throughout history, but I always find conscript art depicting beasts from the distant world to be so interesting.
This is superb research and the best discussion. Thank you for going through all of this with the audience. This is nourishment for everyone who never knew any of this, like ourselves. The best illustrations ever too, thank you for showing such choice selections from the original book pages and the names of the writers.
7:45 Angels don't "have rational souls" ... they are rational or better intellectual creatures, but that kind of spirit is not the soul of a body.
Saw a buff kangaroo picture and thought of this.
Good point
Women to blame. They saw the muscles and instantly humanized it for their own sake
I think the dog headed people are just Sri Lankans
@@peterii3512they were a race of black ethiopian. They had black skin and worshipped the cattle. Hindu Kushite blacks began ALL INDIA. Krishna translated in Sanskrit means the blackened one. Be careful with this history. It’ll hurt some feelings because they were full blacks. Described by Herodotus in 450bc. Book 2 chapter 17.
@@harvardarchaeologydept3799 lmao
v interesting! I'm currently reading De Civitate Dei for my dissertation and I'm in the midst of book 3. If I recall correctly, Augustine has so far used the term about.... 2-3 times, mostly w/ reference to Anubis :O Can't wait to read about his thoughts on disability though!
The part I talked about in this video comes in book 16 ch 8. Enjoy your time with Augustine, De Civitate Dei is a text full of interesting material
This channel is so cool, every video is an absolute banger
Now no longer legend and just my local singles.
Pfffft 😂😂😂
Ahh you’ve seen em too?!!😂
This was fascinating! Just found your channel, and have subscribed. You have a very pleasant voice to listen to, too.
Scandanavian King to Missionary:
"Dog headed people, man that is cray -zee! Hey, want to see the end of the world? It's right up there a little bit north, short walk..."
When they said that medieval rye fungus was no joke… They weren’t kidding!
Seeing ancient philosophers accepting that dog-headed people are real and having discussions over their humanity sounds funny untill you realize that we have angry arguments over whether or not Goku is more powerful than Godzilla.
There is plenty of interesting content on the internet, which is, however, unfortunately badly written or read with mispronunciations, making my inner pedant wince. This is a beautifully, refreshingly eloquent piece and really fascinating. Thanks!
Incredibly interesring! I would really love to see some more videos about such "beasts".
Subscribed, liked, and I thoroughly enjoyed the video. You have a great voice, and I appreciate your scholarly work.
Love your channel!
You explain it very well. Strong structure om the video.
Godspeed, Studium Historiae!
I believe cynocaphali have souls.
All dogs go to heaven
24:20 while it’s a neat theory, the sentinalese wherent originally hostile, they only became hostile after the british in the 1800s kidnapped some kids and elders to take them back to britian. The elders died from illness so the sailors dumped the kids back on the island.
(speculation): And i guess surviving children telling stories about the monsters riding the sea beast killing the elders spooked the tribe enough for them to be hostile to all outsiders.
I love this ! Thank you Friend. Northwestern VA here !
That was a very interesting and well presented mini-documentary. Thanks.
I always assumed the dog-headed idea came from egyptian statues of Anubis the Hound of Heaven ( anu 'the One' bis 'voice') the messenger of the gods.
At least until I came across a story of a germanic regiment of mercenary dog-headed soldiers who fought for one of the italian city states against another (in the early middle ages). Not a fantastical account but an actual battle report. One possibility is the german mercs were in fact part of some pagan warrior-wolf cult that survived into the christian era. Back when I was an archaeologist I vaguely remember researching a neolithic headhunting wolf cult in central and northern germany that survived up to the 6th century.
11:24 Wait, you’re referring to a different “Where the Wild Things Are,” right? RIGHT?
Yes lol, just a creatively titled chapter in a scholarly book
I was listening to something a while back, and in northern Norway way up there's an area a big area fenced off where no one can go and some kind of creatures or something it's kept contained up there
Sounds like either nonsense or just a basic wildlife preserve.
Maybe they’re based on people who wear wolf heads as a type of fashion among their unknown culture and traditions. People back then mistake them as inhuman.
Arthurian legend dog headed people likely pulls from Pre Christian legend about Sidhe (Faerie) warriors, Cat Heads and Dog Heads were among them.
St Christopher is sometimes represented with a dog head
Great in depth video, thanks. I have always been curious about this :)
What a great topic, very interesting. New subscriber 🥰
This was cool. Interesting topic, well explained. Thank you for sharing. : )
These were people with genetic mutations or deformation, they were "monsters" in thier time, some grouped together and created villages, which later would become mythical, but they were just people, like us
2:08 Hey it's a medieval Strongmad!
"I'M HISTORICALLY ACCURATE!!!!!!!"
Top quality content, thank you
The legend of the dog faced woman oh that's good
Attractive
The legend of the female dog
Who lets the dogs out?
Who? Who? Who? Who?
Her legend will never die...(I got your simpsons quote)
@@joeyjoejoejrshabadu Joeyjoejoejrshabadu? That's the worst (youtube)name I ever heard.
2:03 can we please bring back this level of creativity to humanity? Imagine an entire movie around the face-torso people
Gotta mention, I have seen rare instances of "Kobolds" being depicted as humans but with dog heads, as opposed to the more common draconic depiction. Idk if this is related at all.
The draconic depiction was entirely an invention of 3rd Edition D&D. Kobold is just another word for Goblin. The dog versions were largely a misinterpretation of their 1st edition D&D art.
there was a species of (man sized) giant baboon that once lived in north africa. maybe this is what they were talking about only going by descriptions. chest faced men could be referring to remnant populations of extinct gorillas which have been found in ethiopia. His libyan sources could have taken these tales from oral histories going very far back
I can see a Cephili cheesemaker making some Caerphilly
excellent video essay 🐕
I've seen a man who looked like the dog faced character on Dark Angel. I'm not sure if it was a birth defect or burn scars, but I imagine seeing someone like this in the past and thinking it was a whole race of people. I used to see him all the time in the streets of San Francisco.
Maybe they had their bearings wrong and actually saw Kangaroos. You ever seen them stand up tall on their back legs and tail? It's freaky 🦄
Since it happened often that languages of people, considered to be savage, were viewed as "less than" if they were not Greek or Latin, is it possible that early scholars referred to their speech as "barking" in order to be derogatory or denegrative of foreigners of the east?
I feel like I’m watching someone’s project to get from the 32nd to the 33rd degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry
Immediately reminded me of Alois Jirásek's novel Psohlavci (literally Dogheads)
What if sightings of the dogman in wisconsin and other nearby states are modern day cynocephalus sightings
There's definitely a link between them but the appearance and motives between the two in history seem weirdly at odds. The ones in historical accounts sound like they had the concept of civilizations down well and even a unique language among themselves. The ones we see today are like the equivalent of intelligent yet undoubtedly primitive Neanderthals.
As a Michigander, this was my first thought
@@blackshogun272 I feel like there's deeper reasonings for all this as conspiratorial as that sounds
From bigfoot to yowies yetis
Goat men dogmen kandahar giants skunk apes as well as old civilizations like gobekli tepe and hidden parts of the pyramids or that sealed tomb with the flood myth to its door from o.o.p.artifacts convenience of disappearing evidence and cover ups by governments and legends myths and folklore coincidental similarities to the missing knowledge of the library of Alexandria and possibly even secret societies like illuminati and knights Templar etc it's all connected
I likely sound mad to you guys and I don't mind if you do
Robert Sepher has just touched on this in his latest video !
Just found the channel love it ! ❤️🕊️🇬🇧
Очень хороший обзор сведений о сабакоголовых людях, все сведения о кеноцефалах имеют правдивые основания. О кеноцефалах упоминали восточные авторы при описании северных земель восточной европы в 9-10 веках. Одно из последних известий о них , это упоминание католических авторов, которые посетили Русь , после нашествия Батыя. Всё это краткие не развернутые заметки. И один из католических авторов отметил, что кеноцефалы сражались с монголами на стороне русских и отмечено, что были храбры в битве. Да кеноцефалы были людьми с деталями одежды, по которым они внешне были похожи на собак или волков. Есть более весомое наблюдение в древнем городе Хабедю были найдены две могилы , где были похоронены люди с головными уборами в виде маски волка или собаки.По-этому всё что писали о кеноцефалах католические и арабские авторы , есть правда. Эти люди исчезли из Европы во второй половине 13 века. Монголы много народов уничтожили по берегам реки Волги.
The catholics and Arabs or Muslims are prob two of the most biased resources because they painted every other foreign group or culture as evil bloodthirsty pagan barbarians that needed religion in their life... specifically their own catholic or Muslim.
But I will give credit to both esp the Persians for their translation and record keeping of other texts books scripture fairly faithfully for all to see.
Yeah I believe that they are real and probably what the modern werewolf stories have came from also every culture have some records of contact with them they were warriors I believe they are probably also the dogmen that people are seeing
Fascinating!
In a fictional story I am writing, they do have souls.
Same. Actually I gave them their own spoken language
Good luck on y'alls stories!
The ancient Romans were already pondering the philosophical quandaries of Dr. Monroe's Island.
I heard Lombards being mentioned. I hope you'll cover medieval fascination (And mine) of knights battling big snails some day 😂
okay yes this is an instant subscription for me. 👍
Without a doubt the BEST VIDEO I have ever had THE IMMENSE PLEASURE of watching.
You weave a very compelling argument that anything CAN BE possible.
Is that what he's arguing? That's not the impression I got. But it was a fascinating video about an interesting old belief I didn't know about before now.
@@justforever96I think it’s a bot…
No one can’t tell me that Lucario isn’t saint Christopher
he isn't. 🍻
@ explain why he’s a knight in the movie then
"No one can't"...
So everyone can?
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 I don’t subscribe to prescriptivism
The pokemon is based on Anubis, but you can name it as such if you have one.
Not sure if i ve seen the head of this creature on the church window "Achsenfenster" /"Ostfenster" from Albrecht Dürer and Hans Hirsfogl. (They made really intrressting glasses, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 🤪
Kunokefalos. There is no "c" in Greek,and the "c" in classical Latin is hard. And the "Y" was pronounced "oo".But I know I'm in the minority in using classical pronucniation.
Typically I'll use the classical pronunciation, but the term Cynocephalus is Anglicized often enough that it would have felt forced for me to do so here.
As an orchid collector of my acquaintance once noted, "there are no ancient people around to correct my pronunciation of ancient languages."
@@scallopohare9431I like that.
The question of rational souls would have to rest on what sort of brain rested in the quasi-doggy skull, and whether it dealt with things dogs find difficult, like object permanence. And then we’d have to ask whether that head, unlike a dog’s, allowed for speech, and work out the precise relationship of language to thought. Tricky!
All the ancient sources say that cynocephali spoke only in dog sounds. Humans are almost unique in having the form of breath control that allows for our type of speech. We share this breath control (among mammals) only with seals. You can hear a recording of Hoover the talking seal on wikipedia.
@ , so how can we account for Brian Griffin from Family Guy? More seriously, I did imply that the cynocephalous person would have to have a head in some way unlike a dog’s.
Subbed! Interesting video, well researched!
Midieval cryptids had die-hard fans too
This is what youtube was made for
The debate about the cynocephali being human and having souls parallels the debate about aliens. Do they exist and do they have souls? I think where ever the aliens are they may have similar concerns about us.
C.S. Lewis plays with this idea in "Out of the Silent Planet" to very entertaining effect.
I honestly think the source of the Cynocephali was originally a garbled description of baboons, flavored (and reinforced) by Egyptian depictions of Anubis, and rhen when later explorers saw baoboons, they then *rejected* them as the possible cynocephali, bevause they weren't quite human *enough*, and, "Those ancient writers couldn't all be wrong, could they?"
I agree. And today, it's not unheard of to see pet monkeys in Asia that have clothes on. That's probably a very old practice. And Europeans who aren't familiar with monkeys or baboons might liken them to dog-faced, as the video suggested. Fascinating!
Hi!!! Wow, so interesting video,
I just subscribe 1 minute ago and I delect my intellect with the thoughts of all the other videos I will dive in after this one.
2:15 Which book does he mention that in?
ST Christopher is sacred to my mother's family she taught me how he protected us we actually have many of the religious pictures of him that were shown in my mother's house still i believe Bonaparte was a fan of St Christopher and many people through the north of Spain and Southern France they could speak but would bark after every second or third word
Here: ……,,….,,,..,,. Some spare punctuation, since it seems your keyboard doesn’t have any.
@ithalaine haha
St Christopher was from Syria
@franciscopineda2594 I don't believe my mother would have been happy to hear such a thing she did not even like people from the south of her own country because she said they had some Arab blood from hundreds of years ago st Christopher is very popular in the alpine region of Italy and Switzerland Basque and Corsica they don't like people or anything from the middle eastern countries I had that made clear to me
@@Noelzsazsa A racist then
Baboons in the wild sometimes domesticate dogs. They use them like we do, for protection(early warning system).
around minute 16 u speak of this dog headed people tamming other animals, and I immediately remembered this sort of new discovery of baboons stealing dogs from people and raising them as guardian dog. What if this is what ancient people saw, and that's why they called them humanoids
Hans Chrsitian Anderson's Mermaid had no soul, but sought a chance to earn it. The concept of strange creatures, and whether they might have soul's continued till at least the late 1800's...
31:30 ICP shoutout!
Lol Whoop whoop 🤙
Chomo Music
Take your Faygo and geeeeet out!
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
What does "bark" mean to these old dudes?
Something along the lines of "woof woof"
Byork byork
a short sharp peremptory tone of speech or utterance
to advertise by persistent outcry
to utter in a curt loud usually angry tone
to speak in a curt loud and usually angry tone
You can find many examples of bark being used in this manner all throughout literature.
Or, if you're feeling the lazy self assured reductionist route: woof woof.
@@studiumhistoriae The video says that old Greek guys described the dog head dudes as "barking", which is modern English. German dogs go "wau, wau" and Greek dogs say "ghav, ghav".
I don't know how these ancient guys interpreted a dog, but I doubt it was "bark". Was it described as a dog sound? A cry? An animal noise? How did they land on "bark"
@@omicdog well I can't tell you anything about the Greeks, but Pliny uses the Latin verb "latrare" when saying that they bark. But I don't know what sound they would have used to signify or imitate a dog barking
Terrific video! Thank you!
my grandfather was a dog headed man.
I *need* that painting of the Orthodox fursona/Cynocephalus St. Christopher
I liked the ICP reference at the end.... 😜😉😉
Was one of these people on Star Trek: The Animated Series?
1st Gen furries perhaps?
Pretty much
That's what I just commented. Having a Fursona is nothing new, obviously ;)
I was just thinking about that bipedal anthros with clothes yeah we make art of that today lol
@@martinharris5017man you look too normal to be talking like this
No thats african animism
Do all cynocephali go to heaven?
What about crocodiles and a,lligators?
Most interesting bit of the video for me is the argument from people for their existence and how denying it felt close-minded, feels like the discourse around aliens these days.
That monster with the huge foot is just a dude like me with a bee sting. I was once a crytid at work for a week called bighand...
Excellent work showing the remarkable intellectual reflection evident in the middle ages! It is surprising to think how much that modern 'intellectuals' could learn from their far removed predecessors, and the lack of arrogant prejudices about what is known and 'known' to be true or possible.
And my rational mind tells me that if they, or any 'other' intelligent life, existed then they would possess a rational soul and be loved by God.
Subscribed and grateful!
In sweden they were called hundturkar.
This is the strangest video I've seen so far.
Good channel I'm subscribing now
Saint Christopher's cool and everything Grandma but don't you remember that tomorrow is my birthday?
So why were saints depicted as cynocephalic? Did I miss that?
St Christopher is the saint that sometimes is represented with a dog head. He was from Syria. He was a cannanite. In medieval Europe people though that cannanites had dogs heads
Any ties to the modern day dogmen seen down south in the states?
I wonder about the cenocephalus as being originally a reference to an actual group of people. Not some kind of cryptozoology thing, nor a misidentification of baboons.
Early Medieval English law had a principle of declaring that an individual stood outside of the protections of the law. If a judge ascertained that a person had committed some offence that was so serious that they were not entitled to the protection of the law, they would declare that individual to be, “Caput lupinum”, or “Caput gerat lupinum” (‘wolf headed’ or ‘may he wear a wolf’s head’). This was how one formally became an outlaw.
I don’t have any idea what the origin of the phrase is, where it came from or what time it came from. I know that it appears in the _Leges Edwardi Confessoris_ (the laws of Edward the Confessor), so it goes at the very least back to pre-Norman English law; but it has the feel, to me at least, to be of the same cloth as the weregild laws. If anyone can kill the caput lupinum on sight, that suggests that might come from the time of blood guilt and family vengeance.
I don’t know if the ideas are related whatsoever; but it certainly seems to open up some possibilities for the earlier references to the cynocephalus as being a metaphor for lawless barbarians (cf the origin of the word ‘barbarian’, as compared with a cynocephalus communicating with barking noises).
No proof, of course; just chasing down some common connections.
Every fantastical thing from the past can't be a heckin' metaphor, Varg.
The origin of the phrase clearly comes from comparison with the status of wolves. Because these animals were making a lot of damage to livestock, there were no laws or customs protecting them. A wolf could be killed anywhere by anybody, and the same would happen to the outlaw. But this is a strictly English thing.
English laws referencing the wolf headed are likely derived from old North Germanic custom regarding the Ulfheðnar
@@vertexed5540 Perhaps, but as far I know this specific phrase was never used in any German country.
@melanimatejak6821 first and foremost, England is a German country. Secondly, England as a polity has it's origins in not only the Anglo-Saxon invasions but also the danelaw which was a Viking/Scandinavian state. The Scandinavian idea of the outlaw who dresses in animal clothes, the wolf headed (ulfheðnar) or bear shirted (berserkr) would have been very present in the minds of lawmakers of a state which is not only post Germanic but specifically Scandinavian
Would b dope to get a well made film about Saint Christopher.
Very informative, thank you!
What would happen if they looked in the mirror? Wouldn’t that help to explain if they have rational souls or not? Would they be able to recognize themselves or at least what they were? Would they attack? Would they fixate? Would they think about what others saw? Would they try to improve their appearance?