Anthropophage
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (February 2016) |
An anthropophage [1] or anthropophagus (from Greek: ανθρωποφάγος, romanized: anthrōpophagos, "human-eater", plural Greek: ανθρωποφάγοι, romanized: anthropophagi) was a member of a mythical race of cannibals described by the playwright William Shakespeare. The word first appears in English around 1552.
Origin
The Anthropophagi might have been inspired by the Scythian tribe of the Androphagi described by the Ancient Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus.
In literature
The most famous usage of the Anthropophagi appears in William Shakespeare's Othello:
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
Shakespeare makes yet another reference to the cannibalist anthropophagus in the
Go knock and call; hell speak like an Anthropophaginian
unto thee: knock, I say.
You know about these Anthropophagi, and how we have lost Matthew, Peter, Walter, Colin and many more
American novelist Rick Yancey incorporates the myths of the Anthropophagi in his 2010 release The Monstrumologist.
Pop culture
In popular culture, the anthropophagus is sometimes depicted as a being without a head, but instead have their faces on the
See also
- Cannibalism
- Blemmyes (legendary creatures)
References
- ISBN 90-04-12560-4.
- ^ White, T.H. (1938). The Sword in the Stone. London: Collins. p. 169.
External links
- Oxford English Dictionary
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.
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