Mythical Creatures [EDITING]

Acephali

I was very surprised to find out that there were species of the mythical headless men rumored, in antiquity and later, to inhabit remote parts of the world. They started off recorded as real people and then apparently became myth. According to imcur.com, Acephali are headless humans with faces on their chests that live in Libya. At one time they were an ordinary race of humans that had a terrible encounter with the gods. This violent dispute led to the Acephali having their heads severed forever.

They are variously known as

1) Akephaloi (Greekἀκέφαλοι, "headless ones") or 2) Blemmyes (Latin: Blemmyae; Greek: βλέμμυες) who were an actual nomadic Beja tribal kingdom that existed from at least 600 BC to the 3rd century AD in Nubia (Africa.) They were described in Roman histories of the later empire, with the Emperor Diocletian enlisting Nobatae mercenaries from the Western Desert oases to safeguard Aswan, the empire's southern frontier, from raids by the Blemmyes. They then became fictionalized as a legendary race of Acephali (headless) monsters who had eyes and mouths on their chests. We will explore in a moment plausible explanations as to why this happened.

3) Epiphagi, a variant name for the headless people of the Brisone, is sometimes used as a term referring strictly to the eyes-on-the-shoulders type of Acephali.

Modern rational explanations for the Acephali:

In the Age of Enlightenment, Joseph-François Lafitau asserted that while "acephalous" races were present in North America, they were no more than a local trait of having the head set deep in the shoulders.

He argued that reports of "headless" traits in the "East Indies" by writers of antiquity is evidence that people of the same genetic pool migrated from Asia to North America and started living there. Contemporary literature says certain writers attribute Blemmyes' physique as an ability to raise both shoulders to an extraordinary height, while ensconcing their head in-between. Other explanations have been offered for the legend. Native warriors perhaps employed the tactic of keeping their heads tucked close to the breast while marching with one knee on the ground. Or perhaps had the custom of carrying shields ornamented with faces. 

Acephali in art:

Likenesses of Blemmyes are used as supports for misericords at Norwich Cathedral and Ripon Cathedral, from earlier local folklore. Writer Lewis Caroll is said to have invented some of his characters based on objects in the Ripon church where his father served as canon, and in particular, the Blemmys inspired his Humpty Dumpty character.

Acephali in literature:

In Umberto Eco's Baudolino, the protagonist meets Blemmyes along with Sciapods and a number of monsters from the medieval bestiary in his quest to find Prester John. Shakespeare alludes to the myths surrounding Blemmyes as headless beings in the following two passages:

"And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."
-Shakespeare, Othello

"Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts?"
-Shakespeare, The Tempest

In his 2006 book La Torre della Solitudine, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, features the Blemmyes as fierce, sand-dwelling creatures located in the southeastern Sahara, and suggests that they are the manifestation of the evil face of mankind. Othello makes reference to them as "men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders" [I.iii.143-144]. Science fiction author Bruce Sterling wrote a short story entitled "The Blemmye's Stratagem", included in his collection "Visionary in Residence". The story describes a Blemmye during the Crusades, who turns out to be an extraterrestrial. Sterling later stated that the idea for his story was taken from a children's story by Waleed Ali. The Oz stories by L. Frank Baum describe the Hammerhead Men, who are ferocious, fearsome misanthropes who jealously guard their mountain against any who enter. The Hammerhead Men are very short, and they can detach their heads from their bodies and thus give them a headless appearance. They attack Dorothy and her friends on the way to the South. Gene Wolfe writes of a man with his face on his chest, located in his short story collection "Endangered Species". Blemmyes also appear in the 2000 novel The Amazing Voyage of Azzam by K Godel as cannibalistic tribesmen who guard a lost treasure of King Solomon. They use clubs, spears, and blow darts as weapons. The Blemmyae appear in The Monstrumologist (2009) a youg adult horror novel by Rick Yancey. The Blemmyae appear in Rick Riordan's novel The Trials of Apollo Book Two The Dark Prophecy.

Etymology:

As for the origins of the name Blemmyes, various etymologies had been proposed, and the question has long been considered unsettled.

In antiquity, Blemmyes were said to be named after King Blemys (Βλέμυς), according to Nonnus's 5th century epic Dionysiaca, but no lore about headlessness is attached to the people in this work. Samuel Bochart of the 17th century derived the word Blemmyes from the Hebrew bly () "without" and moach () "brain", implying that the Blemmyes were people without brains. A Greek derivation from blemma(Greek: βλέμμα) "look, glance" and muō (Greek: μύω) "close the eyes" has also been suggested. Wolfgang Helck claimed a Coptic word "blind" for its etymology. Leo Reinisch (de) in 1895 proposed that it derived from bálami "desert people" in the Bedauye tongue (Beja language). Although this theory had long been forgotten, this etymology has come into acceptance, alongside the identification of the Beja people as true descendants of the Blemmyes of yore.

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Information from arjungwriter.com

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