Blemmyes-gallica-12148-btv1b8447838j-f64

Various species of mythical headless men were rumoured, in antiquity and later, to inhabit remote parts of the world. They are variously known as ''akephaloi'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

ἀκέφαλοι 'headless ones') or Blemmyes (; ) and described as lacking a

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

, with their

facial feature The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect ...

s on their

chest The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

. These were at first described as inhabitants of ancient Libya or the Nile system (

Aethiopia Ancient Aethiopia, () first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in northern Sudan, of areas south of the Sahara, and of certain areas in Asia. Its earliest men ...

). Later traditions confined their habitat to a particular island in the Brisone River, or shifted it to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Blemmyes are said to occur in two types: with eyes on the chest or with the eyes on the shoulders.

Etymology

Various etymologies had been proposed for the origins of the name "Blemmyes", and the question is considered unsettled. In antiquity, the actual tribe known as the

Blemmyes The Blemmyes ( or Βλέμυες, ''Blémues'' , Latin: ''Blemmyae'') were an Eastern Desert people who appeared in written sources from the 7th century BC until the 8th century AD. By the late 4th century, they had occupied Lower Nubia and esta ...

were said to be named eponymously after King Blemys (Βλέμυς), according to

Nonnus Nonnus of Panopolis (, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century AD) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid and probably lived in the 5th century AD. He i ...

's 5th century epic ''

Dionysiaca The ''Dionysiaca'' (, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from Greco-Roman antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hex ...

'', but no lore about headlessness is attached to the people in this work.

Samuel Bochart Samuel Bochart (30 May 1599 – 16 May 1667) was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet. His two-volume (Caen 1646) exerted a profound influence on seventeenth-century Biblical e ...

of the 17th century derived the word ''Blemmyes'' from the Hebrew () "without" and () "brain", implying that the Blemmyes were people without brains (although not necessarily without heads). A Greek derivation from ''blemma'' () "look, glance" and ''muō'' () "close the eyes" has also been suggested.

Wolfgang Helck Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. ...

claimed a Coptic word "blind" for its etymology. Leo Reinisch in 1895 proposed that it derived from ''bálami'' "desert people" in the Bedauye tongue (

Beja language Beja ( or ) is an Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic branch spoken on the western coast of the Red Sea by the Beja people. Its speakers inhabit parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. In 2022 there were 2,550,000 Beja speakers in Sudan, and 121,00 ...

). Although this theory had long been neglected, this etymology has come into acceptance, alongside the identification of the

Beja people The Beja people (, , ) are a Cushitic-speaking peoples, Cushitic Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Eastern Desert, inhabiting a coastal area from southeastern Egypt through eastern Sudan and into northwestern Eritrea. They are descended from ...

as true descendants of the Blemmyes of yore.

In antiquity

The first indirect reference to the Blemmyes occurs in

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

, ''Histories'', where he calls them the ''akephaloi'' ( "without a head"). The headless ''akephaloi'', the dog-headed

cynocephali The characteristic of cynocephaly, or cynocephalus (), having the head of a canid, typically that of a dog or jackal, is a widely attested mythical phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts. The literal meaning of ''cynocephaly'' ...

, "and the

wild men The wild man, wild man of the woods, woodwose or wodewose is a mythical figure and motif that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to '' Silvanus'', the Roman god of ...

and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous" dwelled in the eastern edge of

ancient Libya During the Iron Age and Classical antiquity, ''Libya'' (from Greek :wikt:Λιβύη, Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber language, Berber: ''Libu'') referred to the area of North Africa directly west of the Nile, Nile river (Modern day ...

, according to Herodotus's Libyan sources.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, quoting

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

, refers to them as ''sternophthalmoi '' ( "chest eyed"). Mela was the first to name the "Blemyae" of Africa as being headless with their face buried in their chest. In a similar vein,

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

in the ''Natural History'' reports the Blemmyae tribe of North Africa as " avingno heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts". Pliny situates the Blemmyae somewhere in

(in, or in the neighbouring lands to

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

).
Book 5.8
Modern commentators on Pliny have suggested the notion of headlessness among Blemmyes may be due to their combat tactic of keeping their heads pressed close to the chest, while half-squatting with one knee to the ground. (Book 5.8, note 17)

Solinus __NOTOC__ Gaius Julius Solinus, better known simply as Solinus, was a Latin grammarian, geographer, and compiler who probably flourished in the early 3rd century AD. Historical scholar Theodor Mommsen dates him to the middle of the 3rd century. ...

adds they are believed to be born with their head part dismembered, their mouth and eyes deposited on the breast. The term ''acephalous'' (''akephaloi'') was applied to people without heads whose facial parts such as eyes and mouth have relocated to other parts of the body, and the Blemmyes as described by Pliny or Solinus conform with this appellation.

In non-western sources

Headless men also appear in several Asian legends. Breast-eyed races (''war-čašmān'') are recurrent in the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

scriptures such as the ''

Bundahishn The ''Bundahishn'' (Middle Persian: , "Primal Creation") is an encyclopedic collection of beliefs about Zoroastrian cosmology written in the Book Pahlavi script. The original name of the work is not known. It is one of the most important extant ...

'', the ''

Jamasp Namag The Jamasp Nameh (var: ''Jāmāsp Nāmag'', ''Jāmāsp Nāmeh'', "Story of Jamasp") is a Middle Persian book of revelations. In an extended sense, it is also a primary source on Medieval Zoroastrian doctrine and legend. The work is also known as ...

'' and the '' Drakht-i Asurig''. Men with eyes in their chests are mentioned in Ibn Wasīf Shāh's ''Digest of Wonders (Akhbār al-zamān)'', in the anonymous '' Book of Curiosities'', and by other medieval islamic geographers as Al-Qazwini and Ibn al-Wardi. They also appear in the Syriac ''The Marvels Found in the Great Cities'' and in the

Piri Reis Map The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives, housed in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. After the empire's 1517 conquest of Egypt, Piri Re ...

. In the Indian epic ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

'', the demon

Kabandha In Hinduism, Kabandha (, , lit. "headless torso") is a Rakshasa (demon) who is killed and freed from a curse by the god Rama – an Avatar of Vishnu – and his brother Lakshmana. Kabandha's legend appears in the Hindu epics ''Ramayana'' and ''Ma ...

is a headless creature with one eye in the middle of his stomach and with extra-long arms. He is cursed to remain in this form until released by

Rāma Rama (; , , ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Also considered as the ideal man (''maryāda'' ...

. In the

Chinese classic text The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian traditi ...

Classic of Mountains and Seas The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shanhai jing'' (), formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed si ...

'', the god Xingtian is described as having no head, and with his nipples as eyes and his belly button as a mouth. This is because he got decapitated in a battle against Huangdi. The yokai Dōnotsura in the

Japanese folklore Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, Tradition, customs, and material culture. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The Folklor ...

is depicted as a headless man with his face on his torso.

Image gallery

Kabandha1.jpg, Kabandha Jiang Yinghao - Xingtian.jpg, Xingtian Oda_Donotsura.jpg, Dōnotsura

Middle Ages

By the 7th or 8th century, there had been composed a ''Letter of Pharasmenes to Hadrian'', whose accounts of marvels such as bearded women (and headless men) became incorporated into later texts. This included '' De rebus in Oriente mirabilibus'' (also known as ''Mirabilia''); its Anglo-Saxon translation;

Gervase of Tilbury Gervase of Tilbury (; 1150–1220) was an English canon lawyer, statesman and cleric. He enjoyed the favour of Henry II of England and later of Henry's grandson, Emperor Otto IV, for whom he wrote his best known work, the '' Otia Imperialia''. ...

's treatise; and the Alexander legend attributed to Leo Archipresbyter. The Latin text in the recension known as the ''Fermes Letter'' was translated verbatim in Gervase of Tilbury's ''

Otia Imperialia ''Otia Imperialia'' ("Recreation for an Emperor") is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of speculum literature. Also known as the "Book of Marvels", it primarily concerns the th ...

'' (ca. 1211) which describes a "people without heads" ("''Des hommes sanz testes''") of a golden colour, measuring 12 feet tall and 7 feet wide, living on an isle in the River Brisone (in Ethiopia). The catalogue of strange peoples from ''Letter'' occur in the Anglo-Saxon '' Wonders of the East'' (translation of ''Mirabilia'') and the ''

Liber Monstrorum The ''Liber Monstrorum'' (or ''Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus'') is a late seventh-or early eighth-century Anglo-Latin catalogue of marvellous creatures, which may be connected with the Anglo-Saxon scholar Aldhelm. It is transmitted in seve ...

''; a recension of ''Wonders of the East'' is bound in the

Beowulf manuscript ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poem, an epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of ...

. The transmission is imperfect. No name is given to the headless islanders, eight feet tall in the ''Wonders of the East''. Epiphagi ("epifugi") is the name of the headless in ''Liber Monstrorum''. This form derives from "epiphagos" in a modified recension of the ''Letter of Pharasmenes'' known as the ''Letter of Premonis to Trajan'' (''Epistola Premonis Regis ad Trajanum'').

Alexander romances

The ''Letter'' material was incorporated into the Alexander legend by Leo Archipresbyter, known as ''Historia de preliis'' (version J²), which was translated into Old French as ''

Roman d'Alexandre en prose The ''Roman d'Alexandre en prose'' (''Prose Alexander-Romance'') is one of many medieval " Alexander romances" relating the adventures of Alexander the Great, which were by then greatly elaborated with fantastical additions to the historical acco ...

''. In the ''prose Alexandre'' the golden-coloured headless encountered by Alexandre measured just 6 feet tall, and had beards reaching their knees. In the French version, Alexander captures 30 of the headless to show the rest of the world, an element lacking in the Latin original. Other Alexander books that contain the headless people episode are Thomas de Kent's romance and

Jean Wauquelin Jean Wauquelin (fl. 15th century), born in Picardy, was a writer and translator in French, active in the County of Hainaut in the Burgundian Netherlands, a county now located in Belgium near the border with France. Wauquelin died on 7 September ...

's chronicle.

Medieval maps

Blemmyes or headless people were also illustrated and described on medieval maps. The

Hereford Mappa Mundi The Hereford Mappa Mundi (, map of the world) is the largest medieval map still known to exist, depicting the known world. It is a religious rather than literal depiction, featuring heaven, hell and the path to salvation. Dating from AD, the m ...

(ca. 1300) places the "Blemee" in Ethiopia (upper Nile system), deriving its information from Solinus, perhaps via

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

. One Blemee standing has his face on their chest, and another below him has "eyes and mouth at their shoulders". Both varieties of Blemmyae occur according to Isidore, who reported that in Libya, besides the Blemmyae born with a face on the chest, there were reputedly "others, born without necks, ndhave their eyes on their shoulders". Some modern commentators believe the two different types represent the male and female blemmyes, with their genitals explicitly drawn. Another example is the

Ranulf Higden Ranulf Higden or Higdon (–1363 or 1364) was an English chronicler and a Benedictine monk who wrote the ''Polychronicon'', a Late Medieval magnum opus. Higden resided at the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester after taking his monastic vow a ...

map (ca. 1363), which bears an inscription regarding the headless in Ethiopia, although unaccompanied by any picture of the people. Biancomap-headless-inset

By the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, world maps began to appear that located the headless people further east, in Asia, such as the Andrea Bianco map (1436) that depicted people who "all do not have heads (''omines qui non abent capites'')" in India, on the same peninsula as the terrestrial paradise. But other maps of the period such as the Andreas Walsperger's map (ca. 1448) did continue to locate the headless in Ethiopia. The post-medieval map of

Guillaume Le Testu Guillaume Le Testu, sometimes referred to as Guillaume Le Têtu (c. 1509-12 – April 29, 1573), was a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time and an author of the Dieppe maps. His maps were ...

(pictured above) illustrates the headless and the dog-headed cynocephali north beyond the

Himalayan mountains The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 peak ...

Late Middle Ages

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', commonly known as ''Mandeville's Travels'', is a book written between 1357 and 1371 that purports to be the travelogue of an Englishman named Sir John Mandeville across the Near East as far as India and ...

'' writes of "ugly folk without heads, who have eyes in each shoulder" with their mouths "round like a horseshoe, in the middle of their chest" living among the populace in the big island of Dundeya (

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

) between India and Myanmar. In other parts of the island are headless men with eyes and mouth on their backs. This has been noted as an example of Blemmyes by commentators, though Mandeville does not use the term. Examples of chapters on monstrous races (including the headless), taken from earlier sources, occur in the ''Buch der Natur'' or the ''

Nuremberg Chronicle The ''Nuremberg Chronicle'' is an illustrated encyclopedia consisting of world historical accounts, as well as accounts told through biblical paraphrase. Subjects include human history in relation to the Bible, illustrated mythological creatures, ...

''. The ''Buch der Natur'' (ca. 1349), written by

Conrad of Megenberg Conrad of Megenberg (, ; 1309–1374) was a German Catholic scholar, and a writer. Biography Conrad was born in either Mainberg or Mebenburg, both in Bavaria. He was born on 2 February 1309. Conrad himself calls his native place Megenberg, he ...

, described the "people without heads ()" as shaggy all over the body, with "coarse hair like wild animals", but when the printed book versions appeared, their woodcut illustrations depicted them as smooth-bodied, in contradiction to the text. Conrad lumped peoples of various geography under "wundermenschen", and condemned such wondrous people as earning physical deformities due to the sins of their ancestors.

Age of Discovery

During the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (), also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the 15th to the 17th century, during which Seamanship, seafarers fro ...

, a rumor of headless men called the ''Ewaipanoma'' was reported by

Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...

in his '' Discovery of Guiana'', to have been living on the banks of the Caura River. Of the story, Raleigh was "resolved it is true, because every child in the provinces of Aromaia and Canuri affirm the same". He also cited an anonymous Spaniard's sighting of the Ewaipanoma.

Joannes de Laet Joannes or Johannes De Laet (Latinized as ''Ioannes Latius'') (1581 in Antwerp – buried 15 December 1649, in Leiden) was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his ''History of the New World'', ...

, a somewhat later contemporary, dismissed the story, writing that these natives' heads were set so close to the shoulders that some were led to believe their eyes were attached to the shoulders and the mouth to their breasts. During the same period (around 1589–1600), another English writer,

Richard Hakluyt Richard Hakluyt (; 1553 – 23 November 1616) was an English writer. He is known for promoting the British colonization of the Americas, English colonization of North America through his works, notably ''Divers Voyages Touching the Discov ...

, described a voyage by

John Lok John Lok was the son of Sir William Lok, the great-great-great-grandfather of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). In 1554 he was captain of a trading voyage to Guinea. An account of his voyage was published in 1572 by Richard Eden. Fami ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

, where he found "people without heads, called Blemines, having their eyes and mouth in their breast." The authorship of the report is ambiguous. The commonalities between Raleigh and Hakluyt writings might suggest the existence of an

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

at that time, since both were English writers, writing during the same period, about trips to different continents (Africa and Latin America). Ewaipanomas were depicted on numerous later maps using Raleigh's account as a reference.

Jodocus Hondius Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish and Dutch engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hondius the Elder to distinguish him from h ...

included them in his 1598 chart of

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

and in a display various Amerindian peoples in a map of North America released in the same year. Cornelis Claesz, who had worked alongside Hondius on numerous occasions, reproduced this display in a 1602 map of the Americas, but modified the Ewaipanoma to possess a true head but lack a neck, setting the figure's head at the level of the shoulders. Ewaipanomas began to decrease in popularity as a cartographic motif after this point; Hondius' 1608 world map does not include them, but merely notes that headless men are reported in Guyana while casting doubt on the veracity of these claims. Pieter van den Keere's 1619 world map, which includes a Claesz-like neckless figure in a display of Amerindian tribesmen, is the last to depict Ewaipanomas.

Later explanations

Explanations similar to de Laet's were repeated in later years. In the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

Joseph-François Lafitau Joseph-François Lafitau (; May 31, 1681 – July 3, 1746) was a French Jesuit missionary, ethnologist, and naturalist who worked in Canada. He is best known for his use of the comparative method in the field of scientific anthropology, the disco ...

asserted that while "acephalous" races were actually 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. Contemporary literature say certain writers attribute Blemmyes' physique as an ability to raise both shoulders to an extraordinary height, and ensconcing their head in between. Other explanations have been offered for the legend of their unusual physique. As noted earlier, native warriors perhaps employed the tactic of keeping head tucked close to the breast while marching with one knee on the ground. Or, perhaps, they had the custom of carrying shields ornamented with faces. Europeans also formerly considered Blemmyes to be an exaggerated report about apes.

In art

Likenesses of blemmyes are used as supports for

misericords A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a p ...

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Norwich and the mother church of the dioc ...

and

Ripon Cathedral The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. Founded as a monastery by monks of the Irish tradition in the 660s, ...

, from earlier local folklore. Writer

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

is said to have invented characters based on objects in the Ripon church where his father served as

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

, and in particular, the blemmyes here inspired his

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from ...

character. The four giants who protect the fantasy land of Termina in '' The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' are similar to the headless men, in the matter that their head and torso occupy the same anatomical position. The

Serious Sam ''Serious Sam'' is a video game series created and primarily developed by Croteam. It consists predominantly of first-person shooters. The series follows the advances of Sam "Serious" Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overlord who att ...

video game series features a common one eyed recurring enemy called a Gnaar with a striking resemblance. A headless man was also featured as a monster-of-the-week in ''

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated ''Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated'' (also known as ''Scooby-Doo! Mystery, Inc.'' or simply ''Mystery Incorporated)'' is an American animated horror comedy television series serves as the eleventh incarnation of the ''Scooby-Doo'' media franch ...

''. In it, it is known as the "Headless Horror".

In literature

William Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

play ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'' makes reference to "the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders". In his later play ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'', Gonzalo admittedly believed when he was young "that there were such men whose heads stood in their breasts". II. iii. 46/ref> In William Mayne's 1987 children's book ''The Blemyah Stories'', a family of Blemyahs spend a year in a

medieval priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or the Ch ...

, carving stories from wood.

Gene Wolfe Gene Rodman Wolfe (May 7, 1931 – April 14, 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and no ...

writes of a man with his face on his chest in his 1989 short story collection ''Endangered Species''. In

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

's 2000 novel ''

Baudolino ''Baudolino'' is a 2000 in literature, 2000 novel by Umberto Eco about the adventures of a man named Baudolino in the known and mythical Christianity, Christian world of the 12th century. ''Baudolino'' was translated into English in 2001 by Wil ...

'', the protagonist meets Blemmyes along with

Sciapod Monopods (also called sciapods, skiapods, skiapodes) were mythological dwarf-like creatures with a single, large foot extending from a leg centred in the middle of their bodies. The names ''monopod'' and ''skiapod'' (σκιάποδες) are both ...

s and a number of monsters from the medieval

bestiary A bestiary () is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beas ...

in his quest to find

Prester John Prester John () was a mythical Christian patriarch, presbyter, and king. Stories popular in Europe in the 12th to the 17th centuries told of a Church of the East, Nestorian patriarch and king who was said to rule over a Christian state, Christian ...

. In his 2006 book ''La Torre della Solitudine'',

Valerio Massimo Manfredi Valerio Massimo Manfredi (born 8 March 1943) is an Italian historian, writer, essayist, archaeologist and journalist. Biography He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia province of Modena and, after getting a degree in Classical Arts at ...

features the Blemmyes as fierce, sand-dwelling creatures located in the southeastern

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, and suggests that they are the manifestation of the evil face of mankind. Science fiction author

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first ...

wrote a short story entitled "The Blemmye's Stratagem", included in his 2006 collection ''Visionary in Residence''. The story describes a Blemmye during the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, who is revealed to be an extraterrestrial. Sterling later stated that the idea for his story was taken from a children's story by Waleed Ali. In

Rick Riordan Richard Russell Riordan Jr. ( ; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million cop ...

's 2017 fantasy novel ''

The Dark Prophecy ''The Dark Prophecy'' is an American fantasy novel based on Greek and Roman mythology written by American author Rick Riordan. It was published on May 2, 2017, and is the second book in ''The Trials of Apollo'' series, the second spin-off of th ...

'', headless men appear as the goons and bodyguards of Emperor

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

. In

Emil Ferris Emil Ferris (; born 1962) is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer. Ferris debuted in publishing with her 2017 graphic novel '' My Favorite Thing Is Monsters'', which was praised as a "masterpiece" and one of the best comics by a new author ...

's acclaimed graphic novel '' My Favorite Thing Is Monsters'', the narrator has a headless stuffed toy named Blemmy. The creatures turn up on day 304 of the ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

'' as translated by Sir Malcolm C. Lyons. The headless men with eyes on their chest defend the Brass City where the

ifrit Ifrit, also spelled as efreet, afrit, and afreet ( ), plural ), is a powerful type of demon in Islamic culture. The ''ʿafārīt'' are often associated with the underworld and identified with the spirits of the dead, and have been compared t ...

keeps a kidnapped princess as prisoner.

Gallery

File:Hereford Mappa Mundi Detail Africa.jpg, Blemee on the Hereford Mappa Mundi (detail, Nile system) File:Trococite; A Headless Man with Eyes on His Shoulders; A Headless Man with a Face on His Chest; A Man... - Google Art Project.jpg, 13th-century bestiary leaf File:BnF-fr1377-fol027-Ethiopie.jpg, Wondrous people of Ethiopia, 1377 manuscript of ''Secrets de l'histoire naturelle'' File:Pierpont Morgan Library-M461-026v-Ethiopia.jpg, Wondrous people of Ethiopia, ca. 1460 ''Livres des Merveilles du Monde'' File:Blemmyes - Cosmographiae uniuersalis 1550 (87683009).jpg, alt=A blemmyae in the 1544 wodcutt in the Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster, Blemmyae, 1544

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

in the '' Cosmographia'' by

Sebastian Münster Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, ...

File:Brevis descrip Guianae-Raleigh&Hulsius010d-headless.jpg, Headless from 1599 engraving in

's ''

The Discovery of Guiana ''The Discovery of Guiana'' is a book by Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote this account one year after Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition, his 1595 journey to Guiana, the Venezuelan region of Guayana Region, Guayana. He also visited Trinidad. The book in ...

'' File:Blemmyes with monkey.png, A closeup of the

shows a headless man holding what appear to be flowers.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited references

* * * * * * * {{Refend Blemmyes Mythical headless creatures Legendary tribes in classical historiography Medieval European legendary creatures Mythic humanoids Mythological peoples Indian legendary creatures Indian characters in Greek mythology