View source for Headless men

{{Short description|Ancient Greek rumors}}
[[File:Blemmyes-gallica-12148-btv1b8447838j-f64.jpg|thumb|One of the Blemmyes, from a 1556 map by [[Guillaume Le Testu]]|300px]]

Various species of mythical '''headless men''' were rumoured, in [[Ancient history|antiquity]] and later, to inhabit remote parts of the world. They are variously known as '''''akephaloi''''' ([[Koine Greek|Greek]] ἀκέφαλοι 'headless ones') or '''Blemmyes''' ({{langx|la|Blemmyae}}; {{langx|el|βλέμμυες}}) and described as lacking a [[head]], with their [[facial feature]]s on their [[chest]]. These were at first described as inhabitants of ancient Libya or the Nile system ([[Aethiopia]]). Later traditions confined their habitat to a particular island in the Brisone River,{{efn|Also "Brixonte[s]", etc.}} or shifted it to [[India]].

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.{{sfnp|Zaborski|1989}}

In antiquity, the actual tribe known as the [[Blemmyes]] were said to be named eponymously 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.<ref>Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'', XVII, 385–397</ref>{{sfnp|Derrett|2002|p=468}} [[Samuel Bochart]] of the 17th century derived the word ''Blemmyes'' from the Hebrew {{Transliteration|he|bly}} ({{lang|he|[[wikt:בלי|בלי]]}}) "without" and {{Transliteration|he|moach}} ({{lang|he|[[wikt:מוח|מוח]]}}) "brain", implying that the Blemmyes were people without brains (although not necessarily without heads).<ref name="cyclopaedia-1728">{{Cyclopaedia 1728|title=Blemmyes|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0257|volume=1|location=|page=107|noicon=1|no-prescript=1}}<!-- page 107 of Section "Beglerbeg - bomb", there are several page 107 within volume 1--></ref><ref name="marcus-190">{{citation|author=Pliny |others=Ajasson, M. (tr.); Marcus, Louis (notes) |title=Histoire naturelle |volume=III |publisher=C. L. F. Panckoucke |year=1829 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DqcOAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA190 |pages=190–1}}</ref> A Greek derivation from ''blemma'' ({{langx|el|βλέμμα}}) "look, glance" and ''muō'' ({{langx|el|μύω}}) "close the eyes" has also been suggested.<ref>{{citation|last=Morié |first=Louis J. |title=Les civilisations africaines: La Nubie (Éthiopie ancienne) |volume=1 |publisher=A. Challamel |year=1904 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NMZKEz4TtpQC}}</ref> [[Wolfgang Helck]] claimed a Coptic word "blind" for its etymology.<ref>''Der Kleine Pauly'' I, 913, cited in {{Harvnb|Derrett|2002|p=468}}</ref>

[[Leo Reinisch]] in 1895 proposed that it derived from ''bálami'' "desert people" in the Bedauye tongue ([[Beja language]]). Although this theory had long been neglected,{{sfnp|Zaborski|1989|pp=172–173}} this etymology has come into acceptance, alongside the identification of the [[Beja people]] as true descendants of the Blemmyes of yore.<ref>{{citation|last=Mukarovsky |first=Hans G. |title=Reinisch and Some Problems of the Study of Beja Today |work=Leo Reinisch: Werk und Erbe |publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |year=1987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ze8TAQAAMAAJ|page=130 (125–139)|isbn=9783700111498 }}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Updegraff |first1=Robert T. |others=László Török |title=The Blemmyes I: The Rise of the Blemmyes and the Roman Withdrawal from Nubia under Diocletian |work=ANRW |volume=II |number=10.1 |orig-year=1972 |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3110018853 |page=55 (44–106)}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Fleming |first=Harold C. |author-link=Harold C. Fleming |title=Ongota: A Decisive Language in African Prehistory |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBphpynFNKQC&pg=PA149 |page=149 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=9783447051248}}</ref>

== In antiquity ==
The first indirect reference to the Blemmyes occurs in [[Herodotus]], [[Histories (Herodotus)|''Histories'']], where he calls them the ''akephaloi'' ({{langx|el|ἀκέφαλοι}} "without a head").{{sfnp|Derrett|2002|p=467}} The headless ''akephaloi'', the dog-headed [[Cynocephaly|cynocephali]], "and the [[wild men]] and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous" dwelled in the eastern edge of [[ancient Libya]], according to Herodotus's Libyan sources.<ref name="herodotus">{{cite book |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+4.191&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 |author=Herodotus |others=Trans. A. D. Godley |title=The Histories |at=4.191}}</ref>  [[Strabo]], quoting [[Aeschylus]], refers to them by the name ''sternophthalmoi '' ({{langx|el|στερνοφθαλμοι}} "chest eyed").<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harland |first1=Philip A. |title=Getians, Dacians, and Scythians: Strabo (early first century CE) {{!}} Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World: The Websites of Philip A. Harland |url=https://www.philipharland.com/Blog/2022/09/getians-dacians-and-scythians-strabo-early-first-century/ |date=22 September 2022}}</ref>

[[Pomponius Mela|Mela]]<!--i.8--> was the first to name the "Blemyae" of Africa as being headless with their face buried in their chest.{{sfnp|Derrett|2002|p=469}} In a similar vein, [[Pliny the Elder]] in the [[Natural History (Pliny)|''Natural History'']] reports the [[Blemmyae]] tribe of North Africa as "[having] no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts".<ref name="pliny"/> Pliny situates the Blemmyae somewhere in [[Aethiopia]] (in, or in the neighbouring lands to [[Nubia]]).{{efn|From the geographical description this was a desert area south and east of Egypt, between tributaries of the Nile, in Nubian-Egyptian border zone in the [[Eastern Desert]].}}<ref name="pliny">{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1893}}|author=Pliny the Elder|title=The Natural History |others=Trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley |page=405 |volume=1 |publisher=George Bell & Sons |year=1893 |isbn=9780598910738|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVMMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA405}} ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=5:chapter=8 Book 5.8])</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1893|loc=p. 405, note 1}} (Book 5.8, note 9)</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Török |first=László |title=Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region Between Ancient Nubia and Egypt |publisher=BRILL |year=2009 |pages=9–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irbP2hHqDAwC&pg=PA9 |isbn=9789004171978}}</ref> 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.{{efn|Comment by Louis Marcus (1829), taking hint from a passage in [[Heliodorus of Emesa]] ''Aethiopica'' Book V.}}<ref name=marcus-190/><ref name=bostock-theory>{{Harvnb|Pliny|Bostock|Riley (tr.)|1893|loc=p.406, note 3}} (Book 5.8, note 17)</ref> [[Gaius Julius Solinus|Solinus]]<!--Ch. 34, sect. 5 (or 34,4 or 31, 4)--> adds they are believed to be born with their head part dismembered, their mouth and eyes deposited on the breast.{{sfnp|Druce|1915|pp=137–139}} 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 the Elder|Pliny]] or Solinus conform with this appellation.<ref name="britannica-1823">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Acephaous |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |volume= 1|year=1823 |pages=130–131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-icoAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA131}}</ref>

==In non-western sources==

Headless men also appear in several Asian legends. Breast-eyed races (''war-čašmān'') are recurrent in the [[Zoroastrian]] scriptures such as the ''[[Bundahishn]]'', the ''[[Jamasp Namag]]'' and the ''[[Drakht-i Asurig]]''.<ref>Agostini, D. (2019). Half-human and Monstrous Races in Zoroastrian Tradition. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 139(4), 805-818.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The bundahišn: a new translation |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0190879044 |page=79}}</ref> 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 [[Zakariya al-Qazwini|Al-Qazwini]] and [[Ibn al-Wardi]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferrand |first1=Gabriel |title=Relations de voyages et textes geographiques arabes, persans et turks relatifs a l'Extreme-Orient du: Traduits, Revus Et Annotés |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-08044-6 |pages=148, 307, 421}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Savage-Smith |first1=Emilie |last2=Rapoport |first2=Yossef |title=An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe |date=28 October 2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-25699-6 |page=515 |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carboni |first1=Stefano |title=The wonders of creation and the singularities of painting : a study of the Ilkhanid London Qazvīnī |date=2015 |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0748683246 |page=41}}</ref>  They also appear in the Syriac ''The Marvels Found in the Great Cities'' and in the [[Piri Reis Map]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Minov |first1=Sergey |title=The Marvels Found in the Great Cities and in the Seas and on the Islands: A Representative of ‘Aǧā’ib Literature in Syriac |date=22 January 2021 |publisher=Open Book Publishers |isbn=978-1-80064-034-4 |page=49 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Masseti |first1=Marco |last2=Veracini |first2=Cecilia |title=The zoomorphic representations of the Pîrî Reis map (1513) |journal=Anthropozoologica |date=June 2016 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=41–54 |doi=10.5252/az2016n1a3 |url=https://doi.org/10.5252/az2016n1a3 |issn=0761-3032|hdl=10400.5/28972 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In the Indian epic ''[[Ramayana]]'', the demon [[Kabandha]] 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]].<ref>Watanabe, A. (2020). The Edges of the World in Classical Greece and Epic India. The Metaphor of the Monster: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Monstrous Other in Literature, 204.</ref> In the [[Chinese classic text]] ''[[Classic of Mountains and Seas]]'', 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 [[Yellow Emperor|Huangdi]].<ref>Furnari, R. I. (2014). The Journey of Myths from West to East. Cogito-Multidisciplinary research Journal, (4), 129-142.</ref>  The [[yokai]] Dōnotsura in the [[Japanese folklore]] is depicted as a headless man with his face on his torso.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://matthewmeyer.net/blog/2016/10/28/a-yokai-a-day-donotsura/|title= A-Yokai-A-Day: Donotsura|date= 29 October 2016}}</ref>

===Image gallery===
<gallery>
Kabandha1.jpg|Kabandha
Jiang Yinghao - Xingtian.jpg|Xingtian
Oda_Donotsura.jpg|Dōnotsura
</gallery>

== Middle Ages ==
By the 7th or 8th century, there had been composed a ''Letter of Pharasmenes to Hadrian'',{{efn|Particularly the F-group of text known as ''Fermes Letter'', represented in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 1065.}} 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''); [[Wonders of the East|its Anglo-Saxon translation]]; [[Gervase of Tilbury]]'s treatise; and [[Nativitas et victoria Alexandri Magni regis|the Alexander legend]] attributed to [[Leo Archipresbyter]].{{sfnp|Ford|2015|loc=pp. 12–15; notes 23, 32}}

The Latin text in the recension known as the ''Fermes Letter''{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Fermes Letter: "''Est namque et alia insula in Brisone flumine, ubi nascuntur homines sine capite, habentes oculos et os in pectore; longi sunt pedes XII, lati et vasti pedes VII, colore et corpus auro simile''".{{sfnp|Stella|2012|p=75}}}} was translated verbatim in Gervase of Tilbury's ''[[Otia Imperialia]]'' (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).{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|River Brisone was a fictitious [[distributary]] of the Nile. Commentators ({{Harvnb|Gervase|Gerner|Pignatelli tr|2006|pp=298, 536}}) localize the Brison as being in Ethiopia.}}{{Refn|Gervase, in his autograph manuscript (Rome, Vat. Lat. 933) admits to using the ''Letter'' as his source.{{sfnp|Ford|2015|loc=p. 13, note 32}}}}<ref name="gervase">{{citation|ref={{SfnRef|Gervase|Gerner|Pignatelli tr|2006}}|author=Gervase of Tilbury |editor-last1=Gerner |editor-first1=Dominique |editor-last2=Pignatelli |editor-first2=Cinzia |title=Les traductions françaises des Otia imperialia de Gervais de Tilbury |publisher=Droz |year=2006 |isbn=9782600009164 |at=LXXV (p. 301)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n99aFlepeRoC&pg=PA301}}</ref>

The catalogue of strange peoples from ''Letter'' occur in the Anglo-Saxon ''[[Wonders of the East]]'' (translation of ''Mirabilia'') and the ''[[Liber Monstrorum]]''; a recension of ''Wonders of the East'' is bound in the [[Nowell Codex|Beowulf manuscript]].<ref>{{citation|last=Oswald |first=Dana  |title=Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2010 |isbn=9781843842323 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MsGDel51uIsC&pg=PA27}}</ref>{{sfnp|Stella|2012|p=75}} The transmission is imperfect. No name is given to the headless islanders, eight feet tall in the ''Wonders of the East''.{{efn|''Wonders'' says they live on "another island south of the Brixontes.." (Orchard tr.) presumably meaning another island in Brixontes River, but further south than the island where the donkey-eared, sheep-wooled, bird-footed animals called lertices dwell.}}{{r|orchard-companion}}<ref>{{harvnb|Orchard|2003a|loc=''Wonders of the East'', §15 (pp. 192–193)}}</ref> '''Epiphagi''' ("epifugi") is the name of the headless in ''Liber Monstrorum''.{{efn|''Liber Monstrorum'', I. 24: Epifugi, as the Greeks called them, are "eight feet tall and have all the functions of the head in their chests, except they are said to have eyes in their shoulders" (Orchard tr.); Latin text reads '..'quos Epifugos Graeci vocant et VIII pedum altitudinis sunt et tota in pectore capitis officia gerunt, nisi quod oculos in humeris habere dicuntur".}}<ref>{{harvnb|Orchard|2003a|loc=''Liber Monstrorum'', I. 24 (p. 273)}}</ref> 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'').{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|XVII, 5 : est etiam in Brixonte insula in homines sine qua nascuntur captibus, quia in pectore et oculos habent in time, altitude novem pedum latitude et octo: hos epifagos vocamus.{{sfnp|Stella|2012|p=62, note 55}}}}{{sfnp|Stella|2012|pp=62–63}}

=== Alexander romances ===
[[File:Royal 15 E VI fol-21v sans teste.jpg|thumb|280px|Alexander encounters the headless people<br />{{right|{{small|—''Hisotria de preliis'' in French, [[Talbot Shrewsbury Book|BL Royal MS 15 E vi]], c.&nbsp;1445}}}}]]
The ''Letter'' material was incorporated into the Alexander legend by [[Leo Archipresbyter]], known as ''Historia de preliis'' (version J<sup>2</sup>),{{sfnp|Ford|2015|loc=p. 12, note 23}} which was translated into Old French as ''[[Roman d'Alexandre en prose]]''. In the ''prose Alexandre'' the golden-coloured headless encountered by Alexandre measured just 6 feet tall, and had beards reaching their knees.<ref>{{citation |last=Hilka |first=Alfons |title= Comment Alixandres trouva gens sans testes qui avoient couleur d'or et orent les iols on pis |work= Der Altfranzösische Prosa-Alexander-roman nach der Berliner Bilderhandschrift, nebst dem lateinischen Original der Historia de preliis |publisher= Max Niemeyer |year=1920 |page=236 |url= https://archive.org/stream/deraltfranzsis00pseuuoft#page/236/mode/2up/search/testes}}</ref>{{sfnp|Druce|1915|pp=137–139}} In the French version, Alexander captures 30 of the headless to show the rest of the world, an element lacking in the Latin original.<ref>{{citation |last= Pérez-Simon |first= Maud |title= Conquête du monde, enquête sur l'autre et quête de soi. Alexandre le Grand au Moyen Âge |publisher= Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme |year=2014 |page=204 |isbn= 9782735115686 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=AI4r4vEPezQC&pg=PA204}} ([http://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/1735 Open edition])</ref>

Other Alexander books that contain the headless people episode are [[Thomas de Kent]]'s romance and [[Jean Wauquelin]]'s chronicle.<ref>{{citation |last= Harf-Lancner |first= Laurence |title= From Alexander to Marco Polo, from Text to Image: The Marvels of India |editor-last1=Maddox |editor-first1= Donald |editor-last2= Sturm-Maddox |editor-first2=Sara |work= Medieval French Alexander |publisher= SUNY Press |year=2012 |page=238 |isbn= 9780791488324 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TUqQbemlo80C&pg=PA238}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Hériché |first= Sandrine |title= Alexandre le Bourguignon: étude du roman Les faicts et les conquestes d'Alexandre le Grand de Jehan Wauquelin |publisher= Droz |year=2008 |pages= cxlvi, 233–234 |isbn= 9782600011976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUGpEbteHz4C&pg=PA233}}</ref>

=== Medieval maps ===
Blemmyes or headless people were also illustrated and described on medieval maps. The [[Hereford Mappa Mundi]] (ca. 1300) places the "Blemee" in Ethiopia (upper Nile system), deriving its information from Solinus, perhaps via [[Isidore of Seville]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
{{multiple image
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| footer = {{right|{{small|—Hereford Map (c. 1300)}}}}
| width1 = 90
| image1 = Hereford Mappa Mundi Detail Africa-blemee-eyes-on-chest.jpg
| alt1 = The Blemee have their face on their on chest
| caption1 = 1) Blemee with face on chest
| width2 = 100
| image2 = Hereford Mappa Mundi Detail Africa-eyes-on-shoulders.jpg
| alt2 = People with face at shoulders
| caption2 = 2) People with eyes at the shoulders
| direction =
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}}
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,{{efn|Although Kline (2001) thinks the second type with eyes and mouth at shoulder should be identified as an "Epiphagi"}}<ref>{{citation|last=Kline |first=Naomi Reed |title=Maps of Medieval Thought: The Hereford Paradigm |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2001 |pages=143, 148–151 |isbn=9780851159379 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pv5Nb7KpWTgC&pg=PA150}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Bevan |first1=William Latham |last2=Phillott |first2=Henry Wright |title=Mediæval Geography: An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi |publisher=E. Stanford |year=1873 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ma2oPZI86coC&pg=PA103}}</ref> who reported that in Libya, besides the Blemmyae born with a face on the chest, there were reputedly "others, born without necks, [and] have their eyes on their shoulders".<ref>{{citation|author=Isidore of Seville|ref={{SfnRef|Isidore|Throop tr|2005}} |editor-last=Throop |editor-first=Priscilla |title=Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation |at=XI. 3. 17 |publisher=Lulu.com |year=2005 |isbn=9781411665262 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jjsJ9NP6hYC&pg=PT30}}</ref> Some modern commentators believe the two different types represent the male and female blemmyes, with their genitals explicitly drawn.<ref>Westrem ed., ''Hereford Mappa Mundi'', p. 381, item 971, 973; cited in {{harvnb|Derrett|2002|p=470}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Baumgärtner |first=Ingrid |title=Biblical, Mythical, and Foreign Women in the Texts and Pictures on Medieval World Maps |work=The Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and their Context |publisher=British Library |year=2006 |page=305 |url=https://kobra.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/bitstream/urn:nbn:de:hebis:34-2007010416511/1/BaumgaertnerWomen.pdf}}</ref> Another example is the [[Ranulf Higden]] map (ca. 1363), which bears an inscription regarding the headless in Ethiopia, although unaccompanied by any picture of the people.{{efn|Inscription reads "Gens ista habet caput et os in pectore" and can be read above the spine of the Atlas, to the far right on the [[:File:World map ranulf higden.jpg|image Ranulf Higden map]]}}{{sfnp|Miller|1895|loc=III, p. 105}}

[[File:Biancomap-headless-inset.jpg|thumb|Headless placed in India.<br>{{right|{{small|—Andrea Bianco map (1436)}}}}]]
By the [[Late Middle Ages]], world maps began to appear that located the headless people further east, in Asia, such as the [[Bianco world map|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]].{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Bianco locates the headless in the Orient, but the dog-heads still in Ethiopia.{{r|hoogvliet}}}} But other maps of the period such as the [[Andreas Walsperger]]'s map (ca. 1448) did continue to locate the headless in Ethiopia.{{efn|Labeled "Hy haben vultum in pectore"}}{{sfnp|Miller|1895|loc=III, p. 148}}{{r|hallberg}} The post-medieval map of [[Guillaume Le Testu]] (pictured above) illustrates the headless and the dog-headed cynocephali north beyond the [[Himalayan mountains]].<ref>{{citation|last=White |first=David Gordon |title=Myths of the Dog-Man |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glmjo9UrP2YC&pg=PA86-IA6 |page=86|isbn=9780226895093 }}</ref>

=== Late Middle Ages ===
''[[The Travels of Sir John Mandeville]]'' 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]]) between India and Myanmar. In other parts of the island are headless men with eyes and mouth on their backs.<ref>{{citation |last=Moseley |first=C. W. R. D. (tr.) |title= The Travels of Sir John Mandeville |publisher= Penguin |year=2005 |orig-year=1983 |isbn= 978-0141902814 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kmiCKIuC_gsC&pg=PA29 |page=29; 137}}</ref> This has been noted as an example of Blemmyes by commentators,<ref>{{Harvnb|Moseley|2005|p=29}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Strickland |first=Debra Higgs |title= Saracens, Demons, & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art |publisher= Princeton University Press |year=2003 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pkcnIXxClUUC&pg=PA203 |page= 203|isbn=0691057192 }}</ref> though Mandeville does not use the term.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

[[File:Nuremberg chronicles - Strange People - Headless (XIIr).jpg|thumb|left|150px|A Blemmyae from Schedel's ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' (1493)]]
Examples of chapters on monstrous races (including the headless), taken from earlier sources, occur in the ''Buch der Natur'' or the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]''.<ref>{{citation|last1= Husband |first1= Timothy |last2= Gilmore-House |first2= Gloria  |others=Susan E. Tholl <!--S. E. T.--> |title=The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFDD4nuC1HoC&pg=PA47 |page=6|isbn= 9780870992544 }}</ref>

The ''Buch der Natur'' (ca. 1349), written by [[Conrad of Megenberg]], described the "people without heads ({{lang|gmh|läut an haupt}})"{{efn|{{Harvnb|Husband|Gilmore-House|1980|p=47}} refers to them as the "acephalous" but original German is followed here}} as shaggy all over the body, with "coarse hair like wild animals",{{efn|And having (''sint über al rauch mit hertem hâr, sam diu wilden tier'')"}} but when the printed book versions appeared, their woodcut illustrations depicted them as smooth-bodied, in contradiction to the text.{{sfnp|Husband|Gilmore-House|1980|p=47}} Conrad lumped peoples of various geography under "wundermenschen", and condemned such wondrous people as earning physical deformities due to the sins of their ancestors.{{efn|[[Thomas of Cantimpré]], who was Conrad's primary source also associated the headless with sin, but allegorically. To Thomas the headless represented unscrupulous lawyers.{{sfnp|Husband|Gilmore-House|1980|p=47}}}}<ref>{{citation|last=Metzler |first=Irina |title=Fools and idiots?: Intellectual disability in the Middle Ages |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkgFCwAAQBAJ |page=75|isbn=9781784996802 }}</ref>

== Age of Discovery ==
[[File:Brevis descrip Guianae-Raleigh&Hulsius000title-inset-map-Iwaipanoma.jpg|thumb|300px|Headless Ewaipanomas (1599 engraving)]]
During the [[Age of Discovery]], a rumor of headless men called the ''Ewaipanoma'' was reported by [[Walter Raleigh|Sir Walter Raleigh]] in his ''[[The Discovery of Guiana|Discovery of Guiana]]'', to have been living on the banks of the [[Caura River (Venezuela)|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Walter Raleigh |title=The Discovery of Guiana |year=2006 |publisher=[[Project Gutenberg]] |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2272/2272-h/2272-h.htm}}</ref> [[Joannes de Laet]], 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.<ref name=britannica-1823/>

During the same period (around 1589–1600), another English writer, [[Richard Hakluyt]], described a voyage by [[John Lok]] to [[Guinea]], where he found "people without heads, called Blemines, having their eyes and mouth in their breast."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/principalnaviga06hakl?q=Blemines|title=The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques & discoveries of the English nation, made by sea or over-land to the remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth at any time within the compass of these 1600 yeeres|last=Hakluyt|first=Richard|date=1598–1600|pages=169|publisher=Glasgow J. MacLehose }}</ref> The authorship of the report is ambiguous.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~humanists/2017/04/27/africa-the-second-voyage-to-guinea-set-out-by-sir-george-barne-sir-iohn-yorke-thomas-lok-anthonie-hickman-and-edward-castelin-in-the-yere-1554-the-captaine-whereof-was-m-iohn-lok/#_ftn1|title=Africa — The Second Voyage to Guinea Set out by Sir George Barne, Sir Iohn Yorke, Thomas Lok, Anthonie Hickman and Edward Castelin, in the yere 1554. The Captaine whereof was M. Iohn Lok.|last=De Medici|first=Marie|date=April 27, 2017|access-date=May 22, 2018}}</ref>

The commonalities between Raleigh and Hakluyt writings might suggest the existence of an [[urban legend]] at that time, since both were English writers, writing during the same period, about trips to different continents (Africa and Latin America).{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Ewaipanomas were depicted on numerous later maps using Raleigh's account as a reference. [[Jodocus Hondius]] included them in his 1598 chart of [[The Guianas|Guyana]] 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Surekha Davies |title=Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human |year=2016 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9781316546123 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=c7cjDAAAQBAJ}}</ref>

== Later explanations ==
[[File:Bonobos Lana & Kesi 2006 CALVIN IMG 1301.jpg|thumb|[[Bonobos]], a species of ''Pan'' (related to the chimpanzee) in the great apes]]
Explanations similar to de Laet's were repeated in later years. In the [[Age of Enlightenment]], [[Joseph-François Lafitau]] 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.<ref>{{citation|last=Delon |first=Michel |title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment |place=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781135959982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEpJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA849 |at=Monster (p. 849)}}</ref> 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.<!--"by hoisting those up to an extravagant height"--><ref name=cyclopaedia-1728/>

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.<ref name=bostock-theory/> Or, perhaps, they had the custom of carrying shields ornamented with faces.<!--Friedman cited in {{harvnb|Derrett|2002|p=468}} and Simek, ''Monster in Mittelalter''--><ref>{{citation|last=Friedman |first=John |title=The Monstrous Races In Medieval Art and Thought |place=Cambridge MA |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |orig-year=1981 |year=2000 |isbn=9780802071736|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIAjYg8Vdz8C |pages=12, 15, 25, 146, 178–179}}</ref>

Europeans also formerly considered Blemmyes to be an exaggerated report about apes.<ref>{{citation|last=Burton |first=Sir Richard Francis |title=Zanzibar: City, Island, and Coast |journal=Nature |volume=2 |place=London |publisher=Tinsley brothers |year=1872 |issue=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkFCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA123 |page=123|doi=10.1038/005338a0 |bibcode=1872Natur...5..338. |hdl=2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t2f76pz0w |s2cid=39092274 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

== In art ==
Likenesses of blemmyes are used as supports for [[misericords]] at [[Norwich Cathedral]] and [[Ripon Cathedral]], from earlier local folklore.<ref name="tasker">{{citation|last=Tasker |first=Edward G. |title=Encyclopedia of Medieval Church Art |at=blemya (p. 24) |publisher=B.T. Batsford |year=1993 |isbn=9780713468212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1pIUAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> Writer [[Lewis Carroll]] is said to have invented characters based on objects in the Ripon church where his father served as [[Canon (priest)|canon]], and in particular, the blemmyes here inspired his [[Humpty Dumpty]] character.{{sfnp|Derrett|2002|p=466}}
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]] 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]]''. In it, it is known as the "Headless Horror".

== In literature ==
[[File:Blemya.jpg|thumb|Blemyah, [[Ripon Cathedral]]]]
[[William Shakespeare's]] play ''[[Othello]]'' makes reference to "the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders".<ref>Shakespeare, ''[[Othello]]'' [I.iii.143-144] (circa 1603)</ref> In his later play ''[[The Tempest]]'', Gonzalo admittedly believed when he was young "that there were such men whose heads stood in their breasts".<ref>[III. 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]], carving stories from wood.

[[Gene Wolfe]] writes of a man with his face on his chest in his 1989 short story collection ''Endangered Species''.

In [[Umberto Eco]]'s 2000 novel ''[[Baudolino]]'', the protagonist meets Blemmyes along with [[Monopod (creature)|Sciapod]]s and a number of monsters from the medieval [[bestiary]] in his quest to find [[Prester John]].{{sfnp|Stella|2012|p=39}}

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.

Science fiction author [[Bruce Sterling]] 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]], who is revealed to be an [[extraterrestrials in fiction|extraterrestrial]]. Sterling later stated that the idea for his story was taken from a children's story by [[Waleed Ali]].

In [[Rick Riordan]]'s 2017 fantasy novel ''[[The Dark Prophecy]]'', headless men appear as the goons and bodyguards of Emperor [[Commodus]].

In [[Emil Ferris]]'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]]'' as translated by Sir Malcolm C. Lyons. The headless men with eyes on their chest defend the Brass City where the [[ifrit]] keeps a kidnapped princess as prisoner.

== Gallery ==
<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]] in the ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]'' by [[Sebastian Münster]]
File:Brevis descrip Guianae-Raleigh&Hulsius010d-headless.jpg|Headless from 1599 engraving in [[Sir Walter Raleigh]]'s ''[[The Discovery of Guiana]]''
File:Blemmyes with monkey.png|A closeup of the [[Piri Reis Map]] shows a headless man holding what appear to be flowers.
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Acephaly (disambiguation)]]
* [[Anthropophage]]
* [[Blemmyes]]
* Coluinn gunn cheann – Scottish headless monster (''[[Popular Tales of the West Highlands]]'')
* [[Gossamer (Looney Tunes)|Gossamer (''Looney Tunes'')]]
* [[Headless Horseman]]
* [[Headless priest]]
* [[Kabandha]]
* [[Mapinguari]]
* [[Satannish]]
* [[Xingtian]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="hoogvliet">{{citation|last=Hoogvliet |first=Margriet |title=Mappae mundi |publisher=Brepols |year=2007 |page=211 |isbn=978-2503520650}}</ref>
<ref name=hallberg>{{citation|last=Hallberg |first=Ivar |title=L'extrême orient dans la littérature et la cartographie de l'occident des XIIIe, XIVe, et XVe siècles : étude sur l'histoire de la géographie |place=Göteborg |publisher=Wald. Zachrisson |year=1907 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_RHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA79 |archive-url=https://archive.org/stream/lextrmeorientd00halluoft#page/78/mode/2up/ |archive-date=2009-09-02 |at=Blemmyis (pp. 78–79)}}</ref>
<ref name=orchard-companion>{{cite book|last=Orchard |first=Andy |author-link=Andy Orchard |title=A Critical Companion to Beowulf |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |year=2003b |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfT460lWdWEC&pg=PA24 |isbn=9781843840299}}</ref>
}}

=== General and cited references  ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{citation|last=Derrett |first=J. Duncan M. |title=A Blemmya in India |journal=Numen |volume=49 |number=2 |year=2002 |pages=460–474 |doi=10.1163/156852702760559732 |jstor=3270598}}
* {{citation|last=Druce |first=G. C.  |title=Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms in English Church Architecture |journal=The Archaeological Journal |volume=72  |year=1915 |pages=137–139 |doi=10.1080/00665983.1915.10853279 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKM8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA137}}
* {{citation|last=Ford |first=A.J. |title=Marvel and Artefact: The 'Wonders of the East' in its manuscript contexts |publisher=BRILL |year=2015 |pages=12–15; notes 23, 32 |isbn=9789004301399 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aW7sCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12}}
* {{citation|last=Miller |first=Konrad |title=Mappaemundi: die ältesten Weltkarten |volume=III |publisher=J. Roth |year=1895 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQFbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA144}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Orchard |editor-first=Andy (tr.)|editor-link=Andy Orchard |title=Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2003a |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hU8DdkwXbDEC&pg=PA273 |isbn=9780802085832}}
* {{citation|last=Stella |first=Francisco |title=Ludibria sibi, nobis miracula. La fortuna medievale delle scienza pliniana e l'antropologia della diversitas |work=La 'Naturalis Historia' di Plinio |publisher=Cacucci Editore S.a.s. |year=2012 |page=75 (39–75) |isbn=9788866112136 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CPI4AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75}}
* {{citation|last=Zaborski |first=Andrzej |title=The Problem of Blemmyes-Beja: An Etymology |journal=Beiträge zur Sudanforschung |volume=4 |year=1989 |pages=160–177 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DsuAQAAIAAJ}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat|Blemmyes}}
*[https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/blemmyes/ Off with Their Heads: Illustrations of Blemmyes (ca. 1175–1724)] at [[Public Domain Review]], Jun 11, 2025

[[Category:Blemmyes]]
[[Category:Mythical headless creatures]]
[[Category:Legendary tribes in classical historiography]]
[[Category:Medieval European legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Mythic humanoids]]
[[Category:Mythological peoples]]
[[Category:Indian legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Indian characters in Greek mythology]]