Legends of Dog headed men once were widely circulated in the ancient and medieval world, tales of a far off race that dwelled in the distant edges of India or Africa. They were often said to be savage, living in primitive tribal conditions, and some said they were abundant in commodities such as spices.

But would it be far fetched to say that these creatures are real? Could they potentially be a long extinct species? Or a tall tale from travelers, a twisted report from explorers, and mistranslation and metaphor?

Coming from ancient Greek for “dog headed” it would be easy to assume these cynocephali to be merely another mythological creature from the Grecian Pantheon, or an adaptation of such Egyptian gods such as Anubis, the jackal headed deity of the dead.

But, with ancient Greek reports of dog headed men in India, we can rule out the possibility of Egyptian pantheon origin.

During antiquity, these stories of dog headed men flourished, telling of skin clad cynocephali, who communicated like dogs.

As christianity dawned, several saints were adopted, Ahrakas, Augani(or Ogani) and Christopher. The last saint mentioned is likely quite familiar to many, the legendary giant who crossed a river while bearing Christ, while the first two are more exotic, with few who know of them.

First, we examine Ahrakas and Augani, the two dog headed men who are mentioned in the hagiography of Saint Mercurius, a Coptic saint. According to this documentation of Saint Mercurius’s life, his father and grandfather were hunting, when they encountered the two cynocephali. The dog men proceeded to consume the older man, but were stopped by an angel from devouring the other, as his son would be a great saint. So the dog men pledged service to him, and were present for Mercurius’s life.

Christopher was said to be a cynocephali as well. Legend says that he was a dog headed man captured by the roman military during the reign of Diocletian. And that later he was baptized and martyred around three hundred AD. While some regard this as mistranslation,(saying that he was recorded as a Cannanite, and mistranslated to Canine) others clearly thought otherwise, as many icons depict him with a dog head.

Another recording of dog headed men include a report of Charlemagne being told that the neighboring Norse had the heads of dogs, though in this situation it is likely a metaphor.

Other explorers continue to mention dog headed people, even during the early days of American colonization, but slowly interest in them died out, or potentially, they died out.

It is entirely possible that, due to the way that they were looked down upon as a primitive and savage race, they were wiped out by humans. It could have been that they were killed slowly by humans, had they existed.

Looking at all this evidence of such beings, it would make sense to conclude that they potentially existed. While it is unlikely, who knows when they may resurface, either their remains, or they themselves, living amongst us.