An
anthropophage or
anthropophagus (from , "people-eater", plural
anthropophagi) was a mythical race of cannibals described first by
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
in his
HistoriesThe Histories of Herodotus is considered one of the seminal works of history in Western literature. Written from the 450s to the 420s BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that...
as
androphagi ("man-eaters"), and later by other authors, including the playwright
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. The writer
TertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, was a prolific and controversial early Christian Berber author, and the first to write Christian Latin literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy...
would later use the term to describe early
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
s in his
ApologeticusApologeticus or Apologeticum is Tertullian's most famous work, consisting of apologetic and polemic; it was written in Carthage in the summer or autumn of 197, during the reign of Septimius Severus. In this work Tertullian defends Christianity, demanding legal toleration and that Christians be...
(ch. VII), as would
SalvianSalvian, was a Christian writer of the 5th century, born probably at Cologne, some time between 400 and 405.-Personal life:He was educated at the school of Treves and seems to have been brought up as a Christian...
in
de Provid (Lib.
An
anthropophage or
anthropophagus (from , "people-eater", plural
anthropophagi) was a mythical race of cannibals described first by
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
in his
HistoriesThe Histories of Herodotus is considered one of the seminal works of history in Western literature. Written from the 450s to the 420s BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that...
as
androphagi ("man-eaters"), and later by other authors, including the playwright
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. The writer
TertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, was a prolific and controversial early Christian Berber author, and the first to write Christian Latin literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy...
would later use the term to describe early
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
s in his
ApologeticusApologeticus or Apologeticum is Tertullian's most famous work, consisting of apologetic and polemic; it was written in Carthage in the summer or autumn of 197, during the reign of Septimius Severus. In this work Tertullian defends Christianity, demanding legal toleration and that Christians be...
(ch. VII), as would
SalvianSalvian, was a Christian writer of the 5th century, born probably at Cologne, some time between 400 and 405.-Personal life:He was educated at the school of Treves and seems to have been brought up as a Christian...
in
de Provid (Lib. IV). Here it was claimed that early Christians killed and feasted on a child's flesh, a notion grounded on descriptions of the
EucharistThe Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Table, the Blessed Sacrament, or The Lord's Supper and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance, generally considered to be a commemoration of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his...
. The word first appears in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
around 1552.
In popular culture, the
anthropophagus is sometimes depicted as a being without a head, but instead have their faces on the
torsoTorso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. It is sometimes referred to as the trunk. The torso includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
. This may be a misinterpretation based on Shakespeare's writings in
OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, where the
anthropophagi are mistaken to be described by the immediate following line, "
and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." In reality, the line actually refers to a separate, different race of mythical beings known as the
BlemmyesThe Blemmyes was a tribe which became fictionalized as a race of creatures believed to be acephalous monsters who had eyes and mouths on their chest. Pliny the Elder writes of them that Blemmyes traduntur capita abesse, ore et oculis pectore adfixis...
, who are indeed said to have no head, and have their facial features on the chest.
Accounts
Herodotus first wrote of
andropophagi in his
Histories, where he described them as a one of several tribes near
ScythiaThe Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who throughout Classical Antiquity dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scythians in this area...
. An extra note indicates that the
andropophagi are cannibals, as reflected in their name:
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
later wrote in his
Naturalis HistoriaNaturalis Historia is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77-79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
that the same cannibals near Scythia wore the
scalpThe scalp is the anatomical area bordered by the face anteriorly and the neck to the sides and posteriorly.-Layers:It is usually described as having five layers, which can be remembered with the mnemonic "SCALP":....
s of men on their chest.
In literature
It is likely that the ancient Greek account influenced later writers. The most famous usage appears in
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
:
Shakespeare makes yet another reference to the cannibalist
anthropophagus in the
Merry Wives of Windsor: