A cannibal; a man eater.

Pliny tells us that the Anthropophagi are often found drinking from human skulls and that they wear human scalps around their necks so that the hair becomes some sort of horrible napkin or bib.

The The New and Complete American Encyclopedia associates the Anthropophagi with the Androphagi (also Androphagoi).

According to Herodotus "The Androphagoi have the most savage manners of all human beings, and they neither acknowledge any rule of right nor observe any customary law. They are nomads and wear clothing like that of the Scythians, but have a language of their own; and alone of all these nations they are man-eaters."

In Othello, Shakespeare uses the word Anthropophagi to describe a creature known as a Blemmye.

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

See Also: Blemmye

References

Eason, James. The Naturall Historie of C. Plinus Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland. Philemon Holland's Pliny Web site: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/.

Herodotus, & Macaulay, George Campbell (ed.). The History of Herodotus. New York: Macmillan, 1904.

The New and Complete American Encyclopedia. New York: John Low, 1805.