Blemmye
A headless creature with a mouth, nose, and eyes on its chest.
Also known as Acephali (having no head), a term also used to refer to groups of people who have no leader.
In Othello, Shakespeare uses the word Anthropophagi to describe the Blemmyes causing them to be associated with cannibals.
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
References
Encyclopedia Britannica. Cambridge, England: University Press, 1911.
|