This is an
extremely entertaining YouTube clip from one of the many kook channels on that
site, Universe Inside You.
Here, the narrator takes us into the outer fringes of
crypto-zoology and summarizes the bizarre legend of the cynocephali or dog-men.
The narrator clearly believes that cynocephali are real, although perhaps not
canid. He ventures the guess that we are dealing with Neanderthals or some kind
of apes or monkeys.
His main argument in favor of the cynocephali being real is
that the stories are ”consistent”, but that doesn´t prove anything– ancient and
medieval writers consistently borrowed from older sources since that´s how things
were done back in them days. 16th century writer Olaus Magnus mentions a fight
between Pygmies and cranes, placing it on Greenland. The story comes from the
Iliad and was originally set in some unspecified southern land. By the logic of
Universe Inside You, there are geographically distinct Pygmy populations
actually fighting cranes in pretty much any distant land!
Many of the stories referenced
are illogical, thus the ancient source always knows everything about the
dog-men, down to details, including that they lived in far away caves very far
away in the most far away hills…
*The* most bizarre legends are about Christian
saints who were dog-men, most notably St Christopher. The problem? The saints themselves
may be, for all we know, legendary.
The clip contains some factual errors. King
Arthur isn´t a real historical person, and ”Beowulf” has nothing to do with
Alexander the Great.
For the record, I don´t rule anything out on principle: all
kinds of very, very strange creatures do exist, so why not cynocephali,
werewolves or mermen (not to mention honest-to-god politicians or competent economists),
but in contrast to Mr Inside You, I don´t think a bunch of ancient tall tales
are proof enough.
A cynocephalid pelt, or a miracle by St Christopher, might perhaps
do the trick.
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