Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Anthropophagi

The anthropophagi (cannibals) are creatures from English folklore with no heads and a mouth in their chests. Their diminuative brain was located in their groin, and their eyes on their sholders. While they were made widely known by William Shakespeare in Merry Wives of Windsor (1602) and Othello (1605), they were not created out of whole cloth by Shakespeare, and indeed were mentioned as early as the 5th century BC in "the Histories" by Herodotus.