I have seen the foolish taking root... Job 5:3
"Accounts of strange human-like creatures or human beings with severe physical deformities are found in works from antiquity.
Pliny, a first century Roman author, relayed accounts from the
then-known world in his Natural History. The Sciapodas or Monocoli were considered to possess one leg, but with large feet with which to shade from the sun, while the Pygmies were a race of dwarf humans, often engaged in struggle with cranes.
The Satyrs, from the mountains of western India, were said to sometimes run on two legs, sometimes on four, but were very swift. They were also referred to as forest-people, or wild people covered in hair with striking eyes and dog-like teeth, unable to speak, but only screech.
It is likely that Pliny was relaying eyewitness sightings of apes, but the satyrs of ancient Greece were god-like creatures; half-human and half-animal, with the legs and ears of goats or horses.
In the early Christian period Augustine set out a clear demarcation between Adam’s lineage, mythical creatures and non-human animals.
His discussion included the pigmies, hermaphrodites, cynocephali, and skiopodes, and known animals of apes (simias), monkeys (cercopithecos), and sphingas. And he was skeptical of some of the incredible reports, wondering whether they were in fact accurate. He commented:
Augustine correctly identified the pigmies as a tribe of humans and their small stature did not take away from their genetic connection to Adam.
In subsequent centuries, belief in the existence of satyrs or Homo sylvestris persisted.
The testimony of foreign traders and seamen also relayed fabulous stories from indigenous people living in distant lands, and these accounts subsequently passed into the academic imagination.
While in Asia, beliefs about godlike men and women arose, sometimes with ape-like features. They were referred to as Vanara in India (vana: forest, and nara: man), and usually depicted as
human, but with the heads of monkeys.
They were believed to have some supernatural powers, and so became entwined with the Hindu pantheon.
The Chinese believed in a god-like monkey king, Sun Wukong, said to be born from a stone, and possessing great strength and magical powers.
Further east, the Indonesians held that there existed ape-human hybrids that lived in the jungle. The name given was orang-outang, meaning man-of-the-woods (orang: person, outang: forest), but in reality, they were probably a reference to the orangutan animal."
CMI
"Accounts of strange human-like creatures or human beings with severe physical deformities are found in works from antiquity.
Pliny, a first century Roman author, relayed accounts from the
The Satyrs, from the mountains of western India, were said to sometimes run on two legs, sometimes on four, but were very swift. They were also referred to as forest-people, or wild people covered in hair with striking eyes and dog-like teeth, unable to speak, but only screech.
It is likely that Pliny was relaying eyewitness sightings of apes, but the satyrs of ancient Greece were god-like creatures; half-human and half-animal, with the legs and ears of goats or horses.
In the early Christian period Augustine set out a clear demarcation between Adam’s lineage, mythical creatures and non-human animals.
His discussion included the pigmies, hermaphrodites, cynocephali, and skiopodes, and known animals of apes (simias), monkeys (cercopithecos), and sphingas. And he was skeptical of some of the incredible reports, wondering whether they were in fact accurate. He commented:
“But whoever is anywhere born a man, that is, a rational, mortal animal, no matter what unusual appearance he presents in color, movement, sound, nor how peculiar he is in some power, part, or quality of his nature, no Christian can doubt that he springs from that one protoplast [Adam].”Augustine commented further that if one did not already know that “apes, and monkeys, and sphingas” are not human but animals, then some “historians would possibly describe them as races of men, and flaunt with impunity their false and vainglorious discoveries”.
Augustine correctly identified the pigmies as a tribe of humans and their small stature did not take away from their genetic connection to Adam.
In subsequent centuries, belief in the existence of satyrs or Homo sylvestris persisted.
The testimony of foreign traders and seamen also relayed fabulous stories from indigenous people living in distant lands, and these accounts subsequently passed into the academic imagination.
While in Asia, beliefs about godlike men and women arose, sometimes with ape-like features. They were referred to as Vanara in India (vana: forest, and nara: man), and usually depicted as
They were believed to have some supernatural powers, and so became entwined with the Hindu pantheon.
The Chinese believed in a god-like monkey king, Sun Wukong, said to be born from a stone, and possessing great strength and magical powers.
Further east, the Indonesians held that there existed ape-human hybrids that lived in the jungle. The name given was orang-outang, meaning man-of-the-woods (orang: person, outang: forest), but in reality, they were probably a reference to the orangutan animal."
CMI