For my last blog, I thought I'd have a little fun with my topic and look at the group of fantasy creatures known as semi-humans, humanoid chimeras, etc. I'm talking about fawns, centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs, harpies and satyrs. Looking through a handy list of hybrid creatures, which are labeled by which parts of them are human and which parts aren't, it really drives home the implications of our artificial boundaries between us and animals. Every creature on the list with some human part is dominated by that part. Most of the hybrids from human imagination, have the head of a human, or if not their entire body is human while just the head is that of an animal. Some of these creatures are just humans with animal parts stuck on them. It is very rare and very off putting to see a hybrid depicted with human parts tacked on along with others, rather than being a humanoid. Its odd as I can imagine the terrifying implications of an alligator with human arms -have fun trying to cage that in- or an enormous bear with human teeth. When trying to come up with an original creature, we always seem to start with a human and then do something to it, any human parts we add to a creature take over and turn it humanoid and we immediately think of it as more of a human than an animal. I guess what people know is a pretty good comfort zone, something we can relate with and yet we find intriguing, but something that shares a few bits and pieces of us, and that we cant relate with seems terrifying or grotesque.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hybrid_creatures_in_mythology#Part_animal.2C_part_human
-Also does any one else find it weird that most humans with animal heads are gods of some sort?
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