Μεγασθένης was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat, Indian ethnographer and explorer…
Mεγασθένης, c. 350 – c. 290 BC) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book Indika, which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructed from the writings of the later authors.
Megasthenes describes mountain dwelling, dog-headed people, in India, who spoke in barks, wore the skins of wild animals and lived by hunting.
“The Kynokephaloi living on the mountains do not practise any trade but live by hunting. When they have killed an animal they roast it in the sun. They also rear numbers of sheep, goats, and asses, drinking the milk of the sheep and whey made from it. They eat the fruit of the Siptakhora (Siptachora), whence amber is procured, since it is sweet. They also dry it and keep it in baskets, as the Greeks keep their dried grapes.
“They make rafts which they load with this fruit together with well-cleaned purple flowers and 260 talents of amber, with the same quantity of the purple dye, and 1000 additional talents of amber, which they send annually to the king of India. They exchange the rest for bread, flour, and cotton stuffs with the Indians, from whom they also buy swords for hunting wild beasts, bows, and arrows, being very skilful in drawing the bow and hurling the spear.
“They cannot be defeated in war, since they inhabit lofty and inaccessible mountains. Every five years the king sends them a present of 300,000 bows, as many spears, 120,000 shields, and 50,000 swords.”
#India #ctesias #Siptachora #Photius #Myriobiblon #Kynocephaloi #Cynocephali #dogmen #dogheadedmen
500 BC – Dog headed men in India described by Ctesias, a Greek Physician, in his text Indica. Ctesias, Indica Fragment (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 72)
“On these [the Indian] mountains there live men with the head of a dog, whose clothing is the skin of wild beasts. They speak no language, but bark like dogs, and in this manner make themselves understood by each other. Their teeth are larger than those of dogs, their nails like those of these animals, but longer and rounder. They inhabit the mountains as far as the river Indos. Their complexion is swarthy. They are extremely just, like the rest of the Indians with whom they associate. They understand the Indian language but are unable to converse, only barking or making signs with their hands and fingers by way of reply, like the deaf and dumb. They are called by the Indians Kalystrii, in Greek Kynocephaloi (Cynocephali) (Dog-Headed). They live on raw meat and number about 120,000 . . .
#India #ctesias #Siptachora #Photius #Myriobiblon #Kynocephaloi #Cynocephali #dogmen #dogheadedmen
