Therianthropy

Therianthropy is derived from the noun therianthrope, meaning part man and part beast, in turn derived from the Greek therion (Θηριον), meaning "wild animal" or "beast", and anthrōpos (ανθρωπος), meaning "man". Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings and in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs . The Inquisitions of the 16th century claimed to have documented therianthropy in mortals, specifically referring to lycanthropy, the state of being a werewolf.

The term therianthropy was used to refer to animal transformation folklore of Asia and Europe as early as 1901. Therianthropy was also used to describe spiritual belief in animal transformation in 1915 [1] and one source [2] raises the possibility the term may have been used in the 16th century in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.

The term was used by members of the Usenet group alt.horror.werewolves (ca. 1992) in discussions of fictional shapeshifters. Some Usenet users began publicly asserting that they were part animal. It turned out that some were only joking, but others were apparently serious about the assertions, which were subject to ongoing discussion. Such people initially called themselves lycanthropes, but since the word more accurately describes wolf-people, the word therianthropes became more popular.

Horus is an antic Egyptian deity, many of which were portrayed with human body and animal head

Examples

Ethnologist Ivar Lissner theorized that cave paintings of beings with human and nonhuman animal features were not physical representations of mythical shapeshifters, but were instead attempts to depict shamans in the process of acquiring the mental and spiritual attributes of various beasts. Religious historian Mircea Eliade has observed that beliefs regarding animal identity and transformation into animals are widespread.

Therianthropy can also refer to artistic descriptions of characters that simultaneously share human and animal traits, for example the animal-headed humanoid forms of gods depicted in Egyptian mythology (such as Ra, Sobek and others) as well as creatures like centaurs and mermaids.

Some common forms of therianthropy have their own terminologies. Of these, lycanthropy, cynanthropy and ailuranthropy are the best known. The term "cynanthropy" was applied in 1901 to Chinese myths about humans turning into dogs, dogs becoming people, and sexual relations between humans and canines.

Lycanthropy

Main article: Lycanthropy

In folklore, mythology and anthropology, the most commonly known form of therianthropy is lycanthropy (from the Greek words lycos ("wolf") and anthropos ("man")), the technical term for the transformation from human to animal form. Although the precise definition of lycanthropy specifically refers only to the change into lupine form (as with a werewolf), the term is often used to refer to morphing into any non-human animal form.

Psychiatry

Among a sampled set of psychiatric patients the belief of being part animal, or Clinical lycanthropy, was generally associated with severe psychosis, but not always with any specific psychiatric diagnosis or neurological findings. Others regard it as a delusion in the sense of the self-identity disorder found in affective and schizophrenic disorders or as a symptom of other psychiatric disorders..

See also

• Clinical Lycanthropy
• List of shapeshifters in myth and fiction
• Were
• Werecat
• Otherkin
• Totem
• Nagual
• Theriocephaly
• Morphological freedom

External links

• Awereness Forums
• Werelist
• Wereweb
• Therian on WikiFur
• The Werewolf and Shapeshifter Codex