Cynocephaly

Anubis, also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.

It’s more likely that the iconography roots lie in a narrative of a “Rebrebus/Rebrebus/ or Reprobus” captured out of “West Egypt” (a Cynocephali of Cyrenaica) and matching the current cultural belief that men (tall, strong, reprobates) from that area simply had dog heads.

Some of these are human threats, such as the Saxons he fights in the Historia Brittonum, but the majority are supernatural, including giant cat-monsters, destructive divine boars, dragons, dogheads, giants, and witches.

The headless akephaloi, the dog-headed cynocephali, "and the wild men and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous" dwelled in the eastern edge of ancient Libya, according to Herodotus's Libyan sources.

This was in response to a question from Rimbert, then working as a missionary in Scandinavia, who asked whether the cynocephali believed to live nearby were human, because if they were Rimbert would be expected to attempt to convert them.

Cynocephaly

The subject now turns to Arthur himself, who is said to have fought against a witch in the hall of Afarnach, against a certain Pen Palach in the dwellings of Disethach, and against dog-heads at the mount of Edinburgh.

In Pa Gur, King Arthur and his men fight against an army of cinbin, or dogheads, at the mountains of Eidyn (modern Edinburgh).

Psoglav (, literally "doghead") is a demonic mythical creature in Balkan mythology; belief about it existed in parts of Bosnia and Montenegro.

In a highly notable letter from the controversial 9th century theologian, Ratramnus of Corbie, Ratramnus responded to a lost letter from Rimbert regarding the nature of cynocephali.