Therianthropy

Therianthropy is derived from the noun therianthrope, meaning part man and part beast, derived in turn from the Greek therion (Θηριον), meaning "wild animal" or "beast", and anthrōpos (ανθρωπος), meaning "man". Therianthropes have been a long-term feature of 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.

Therianthropy was used to refer to the animal transformation folklore of Asia and Europe as early as 1901. Therianthropy was also used to describe spiritual belief 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. (These citations will be improved during December 2006.)

The term was used by members of the Usenet group alt.horror.werewolves (around 1992) when they discussed fictional shapeshifters. Some users began to publicly claim that they considered themselves to be partially non-human animal. A number were only joking, but enough people were serious about it, and claimed this was their personal understanding and experience of themselves, that it became the subject of ongoing discussion. Initially such people called themselves lycanthropes, but as that word more accurately describes wolf-people, therianthropes was chosen as a more general term.

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 combining human and non-human animal features were not representations of myths about physical 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 deciptions of characters that share man and animal traits at the same time, for example with the animal-headed human forms of gods in Egyptian mythology (such as Ra, Sobek and others) as well as creatures like centaurs and mermaids.

Some common types of therianthropy are known by individual terms. Other than lycanthropy, cynanthropy and ailuranthropy are the best known varieties. The term Cynanthropy was known e.g., in 1901, when it was applied to myths from China about humans turning into dogs, dogs becoming people, and sexual relations between humans and canines.

The only known esoteric or "religious" group of/for Therianthropes is the Therian Temple, founded in early 2006, based on the principles set forth in the book "The Therian Bible". This controversial and somewhat secretive group promote the idea that accounts of "were-ism" and other forms of "lycanthropic/therianthropic transformation" are metaphorical accounts of intense psychological and/or physical "shifts".

Lycanthropy

Main article: Lycanthropy

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

Psychiatry

A small number of psychiatric patients combine a belief that they are an animal with socially unacceptable and delusional behaviour. This is discussed in the Clinical Lycanthropy article.

See also

• Clinical Lycanthropy
• List of shapeshifters
• Were
• Werecat
• Otherkin
• Totem
• Nagual
• Theriocephaly
• Morphological freedom

External links

• Therian Temple
• Werelist
• Wereweb
• Therian on WikiFur
• The Werewolf and Shapeshifter Codex