Dracula’s shape-shifting into dogs recalls the cynocephalus monster

Evidence

The fact that Dracula transmogrifies into a dog later in the story is not accidental. This takes places in London, when Dracula is stalking Lucy. He changes into a dog and then a bat. “Then outside the shrubbery I heard a sort of howl like a dog’s, but more fierce and deeper. Then I went to the window and looked out, but could see nothing, except a big bat which had evidently been buffeting its wings against the window.” The presence of dogs, wolves, and a howling Dracula do not necessarily signify that the vampire is a cynocephalus, but they strongly suggest it. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 555

Categorization

• XREF: Brings the dog-headed cynocephalus monster figure into Dracula’s construction—an older monster archetype the reader already tracks.