The hyena’s canine kinship inspired the Jewish dog-headed men of medieval lore

Evidence

Both Jews and Muslims appeared as dog-headed men in a number of medieval texts and paintings that identified them as monsters associated with the devil. The association of dogs with Jews continues to the modern period; and while I do not provide a complete anthropology here, I would like to point to the importance of this particular anti-Semitic hate sign, which contributes to, and is supported by, Muslim dog-headed monsters. The association of dogs with Satan informs this relationship: The dog was interpreted as a manifestation of the Devil, especially in medieval times. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

European monsters were also situated in anxieties outside of gender. One famous example is the tales of beasts that roamed the Massif Central region of France, an area known as Gévaudan. Like many other monsters of the late eighteenth century, these beasts (probably wolves that attacked women and children tending sheep) were explained as a consequence of Divine unrest. Beliefs in witches and fairies, satyrs, and other hybrids (including dog-men) were accompanied by stories of supernatural animals that could create sickness or death by glancing at their victim. One theory of the Gévaudan monster(s) was that it came from the East—a monstrous Simian from Malaysia. It was also identified as a hyena, a beast long associated, as we have seen, with Jews. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 355 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226; The Gévaudan beast was theorized as an Eastern monster linked to Jews — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 355

Related

• The Gévaudan beast was theorized as an Eastern monster linked to Jews (similarity 0.92)
• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature (similarity 0.90)
• The hyena’s traits inspired the medieval Jewish dog-headed monster (similarity 0.90)
• The hyena hate sign likely inspired the dog-headed man monsters of medieval lore (similarity 0.88)
• Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil (similarity 0.86)
• Jews and Muslims shared the dog-headed monster linked to the devil in Christendom (similarity 0.85)
• Bestiaries transferred Jewish monstrous symbols onto Muslim characters (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval bestiaries transferred Jewish animal-symbols onto Muslims as dog-headed monsters (similarity 0.81)
• Bestiaries cast both Jews and Muslims as dogs and dog-headed men (similarity 0.81)
• Terrestrial monsters were projected onto foreign Eastern origins (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval writers represented Jewish and Muslim bodies as jointly diseased and degenerate (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval passion plays made Muhammad the god of Christ’s Jewish and Roman tormentors (similarity 0.79)
• Islam’s military threat explains why Muslim dog-men outnumber Jewish ones in medieval texts (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval art and text conflated Jews and Muslims into a single Saracen body (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature #corroborates (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226
• The Gévaudan beast was theorized as an Eastern monster linked to Jews #responds-to (0.55) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 355