Cryptids: Human-Animal Hybrids

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Splice, a movie centered around the subject of a half-human, half-animal hybrid creature, hits theaters this Friday and looks like it has the potential to be uncomfortably terrifying. Let’s ease into things with a look at some famous human-animal hybrids from the ancient past, shall we?

Sphinxes

sphinx

Half-lion and half-human, sphinx statues are found all over the world. The most famous, of course, being the Great Sphinx of Giza located in Egypt. Nobody seems to be able to agree about who actually built the Great Sphinx, how old it is, and what—if anything—it’s guarding. Estimates of its age range between 2,500 BC and 10,000 BC and it measures over 240 feet long and over 66 feet high. It was carved from a single slab of stone, making it the largest statue of its type in the world today.

Centaurs

Probably one of the cooler combinations of animals, the human part of the human-horse hybrid known as the Centaur really only swapped out boring human legs for awesome horse legs. You have to take the horse’s backside in order to get the legs but, hey, really fast galloping comes at a price.

Minotaurs

minotaur

Not quite as cool as Centaurs, Minotaurs swap the raw power and strength of a bull’s body for a human one and swap the intelligence and relatively good breath of a human head for a bull one. They can sometimes be found in labyrinths. Often they are asked to leave china shops, which is unfair because full-on bulls cause trouble in china shops, not humans with bull heads. Some accounts portray Minotaurs as bull bodies with human heads, similar to Centaurs. Those you want to keep out of china shops for sure.

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