Web Theoi
BLEMMYES
 
Greek Name Transliteration Latin Spelling

Translation

BlemmuaV
Blemmuai BlemmueV
Blemmyas
Blemmyai, Blemmyes
Blemmyas
Blemmyae, Blemmyes
Gazing from Middle
(blemma, mesos)
Blemmyes  from the Nurenburg Chronicle 1493
Blemmyas from the Nurenburg Chronicle of 1493

THE BLEMMYAI or STERNOPHTHALMOI "chest-eyes" were a tribe of African or Indian men, without heads, whose faces were set upon their chests.

The Chest-Eyes were very popular in Medieval bestiaries and map illustrations filling the Terra Incognita.


Herodotus, Histories 4. 191. 3 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"For the eastern region of Libya [i.e. North Africa], which the nomads inhabit, is low-lying and sandy as far as the Triton river; but the land west of this, where the farmers live, is exceedingly mountainous and wooded and full of wild beasts. In that country are the huge snakes and the lions, and the elephants and bears and asps, the horned asses, the Dog-Headed (kynokephaloi) and the Headless (akephaloi) men that have their eyes in their chests, as the Libyans say, and the wild men and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7. 23 (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
"Ctesias [Greek historian C4th B.C.] writes that . . . westward from these [the Troglodytoi or cave-dwellers of the African Red Sea] there are some people without necks, having eyes in their shoulders."

Greek Name Transliteration Latin Spelling

Translation

SternofqalmoV
Sternofqalmoi
Sternophthalmos
Sternophthalmoi
Sternophthalmus
Sternophthalmi
Chest-Eyes
(sternos, thalmos)
AkefaloV
Akefaloi
Akephalos
Akephaloi
Acephalus
Acephali
Headless
(a-, kephalê)

Sources:

  • Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
  • Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin Encyclopedia C1st A.D.