User:UBX/NFL-Commanders and Polycephaly: Difference between pages

Heracles and the Lernaean Hydra by Gustave Moreau: The Hydra is perhaps the best known mythological multi-headed animal, also popularised in many fantasy settings.

There are many occurrences of multi-headed animals, in real life as well as in mythology. Many fantasy universes contain races of creatures with multiple heads. In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a common symbol, though no such animal is ever known to have existed.

For a real animal to have more than one head, a mutation must occur. Two-headed animals are the most common type of multi-headed creatures and form by the same process as conjoined twins: the zygote begins to split but fails to completely separate.

The condition is called polycephaly (poly- meaning "many" and cephaly meaning "head"). Being specifically two-headed is known as bicephaly or dicephaly (both prefixes meaning "two"). A variation is an animal born with two faces on a single head, a condition known as diprosopus. In medical terms these are all congenital cephalic disorders.

Mythological occurrences

The 16th-century German illustrator has been influenced by the Beast of Revelation in his depiction of the Hydra.

Greek mythology

Greek mythology contains a number of multi-headed creatures. Typhon, a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, is often described as having several offspring with Echidna, a creature with the body of a serpent but the face of a beautiful woman. Their offspring account for all the major monsters of Greek mythos, including:

• The Nemean Lion – a lion often depicted with multiple heads
• Cerberus – a monstrous three-headed dog that guards the gate to Hades
• Ladon – a hundred-headed dragon that guards the garden of the Hesperides
• Chimera – sometimes depicted with the heads of a goat and a lion
• The Lernaean Hydra – an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast that possessed numerous heads
• Orthrus – a two-headed dog owned by Geryon

Other accounts state that some of these creatures were the offspring of Phorcys and Ceto.

Other mythologies

• Balaur, a dragon in Romanian mythology, with three, seven or twelve heads
• Janus, a two- or four-faced god in Roman mythology
• Kaliya, a multi-headed snake vanquished by Krishna in Indian mythology
• Nehebkau, a two-headed snake in Egyptian mythology
• Orochi, an eight-headed snake in Japanese mythology
• Zmey Gorynych, a dragon in Slavic mythology
• Ravana, the ten-headed King of Lanka from the Hindu smriti Ramayana

Real occurrences

Humans

Dicephalic conjoined twins are humans with two heads.

• Abigail and Brittany Hensel (b. 1990) in Minnesota
• Maria Carmen and Maria Guadalupe Andrade-Solis (b. 2000), originally from Mexico but currently resident in Connecticut, United States
• Sohna and Mohna from India (b. 2003)
• Ayse and Sema from Turkey (b. 2000)
• Maria and Consolata Mwakikoti from Tanzania (b. 1999)
• Luz and Milagros Romero-Saucedo of Argentina (b. 1999) may or may not be of the dicephalus type.

Animals

Snakes

There have been numerous reports of two-headed snakes around the world, making them the most commonly-occurring two-headed animal (though still extremely rare). While they usually only live for a few months, some others have lived a full life and even reproduced (with the offspring born normal). The two heads may fight for food, and even try to swallow each other. A two-headed black rat snake with separate throats and stomachs survived for 20 years. "We", an albino rat snake, has survived in captivity for 6 years (as of 2006), and is expected to live an additional 10 years; both heads share the same stomach. It was scheduled to be auctioned on eBay with an expected price tag of $150,000 (£87,000), though their policy of not trading in live animals prevented the sale [1]. There is some speculation that the inbreeding of snakes in captivity increases the chances of a two-headed birth [2]. A preserved two-headed snake is on display in the Museum at the Georgia State Capitol Building in Atlanta, along with a stillborn two-headed calf and stuffed squirrels posed to 'play poker' [3].

In the traditional Chinese tale Water Margin, Xie Zhen and Xie Bao are nicknamed the "two-headed snake" because their skills complement each other perfectly.

Turtles and tortoises

In 2003 a two-headed angulate tortoise was discovered in South Africa, with the only other known case in the region reported in the early 1980s[4]. A two-headed Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise was born in Dorchester, England in 2004, to a breeder who named the twosome Solomon and Sheba [5]. A two-headed olive ridley sea turtle found in Costa Rica by the World Wildlife Federation was reported in 2005 [6]. A baby turtle of unknown species was also reported in Havana, Cuba in 2005 [7]. As of 2006, a living two-headed tortoise named Janus is being displayed in the Museum of Natural History of Geneva [8].

Cats

A two-faced kitten named Image was born and died in 2000 in Pennsylvania [9]. Another two-faced kitten, Deuce, was born in Florida in March 2005 and was put down shortly thereafter, having come down with pneumonia. A two-faced kitten named Gemini was born in Oregon in June 2005 [10].

Other occurrences

Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, from the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Demonology

• Bune, a Great Duke of Hell with the heads of a dog, a griffin, and a man

Film

Ray Harryhausen created several two-headed models for stop-motion animation in films. Dioskilos, the guardian of Medusa's shrine in 1981's Clash of the Titans, is a ferocious dog with two heads. The model was originally intended to have three heads but, according to Harryhausen, "looked far too grotesque and top heavy and was therefore totally unbelievable" [11]. His work on The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad included a two-headed roc, and Jason and the Argonauts battled a seven-headed hydra of Harryhausen's creation.

Other films that have featured two-headed creatures include:

• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the fifth film in Toho's Godzilla series

There have also been several films have included two-headed people:

• In How to Get Ahead in Advertising a boil grows into a second head
• The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (IMDb)
• In Army of Darkness, the lead character Ash has an extra head grow on his shoulder. It eventually splits away from his body making two identical Ashes (although one is good and the other evil).

Literature

• Pushmi-pullyu is a fictional species of llama in Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle novels.
• Zaphod Beeblebrox, from the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Fluffy, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is a three-headed dog based on the mythological character Cerberus.

Fantasy series

• Galrauch, First of the Chaos Dragons from Warhammer Fantasy is a dragon with two heads.
• Some Ogres in the Warcraft universe have two heads.
• Tiamat, a five-headed dragon originating from Dungeons & Dragons.

Other

• Hun-Gurrr, a Terrorcon from Transformers – a robot that turns into a two-headed dragon
• Two-headed wolves from the arcade game Altered Beast
• "Two-headed monster" is a comical, light purple monster from Sesame Street
• A two-headed squirrel is an important plot element from the game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
• Spider Jerusalem's two-headed, chain-smoking pet cat from the comic book Transmetropolitan
• Brahmins, two-headed cows in the Fallout games

See also

• Chimera

External links

• "Life is Confusing for Two-Headed Snakes" at National Geographic, 22 March 2002.
• "Two-Headed Creatures" at Pravda.ru, 29 November 2003.