Anthropophagi
The
anthropophagi (
cannibals) are creatures from
English folklore with no heads and a mouth in their chests. Their diminuative brain was located in their groin, and their eyes on their sholders. While they were made widely known by
William Shakespeare in
Merry Wives of Windsor (1602) and
Othello (1605), they were not created out of whole cloth by
Shakespeare, and indeed were mentioned as early as the 5th century BC in "the Histories" by
Herodotus.