The word cynocephaly is derived from the Greek κῠνοκέφᾰλοι / kynokephaloi, from kyno– (combining form of κύων kyōn) meaning “dog” and κεφαλή kephalē meaning “head”. Other greek variations of this concept: Ἡμικυων, Ἡμικυνες, (hemi-, kyôn), Half-Dogs – Κυνοπροσοπος, Κυνοπροσωποι, (kyôn, prosôpos) – Dog-Faced – Κυναμολγος, Κυναμολγοι, (kyôn, molgos), Dog-Milkers.

Cynocephaly was also familiar to the ancient Greeks from representations of Egyptian deities notably

𝐀𝐧𝐮𝐛𝐢𝐬 (Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις, Egyptian: jnpw, Coptic: ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ Anoup the Egyptian god of the dead).

𝐃𝐮𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐟 (Son of Horus, and from the New Kingdom onwards is depicted with the head of a jackal).

𝐖𝐞𝐩𝐰𝐚𝐰𝐞𝐭 (The opener of the ways, a wolf deity, thus the Greek name of Lycopolis, meaning city of wolves, he also accompanied the Pharaoh on hunts).

To be clear there is very little evidence of correlation between the religious beliefs and practises of ancient Egypt and the Indo European daughter cultures. Any connections would be at such an extreme place in deep time as to be negligible.

However, from an esoteric point of view it is deeply significant that wolf mythology has emerged in various distinct and unrelated cultures, Indo European, Native American, Ancient Egypt African shapeshifters, Indian Vratyas etc. Not just in terms of martial primacy, but also the wolf’s connection with the literal and/or metaphorical hunt. An anthropologist would argue that it is indicative of a recurrent human animistic belief, but a modern esoteric interpretation could be that the spirit of the Wolf Cult is indomitable.

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