Beware the Half-Sheep Half-Man Beast!

Sometimes news is stranger than mythology.  Take this story for instance:

"A sheep gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The calf was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.

Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed Cesarean section on the animal to take the calf out, but was horrified to see that the features of the calf’s snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.

The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep. "

The story goes on to tell of a goat in Zimbabwe that had a similar mutated baby, only this one survived.  Well, it survived birth.  It did not survive the villagers who were scared to death of the thing.

You can read the whole story here:

http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/12-01-2010/111621-sheep_human_face-0


Well, that was just a freak accident, but what about this one:

"SCIENTISTS have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.
The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer." 

If you want more of that story go here:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/half-man-half-sheep/story-e6frf00i-1111113226041

So my nerdy brain starts thinking that there is probably some half-sheep half-man creature out there somewhere in mythology (a sheeptaur, if you will).  I started searching.  I didn't find any. A no prize to anyone who finds one.

I did, however, find Khnum.  Khnum is an Egyptian god, an old one at that.  He is the god of the source of the Nile.  Since he is in charge of the Nile flooding and all the silt that it brings, he is also associated with clay pottery.  In fact, he makes human babies out of clay and places them in their mother's womb.  So much for the stork.  Sorry to break it to you.  Seems my dad had that whole birds and bees thing wrong.  I thought that sounded off...

Anyway, it is possible that Khnum also made some of the other gods. At least their bodies.

Oh, why am I bringing up Khnum here?  Well, the Egyptian gods have animal heads and he has a sheep's head and human/god body.  Kind of the opposite of our evil mutant sheep up above.

Later, Hapy pretty much took the spotlight away from Khnum as the main Nile god (there were several).  Probably being easier to pronounce was a big draw for Hapy.

Wow, you made it to the end.  I figured the gross picture at the top would have deterred you. 

I'll leave you with an old Tibetan saying: It is better to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep especially a weird one with a human face.

O.K., the last part I added...