Hybrid beasts in folklore

Partly human hybrids appear in petroglyphs or cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic, in shamanistic or totemistic contexts.

Ethnologist Ivar Lissner theorized that cave paintings of beings combining human and animal features were not physical representations of mythical hybrids, but were instead attempts to depict shamans in the process of acquiring the mental and spiritual attributes of various beasts or power animals.

[3] Examples of humans with animal heads (theriocephaly) in the ancient Egyptian pantheon include jackal-headed Anubis, cobra-headed Amunet, lion-headed Sekhmet, and falcon-headed Horus.

Similarly, the Gaulish Artio sculpture found in Bern, Switzerland shows a juxtaposition of a bear and a woman figure, interpreted as representations of the theriomorphic and the anthropomorphic aspect of the same goddess.

Non-human hybrids also appear in ancient Egyptian iconography, as in Ammit (combining the crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus).

Both Nāga and Garuda are non-hybrid mythical animals (snake and bird, respectively) in their early attestations, but become partly human hybrids in later iconography.

Assyrian shedu from the entrance to the throne room of the palace of Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin (late 8th century BC), excavated by Paul-Émile Botta , 1843–1844, now at the Department of Oriental antiquities, Richelieu wing of the Louvre .
The falcon-headed Horus and crane-headed Seth.
Zeus darting his lightning at Typhon , shown as a hybrid with a human torso, bird's wings and a reptilian lower body (Chalcidian black-figured hydria , c. c. 550 BC , Staatliche Antikensammlungen Inv. 596).
Street festivities in Hyderabad, India , during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi .