Another one for the pot. Source: Medieval Wall Painting - Chaldon

Allegedly, the 'Lazarus' Doom painting at St Peter and St Paul's Church, Chaldon, Surrey, depicts the punishments for each of the seven deadly sins.

Particularly interesting are its depictions of 'demon' horns:

Ears or horns? Source: Medieval Wall Painting - Chaldon

Interesting because our tormentors are often depicted with horns:

Long-horn demons right and left. Source: St John's Church, Corby Glen

Oddly, the medieval English seem to have shared memes with Native Americans of the south-west:

Rock art 'Antenna People' at Sego Canyon, Utah. Source

And with Italian mosaic makers:

Red horned customer at baptistry. Source: Arian Baptistry - Wikipedia

Tap the image to see (slightly) more detail of the horns.

Perhaps some of these entities were - like humans - also hybrids:

Scene from an abbatoir loading-bay. Source: Bullets of Justice, 2019

Butchery trades feature in several St John's church wall paintings:

You say: 'King Herod'. I say: 'Cordwainer'. Source: Corby Glen, Linconshire

His crossed legs symbolise Knights Templar. His ornate shoes suggest a cordwainer. Like most St John's, Corby Glen images, his hair style is clown-like.

Besides pigs' ears, the Chaldon Doom painting tells a tale.

A tale of selection:

Some for the pot. Some for the top. Source: Medieval Wall Painting - Chaldon

One of the pig-demons is shown with bound wrists lying on top of a serpent or worm (in the lower right of the top panel). Doom paintings usually show only humans being fed to serpents and worms. The Chaldon Doom painting shows it wasn't only humans who were fed to worms.

This suggests both human-like and pig-demon-like creatures were being depicted undergoing morality training at the time the Chaldon Doom was painted.

But where did pig-demons come from?

Perhaps demons mated with sows:

Do demons dream of leather thongs? Source: Lean, Mean and Easy to Clean

From The Torrington Diaries - A Tour In The Midlands, 1789, John Byng, p145, describing a fair at Sandy, Bedfordshire, dated 1789-06-01:

There were many Pharoahs lean kine and some nags with several Slight-of-Hand Men, and a Learned Pig; for since the first of these learned grunting-Gentry, that was so much admired, the Piggish Race have improved amazingly in wisdom; and disperse their knowledge over the Kingdom at the very cheap rate of One Penny per Head.

Tannakin Skinker - heroine of the 1640 ballard 'A Monstrous Shape, or a Shapelesse Monster'. Source

From Pig-faced women:

Legends featuring pig-faced women originated roughly simultaneously in Holland, England and France in the late 1630s.

In the 18th century, stories of pig-faced women began to be reported as fact in England

1815 ...it was rumoured that Sholto Henry Maclellan, 9th Lord Kirkcudbright had made enquiries about the whereabouts of the Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square,possibly with a view to becoming one of her suitors. Waltzing a Courtship, an anonymous drawing, was widely circulated in various publications. It shows an elegantly dressed Pig-faced Lady dancing with a hunchbacked and extremely short man bearing a strong resemblance to Kirkcudbright. By the 1860s the fad for exhibiting "pig-faced women" at fairs was losing popularity, although they continued to be exhibited until at least the 1880s.

Pig hybrids also feature in Orthodox religious iconograpy:

Apparently a pig-human hybrid. Source: СМЕРТЬ ДА СВАДЬБА ДЕЛО ОБЩЕЕ (Russian original), Discussion and Images of Non-Humans (English translation)

© All rights reserved. The original author retains ownership and rights.