Saturday 13 April 2013

Two-headed pig in China born with 1 eye, 2 snouts, 2 ears: Piglet Polyphemus

Two-headed pig in China born with 1 eye, 2 snouts, 2 ears: Piglet Polyphemus, The two-headed pig born with two snouts, two ears, and one shared eye will most likely not end up on someone’s dinner table in China but rather in some stories that will be passed down from generation to generation in the village in Jiujiang in east China's Jiangxi province where the two-headed big was born just a few days ago, reported SoftPedia on April 13, 2013.

Veterinarians who have closely examined the two-headed pig and its unique anatomical head structure assume that the two-headed pig or still a piglet, will not make it into adulthood.

However, despite the two-headed pig’s poor survival chances, the local villagers “are willing to give it a chance at overcoming its condition, meaning that they are not planning to kill it for its meat.”

Why kill something for its meat if its survival, no matter for how long, will feed generations with stories, fables, and legends.

Many mythological stories have their origin in some “freak” accident by nature.

Instead of telling children that the pig was born with two heads because an embryo started to split to become twins but then stopped and that the scientific name for the condition of having two heads was called axial bifurcation or polycephaly (poly means several and cephaly means head), it is much more exciting to tell children a fictional story about a pig that couldn’t make up its mind so instead of getting one, it got two.

For thousands of years, mythological stories have not only explained scientific events but also conveyed a moral or a lesson.

“You better make up your mind quickly, otherwise you’ll end up like that little two-headed pig.”

"Don't be too picky how the food smells, otherwise you'll need two noses just like that pig."

"You better use your two eyes to watch where you are going, or otherwise they'll turn into one just like that one-eyed pig."

Not surprisingly, because of its one shared eye, the little two-headed pig is also a reminder of the one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus, the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology who devours several of Odysseus' comrades but gets mocked by Odysseus with “My name is Nobody.” (Later on when Polyphemus calls for help he yells, "Nobody has blinded me.")

Just like Polyphemus, the two-headed pig is perceived by some with mockery, by some with fear, by some with pity, and by some with curiosity.

How many pigs are born that have the power to evoke so many different kinds of emotions?

Maybe the local villagers in China are right and the two-headed pig deserves at least the chance to overcome its condition; no matter for how long.

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