Horse-Face
A horse-headed guardian or type of guardian of the underworld in Chinese mythology.
↻ synthesized from 6 sources
When
- First attested
- 200 CE
- Attested period
- 200 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Featured in Chinese Buddhist depictions of the afterlife.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Keibu Keioiba, Khnum, Maahes, Pakhet, Sekhmet, Tefnut, Nandi, Narasimha, Penghou, Pratyangira, Set, Tikbalang, Tumburu, Varaha, Zhu Bajie, Mara, Izanami, Mǎ Wáng 馬王, Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, King Chujiang, Vajrapāṇi, Castor, Pollux, Janus, Jaya-Vijaya, Skanda, Lugal-irra, Meslamta-ea, Alexiares, Anicetus, Hebe, Ha, Heng, Om, Minotaur, Anubis, Cynocephalus, Bastet, Daksha, Ganesha, Heracles
- serves
- Yama, Yanluo Wang
- syncretized with
- Hayagriva
- enemy of
- Sun Wukong
- allied with
- Ox-Head
- sibling of
- Ox-Head
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Horse-Face – A horse-headed guardian or type of guardian of the underworld in Chinese mythology.”
#4711 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Yama, the king of the Underworld, as well as oni such as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, are also considered a type of shinigami.”
#13758 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“In Japanese mythology, Ox-Head and Horse-Face are known as Gozu (牛頭) and Mezu (馬頭), respectively. Collectively, they are referred to with the yojijukugo Gozumezu (牛頭馬頭). They appear in classical Japanese literature such as the Konjaku Monogatarishū and Taiheiki”
#14572 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“In Chinese folk tradition, Hayagriva was sometimes assimilated into Horse-Face, one of two theriomorphic guardians of Diyu, the underworld. Some Chinese horse owners also worship Hayagriva in a non underworld form to protect their horses.”
#36056 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the fearsome guardians of hell, bring the newly dead, one by one, before Yan for judgement.”
#39432 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001