Cynocephalus Saint Christopher - what was he in reality?

I've always thought that these legends came to be due to a misunderstanding. The Europeans (and Arabs, apparently) who traveled to the East came back to Europe with tales about the Han People (Han Chinese - Wikipedia), with facial features very different from those of the Europeans and maybe judged negatively from the point of view of aesthetics. This combined with the name Han, very similar to the Latin "canis", gave rise to the legend, which was probably then attributed to other people as well.
If this is true, then some characters like Saint Cristopher could be Chinese... Who knows!

From the wiki of Saint Cristopher (Saint Christopher - Wikipedia): "he is the patron saint of travelers" (did he came from far away?); "He was a Canaanite, 5 cubits (7.5 feet (2.3 m)) tall and with a fearsome face. While serving the king of Canaan..." (a Han Chinese serving the Khan? Notice the importance given to his face, even in the traditions in which he doesn't have a dog-head); "This Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed possibly resulted from their misinterpretation of the Latin term Cananeus (Canaanite) to read canineus (canine)." (Khan-Canaan-Han People?).

This is "The Annunciation", an oil painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck.
On the pavement in the painting are represented biblical scenes. One of those is this below:

The banner over Goliath's castle represents clearly a dragon or something similar to a dragon. Goliath was a Philistine, but he was neighbour to Israel and therefore the land of Canaan, previously inhabited by Giants. Look also the star and moon on Saul's shield on the left.

My understanding is different. I think these creatures were intelligent but were not created by God. Thus, their flash was corrupt. I elaborated on this here:

• Hypothesis: Mutiny in the Sky or a Short History of the World

Imho, the existence of such creatures resulted in a clear but hard to explain genocide in the Old Testament:

• Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
• But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.
• Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
• And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors.
• Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
• What Does the Bible Say About Genocide?

God makes it clear to the Israelites that it is “not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations…” (Deuteronomy 9:5).

• These nation representatives look pretty wicked to me.

I think the genocide we see in the Bible is directly related to corrupted genes. It appears that in the days of Moses things were not as bad as in the days of Noah when:

• Seeing that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, God instructed Noah to build an ark in which he, his sons, and their wives, together with male and female of all living creatures, would be saved from the waters.

And the depictions I find particularly interesting are the below ones of Aeneas and Romulus. These are allegedly parodies, and creatures are being called monkeys.

Caricature of the Aeneas group; each of the three characters are represented with an ape body, a dog’s head, human legs, and for two of them (Aeneas and Ascanius) a huge phallus. Aeneas is represented wearing Roman armour and patrician foot-wear. He is carrying on his left shoulder his father Anchises, whose head is veiled and who is himself holding something. Aeneas is also leading by his right hand his young son Ascanius, who is represented as a Phrygian shepherd.

• Source +1

Caricature of Romulus. Due to the damage of the wall painting, the head is erased and we can only guess that the character was holding a trophy on his shoulder (we can see part of a shield and a sword). Visible, however, are his two legs (human ones), his tail, his big penis, and, behind him, the tip of a lance.

• Source