"It is a creature with a face that is human-like but with an opening on the top of its head from which the righteous exit Hell. We call this creature “Hellhead.” We have found what we think is the source for this creature in a medieval Russian novel about Alexander the Great, called Александрия (Aleksandriya)."
Hell is portrayed in two ways in these icons. Firstly, as a large black, seemingly empty cave, and secondly, it is ‘personified’ as a red creature, looking like a human in many ways but with two or more eyes and an opening in its head out of which the righteous arise. We have called this creature 'Hellhead.'"
"Based on this representation of Hell as having a head from which the righteous rise from the mouth in the top of its head and the fact that representations of headless creatures similar to
Hellhead existed in a much copied novel29 known in Russia, we feel that it is this fanciful representation of Blemmyes in the Alexander novel that was the source for Hellhead."
Henry A. Hundt & Raoul N. Smith, A Teratological Source of Hellhead
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