page_title: Human guise
section_title: In religion, mythology, and folklore
hierarchical_section_title: Human guise / In religion, mythology, and folklore
caption_attribution_description: English: Kuniyoshi Ichiyusai, ukiyo-e color print of Kuzunoha the fox-woman. Kuzunoha was a popular figure in Japanese folklore and the subject of some kabuki plays. In this print, Kuzunoha's true form (a fox) is visible in the screen before her. From
context_page_description: A human disguise is a concept in fantasy, folklore, mythology, religion, literary tradition, iconography, and science fiction whereby non-human beings such as aliens, angels, demons, gods, monsters, robots, Satan, or shapeshifters are disguised to seem human.
  Stories have depicted the deception as a means used to blend in with people, and science fiction has used the dichotomy to raise questions about what it means to be human.
context_section_description: In pagan religions, deities very often took on the form of a human disguise for various tasks.
  The gods "of whom the minstrels sang" in Homer's Iliad watched the "human spectacle" as partisans, and came down to Earth invisible or in human disguise to interfere, sometimes to protect their favorites from harm (compare deus ex machina). Their human disguises sometimes extended to their getting hurt in conflicts. Zeus's human disguises have been compared to Plato's use of communicating through alternate characters as a means to express that the "essential philosophical nature is divine rather than human" and "cannot be represented without some element of human "disguise".
  In the borderlands between religion, myth, and literature, Dunn in his study of the concept of incarnation notes that Greek gods appeared disguised as humans in Ovid's legend of Baucis and Philemon.
  In the Torah, angels only appeared to men in a human disguise, and never without one. In the Old Testament apocryphal Book of Tobit, the Archangel Raphael takes on human disguise and the name of Azarias.
  (Child and Colles note that '... he appears as a mere man, an archangel incognito as it were".)
  The Book of Genesis tells of three angels visiting Abraham in human disguise (Gen.18),
  and two visiting Lot in Sodom (Gen.19).
  Philosophy professor Peter Kreeft has asserted that when an angel wears its human disguise, human beings cannot penetrate the disguise due to the superior abilities angels possess; Kreeft cites as proof Hebrews 13:2: "... some people have entertained angels without knowing it."
  Child and Colles summarize: "The angels in the Old Testament were known to be messengers of God, sent to do his will, usually invisible and mysterious, but sometimes coming without wings in the guise of men."
  St. Augustine and Christian scholars of that age agreed that the Devil could manipulate a person's senses to create illusions in the mind, constructing from particles of air fake human bodies that seemed quite real to those who saw them. John Milton's poem Paradise Regained has Satan disguised as an old man. The Christian heresy of docetism held that Jesus was not a human but was, instead, a divine spirit in the guise of a human.
  Monsters like vampires and werewolves could purportedly take human form at certain times, and lore gave advice as to how to detect or drive away these seemingly human creatures. Even Red Riding Hood's Wolf (though presumably not a werewolf) could disguise himself as her grandmother. Stories are also told of mermaids walking in human form, such as Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, which is based on many such legends. Changelings are often described in Western European folklore as a type of legendary creature, left in place of a human infant, for a variety of reasons. They are usually not able to mimic the human perfectly, thus there are various ways to reveal them.
  Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Native American beliefs have traditions whereby gods and spirits descend to earth in human form to help or hinder humanity. In native American myths "the sun, moon, and morning star seem free to take human form and roam the earth, seeking love and other adventures."
  In Japanese mythology, kitsune, or legendary foxes, often take on a human disguise; most frequently taking the form of an elderly man, an attractive woman, or a child. Kitsune can also replicate the exact appearance of a specific person. In medieval Japan, the belief that any beautiful women met alone at dusk was a kitsune was prevalent. In some legends, kitsune cannot fully transform, but maintain a tail or other foxlike characteristic such as long red hair. Some kitsune in disguise prey on humans through sexual contact, much like the succubus.
  Other Japanese animals that (according to myth) can take human disguise include the bakeneko (ghost-cat), Bake-danuki (Japanese raccoon dog), mujina (Japanese badger), and jorōgumo (spider). Japanese-speakers call the category of such shapeshifting creatures obake or bakemono.
  The wandering stranger (ijin, 異人) in Japanese folkl
caption: The kitsune Kuzunoha casts a fox's shadow even in human form. Kuzunoha, a popular figure in folklore, has become the subject of kabuki plays. Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
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