Editing Human–animal hybrid (section)

==Legendary historical and mythological human-animal hybrids==
[[File:豬八戒斬妖.jpg|thumb|right|The pig-like hybrid being [[Zhu Bajie|Chu Pa-chieh]], pictured in this piece of [[fan art]], plays a major role in the famous Chinese religious novel ''[[Journey to the West]]''.]]

{{see also|List of hybrid creatures in mythology|Mythological hybrid}}

Beings displaying a mixture of human and animal traits while also having a similarly blended appearance have played a vast and varied role in multiple traditions around the world.<ref name=Margo/> Artist and scholar [[Pietro Gaietto]] has written that "representations of human-animal hybrids always have their origins in religion". In "successive traditions they may change in meaning but they still remain within spiritual culture", Gaietto has argued, when looking back in an [[evolution]]-minded point of view. The beings show up in both [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Roman mythology]], with various elements of [[ancient Egyptian]] society ebbing and flowing into those cultures in particular. Prominent examples in [[ancient Egyptian religion]], featuring some of the earliest such hybrid beings, include the [[Canidae|canine]]-like [[Psychopomp|god of death]] known as [[Anubis]] and the lion-like [[Sphinx]].<ref name=beauty>{{cite book|pages=190–192|title=Phylogensesis of Beauty|author=Pietro Gaietto|isbn=9781291842951|publisher=Lulu Press Inc|date=2014|url=https://books.google.com/?id=u8uwBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA191&dq=Pietro+Gaietto+human-animal#v=onepage&q=Pietro%20Gaietto%20human-animal&f=false|author-link=Pietro Gaietto}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|reason=Self-published book|date=July 2018}} Other instances of these types of characters include figures within both [[Chinese mythology|Chinese]] and [[Japanese mythology]].<ref name=Margo/><ref name=Mair/> The observation of [[interspecies friendships]] within the animal kingdom, as well as the bonds existing between humans and their pets, have been a source of the appeal in such stories.<ref name=arts/>

A prominent hybrid figure that's internationally known is the [[Greek mythology|mythological Greek]] figure of Pan. A deity that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, he helps express the inherent beauty of the natural world as the Greeks saw things. He specifically received reverence by ancient [[hunter]]s, fishermen, shepherds, and other groups with a close connection to nature. Pan is a Satyr who possesses the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat while otherwise being essentially human in appearance; stories of his encounters with different gods, humans, and others have been [[Pan in popular culture|a part of popular culture]] in several different cultures for many years.<ref name=delphian/> The human-animal hybrid has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such as [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]],<ref name=wet/> also being mentioned in [[Poetry|poetic pieces]] such as in [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher's]] writings.<ref name=delphian/>

In [[Chinese mythology]], the figure of [[Zhu Bajie|Chu Pa-chieh]] undergoes a personal journey in which he gives up wickedness for virtue. After causing a disturbance in heaven from his licentious actions, he is exiled to Earth. By mistake, he enters the womb of a sow and ends up being born as a half-man/half-pig entity. With the head and ears of a pig coupled with a human body, his already animal-like sense of selfishness from his past life remains. [[Matricide|Killing and eating his mother]] as well as [[Fratricide|devouring his brothers]], he makes his way to a mountain hideout, spending his days preying on unwary travelers unlucky enough to cross his path. However, the exhortations of the kind [[goddess]] [[Guanyin|Kuan Yin]], journeying in China, persuade him to seek a nobler path, and his life's journey and the side of goodness proceeds on such that he even is ordained a priest by the goddess herself.<ref>{{cite web|author=E.T.C. Werner|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15250/15250-h/15250-h.htm|publisher=[[Project Gutenberg]]|accessdate=August 6, 2015|title=Myths & Legends of China|author-link=E.T.C. Werner}}</ref> Remarking on the character's role in the religious novel ''[[Journey to the West]]'', where the being first appears, professor [[Victor H. Mair]] has commented that "[p]ig-human hybrids represent descent and the grotesque, a capitulation to the basest appetites" rather than "self-improvement".<ref name=Mair>{{cite book|title=The Columbia History of Chinese Literature|author=Victor H. Mair|date=2013|pages=129|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231528511|url=https://books.google.com/?id=n2DfEmr2g0YC&pg=PA129&dq=Chu++pig-human+hybrid#v=onepage&q=Chu%20%20pig-human%20hybrid&f=false|author-link=Victor H. Mair}}</ref>

[[File:Tanuki-statues.jpg|thumb|This image depicts a set of [[Japanese raccoon dog|Tanuki]] statues on the side of a Japanese road.]]

Several hybrid entities have long played a major role in Japanese media and in traditional beliefs within the country. For example, a warrior god known as Amida received worship as a part of [[Japanese mythology]] for many years; he possessed a generally humanoid appearance while having a canine-like head. However, the god's devotional popularity fell in about the middle of the 19th century.<ref name=beauty/>{{Unreliable source?|reason=Self-published book|date=July 2018}} A [[Japanese raccoon dog|Tanuki]] resembles a [[raccoon]] or [[badger]], but its [[shape-shifting]] talents allow it to turn into humans for the purposes of trickery, such as impersonating [[Buddhist]] [[monk]]s. The fox-like creatures known as [[Kitsune]] also possess similar powers, and stories abound of them tricking human men into marriage by turning into seductive women.<ref name=Margo>{{cite book|title=Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies|first=Margo|last=DeMello|pages=301–211|url=https://books.google.com/?id=oSzMwRG98YMC&pg=PT324&dq=%22human-animal+hybrid%22+Margo#v=onepage&q=%22human-animal%20hybrid%22%20Margo&f=false|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|date=2012|isbn=9780231152952}}</ref>

Other examples include characters in ancient [[Anatolia]] and [[Mesopotamia]]. The latter region has had the tradition of a malevolent human-animal hybrid deity in [[Pazuzu]], the [[demon]] featuring a humanoid shape yet having grotesque features such as sharp [[Claw#Birds|talons]].<ref name=beauty/>{{Unreliable source?|reason=Self-published book|date=July 2018}} The character picked up revived attention when [[Pazuzu (The Exorcist)|an interpretation of it]] appeared in [[William Peter Blatty]]'s [[1971 in literature|1971 novel]] ''[[The Exorcist (novel)|The Exorcist]]'' and the [[Academy Award]] winning [[The Exorcist (film)|1973 film adaption of the same name]], with the demon possessing the body of an innocent young girl. The movie, regarded as [[List of films regarded as the best|one of the greatest horror films of all time]], has a prologue in which co-protagonist [[Father Merrin]] ([[Max von Sydow]]) visits an [[archaeological dig]] in Iraq and ominously discovers an old statue of the monstrous being.<ref>{{cite news|first=Mike|last=Holtzclaw|accessdate=August 8, 2015|url=http://www.dailypress.com/entertainment/blog/dp-popcorn-the-exorcist-1024-story.html|title=The sound and fury of 'The Exorcist'|date=October 24, 2014|newspaper=[[Daily Press (Virginia)|Daily Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=August 8, 2015|url=http://news.moviefone.com/2013/12/26/the-exorcist-facts/|title='The Exorcist': 25 Things You Didn't Know About the Terrifying Horror Classic|date=December 26, 2013|first=Gary|last=Susman|publisher=[[moviefone.com|news.moviefone.com]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227173317/http://news.moviefone.com/2013/12/26/the-exorcist-facts/|archive-date=December 27, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>