Human–animal hybrid

In this Edward Burne-Jones piece, the human woman Psyche receives affection from the hybrid deity Pan.

The term human-animal hybrid refers to an entity that incorporates elements from both humans and non-human animals. In various mythologies throughout world history, many famous human-animal hybrids have existed. Such entities have also been characters within many forms of fictional media more recently in history such as H.G. Wells' work The Island of Doctor Moreau. In legendary terms, the hybrids have played varying roles from that trickster and villain to serving as divine heroes in very different contexts, depending on the given culture.

For example, Pan is a deity in Greek mythology that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, being worshiped by hunters, fishermen, and shepherds in particular. The mischievous yet cheerful character has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat while otherwise being essentially human in appearance, with stories of his encounters with different gods, humans, and others being retold for centuries on by groups such as the American Delphian Society. The human-animal hybrid also has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such as Francis Bacon.

When looked at scientifically, such beings, defined by the magazine H+ as "genetic alterations that are blendings [sic] of animal and human forms", may be referred by other names occasionally such as "para-humans"; one of them also may be called a "humanized animal". Technically speaking, they are also related to "cybrids" (cytoplasmic hybrids), with "cybrid" cells featuring foreign human nuclei inside of them being a topic of interest. Possibly, a real-world human-animal hybrid may be an entity formed from either a human egg fertilized by a nonhuman sperm or a nonhuman egg fertilized by a human sperm. While at first being only a fictional concept in either legend or thought experiments, the first stable human-animal chimeras (not technically hybrids) to actually exist were first created by Shanghai Second Medical University scientists in 2003, the result of having fused human cells with rabbit eggs.

In terms of scientific ethics, the creation of human-animal hybrids is a topic that has been subject to some debate in the U.S. and the U.K., with the state of Arizona banning the practice altogether in 2010. A proposal on the subject sparked some interest in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2012 but ended up going nowhere. Although the two concepts are not strictly related, discussions of experimentation into blended human and animal creatures has paralleled the discussions around embryonic stem-cell research (the 'stem cell controversy'). The creation of genetically modified organisms for a multitude of purposes has taken place in the modern world for decades, examples being specifically designed foodstuffs made to have features such as higher crop yields through better disease resistance.

Despite the ongoing legal and moral controversy over the real-life existence of such beings, the concept of humanoid creatures with hybrid characteristics from animals, played in a dramatic and sensationalized fashion, has continued to be a recurrent topic in fictional media in the digital age. An example is Splice, a 2009 movie about experimental genetic research.

Legendary historical and mythological hybrids

Beings displaying a mixture of human and animal traits and behaviors while having a similarly blended appearance frequently appear in both Greek and Roman mythology. Characters of such have additionally been a recurring theme in both Chinese and Japanese mythology.

For instance, the Greek figure of Pan is a god that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, expressing the inherent beauty of the natural world as the Greeks saw things. He specifically received reverence by hunters, fishermen, shepherds, and other groups with a close connection to nature. Pan 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 a part of popular culture in several different cultures for many years. The human-animal hybrid has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such as Francis Bacon, also being mentioned in poetic pieces such as in John Fletcher's writings.

In Chinese religious tradition, the figure of 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. Killing and eating his mother as well as 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 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. Remarking on the religious novel Journey to the West in which the character 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".

Modern fictional hybrids

Writer H. G. Wells created his famous work The Island of Doctor Moreau, featuring a mixture of horror and science fiction elements, to promote the anti-vivisection cause as a part of his long-time advocacy for animal rights. Wells' story describes a man stuck on an island ruled over by the titular Dr. Moreau, a morally depraved scientist who has created several human-animal hybrids. The story has been adapted into film several times, with varying success. The most notable and acclaimed version is the 1932 black-and-white treatment called Island of Lost Souls.

Wells himself wrote that "this story was the response of an imaginative mind to the reminder that humanity is but animal rough-hewn to a reasonable shape and in perpetual internal conflict between instinct and injunction," with the scandals surrounding Oscar Wilde being the impetus for the English writer's treatment of themes such as ethics and psychology. Challenging the Victorian era viewpoints of its time, the 1896 work presents a complex situation in which enhancing animals into hybrids involves both violence and pain as well as appears essentially futile, given the power of raw instinct. A pessimistic view towards the ability of human civilization to live by law-abiding, moral standards thus follows.

See also

• Anthropomorphism
• Hybrid
• List of legendary creatures by type