Half Human Hybrids in Mythology And Religion.
- In fact, this is Older Than Dirt. Half-human children of the gods go back almost 4500 years with the Sumerian (Mesopotamian) myth of Gilgamesh, who was supposedly one third man and two thirds god — a heritage which would require an infinite number of ancestors, according to modern biology. Truth is, the Mesopotamians simply didn't understand how genetics worked. Possible interpretations based on contemporary understanding of hereditary include that he inherited twice as much from his divine mother as his mortal father, or that his father was himself a demigod, meaning he gave a mortal part and a divine part, combined with the mother's divinity (in actual genetics, that would make him three quarters god). It has also been suggested that the Mesopotamians believed everyone was "part god" in a spiritual sense, and Gilgamesh was just more so.
- Other mythologies such as Greek are filled with the half-human children of gods and monsters (described below). Even Judeo-Christian legend has Lilith's demonic children and the nephilim, the result of "unauthorized" human/angel relations.
- Presumably, if you were a god, you could use some miracle to make it work out between yourself and a mortal, meaning that as silly as it sounds, this might actually be justified.
- Odin himself is half-Jotun and half-Aesir... his father Bor was Aesir but his mother Bestla was a frost giant. Thus making Thor three quarters Jotun and one-quarter Aesir. Loki's children Narvi and Vali born of the Goddess Sigyn would qualify as half-Jotun and half-Aesir. Magni, Thor's son with the giantess Jarnsaxa would be seven eighths Jotun and one eighth Aesir.
- Loki was willing to have sex with anything and he did. In various stories he both fathered and mothered a great number of children, several of which were extremely important in the cosmology. (For instance: Hel, Fenrir and Jormugand—children of Loki and his Jotun/Giant wife despite the latter two appearing like animal-monsters—and Odin's horse Sleipnir.) Since Loki is not human and is also a shapeshifter most of these technically don't count as half human hybrids, but they are hybrids of a sort.
- Merlin is traditionally depicted as the son of a woman (sometimes a witch, occasionally a nun) and an incubus. Or, sometimes, a man and a succubus. This is often given as an explanation for his magical and prophetic abilities. Modern interpretations of the legends vary significantly on Merlin's parentage.
- This was the result of the Christianization of the legend, to explain how Merlin could wield magic powers (which are always Satanic), but still be a good guy. The woman incidentally is nearly always a raped nun who dunks her newborn into holy water to wash evil away from him as soon as he is born, but he still grows up a horny bastard with a taste for young virgins — the modern tellings tend to forget that aspect of his character.
- In both the Christian and non-Christianized versions of the Arthurian Tradition Merlin was depicted as something of a fey spirit. So, half fairy was more like it. See works like the Elfin Knight, which predates most of the Malory as we know today. In the History of the Kings of Britain Merlin was depicted as born from a rather consensual experience. Try not to think about that too much.
- ... And if you want to go back to the source material with the myth of Myrddin and his sister, it's implied that they both have "magical" heritage. However, the emphasis is more on Myrddin's far-reaching Sight than anything else.
- Greek Mythology is freaking full of them, so many, you'd need a separate page to list them. Most of the Greek heroes (and some gods) are half-human children of gods and monsters. Zeus being particularly infamous, with upwards of 30 noted hybrids by mortal women, several of his hybrids ascending to the pantheon, such as Heracles and Dionysus.
- Despite Zeus' reputation (and his seducing several women in the shape of an animal), none of the Beast Man hybrids were his children.
- The Minotaur was the child of Queen Pasiphae and a very large bull that king Minos unwisely decided to keep instead of sacrificing to Poseidon as he'd promised. Poseidon made Pasiphae fall in lust with the bull as revenge.
- The centaurs are supposedly the children of a guy named Centaurus, a deformed human who had sex with mares. He himself was the son of a human (Ixion) and a cloud-nymph clone of Hera (another version skips Centaurus and has Ixion father the centaurs directly). Yet another version has them descend from Zeus spilling his seed on the ground.
- Despite Zeus' reputation (and his seducing several women in the shape of an animal), none of the Beast Man hybrids were his children.
- From Eastern Europe (especially, but not limited to, Romania) there is the dhampir or dhampire, child of a vampire and a human. Dhampir are meant to be excellent vampire hunters, but have a nasty habit of becoming vampires themselves when they die in many of the stories. Most half-human half-vampire characters in fiction draw on the dhampir mythology to some degree.
- Then we can go to Japan. Japanese folktales are rife with henge, usually Kitsune, taking the form of human women, marrying humans, and having children. Abe no Seimei, a surprisingly close parallel to Merlin, was reputed to be half Kitsune.
- A minor figure in the mythology of The Church of the Sub-Genius is Saint Oliver the Humanzee, who even has his own feast day. There really was a chimp named Oliver who was suspected of being a Humanzee, but DNA tests eventually revealed he was just a funny looking chimp.
- In some cultures in South America, there are tales of half-dolphin half-humans (the river dolphins, botos, can turn into people who almost always wear white hats).
- The Bible is very hush-hush on what the Nephilim were, but the most common theory is human-angel hybrids."And the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and took wives from among those that pleased them.—It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth."
- Celtic hero Cu Chulainn was the son of a mortal woman and Lugh the Long Handed of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who passed down most of his Ace-like qualities to the child in question. Since Lugh himself was also half Fomorian (a race of primordial monsters that preceded the Tuatha Dé Danann), Cu Chulainn also inherited something from them as well—namely, the tendency to transform into a hideous, bloodthirsty abomination unable to distinguish friend from foe.
- Epona, a Celtic goddess associated with horses, is sometimes depicted as half-horse. One backstory is that her father hated women and thus had kids with a horse instead.
- Some early Gnostic writings claimed that Eve mated with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and that Cain was the resulting offspring. Mainstream Christian theologians have consistently viewed this belief as heretical, but that hasn't stopped the "serpent seed" doctrine from cropping up again from time to time.
- There are many Celtic legends about Selkies and Wereseals intermarrying with humans. Half-selkies are usually described as mostly-human, but with webbed fingers and a talent for swimming.
