Human guise
A human disguise is a concept in fantasy, folklore, mythology, religion, literature, iconography, and science fiction whereby non-human beings such as gods, angels, monsters, extraterrestrials, or robots are able to shapeshift or be 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.
In religion, mythology, and folklore
In pagan religions, deities often took on human form or disguise to carry out 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. 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.
The Book of Genesis tells of three angels visiting Abraham in human disguise,
and two visiting Lot in Sodom.
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 "... 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 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."
File:Kuniyoshi Kuzunoha.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|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.
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 can take human disguise include the bakeneko, Bake-danuki, mujina, and jorōgumo. Japanese-speakers call the category of such shapeshifting creatures obake or bakemono.
The wandering stranger in Japanese folklore may turn out as a secret prince or as a priest... "And he can also be an avowedly supernatural being, outside the human race. The Wardens of certain pools, for example, who are believed to be snakes, and to be ready to lend lacquer cups and bowls to those who wish to borrow them for a party, are referred to as ijin. So are the uncanny yamabito or 'mountain people', said to be seven or eight feet tall, to be covered with hair or leaves, and to live deep in the mountains beyond human habitation..... The Stranger is... possessed of powerful magic, but he is disguised as a filthy beggar. Be careful therefore how you treat strangers...." Generically, a stranger "may as easily be a dangerous incarnation of the Devil as a messenger from God".
File:Thekelpie large.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2|Kelpie by Herbert James Draper: transformed into a human
Selkie, seals which can shed their skin and turn into humans, appear in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish mythology, as well as in myths of the Chinook people, and are the premise of the film The Secret of Roan Inish.
Art iconography
discusses a common iconographic tradition of Satanic disguise as a "falsus frater, as an old Franciscan friar, or as a hermit, often with a rosary, as Botticelli represented him in his Sistine Chapel frescoes".In literary criticism
In a study of multi-cultural literary traditions Quint traces examples of the recurring literary archetype of a disguised supernatural visitor: for example in Virgil's Aeneid and in Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata.In fiction
Supernatural creatures
Fiction may feature disguise for dramatic or comedic considerations. For instance, besides the aerial-daemonic Asmodeus and the undead-human Dracula, non-human primates have also been represented as vampires.Aliens
wrote that Stanisław Lem and other writers use a standard argument: that "science fiction writers, as human beings, are inherently incapable of imagining truly alien beings, meaning that all aliens in science fiction are nothing but disguised humans."Various works of science fiction have described aliens disguised in human form.
The theme of alien infiltration in human form appeared commonly during the Cold War. Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, and the films made from it, involve aliens not only looking generally human, but replacing specific human beings, an intensely frightening prospect because one's own neighbors, friends, and family must now be suspected. It has been suggested that this conveyed the paranoia of the McCarthy era.
The various incarnations of Star Trek had numerous aliens capable of impersonating humans, for example the Salt Vampire of "The Man Trap", Trelane the Squire of Gothos, the Organians in "Errand of Mercy", the re-created historical combatants in "The Savage Curtain", among others from the original series; the Changelings in Deep Space Nine; and the Suliban in Enterprise.
David Buxton's From The Avengers to Miami Vice discusses the use of human disguise in The Invaders,
suggesting that though it might at first glance appear to be an extraterrestrial representation of the communist threat the show also picks up on deeper doubts regarding the American value-system.
The theme of infiltration continued in popularity into the closing stages of the Cold War in the 1980s. In the science fiction series V, the reptilian aliens wear human suits to pass as humans, trying to make humans feel more comfortable around them.
They Live deviated from the cold-war fear of communists by having its alien infiltrators be the capitalist elite, exploiting mindnumbed consumers while The Thing featured a more visceral biological horror, with an alien that would infect and duplicate hosts. In the 1982 British sci-fi film Xtro, an alien spaceship abducts a father and an alien returns disguised as him. The alien rapes a woman and she gives birth to a fully grown man in what author Barbara Creed describes as being a primal "phantasy" where man is born fully grown and completely independent of its mother.
In the CW television series Supernatural practically all the supernatural creatures the protagonistic Winchester brothers encounter can assume human form, although there are a few exceptions to this, such as the Shtriga and the Wendigo. Most noticeable with the "human disguises" in the show are that of angels and demons. The true forms of angels are brilliant, amazing and overwhelming, as well as being as high as New York skyscrapers, forcing angels to possess humans whenever they manifest on Earth. The true forms of demons are destructive and deadly, forcing demons to forcibly possess humans. Other creatures, such as shapeshifters and the Leviathans, need samples of humans to take on their form.
Recently DC: The New Frontier returned to the cold war theme, using the character of the Martian Manhunter, "a shape-changing alien who adopts human disguise because he knows his alien form would scare people", to look back at cold-war paranoia and fear of outsiders.
In Roald Dahl's novel The Witches the titular creatures, the Witches, are effectively evil demons which assume human form. In their human form, they do not really fit comfortably within their human disguises, and even when they disguise themselves as human, they have several giveaway clues which can only be identified by truly observant individuals. Such individuals have formed an organization called Witchophiles who are dedicated to hunting down and killing the evil demons. In their human forms, witches have unnatural eyes, which flash ice and fire, and also they have long felinstic claws which they disguise with gloves. Their most notable feature is their bald heads, which they disguise with first-class wigs.
In Pandemic's 1950s-themed Destroy All Humans! video game, the Furon character Crypto, a gray-skinned alien, uses a holographic human disguise to infiltrate suburban United States. "In human form he cannot use weapons but is still able to use his mental powers to hurl objects and hypnotize people into becoming obedient slaves."
Some authors portray the mannerisms of aliens using human disguises as awkward, indicating that the aliens may not feel comfortable in their false skins, for instance Vincent D'Onofrio's portrayal of an alien "Bug" wearing a human suit in Men In Black.
Aliens in human disguise do not always have sinister motives: in Meet Dave, a group of aliens arrive in a spaceship shaped like a human being, and pilot it, to interact with the humans without getting noticed. In Starman the alien appears in human form, explaining it was so "you not be a little bit jumpy." In the Men in Black movie and comic book, alien immigrants disguised as humans inhabit the Earth; the alien prince of the Arquillian Empire lives as a human being with a pet cat.
Galaxy Quest and 3rd Rock from the Sun also use the meme. 3rd Rock from the Sun features a group of aliens given human bodies to observe aspects of human society.
An episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer incorporates a praying mantis in human disguise, posing as a substitute high-school teacher who seduces her students before eating them. The mantis in disguise serves as a metaphor to suggest to younger viewers that rushing unprepared into sexual activity can result in being "devoured".
In the film Mimic, insects native to Earth are genetically modified to stop a cockroach-borne disease, but as a side-effect later evolve in size and shape to mimic and prey upon human beings.
In the live action remake of the film, Lilo & Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley, the two aliens uses the cloning device guns of human disguises to capture Experiment 626.
In Marvel Comics the Skrull, a race of aliens, commonly disguise themselves as humans to move about unnoticed on Earth.
A particularly notable and riveting form of human disguise appears in Larry Niven's Ringworld, specifically in the minor religion practiced by the Kdaptists, a religious order of Kzin who believe that the pinnacle of creation is not Kzin but man, and adopt a mask of human skin during prayer to attempt to trick God into thinking they are His children.