human guise

In pagan religions, deities very often took on the form of a human disguise for various tasks.Joseph Campbell (1991). The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. Arkana, Viking Penguin. {{ISBN|0-14-019443-6}}.{{cite book|title=The Philosophical Dictionary|publisher=G. H. Evans|year=1830|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophicaldi04voltgoog|quote=human disguise.|access-date=29 October 2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/philosophicaldi04voltgoog/page/n203 163]}}H. J. Rose (1956). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508895 "Divine Disguisings"], pp.63-72, in The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Jan.1956). {{ISSN|0017-8160}} (print), {{ISSN|1475-4517}} (web).Warren Smith (1988). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269970 "The Disguises of the Gods in the Iliad"], pp.161-178 in Numen, Vol.35, Fasc.2 (Dec.1988). {{ISSN|0029-5973}} (print), {{ISSN|1568-5276}} (web).

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.Louis Ropes Loomis [https://books.google.com/books?id=IBuunLvo4CMC&dq=human+disguise&pg=PR15 Introduction to Homer's The Iliad] The Iliad Issue 77 of Classics illustrated Translated by Samuel Butler Publisher Wildside Press LLC, 2007 {{ISBN|978-1-4344-8892-3}}. Length 428 pages 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".Ruby Blondell (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=G-0XRfRKzawC&dq=human+disguise&pg=PA325 The Play of Character in Plato's Dialogues]. Cambridge University Press. pp.230 & 325. {{ISBN|0-521-79300-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-521-79300-1}}.

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.{{cite book

|last= Dunn

|first= James D. G.

|author-link= James Dunn (theologian)

|title= Christology in the Making: An Inquiry Into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J0kNR2Q_rNMC

|access-date= 2009-11-18

|edition= 3

|year= 2007

|publisher= SCM-Canterbury Press

|isbn= 978-0-334-02929-8

|page= 20

|quote=We have examples of gods appearing in the guise of men, as in the legend of Baucis and Philemon (Ovid, Metam. VIII.626-721)

}}

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.[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/491437/Raphael Raphael] Encyclopædia Britannica

(Child and Colles note that '... he appears as a mere man, an archangel incognito as it were".{{cite book

|first1= Heather

|last1= Child

|first2= Dorothy

|last2= Colles

|title= Christian Symbols Ancient and Modern: a Handbook for Students

|year= 1971

|publisher= G. Bell and Sons

|location= London

|isbn= 0-7135-1960-6

|page= 122

|quote= The archangel Gabriel in the story of Tobias from the Apocrypha, is depicted in the early art of the catacombs as a selfless and noble being, who can declare 'I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One.' Yet in the narrative 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),{{cite news|url=http://www.forward.com/articles/11447/|title=Host and Hosted|date=August 22, 2007|publisher=The Forward|access-date=2009-10-30}}

and two visiting Lot in Sodom (Gen.19).In this context Isaacs notes the nature of the interaction between angelic and human figures: {{cite book|last= Isaacs|first= Ronald H.|title= Ascending Jacob's Ladder: Jewish views of angels, demons, and evil spirits|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4iLqceVe7S0C|access-date= 2009-10-31|year= 1997|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|isbn= 978-0-7657-5965-8|page= 6|quote= [...] Hagar's angel, as well as many of the other angels in the Bible, appeared in human form, so that the individuals to whom they appeared were at first quite unaware of their angelic natures.}}

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 [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2013:2&version=NIV Hebrews 13:2:] "... some people have entertained angels without knowing it."Peter Kreeft (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=3uts4QW_PvsC&pg=PA52 Angels and Demons: What Do We Really Know About Them?.] Ignatius Press. pp.52-53, 83. {{ISBN|978-0-89870-550-8}}.

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."{{cite book

|first1= Heather

|last1= Child

|first2= Dorothy

|last2= Colles

|title= Christian Symbols Ancient and Modern: a Handbook for Students

|year= 1971

|publisher= G. Bell and Sons

|location= London

|isbn= 0-7135-1960-6

|page= 122

|quote= 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.Peter Day, Vampires: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil, p.85. John Milton's poem Paradise Regained has Satan disguised as an old man.John Milton, John Leonard (ed.) (1998). [https://books.google.com/books?id=1XGCUU4_VSoC&dq=human+disguise&pg=PA912 The Complete Poems]. Penguin Classics. pp.13, 912. {{ISBN|978-0-14-043363-0}}. The Christian heresy of docetism held that Jesus was not a human but was, instead, a divine spirit in the guise of a human.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVqJetnPT4QC&pg=PA25 |page=25 |title=Everything you ever wanted to know about heaven-- but never dreamed of asking |author=Peter Kreeft | isbn=978-0-89870-297-2 | year=1990 | publisher=Ignatius Press}}

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.Raymond T. McNally, Radu Florescu (1994). In Search of Dracula: the History of Dracula and Vampires. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [https://books.google.com/books?id=P22TnNTonYwC&pg=PA117 Chapter 10: Vampirism: Old World Folklore, pp. 117-132.] {{ISBN|978-0-395-65783-6}}.
Compare detecting a werewolf in human form: Christopher Golden, Stephen Bissette, Thomas E. Sniegoski (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ah7QSsMKDZsC&pg=PT247 The Monster Book.] Simon and Schuster. p.247. {{ISBN|978-0-671-04259-2}}. 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.William Howitt (1863). [https://archive.org/details/historysupernat04howigoog/page/n310 The History of the Supernatural in All Ages and Nations]. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green. p.286. 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."Richard Erdoes, Alfonso Ortíz (1984). [https://books.google.com/books?id=wgOW2FgjkT8C&pg=PP14 American Indian Myths And Legends.] Random House. p.xii. {{ISBN|0-394-74018-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-394-74018-8}}.

File:Kuniyoshi Kuzunoha.jpg 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.{{cite book|last=Hamel|first=Frank|title=Human Animals: Werewolves & Other Transformations|publisher=University Books|location=New Hyde Park (Village), New York|year=1969|isbn=0-7661-6700-3|page=91}} Kitsune can also replicate the exact appearance of a specific person.{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Jamie|title=Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures|publisher=AuthorHouse|location=Bloomington, Indiana|year=2003|isbn=1-4107-5809-5|page=145}} In medieval Japan, the belief that any beautiful women met alone at dusk was a kitsune was prevalent.{{cite book|last=Tyler|first=Royall|title=Japanese Tales|url=https://archive.org/details/japanesetales0000tyle|url-access=registration|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York City|year=1987|isbn=0-394-75656-8|page=xlix}} In some legends, kitsune cannot fully transform, but maintain a tail or other foxlike characteristic{{cite book|last=Hearn|first=Lafcadio|author-link=Lafcadio Hearn|title=Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan|year=2005|publisher=Project Gutenberg|page=155}} such as long red hair.{{cite book |editor = Kate Bernheimer |title= Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales |year= 2008|isbn= 978-0-8143-3267-2 |page = 53|publisher= Wayne State University Press}} Some kitsune in disguise prey on humans through sexual contact, much like the succubus.{{cite book|last=Nozaki|first=Kiyoshi|title= Kitsuné — Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance, and Humor|publisher=The Hokuseidô Press|location=Tokyo|year=1961|page=221}}

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 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...."Carmen Blacker (1990). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260319 "The Folklore of the Stranger: A Consideration of a Disguised Wandering Saint"], pp.162-168, in Folklore, Vol.101, No.2 (1990). {{ISSN|1469-8315}} (print), {{ISSN|0015-587X}} (web). Generically, a stranger "may as easily be a dangerous incarnation of the Devil as a messenger from God".{{cite book

|first1= Jean

|last1= Chevalier

|first2= Alain

|last2= Gheerbrant

|others= John Buchanan-Brown (translator)

|title= The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

|year= 1996

|publisher= Penguin

|location= London

|isbn= 978-0-14-051254-0

|page= [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsymb00chev/page/942 942]

|quote= stranger[: ...] In other traditions, the stranger is perceived as a potential rival and, although benefitting from the laws of hospitality, he may as easily be a dangerous incarnation of the Devil as a messenger from God. He needs to be honoured in the latter capacity and conciliated in the first.

|author-link1= Jean Chevalier (writer)

|url= https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsymb00chev/page/942

}}

File:Thekelpie large.jpg by Herbert James Draper: transformed into a human]]

Selkie, seals which can shed their skin and turn into humans,Meliss Bunce (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=J5GEvK0zcVMC&pg=PA56 "The Selkie Wife", p.56], in Happily Ever After: Folktales that Illuminate Marriage and Commitment. August House. {{ISBN|0-87483-674-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87483-674-5}}. 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.

{{Expand section|date=December 2009}}

Roland Mushat Frye 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".{{cite book

|last= Frye

|first= Roland Mushat

|author-link= Roland Frye

|title= Milton's imagery and the visual arts

|url= https://archive.org/details/miltonsimageryvi00rola

|url-access= registration

|year= 1978

|publisher= Princeton University Press

|location= Princeton, New Jersey

|isbn= 0-691-06349-4

|page= [https://archive.org/details/miltonsimageryvi00rola/page/343 343]

|quote= Between the fifteenth century and the seventeenth, the Tempter in the Wilderness [Satan] appeared in several standard forms. Most frequently, he was shown as the falsus frater, as an old Franciscan friar, or as a hermit, often with a rosary, as Botticelli represented him in his Sistine Chapel frescoes. This is the only disguise which Milton entirely ignores in Paradise Regained [...] Each of the other Renaissance guises he does incorporate into his treatment. [...] Other well-known guises for the Tempter in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century art cast him as an old peasant or shepherd, as Milton does in the first temptation, or as a richly dressed man of the world, as he does in the second. In the final temptation, the devil is usually shown as unmistakably demonic in physical appearance [...] Aside from the final temptation, there was no fixed order of the disguises employed, and each artist was apparently fee to choose at will among the possibilities.

}}

{{Expand section|date=December 2009}}

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.{{cite book

|last= Quint

|first= David

|title= Epic and empire: politics and generic form from Virgil to Milton

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kEVfg-3bA98C

|access-date= 2009-11-14

|year= 1993

|publisher= Princeton University Press

|isbn= 978-0-691-01520-0

|page= 231

|quote= As the infernal denizens scatter to carry out their mission, their leader makes a nocturnal visit to Cesare d'Este, assuming the disguise of an aged friend: the model is the visit of Virgil's Allecto to the sleeping Turnus, the same model imitated by Tasso in Argillano's dream. The devil speaks: [...]

}}

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.Anita Silvey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8GUNHGutszEC&dq=characters+disguised+as+human&pg=PA284 The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators], p.284.

Gary Westfahl 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."March 2009

{{cite web

|url = http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10528

|title = What Science Fiction Leaves Out of the Future #2: The Day After Tomorrow

|first = Gary

|last = Westfahl

|author-link = Gary Westfahl

|date = March 2009

|work = The Internet Review of Science Fiction

|access-date = 2009-11-21

|quote = There is one obvious answer to be drawn from the standard argument advanced by Stanisław Lem and others, 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.

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110508053610/http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10528

|archive-date = 2011-05-08

|url-status = dead

}}

Various works of science fiction have described aliens disguised in human form.{{Cite news | last = Holden | first = Stephen | newspaper = New York Times

| title = Film Review: The Arrival (1996) | date = May 31, 1996 | url = https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7DB1E39F932A05756C0A960958260 | quote = Alien invaders in the movies tend to fall into two types. There are monsters from outer space ("The War of the Worlds", the forthcoming "Independence Day") and infiltrators ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers") who slip in using human disguise.

}}

The theme of alien infiltration in human form appeared commonly during the Cold War.{{cite book

|last = Peter

|first = Lev

|title =Transforming the screen, 1950–1959, Volume 7 of

|publisher = University of California Press

|series = History of the American cinema

|year = 2006

| volume = 7

|isbn = 0-520-24966-6

|quote = Invasion films were common in the 1950s featuring a variety of aliens portrayed as superior to earthlings both in intelligence and technology. In these films, aliens represent what some Americans feared about the Soviets. Invaders, friends or enemies, and often with the help of robots, either come to warn earthlings or destroy them with superior technology. Sometimes the invaders use the strategy of infiltration, taking over the minds of the people, making slaves of them or appropriating their bodies, thus making war unnecessary.

| page = 177

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TEGl2Ele_XoC&pg=PA177

}} 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.Whitehead, John W. (2001). [http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html "Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for Our Times".] Gadfly Online, 2001-11-26.

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 (Odo's people) 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,David Buxton [https://books.google.com/books?id=mHq7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA46 From the Avengers to Miami Vice]: form and ideology in television series Cultural politics Manchester University Press ND, 1990 {{ISBN|0-7190-2994-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7190-2994-3}}, 170 pages 46-56

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.

{{cite book

|last = Booker

|first = M. Keith

|author-link = David Mumford

|title = Science fiction television

|publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group

|series = The Praeger television collection

|year = 2004

|page = 92

|isbn = 0-275-98164-9

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WyJf3m1G0ksC&pg=PA92

| quote = Of course this disguise strategy is in itself understandable given the xenophobia of earthlings, which is demonstrated by the very telling way in which audiences were supposed to concluded that the aliens were evil simply because they looked different from humans, especially because they had lied about the difference. Of course by this time there was a whole science fiction tradition in which aliens disguised as humans turned out to be evil invaders seeking to conquer Earth, so audience reactions were also conditioned to some extent by generic expectations

}}

They Live deviated from the cold-war fear of communists by having its alien infiltrators be the capitalist elite, exploiting mindnumbed consumers[https://www.avclub.com/the-new-cult-canon-they-live-1798213585 The New Cult Canon: They Live], Scott Tobias, March 26, 2008, Onion AV Club while The Thing featured a more visceral biological horror, with an alien that would infect and duplicate hosts.{{Cite news

| last = Billson

| first = Anne

| title = The Thing set on survival

| newspaper = The Guardian

| date = 27 August 2009

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/27/the-thing-john-carpenter

| location=London}} 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.Barbara Creed [https://archive.org/details/monstrousfeminin0000cree/page/44 The monstrous-feminine]: film, feminism, psychoanalysis page 44

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.Tim Clodfelter [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/journalnow/access/1436790371.html?dids=1436790371:1436790371&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+28%2C+2008&author=Tim+Clodfelter%2C+relish+staff+writer&pub=Winston-Salem+Journal&desc=VIDEO+TAKES+A+LOOK+BACK+AT+ORIGINS+OF+POPULAR+SUPERHEROES&pqatl=google Video Takes A Look Back At Origins Of Popular Superheroes]{{dead link|date=July 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} (Metro Edition) Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) February 28, 2008 page 5

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."Charles Herold [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/sports/othersports/16char.html "Aliens in the Suburbs, Surrounded by Stupidity"] July 16, 2005 New York Times

Some authors portray the mannerisms of aliens using human disguises as awkward, indicating that the aliens may not feel comfortable in their false skins,{{citation |url=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODE4Yjc2OWIyNDE0NWI0Y2U2YTYxYzQ3YmVhYmQwYjc= |publisher=National Review |title=Is Gore An Alien? |author=Jonah Goldberg |date=June 14, 2000}} for instance Vincent D'Onofrio's portrayal of an alien "Bug" wearing a human suit in Men In Black.{{cite book

|last = Dozois

|first = Gardner

|title = The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection

|publisher = Macmillan

|year = 1998

|page = ii

|chapter= Introduction

|quote = ...a wonderful portrayal – done mostly with body language – of a menacing bug stuffed into an ill-fitting Human Suit, scary and very funny at the same time, by Vincent D'Onofrio.

|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tpX-CFVG34EC&pg=RA1-PR2

| isbn=978-0-312-19033-0

}}

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;Brad Munson Inside MIIB: Men in black II 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".{{cite book|last=Stevenson|first=Gregory|title=Televised morality: the case of Buffy the vampire slayer|publisher=Hamilton Books|year=2003|page=191|isbn=0-7618-2833-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7spi5_StNIC&q=%22human+disguise%22+metaphor&pg=PA191}}

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 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.{{Cite book

| last = Niven

| first = Larry

| author-link = Larry Niven

| title = Ringworld

| publisher = Random House

| year = 1985

| page = 237

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uv4vqKYsyawC&pg=PA237

| isbn = 978-0-345-33392-6}}{{Cite book

| last = Bretnor

| first = Reginald

| title = The Craft of science fiction: a symposium on writing science fiction and science fantasy

| publisher = Harper & Row

| year = 1976

| isbn = 978-0-06-010461-0

| url = https://archive.org/details/craftofsciencefi00bret

}}

===Robots===

{{anchor|death of Talos krater anchor}}File:Vaso di Talos particolare.JPG circa 400 BCE (Jatta National Archaeological Museum in Ruvo di Puglia)]]

Possibly the first human automaton was Talos — a man of made of bronze — who defended the isle of Crete from any invaders, with archaeological evidence dating from to c.400 BCE at least. In some myths, the bronze man is defeated by the Argonauts by lancing the ichor-flowing vein in the ankle.

Isaac Asimov considered humanoid robots (androids) in the novel Robots and Empire and the short stories "Evidence" and "The Tercentenary Incident", in which robots are crafted to fool people into mistaking them as human. Some of Asimov's robots respond to human distrust and antipathy by passing as human and influencing human development for its own good. In Asimov's novella The Bicentennial Man, the robot Andrew gradually replaces his mechanical body with organic components, but only on the 200th anniversary of the start of his organic conversion, when he allows his positronic brain to "decay" and thus abandons his immortality, does he become accepted as "human".

In the movies A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and the Alien series, robots are made to look and act human. In The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a cyborg that wore a human disguise.{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/who-is-afraid-of-the-terminator-now-1.762100|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105175004/http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2008/09/08/f-vp-boag.html|url-status=live|archive-date=November 5, 2012|title=Who is afraid of the Terminator now?|last=Boag|first=Keith|date=September 9, 2008|publisher=CBC News|access-date=2009-10-29}}

In the 2010 Metroid game, the antagonist is a cyborg named Madeline Bergman who has been raised by the governing Galactic Federation and has effectively been kept in imprisonment on a derelict space vessel, thus making her gradually loathe humans. Madeline eventually plans to raid the Federation headquarters and destroy human civilization, but fortunately Samus Aran is called onto the scene by the Federation before this can occur.

The various Star Trek shows also had persuasive androids, for instance in the original series episodes "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", "Shore Leave", "I, Mudd", and "Requiem for Methuselah". In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the android Data's desire to become more human became an ongoing source of commentary on the human condition.{{cite book|title=Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion|publisher=Pocket Books|year=2003|author=Nemeck, Larry|isbn=0-7434-5798-6}} (Data's positronic brain is a nod to Asimov's stories.) An earlier pilot-film by Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry, The Questor Tapes, had featured an android left on 20th-century Earth as the last of a series of advanced alien technology, with the same subtext. The three-season return of the USS Enterprise captain in Star Trek: Picard further explored the nature of androids and societal integration, especially throughout the first season as its main theme.

In Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its film adaption Blade Runner, the replicants are biological robots indistinguishable from humans except by specialised testing of their empathic reactions.{{cite book

|author= Judith Kerman

|title= Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

|year= 2003

|isbn= 0-87972-510-9

|publisher= Bowling Green University Popular Press}} As those androids are manufactured exclusively for off-world colonies on Mars and are illegal on Earth they attempt to disguise as human to evade their killing by special police operatives.

Similarly in the remade series Battlestar Galactica, robots known as the Cylons have evolved the ability to make bodies that appear quite human.{{Cite web|url=http://www.syfy.com/battlestar/about/index.php?sub=miniseries|title = Battlestar Galactica|date = 21 November 2014}} When killed, they transfer their consciousness from one body to an identical model elsewhere. This seeming immortality, the uncertainty of who is really human and who is Cylon, and the love between characters who are revealed to be human or Cylon, are used for discussion of what it means to be human.See for instance the character arcs of Saul Tigh and Number Eight (Battlestar Galactica), as well as Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)#References to modern society.

Pretenders in Transformers are Autobots and Decepticons who encase their robotic bodies in organic-like outer shells. While most Decepticons use shells patterned after monsters, most Autobots use shells that appear human.

Human disguises sometimes occur in animation for cartoon characters. In a short story by Haitham Chehabi, Trix, a cartoon rabbit, wears a human disguise.Haitham Chehabi [http://www.latimes.com/features/kids/readingroom/la-et-story6-2008jan6,1,5331645.story Trix Are For Kids?] January 6, 2008 LA Times Cartoons sometimes portray aliens drawn in human disguise.Steve Barr [https://books.google.com/books?id=m18lnV1aQyQC&dq=human+disguise+cartoons&pg=PT18 1-2-3 draw cartoon aliens and space stuff]: a step-by-step guide

Note too the cartoon dragons passing as humans in Gnuff.

Commentators may use the concept of human disguise as a metaphor for a lack of humanity. For example, a Kenyan judge described the former Kenyan Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta as a "monster in human disguise".{{cite journal|title=Enigma of Jomo Kenyatta|journal=Ebony|date=August 1961|issue=August 1961|page=83|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDe4dSJt_6YC&q=%22human+disguise%22+politician&pg=PA82}} Doug Parker, chairman of US Airways, was described as a "Klingon in a human disguise", after he "vaporized much of what was left of USAirways in Pittsburgh."{{sic}}{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07364/845115-149.stm|title=A pop quiz for Pittsburghers|last= Kalson |first=Sally|date=December 30, 2007|publisher=Pittsburgh Post Gazette|access-date=2009-10-29}} The human disguise does not always carry negative connotations – in the US, a well regarded murder victim has been described as "an angel running round with a human suit on",{{citation |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailypress/access/82282592.html?dids=82282592:82282592&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+13%2C+1998&author=PATTI+ROSENBERG+Daily+Press&pub=Daily+Press&desc=KILLER+WANTED+TO+TAKE+OWN+LIFE%2C+PSYCHOLOGIST+SAYS+JURORS+NOW+DECIDING+ON+LIFE+OR+DEATH+FOR+EXXON+GUNMAN&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023112047/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailypress/access/82282592.html?dids=82282592:82282592&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+13,+1998&author=PATTI+ROSENBERG+Daily+Press&pub=Daily+Press&desc=KILLER+WANTED+TO+TAKE+OWN+LIFE,+PSYCHOLOGIST+SAYS+JURORS+NOW+DECIDING+ON+LIFE+OR+DEATH+FOR+EXXON+GUNMAN&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 23, 2012| title=Killer Wanted To Take Own Life, Psychologist Says Jurors Now Deciding On Life Or Death For Exxon Gunman|author=Patti Rosenberg|work = Daily Press

| location= Newport News, Virginia – hosted on pqarchiver.com| date =August 14, 2007 }} while Manoel de S. Antonio, (Bishop of Malacca between 1701 and 1723) was referred to as an "angel in human disguise" for his conversion of 10,000 people to Christianity.{{cite book|last= Schulte Nordholt|first=H. G.|title=The political system of the Atoni of Timor|year=1971|volume=60|page=176|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZluAAAAMAAJ&q=human+disguise | publisher=Nijhoff|isbn=9789004286900}}

Some conspiracy theorists such as David Icke believe that aliens have assumed human form and control the world by masquerading as human leaders such as Queen Elizabeth II, George Bush and Tony Blair.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4htx62wIXIgC |title=Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies |author=Christopher Hodapp, Alice Von Kannon |pages=321 et seq | isbn=978-0-470-18408-0 | year=2008 | publisher=For Dummies

}}

This table lists fictional creatures which pretend to pass as human.

• Anthropomorphism
• Anthropotheism
• Humanoid
• Incarnation
• Liminal being
• Plot device
• Reptilians
• Shapeshifting
• Stock character

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

Category:Deception

Category:Shapeshifting