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Aquatic humanoids appear in legend and fiction. "Water-dwelling people with fully human, fish-tailed or other compound physiques feature in the mythologies and folklore of maritime, lacustrine and riverine societies across the planet."

Myth

"Ancient sea deities" have been regarded as the "earliest version of a human-fish hybrid". Creatures with a human torso and the tail of a fish appear in the myths of cultures around the world and persist in contemporary popular culture.

Piscine humanoids

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Water-dwelling humanoids in legend and fiction have frequently been depicted with characteristics of fish.

Legend

• The amabie from Japanese folklore
• The ceasg in Scottish folklore has the upper body of a beautiful woman merging with the tail of a grilse (a young salmon)
• Finfolk from the folklore of Orkney
• Melusine in European folklore
• Merrows from Irish folklore
• The Ningyo from Japanese folklore
• Sirens, while initially described as birdlike, but have become associated with mermaids in later folklore.
• The Umibōzu from Japanese folklore

Hoax

• Fiji mermaid, taxidermic hoax perpetuated by PT Barnum.

Fiction

Literature

• Caliban from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
• The Little Mermaid, from Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (1837)
• The harbor master from Robert W. Chambers's story "The Harbor-Master" (1899)
• The fish man from Irvin S. Cobb's story "Fishhead" (1913)
• Ichthyander from Alexander Belyayev's Amphibian Man (1928)
• The Deep Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936)
• The Myposans from Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Slaves of the Fish Men" (1941)
• Swimmers from C. M. Kosemen's All Tomorrows (2006)

Comics

• The Fish Men from Buck Rogers comic strips
• The Shark Men from Flash Gordon comic strips
• The Water People from Carl Barks's story "The Secret of Atlantis"
• Abe Sapien from the Hellboy comics
• The Trench in DC Comics.

Films

• The Gill-man from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
• The Gill-man from The She-Creature (1956)
• The Gill-man from The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1958)
• The Gill-men from City Under the Sea (1965)
• The titular creatures from Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
• The mutant from Leviathan (1989)
• The aquatic aliens from The Abyss (1989)
• The Killer from Split Second (1992)
• Chocki, the shark-man from Cabin Boy (1994)
• The "Mariner" from Waterworld (1995)
• The Gungans from Star Wars (1999)
• The Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water (2017)

Games

• The Argonians from Elder Scrolls
• Aulbath (a.k.a. Rikuo) from the video game series, Darkstalkers, by Capcom
• Kuo-toa, "evil fish-men" from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game
• The Melusines from the nation of Fontaine in Genshin Impact
• The Murloc are a species of amphibious creatures which live in tribes in World of Warcraft
• Neptuna, the mermaid-like boss in Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
• The Rokea from the roleplaying game Werewolf: the Apocalypse
• The sahuagin from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game
• The Salarians, a race in the Mass Effect series
• The tritons from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game
• Zoras from The Legend of Zelda

Television

• The Aquaphibians from the Stingray TV series
• The race of Cabira (one of Chilled's henchmen) is a race of fish-like humanoids from Dragon Ball
• The Fish People from the radio broadcast Alexei Sayle and the Fish People
• The Fishmen are a race of fish-like humans from the anime One Piece. They are modeled after different aquatic lifeforms. The Fishmen can breed with Giants to create Wotans.
• Gill (aka Gil Moss) from "Kim Possible"
• Goo from Gumby
• Hippocampus from Krapopolis is a piscine humanoid. The episode "Prince Hippo" revealed that he is part of a race of Atlantean fish-men with his mother being the unnamed Queen of Atlantis.
• The Hynerians from Farscape
• Some characters in Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea are humans having the ability to breathe underwater (called Ena)
• The Kanassans are a race of fish-like humanoids from the planet Manassas. They are said to possess psychic abilities, including being able to read minds and see into the future. They featured in the special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku
• Mer-Man from the Masters of the Universe franchise
• Molly, Gil, Goby, Deema, Oona and Nonny from Bubble Guppies
• Rayza from A.T.O.M.
• Sil and the Sea Devils from Doctor Who
• In the Dragon Ball Z series, the alien race of Sūi' (one of Frieza's foot soldiers) is a race of humanoid fish-like aliens who worked in the Galactic Frieza Army
• The TigerSharks from The Comic Strip segment of the same name

Amphibian humanoids

Humanoids with characteristics of amphibians

Legend

• The Loveland frog

Fiction

Literature

• Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows (1908)
• The Frogman from L. Frank Baum's The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
• The Deep Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936)
• The Newts from Karel Čapek's War with the Newts (1936)
• Marshwiggles from C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair (1953)

Comics

• Frog-Man and the Ani-Men version of Frog-Man from Marvel Comics
• The Frog Monsters from the Hellboy comics
• Pepe the Frog, a comic character and Internet meme

Films

• The frog people from The Mysterious Island (1929)

Games

• The Battletoads from the video game series of the same name
• Bullywug from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game

Television

• The characters of Amphibia, a world of anthropomorphic frogs and other amphibians.
• Bullfrog from the adult animated show Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix
• Crazy Frog
• Kermit the Frog and Robin the Frog from The Muppets
• Michigan J. Frog, star of the Looney Tunes short One Froggy Evening and onetime mascot of The WB
• Queen Oona from Disenchantment belongs to a race of amphibious humanoids called Salamanders.

Miscellaneous

Some water-dwelling humanoids in fiction and legend have been assigned characteristics of species other than amphibians or fish, or have been presented as "fully human formed aquatic humanoids".

Legend

• The Amabie from Japanese folklore
• Kappa from Japanese folklore
• The Neck from Scandinavian folklore
• Selkies, from Irish folklore
• Undines in the writings of Paracelsus

Fiction

Literature

• Grendel and Grendel's mother from Beowulf
• The underwater people from H. G. Wells's story "In the Abyss" (1896)

Comics

• Namor the Sub-Mariner, from the Marvel Universe
• Aquaman from DC Comics

Films

• Cecaelia – Half-human, half-octopus, the term was coined by fans in the late 2000s to describe characters such as Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989).

Games

• The Naga are a species of aquatic humanoids under the command and leadership of Queen Azshara in World of Warcraft

See also

• Jenny Haniver
• List of avian humanoids
• List of reptilian humanoids
• List of hybrid creatures in folklore
• Insectoids in science fiction and fantasy

Notes

1. ^ These creatures have been described with both piscine and other characteristics.
2. ^ Deep Ones have been described with both fish-like and frog-like characteristics.

Citations

1. Bane, Theresa (2016-05-04). Encyclopedia of giants and humanoids in myth, legend and folklore. McFarland. ISBN 9781476663517. OCLC 918874339.
2. ^ Hayward, Philip (2017). Making a Splash: Mermaids (and Mermen) in 20th and 21st Century Audiovisual Media. John Libbey Publishing. ISBN 9780861969258.
3. ^ Strozier, Scott (2022). Probable, Possible, Plausible - Explanatory Guide to Monsters and Myth. Dorrance Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 9781636613468.
4. Maxwell, Melissa (2024). "Introduction". The Little Encyclopedia of Mermaids. Running Press. ISBN 9780762488377.
5. ^ Bacchilega, Cristina; Brown, Marie Alohalani, eds. (2019). The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Penguin Books. p. xii. ISBN 9780143133728. Descriptions of the merbeing's fishy lower half tend to be generic, but there are a few notable exceptions. human mixed with freshwater dolphin (or porpoise), dugong, or manatee bodies are found in the Amazon region. Other merbeings and water spritis are partly reptilian
6. ^ Davisson, Zach (2024). Ultimate Guide to Japanese Yokai. Tuttle Publishing. p. 169. ISBN 9781462924776. a chimeric creature with a bird's beak, fish scales, long hair, and three finned feet
7. Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica, Vol. I & II: Hymns and Incantations. Forgotten Books. p. 387. ISBN 1-60506-172-7.
8. MacKenzie, Donald A. (1931). Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life — Studies in Race, Culture and Tradition. Blackie & Son. pp. 251–2. ISBN 9781444656367.
9. Vaughan, Alden T.; Vaughan, Virginia Mason (1991). Shakespeare's Caliban: A Cultural History. Cambridge University Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-521-40305-7. two American critics have argued that "'Come, thou tortoise' tended to give a vague approximation of the shape of the deformity." More often, Caliban has been portrayed with fish rather than turtle attributes - scales, fins, and shiny skin - which reflect the critic's or artist's or actor's fixation on offhand epithets rather than the overwhelming evidence of Caliban's essentially human form.
10. ^ Joshi 1999, p. 163.
11. Chambers, Robert W. (1904). In Search of the Unknown. Harper & Brothers. Retrieved 2025-01-15. a man with round, fixed, fishy eyes, and soft, slaty skin. But the horror of the thing were the two gills that swelled and relaxed spasmodically, emitting a rasping, purring sound—two gasping, blood-red gills
12. Bleiler 1990, pp. 46–47.
13. ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (January 1942). The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Weird Tales. Retrieved 2025-01-16. their predominant color was a grayish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design
14. Debus 2016, pp. 230–231.
15. ^ Debus 2016, p. 237.
16. Mitchell, Charles P. (2001). The complete H.P. Lovecraft filmography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780313316418.
17. Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 89. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
18. ^ DiSalvo, Paul (2020-10-07). "10 Dungeons & Dragons Monsters We Want As Playable Races". CBR.com. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
19. Bainbridge, William Sims (2012). The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World. MIT Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-262-28837-8.
20. Miller, Sage Thomas (2020-10-23). "Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Facts You Need To Know About The Fish People, Sahuagin". CBR.com. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
21. Furniss, Zack (November 16, 2016). "Volo's Guide to Monsters is the new, awesome Monster Manual for Dungeons & Dragons". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
22. Debus 2016, p. 235.
23. Martha C., Sammons (1979). a guide through Narnia. Harold Shaw Publishers. p. 151. ISBN 0-87788-325-4. frog-like creatures
24. Rowell, Dawlin (2019-10-30). "The 10 Scariest Monsters In Hellboy Comics, Ranked". CBR.com. Retrieved 2025-01-08. the Frog Monsters are considered the demonic ideal evolution of man, characterized as humanoid creatures with frog-like qualities
25. Debus 2016, p. 230.
26. Stomberg, Chris (2023-06-25). "Dungeons & Dragons: 8 Best Monsters For A Swamp". The Gamer. Retrieved 2024-11-28. Bullywugs are brutish frog-men
27. Friend, Devin Ellis (2021-11-25). "Unique D&D Build Ideas For Aquatic Races". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2024-11-28. A stalwart humanoid bullfrog
28. Hayward, Philip. "Mermaids, mercultures and the aquapelagic imaginary." Shima 12.2 (2018): 1-11.
29. Debus 2016, p. 231-232.
30. Wells, H. G. (2013). "IN THE ABYSS". The Plattner Story, and Others. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2025-01-15. Its dark purple head was dimly suggestive of a chameleon; the vertical pitch of its face gave it a most extraordinary resemblance to a human being. Two large and protruding eyes projected from sockets in chameleon fashion, and it had a broad reptilian mouth with horny lips beneath its little nostrils. In the position of the ears were two huge gill-covers, and out of these floated a branching tree of coralline filaments, almost like the tree-like gills that very young rays and sharks possess. It was a biped; its almost globular body was poised on a tripod of two frog-like legs and a long thick tail, and its fore limbs, which grotesquely caricatured the human hand, much as a frog's do

General references

• Bleiler, E. F. (1990). Science-fiction, the early years : a full description of more than 3,000 science-fiction stories from earliest times to the appearance of the genre magazines in 1930 : with author, title, and motif indexes. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873384162.
• Bleiler, E. F. (1998). Science-fiction : the Gernsback years : a complete coverage of the genre magazines ... from 1926 through 1936. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873386043.
• Debus, Allen A. (2016). Dinosaurs ever evolving : the changing face of prehistoric animals in popular culture. Jefferson, North Carolina. ISBN 978-0786499519.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Joshi, S. T. (1999). A subtler magick : the writings and philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Wildside Press. ISBN 9781880448618.

• Piscine and amphibian humanoids
• Anthropomorphic amphibians
• Anthropomorphic fish
• Fictional human–animal hybrids
• Legendary amphibians
• Legendary fish
• Lists of fictional humanoid species