List of aquatic humanoids

(Redirected from Fishmen)

Aquatic humanoids appear in legend and fiction.[1] "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."[2]: 6 

The bishop-fish, a piscine humanoid reported in Poland in the 16th century

Myth

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"Ancient sea deities" have been regarded as the "earliest version of a human-fish hybrid".[3] 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.[2]: 6 [3][4]

Piscine humanoids

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Humanoids with characteristics of fish

Legend

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Hoax

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Fiction

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Literature

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Comics

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Films

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Games

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Television

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Amphibian humanoids

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Humanoids with characteristics of amphibians

Legend

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Fiction

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Literature

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Comics

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Films

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Games

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Television

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Miscellaneous

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Water-dwelling humanoids with characteristics of species other than amphibians or fish, characteristics of unclear origin, or human-like appearance

Legend

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Cecaelia is a half human, half octopus.

Fiction

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Films

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Games

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See also

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Notes

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

Citations

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  1. ^ Bane, Theresa (2016-05-04). Encyclopedia of giants and humanoids in myth, legend and folklore. McFarland. ISBN 9781476663517. OCLC 918874339.
  2. ^ a b c Hayward, Philip (2017). Making a Splash: Mermaids (and Mermen) in 20th and 21st Century Audiovisual Media. John Libbey Publishing. ISBN 9780861969258.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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
  6. ^ Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica, Vol. I & II: Hymns and Incantations. Forgotten Books. p. 387. ISBN 1-60506-172-7.
  7. ^ MacKenzie, Donald A. (1931). Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life — Studies in Race, Culture and Tradition. Blackie & Son. pp. 251–2. ISBN 9781444656367.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b c d Joshi 1999, p. 163.
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Bleiler 1990, pp. 46–47.
  12. ^ a b 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
  13. ^ Debus 2016, pp. 230–231.
  14. ^ a b Debus 2016, p. 237.
  15. ^ Mitchell, Charles P. (2001). The complete H.P. Lovecraft filmography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780313316418.
  16. ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 89. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  17. ^ a b DiSalvo, Paul (2020-10-07). "10 Dungeons & Dragons Monsters We Want As Playable Races". CBR.com. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
  18. ^ Bainbridge, William Sims (2012). The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World. MIT Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-262-28837-8.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Debus 2016, p. 235.
  22. ^ Martha C., Sammons (1979). a guide through Narnia. Harold Shaw Publishers. p. 151. ISBN 0-87788-325-4. frog-like creatures
  23. ^ 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
  24. ^ Debus 2016, p. 230.
  25. ^ Stomberg, Chris (2023-06-25). "Dungeons & Dragons: 8 Best Monsters For A Swamp". The Gamer. Retrieved 2024-11-28. Bullywugs are brutish frog-men
  26. ^ Friend, Devin Ellis (2021-11-25). "Unique D&D Build Ideas For Aquatic Races". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2024-11-28. A stalwart humanoid bullfrog
  27. ^ Debus 2016, p. 231-232.
  28. ^ 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

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  • 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.