Mythic humanoids

Mythic humanoids are legendary, folkloric, or mythological creatures that are part human, or that resemble humans through appearance or character. Each culture has different mythical creatures that come from many different origins, and many of these creatures are humanoids. They are often able to talk and in many stories they guide the hero on their journey.

This compilation encompasses a diverse array of mythic humanoid creatures from cultures worldwide. Ranging from the enchanting jengu of Africa to the shapeshifting werehyena, the list traverses mermaids, goblins, and spirits like the dokkaebi of Asia. The Americas contribute figures like the cryptic Bigfoot, Mothman, and shape-shifting skin-walkers, while Europe showcases legendary beings like the mischievous púca and fearsome gorgon. Oceania introduces the aquatic bunyip and the elusive yowie, while global entities such as ghosts and mummies transcend specific regions. These mythic humanoids, whether benevolent guides or malevolent spirits, collectively illuminate the rich tapestry of human imagination and storytelling.

Africa

Jengu – Beautiful, mermaid–like creatures.
Werehyena – Hyaenidae therianthropic creature common in the folklore of North and East Africa, and West Asia.
Mami Wata – Mermaid–like water–dwelling humanoids from West African mythology

Americas

Anung Ite – (Lakota) female spirit with two faces and spikes protruding from elbows. Variations from other tribes known as Sharp Legs and Sharp Elbows.
Asin – (Pacific Northwest) Often called the Basket Woman, this was an ogre-like monster who sneaked up on and captured naughty children, throwing them into a basket on her back to take home and eat.
Bigfoot – Large, hairy, and bipedal ape-like creature taller than a human and said to inhabit forests in North America.
Adlet – Dog-like humanoids in Inuit folklore.
Chindi - (Navajo) The dark side of the soul, which can often separate in death and remain behind in a place as a sort of dark spirit.
Ciguapa – Mythical women who live in the high mountains of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Of human female form with brown or dark blue skin, backward facing feet, and very long manes of smooth, glossy hair covering their bodies; nocturnal, hostile, to be avoided.
El Cucuy – Boogeyman to scare children into being good in Spain, Portugal and South America. Name comes from the word for "head". Seen as shadowy figure prowling on rooftops, said to eat or kidnap children.
Encantado – Amazon river dolphins said to occasionally take human form in South American folklore.
Faceless Spirit – (Iroquois) appears as female maiden with no face. Collects life force of dead things in her basket and returns it to the Creator to be recycled into new life.
Fiura – Evil creature in Chilean mythology, a small, nasty woman with large breasts.
Headless Corpse – (Southeast) headless body that runs around on all fours with gaping mouth where head should be.
Heyoka – (Lakota) People chosen by the Thunder Beings to be Medicine Men. Possessing supernatural abilities. A Heyoka must have a vision of a Thunder Being or be struck by lightning. May have visions of the future or other abilities. Appear to others as backwards. Acts in backwards behaviors. They are mysterious and move between worlds. thunderbirds.
Ijiraq – (Inuit) shapeshifting childnapper with red eyes and a sideways face.
Inipi – (Southern California) Mostly known from the Kawaiisu people, this is the shapeshifting ghost of a human. It may take virtually any form, with given stories depicting it as looking normal, or as a skeleton with extremely long nails. Like modern western ghost lore, it may be aware of its surroundings, or just going through the motions obliviously. They say it starts walking once a person's death is assured, even before they actually die. To get rid of one, a person blows across one's open palm at it.
Kalku – A Chiloe and Mapuche mythological sorcerer who controls crows and contains dark magic and negative powers.
Kushtaka – Shape-shifting otter creature found in the folklore of the Tlingit and Tsimshian people.
Little People – various fairy/elf-like beings believed in across North America. Some are a couple inches tall and look like humans, some a couple feet and are hairy or look ugly, some take the form of human children. Different types can be mischievous, evil or beneficial.
Mesingw – (Algonquian) Lenape name for the spirit of the forests. Hairy dwarf who wears a wooden mask to hide deformed face and rides on the back of a white stag.
Mothman – A winged, legendary man with the features of a moth.
Paagak – (Anishinaabeg) skeletal monster. Ghost of human cursed for horrific acts in life.
Pombero – Mythical humanoid creature of small stature being from Guaraní mythology.
Qalupalik – (Inuit) female entities with green skin, webbed hands and claws that emit shrieks that paralyze men.
Sabuqwanilnu – (Algonquian) Migmaaq name for a mermaid like being believed in across Algonquian speaking peoples. Top half human, bottom half fish, able to control and predict the weather and travel between the human world and the underworld through water. Anishinaabeg myth refers to one trying to take a human husband, the act of bringing him to their world and going through with the marriage turning him into one of them.
Sasquatch – see Bigfoot.
Shade – Spirit or ghost of a dead person, residing in the underworld, believed to be a shadowy place. Common to beliefs in the Near East, e.g. Islamic Jinn and the Choctaw Nalusa Chito.
Shadow people – dark, nonspecific apparitions in folklore, often taken to be neutral, or harbingers of events.
Skin-walker – Type of witch with ability to disguise themselves as an animal or turn into one.
Squawkowtemus – (Abenaki) Female spirit that resides in swamps. Its cries lure people close. If it touches them, they die.
Stick Indians – (Pacific Northwest) monsters who materialize from out of the roots of trees and bushes and attack men.
Tariaksuq – (Inuit) anthropomorphic caribou people who exist as their own separate society in a parallel universe. Only their shadows can be seen in this world, though sometimes glimpses of them can he caught out of the corner of the eye. Only become visible when killed.
Thunderbirds – (Eastern Woodlands) most tribes in Eastern Woodlands claim Thunderbirds often shapeshift into people. They live in secret villages atop mountains. Shawnee say they speak backwards.
Towiŋ – (Lakota) Female spirit who guards the road to the afterlife in Lakota lore. Souls stop at her lodge while she judges their worthiness to progress on to Wanagi Tamakoce (heaven). Said to mean Blue Woman, but can also translate as Aunt. Pronounced tow-wih
Trauco – Dwarf or goblin-like creature that inhabits the woods of Chiloé islands in Chile.
Wanaģi/ Wanuŋchi – (Siouan) the spirits of the dead, almost always take form of shadow people. The word is also the word for soul and shadow. Sometimes referred to as the Night Spirits. Commonly seen at night around burial grounds/mounds. Pronounced wah-nah-khee/ wah-nuh-chee.
Water Babies – (American Southwest) evil spirit who resides near springs or ponds and takes the form of a crying baby, luring people to pick it up, after which, it becomes so heavy that it crushes them to death.
Wechuge – Cannibal said to be a person who has been possessed or overwhelmed by the monster, or a demonic presence. In return, the person becomes "too strong". Related to the regions of Canada.
Wendigo – A human possessed by evil spirit to cannibalize humans and is never sated.
Werecoyote – A canine therianthropic creature.
Yacuruna – Hairy beings with deformed feet and their heads turned backwards.
Zombie – An undead human which preys on the living, originating in Haitian folklore.

Asia

Angel – Divine messengers in Abrahamic religions, often depicted in humanoid form.
Diwata – Philippine deities/spirits.
Aswang – Shapeshifting Philippine ghouls.
Bak – Assamese aqueous creature that can take human form after killing them.
Dokkaebi – A mythical being in Korean folklore or fairy tales. Although usually frightening, it could also represent a humorous, grotesque-looking ogre or goblin.
Ebu Gogo – Human-like creatures in Indonesian mythology.
Garuda – Vishnu's bird-like mount.
Ghoul – Monstrous flesh-eating spirits, jinn, or shayatin associated with graveyards.
Gwisin – General term for a Korean ghost.
Hibagon – The Japanese equivalent of Bigfoot.
Hitotsume-kozou – A Yōkai that takes on the appearance of a bald, one-eyed child.
Jiangshi – A being in Chinese legends and folklore similar to zombie or vampire.
Jinn – Genie-like beings.
Jorōgumo – A spider that can change its appearance into that of a seductive woman.
Kappa – A turtle-like yōkai which is about the size of a child.
Kitsune, huli jing, kumiho, and hồ ly tinh – Fox spirits in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese folklore respectively.
Manananggal – A self-segmenting humanoid which preys on humans in Philippine folklore.
Mangkukulam (kulam) – Tagalog for Filipino witch employing black magic or using hexes for revenge and punishment reasons.
Nāga – Divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism mythology.
Nukekubi – Rokurokubi whose heads come off and float about.
Nuno – Dwarf-like creature in Philippine mythology.
Oni – Yōkai which are similar to ogres or demons.
Pugot – (Philippines) Mythical fiend found in the Ilocos Region.
Rannamaari - (Maldives) Sea monster/demon with similar mythology to Orochi. Defeated entirely just by the existence of Islam and nothing else.
Rokurokubi – Yōkai with long necks or removable heads.
Tengu – Legendary creatures with human and bird features in Japanese folklore.
Tennin – Spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism that are similar to western angels, nymphs or fairies.
Tikbalang – Tall, bony creatures with the features of a horse.
Tiyanak – Vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that imitates the form of a child.
Vanara – Man-ape species with human intelligence in Hindu scriptures.
Yama-uba – Monstrous crone with cannibalistic tendencies.
Yeren – Legendary creature said to be an as yet undiscovered hominid residing in the remote mountainous forested regions of western Hubei, China.
Yeti – An ape-like entity taller than an average human said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet.
Yuki-onna – Spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore associated with snow.
Weretiger – Feline therianthropic creature, asian version.

Europe

Abarimon – Savage race of people with backwards feet.
Ala – Female demon that brings bad weather to farms in Balkan folklore.
Alp – Nightmare creature from Germanic Mythology.
Anguane – (Germany, Austria) Female spirits with hooves and dangling breasts. Associated with aiding lost persons and in female fertility.
Arkan sonney – Fairy creature resembling a pig in Manx folklore.
Astomi – Legendary race of people who had no mouths and no need to eat or drink anything at all, surviving by smelling apples, flowers, and perfumes.
Baba Yaga – Slavic witch, crone and liminal guardian to the Otherworld.
Bannik – Slavic bathhouse spirit.
Banshee – Female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member by screaming, shrieking, or keening.
Basajaun, Basandere – (Basque) hairy woodland spirit
Blafard – Albinos long surmised by Europeans to be the result of some kind of simian crossbreeding.
Blemmyes (or akephaloi) – Legendary race of people with no heads and facial features on their chests.
Bluecap – (English) elf like beings of the mines, who sometimes appear as a floating blue flame or an elf in a blue cap. Seen as derivation to Redcap, but might also be similar to Slavic Shubin.
Boggart – Household spirits or genius loci.
Boogeyman – A featureless, androgynous creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior.
Brownie – Scottish household spirit, performs tasks at night, independent, changeable.
Bugbear – Type of hobgoblin comparable to the bogeyman.
Centaur, Greek kentaurides – Men and women with the lower bodies of horses in Greek mythology.
Changeling – Fae child left in place of a human child stolen by the fae.
Clurichaun – Irish fairy resembling a leprechaun.
Crone – Old woman who may be characterized as disagreeable, malicious, or sinister, often magical or supernatural, making her either helpful or not.
Cyclops – Grotesque, one-eyed humanoids, sons of Uranus in Greek myth.
Cynocephalus – Dog-headed humans.
Dearg Due - (Irish) fairy Undead woman who committed suicide after unfair treatment by a cruel husband. Bears some mythological similarity to Slavic Rusalka.
Demon – Malevolent beings associated with the devil in Christianity, often depicted in humanoid form.
Dhampir – (Albanian,Slavic) half human, half vampire, resulting from the mating of a male vampire and human woman exclusively.
Dökkálfar – Dark elves in Nordic mythology.
Domovoi – Protective house spirit in Slavic folklore.
Doppelgänger – Look-alike or double of a living person.
Drak – (German) elf partly shapeshifted into a lizard. Likely represents the Hazel Worm as the protective spirit motif in German culture. A French version called a Drac is said to be a type of Lutin or French elf.
Draugar – Undead creatures that guard their burial mounds.
Dryad – Tree nymph or tree spirit.
Dullahan – Irish fairy, the headless rider.
Dwarf – Human-shaped being often dwelling in mountains and in the earth.
Empusa (or empousa, pl. empousai) – A shape-shifting being with a copper leg in Greek mythology.
Elf – Supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore.
Erinyes – Greek female chthonic deities of vengeance.
Fairy – Mythical spirits or legendary creatures in European folklore, also known as fae or fair folk among many other names. Commonly depicted as having beautiful insectoid wings.
Faun – Humanoid beings with the horns and lower bodies of goats.
Fetch – an exact, spectral double of a living human; can appear as an omen.
Fext – (Slavic) Undead warriors who can only be killed with bullets made of glass
Finmen – (Scottish) Mermaid like beings from Orkney lore.
Fomorians – Army of monstrous troll-like/goblin-like humanoid beings.
Furies – Roman goddesses of vengeance.
Gargoyle – Carved or formed grotesques said to scare away demons.
German – (Slavic) a farm protective spirit. Mock burials of an effigy of it were held to summon rain or fair weather for their crops.
Giant, giantess – Large beings of human appearance but prodigious size and strength.
Gigantes – Race of great strength, aggression, and size in Greek and Roman mythology.
Gnome – Typically said to be a small humanoid that lives underground, bearded and wears a Phrygian cap.
Goblin – Small, grotesque humanoids.
Golem – (Jewish) artificial being of clay created by a Rabbi with a magic spell to defend his community.
Gorgons – Three dread and monstrous sisters commonly depicted with snake hair and other beastly features. Two were immortal, Medusa was not. Turned anyone who looked at them to stone.
Green Man – (English) Folklore figure resembling old man covered in foliage that is carved often in old churches. Possibly the same as the Scottish Ghillie Dhu.
Gremlins – Grotesque humanoid creatures commonly depicted as mischievous and inclined to sabotage machinery.
Hag – a kind of fairy or goddess appearing as wizened elderly woman, neither totally malevolent and sometimes benevolent.
Haltija – A spirit, gnome, or elf-like creature in Finnish mythology that guards, helps, or protects something or somebody.
Harpy – Female creatures with bird wings.
Hecatonchires – in Greek mythology, three sons of Uranus being hundred-handed giants with fifty heads.
Hobgoblins – Mischievous household spirits.
Hödekin – (German) elf like spirit who used to work for a bishop, but eventually came to do several horrific acta to the point that the bishop decided to exorcise him from his home.
Hulder – Seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore.
Hyter – (English) a lesser known type of fairy who disguise themselves as birds. Also, hikry, hyty or hike.
Imp – A mischievous mythological being of small size, similar to a fairy or goblin.
Iratxo – (Basque) protective, elf-like spirit of farms. Given similar sculptures from Britain hiding secret phalluses, the Romans may have related it to the Greco-Roman God Priapus, who would threaten to rape thieves from farmers' fields.
Jötunn (pl. jötnar) – A Norse mythological race that live in Jötunheimr.
Kabouter – A tiny human-like creatures in Dutch folklore similar to the German kobold or Irish leprachaun.
Kallikantzaroi – Malevolent goblin-like creatures in Southeast European folklore, believed to dwell underground but come to the surface during the twelve days of Christmas.
Karnabo – An elephant-trunked humanoid in Ardennes folklore.
Kikimora – Female house spirit in Slavic (especially Eastern) folklore.
Kilmoulis (English) - diminutive minster with no mouth and a giant nose that snorts all its food.
Klabautermann (or Klabautermannikin, Kaboutermannikin) – A water kobold or nix in German folklore.
Knocker (or knacker, tommyknocker) – Mischievous subterranean, gnome-like spirits associates with mines in Celtic folklore.
Kobalos – An ancient Greek equivalent to a goblin.
Kobold – Shapeshifting German spirits.
Korrigan – Breton dwarves or fairies.
Krsnik – Vampire hunter from Slavic Mythology.
Lamia – (Greek) Beautiful, child-eating demon.
Lamia 2 – (Basque) female water spirit with webbed bird feet. NOTE: There is also a Bulgarian Lamya and Albanian Llamja, which is described as a nature spirit similar to the Greek Lamia, ergo these may have originated from the same mythological creature of Basque and Illyrian origin.
Lares – Guardian deities of ancient Rome.
Leanan sídhe – Fairy-like being of Irish folklore.
Leprechaun – Little bearded men dressed in green, associated with luck, gold at the end of a rainbow and wishes.
Lidérc – (Hungarian) Some sort of shapeshifting monster created through magical means which latches onto a person, bestowing upon them riches, but slowly drains them of their lifeforce through sex and blood drinking until they die.
Ljósálfar – Light elves in Nordic mythology.
Lutin - A lutin is a type of hobgoblin in French folklore and fairy tales. Female lutins are called lutines.
Manticore – Creature with a man's head, a lion's body, bat wings, and a scorpion tail.
Mermaid, merman – Women and men with the lower bodies of fish.
Minotaur – A human with the head and sometimes legs of a bull.
Moirai – Lesser trio of female deities assigned with deciding and weaving the fates of humans. Usually called the Fates, this is a pan European concept, with the Roman Parcae, the Scandinavian Norns, the Anglo-Germanic Wyrd Sisters, the Bulgarian Orisnizi and Slavic Rozhanitsy easily identifiable.
Monaciello – Little men dressed as monks.
Monopod – One-legged mythical humanoids.
Moss people
Naiad – A type of water nymph.
Nereid – Female water spirits of Greece.
Nix – Germanic/ Scandinavian shape-shifting water spirit. Also Neck, Necken, Nixie, Nocken.
Nymph – Female nature spirits.
Oceanid – Sea nymphs, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.
Ogre, ogress – Large, grotesque humanoids.
Orcs – Humanoids with grey or green skin and tusks.
Pixie – Benign fairy-like beings. Also Peskie.
Poltergeist – Ghosts known for causing physical disturbances.
Púca (or pookha, puck) – Mischievous shape-changing creatures which can take human form.
Redcap – Malevolent, murderous dwarf, goblin, elf or fairy found in the folklore of the Anglo-Scottish border regions.
Revenant – (French, English, Irish) Medieval walking corpses which escape their Graves and supernaturally invade homes to attack the living
Roggenmuhme – (German) female demon who is the mother of the Feldgeisters, light and dark elves who haunt the household and farmer's fields.
Rusalka – Slavic water spirits.
Sandman – Man who puts people to sleep and brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of sleeping humans.
Satyr, satyress – Humanoid beings or nature spirits with goat-like features such as horns and hooves.
Seelie – Scottish term meaning "happy" or "blessed", used in several fairy names.
Selkie – Scottish mythical creature that resembles a seal in the water but assumes human form on land.
Sidhe – Irish race of fae that make their homes in mounds.
Siren – Beautiful yet dangerous creatures typically depicted as women-headed birds which lure sailors with their enchanting voices to shipwreck on rocky coasts.
Slavic fairies – Supernatural beings in Slavic folklore.
Sluagh – (Irish) type of fairy extremely similar to the Slavic Vila, flying Undead who escape their Graves by night and feed on the living in swarms.
Sphinx – A creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human.
Spriggan – A grotesquely ugly mischievous fairy or forest spirit.
Sprite – Fairy, ghost, or elf-like creatures.
Succubus, incubus –(Jewish) Seductive demons.
Svartalfar – Norse for "black elves".
Sylph – Mythological air spirit.
Tantugou - (France/ Andorra) elderly hooded man who watches over land and animal holdings from predators and thieves. Sometimes also kidnaps bad children.
Taraxippus – (Greek) ghosts of those whose deaths involved horses in some sort of upsetting way. Dedicated altars existed in chariot racing arenas for riders to make offerings, so the ghosts would not upset their horses or try to get them killed.
Tartalo – (Basque) Cyclops like figure
Titans – Anthropomorphic pre-Olympian gods in ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
Tomte – In Finnish mythology, a type of dwarf or goblin-like creature associated with households and farms; associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. Also called Nisse, which may be related to the word Nix.
Troll – Large, often grotesque humanoids.
Trow – Short, ugly spirits.
Tschäggättä - (Alps) race of hairy monsters that allegedly descend from the arrival of Celts to the region, thousands of years ago.
Undine – Water nymph.
Valkyrie – Female figure from Norse mythology, chooses who lives and who dies in battle.
Vampire – Being from Slavic folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living, generally in the form of blood.
Vættir – Nature spirits in Scandinavian folklore.
Vila – Slavic version of nymphs or fairies, with the power of the wind.
Vioge - (English) emaciated scarecrow like monster from Jersey Isle. Grabs people, breaks their ankles and drags them home to eat.
Weiße Frauen
Werebear – Ursidae therianthropic creature.
Werecat – Feline therianthropic creature western version.
Werewolf – Canine therianthropic creature.
Wraith – (British) Evil spirit who is said to haunt people through negative emotions.
Wulver - (Scottish) A type of dogman-like spirit from Scotland
Xana – Extraordinarily beautiful female creature in Asturian mythology.

Oceania

Australia

Bunyip – Large, waterhole-dwelling creature.
Mumari – Hairy creature that lives in the bush, an evil spirit, that follows a person home in the night and tries to catch them.
Junjudee – Small brown hairy man, roams the bush in South East Queensland; mischievous, even dangerous, impervious to weapons, strong.
Tall man – Malevolent being who comes out at night from cracks in the rocks or shadows of the rainforest in Queensland's North East tropics; nightmare creature, to be avoided at all costs, especially by Aboriginals.
Yowie – Hominid reputed to live in the Australian wilderness.

Hawaii

Menehune – Small people who live in hidden Hawaiian valleys.

Other

Black-eyed children – Appear as human children with solid black eyes. Appear and beg entry into buildings or vehicles. If people relent, they begin to feel extremely ill.
Ghost – A lost soul or spirit that can be good or evil.
Hat Man – A living shadow, often depicted with glowing red eyes and wearing a distinctive type of hat- usually a top hat or bowler cap.
Mummy – Deceased human or animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by mummification.

References

Sources

Wilkinson, P. (2019). Myths & Legends: An illustrated guide to their origins and meanings. DK.

External links

Media related to Mythic humanoids at Wikimedia Commons