A demigod is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human,[1] or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" (divine illumination). An immortal demigod often has tutelary status and a religious cult following, while a mortal demigod is one who has fallen or died, but is popular as a legendary hero in various polytheistic religions. Figuratively, it is used to describe a person whose talents or abilities are so superlative that they appear to approach being divine.
Väinämöinen, the central character in Finnishfolklore and the main character in the national epicKalevala by Elias Lönnrot, is an old and wise demigod, who possesses a potent, magical singing voice. Picture of the Väinämöinen's Play by Robert Wilhelm Ekman, 1866.
The English term "demi- god" is a calque of the Latin word semideus, "half-god".[4] The Roman poet Ovid probably coinedsemideus to refer to less important gods, such as dryads.[5] Compare the Greekhemitheos.
Classical
In the ancient Greek and Roman world, the concept of a demigod did not have a consistent definition and associated terminology rarely appeared.[6][need quotation to verify]
The earliest recorded use of the term occurs in texts attributed to the archaic Greek poets Homer and Hesiod. Both describe dead heroes as hemitheoi, or "half gods". In these cases, the word did not literally mean that these figures had one parent who was divine and one who was mortal.[7] Instead, those who demonstrated "strength, power, good family, and good behavior" were termed heroes, and after death they could be called hemitheoi,[8] a process that has been referred to as "heroization".[9]Pindar also used the term frequently as a synonym for "hero".[10]
According to the Roman author Cassius Dio, the Roman Senate declared Julius Caesar a demigod after his 46 BCE victory at Thapsus.[11] However, Dio was writing in the third century CE — centuries after the death of Caesar — and modern critics have cast doubt on whether the Senate really did this.[12]
The first Roman to employ the term "demigod" may have been the poet Ovid (17 or 18 CE), who used the Latin semideus several times in reference to minor deities.[13] The poet Lucan (39-65) also uses the term to speak of Pompey attaining divinity upon his death in 48 BCE.[14] In later antiquity, the Roman writer Martianus Capella (fl. 410-420) proposed a hierarchy of gods as follows:[15]
In the immediate pre-Roman period, the celtic Gallaceian tribe in Portugal made powerful, large stone statues of deified local heroes, which stood on hill forts in the mountainous regions of - what is today - Northern Portugal and Galicia.
in the 1st century CE celtic peoples in the north of portugal built statues of deified local heroes which stood as guardians over hill forts
In Hinduism, the term demigod is used to refer to deities who were once human and later became devas (gods). There are two notable demigods in Vedic Scriptures:
The heroes of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the five Pandava brothers and their half brother Karna, fit the Western definition of demigods though they are generally not referred to as such. Queen Kunti, the wife of King Pandu, was given a mantra that, when recited, meant that one of the Gods would give her his child. When her husband was cursed to die if he ever engaged in sexual relations, Kunti used this mantra to provide her husband with children fathered by various deities. These children were Yudhishthira (child of Dharmaraj), Bhima (child of Vayu) and Arjuna (child of Indra). She taught this mantra to Madri, King Pandu's other wife, and she immaculately conceived twin boys named Nakula and Sahadeva (children of the Ashvins). Queen Kunti had previously conceived another son, Karna, when she had tested the mantra out. Despite her protests, Surya the sun god was compelled by the mantra to impregnate her. Bhishma is another figures who fits the western definition of demigod, as he was the son of king Shantanu and Goddess Ganga.
The Vaishnavites (who often translate deva as "demigod") cite various verses that speak of the devas' subordinate status. For example, the Rig Veda (1.22.20) reads, "oṃ tad viṣṇoḥ paramam padam sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ", which translates to, "All the suras [i.e., the devas] look always toward the feet of Lord Vishnu". Similarly, in the Vishnu Sahasranama, the concluding verses, read, "The Rishis [great sages], the ancestors, the devas, the great elements, in fact, all things moving and unmoving constituting this universe, have originated from Narayana," (i.e., Vishnu). Thus the Devas are stated to be subordinate to Vishnu, or God.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) translates the Sanskrit word "deva" as "demigod" in his literature when the term referred to a God other than the Supreme Lord. This is because the Vaishnava tradition teaches that there is only one Supreme Lord and that all others are but His servants. In an effort to emphasize their subservience, Prabhupada uses the word "demigod" as a translation of deva. However, there are at least three occurrences in the eleventh chapter of Bhagavad-Gita where the word deva, used in reference to Lord Krishna, is translated as "Lord". The word deva can be used to refer to the Supreme Lord, celestial beings, and saintly souls depending on the context. This is similar to the word Bhagavan, which is translated according to different contexts.
China
Among the demigods in Chinese mythology, Erlang Shen and Chen Xiang are most prominent. In the Journey to the West, the Jade Emperor's younger sister Yaoji is mentioned to have descended to the mortal realm and given birth to a child named Yang Jian. He would eventually grow up to become a deity himself known as Erlang Shen.[19]
Chen Xiang is nephew of Erlang Shen, birth by his younger sister Huayue Sanniang who married with a mortal scholar.[19]
Japan
Abe no Seimei, a famous onmyōji from the Heian period was supposed to be one. His father, Abe no Yasuna (安倍 保名), was human. Still, his mother Kuzunoha, was a Kitsune, a divine fox, being this the origin of Abe no Seimei's magical prowress.
In the indigenous religions originating from the Philippines, collectively called Anitism, demigods abound in various ethnic stories. Many of these demigods equal major gods and goddesses in power and influence. Notable examples include Mayari, the Tagalog moon goddess who governs the world every night,[20][21] Tala, the Tagalog star goddess,[20] Hanan, the Tagalog morning goddess,[20] Apo Anno, a Kankanaey demigod hero,[22] Oryol, a Bicolano half-snake demi-goddess who brought peace to the land after defeating all beasts in Ibalon,[23] Laon, a Hiligaynon demigod who can talk to animals and defeated the mad dragon at Mount Kanlaon,[24] Ovug, an Ifugao thunder and lightning demigod who has separate animations in both the upper and earth worlds,[25] Takyayen, a Tinguian demigod and son of the star goddess Gagayoma,[26] and the three Suludnon demigod sons of Alunsina, namely Labaw Dongon, Humadapnon, and Dumalapdap.[27]
The term demigod first appeared in English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, when it was used to render the Greek and Roman concepts of semideus and daemon.[4] Since then, it has frequently been applied figuratively to people of extraordinary ability.[28]John Milton states in Paradise Lost that angels are demigods.[29]
In Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series, based on the 1997 film, while the title character was only referred to as a mortal in the film, he was referred to as a demigod in the series. He also had cousins appear in the series, like Triton, the son of Poseidon.
In the Inuyasha franchise, the Nintendo DS video game Inuyasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel, in the Heian period, a human named Tsugumi fell in love with a god named Datara and gave birth to a demigod daughter. After Tsugumi killed her child from the hands of Gorai and the demon mask had been put on her husband as she sealed him by using the Lightning Sealing Arrow during the interruption of Tsugumi's and Datara's wedding ceremony in 1000 AD, the child reincarnated as an American girl named Janis. In Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, in the Sengoku period, a human named Oharu fell in love with a god named Mahiruma and gave birth to a demigod son named Goro.
In The Mummy Returns, a man named Mathayus the Scorpion King had been nearly dead in the Sahara Desert, and he was forced to make a deal with Anubis, where he would give Anubis his soul if Anubis helped him defeat his enemies. Anubis fulfilled his part of the deal and helped Mathayus destroy Thebes, providing him with command of his army of Anubis Warriors, jackal-headed warriors that can only be killed by beheading. Afterwards Anubis transformed Mathayus into a centaurid scorpion-monster possessing a humanoid head and torso with scorpion claws and main body in place of his hands and legs; Mathayus was condemned to serve Anubis for all time as a demigod.
Demigods are important figures in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians books, in which many of the characters, including the titular character himself, are demigods. In Riordan's work, a demigod is defined as an individual born of one human and one divine parent.[30]
In Moana the 2016 film, Maui had been abandoned by his human parents as a baby. The gods took pity on him and made him a demigod and gave him a magic fish hook that gives him the ability to shape-shift. In the song "Shiny" composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina, Tamatoa called Maui "Ya little semi-demi-mini-god".
Māui or Maui is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Very rarely was Māui actually worshipped, being less of a deity (Demigod) and more of a folk hero. His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main exploits remain relatively similar.
Hindu mythology is the body of myths attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Sanskrit texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Puranas, and mythological stories specific to a particular ethnolinguistic group like the Tamil Periya Puranam and Divya Prabandham, and the Mangal Kavya of Bengal. Hindu myths are also found in widely translated popular texts such as the fables of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha, as well as in Southeast Asian texts.
Asuras are a class of beings in Indian religions. They are described as power-seeking demons related to the more benevolent Devas in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is translated as "titan", "demigod", or "antigod".
Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism Mythology. Deities in Hinduism mythology are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, even agnostic, atheistic, or humanist. The terms and epithets for deities within the diverse traditions of Hinduism vary, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Ishvari, Bhagavān and Bhagavati.
Apotheosis, also called divinization or deification, is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
Twins appear in the mythologies of many cultures around the world. In some cultures they are seen as ominous, and in others they are seen as auspicious. Twins in mythology are often cast as two halves of the same whole, sharing a bond deeper than that of ordinary siblings, or seen as fierce rivals. They can be seen as representations of a dualistic worldview. They can represent another aspect of the self, a doppelgänger, or a shadow. However, twins can also reflect a complete opposition of the other, such as the "civilized" Gilgamesh, and the "wild" Enkidu; or in the commonly known instance of good and evil twin identities.
Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in preliterate societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.
Deva means "shiny", "exalted", "heavenly being", "divine being", "anything of excellence", and is also one of the Sanskrit terms used to indicate a deity in Hinduism. Deva is a masculine term; the feminine equivalent is Devi. The word is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus.
Georgian mythology refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia.
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Hindu culture and associated cultures’ traditions, which are expressed as words in Sanskrit or other Indic languages and Dravidian languages. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Hinduism all in one place.
Scion is a series of role-playing games published by White Wolf, Inc and Onyx Path Publishing. The first core rule book, Scion: Hero. was released on April 13, 2007. The second volume, Scion: Demigod, was released on September 12, 2007, and the third, Scion: God, was released on January 23, 2008. The Scion Companion began release in sections March 2008, as a PDF direct download. Scion: Ragnarok was released on January 21, 2009. A second edition was announced in August 2012, changing the setting and also updating the system from the previous Storytelling System to the new Storypath system. This second edition was released for public purchase on June 5, 2019.
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".
↑ Weinstock, Stefan (1971). Divus Julius (Reprinteded.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.53. ISBN0198142870. [...] 'semideus' [...] seems to have been coined by Ovid.
↑ Talbert, Charles H. (January 1, 1975). "The Concept of Immortals in Mediterranean Antiquity". Journal of Biblical Literature. 94 (3): 419–436. doi:10.2307/3265162. ISSN0021-9231. JSTOR3265162.
↑ William, Hansen (2005). Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans. New York: Oxford University Press. p.199. ISBN0195300351.
↑ Nagy, Gregory (2018). Greek Mythology and Poetics. Cornell University Press. ISBN978-150-173-202-7.
↑ Price, Theodora Hadzisteliou (1 January 1973). "Hero-Cult and Homer". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 22 (2): 129–144. ISSN0018-2311. JSTOR4435325.
↑ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1894). A Greek–English Lexicon (5thed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.596.
↑ Fishwick, Duncan (January 1, 1975). "The Name of the Demigod". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 24 (4): 624–628. ISSN0018-2311. JSTOR4435475.
↑ Capella, Martianus. De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. 2.156.
↑ Macbain, Alexander, ed. (1888). "The Celtic Magazin". 13. Inverness: A. and W. Mackenzie: 282. The Irish Fraoch is a demigod, and his story presents that curious blending of the rationalised supernatural - that is , the euhemerised or minimised supernatural - with the usual incidents of a hero's life, a blending which is characteristic of Irish tales about Cuchulain and the early heroes, who, in reality, are only demigods, but who have been fondly deemed by ancient tale-tellers and modern students to have been real historical characters exaggerated into mythic proportions.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
↑ Ward, Alan (2011). The Myths of the Gods: Structures in Irish Mythology. p.13
↑ George M. Williams (2008). Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Oxford University Press. pp.21, 24, 63, 138. ISBN978-0-19-533261-2., Quote: "His vehicle was Garuda, the sun bird" (p. 21); "(...) Garuda, the great sun eagle, (...)" (p. 74)
↑ Hinilawod: Adventures of Humadapnon, chanted by Hugan-an and recorded by Dr. F. Landa Jocano, Metro Manila: 2000, Punlad Research House, ISBN9716220103
↑ "demigod". Collins English Dictionary. Collins. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
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