Liminal being

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Chiron, half man, half horse: instructing Achilles

In speculative fiction and, loosely applied, in mythology, a liminal being is a fantasy character that combines two distinct states of simultaneous existence within one physical body. This unique perspective may provide the liminal being with wisdom and the ability to instruct, making them suitable mentors, whilst also making them dangerous and uncanny.

Many beings in fantasy and folklore exist in liminal states impossible in actual beings:

• Hybrids (both animal and human in form):
  • centaurs from classical mythology, among them Chiron, the mentor of Achilles
• Both human and spirit by blood:
  • Purely Human form:
  • Merlin, the son of a woman and an incubus^[1]
  • Abe no Seimei, legendarily attributed a human father but a kitsune (fox spirit) mother
• both human and vegetable
  • the Green Man
• both alive and dead
  • ghosts, among them Tiresias, the dead seer whom Odysseus consulted in the underworld, in the Odyssey
• both human and machine
  • In science fiction, liminal beings include cyborgs, such as the Bionic Woman
• both human and alien
  • hybrids or adoptives torn between their human and alien natures, such as Spock from Star Trek or Valentine Michael Smith from Stranger in a Strange Land.

See also

• Liminality
• Anthropomorphism
• Lycanthropy

References

• John Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

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