View source for Demigod

{{Short description|Minor deity}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Demagogue}}
[[Image:Cuslayshound.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|"[[Cú Chulainn|Cuchulain]] Slays the [[Hound of Culain]]", illustration by [[Stephen Reid (artist)|Stephen Reid]] from [[Eleanor Hull]]'s ''The Boys' Cuchulain'', 1904]]

A '''demigod''' is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a [[deity]] and a [[human]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3eEcWFMJ2EC&q=demigod+male+god+and+female+humans&pg=PA21|title=Black Thoughts for White America|isbn=9780595261659|last1=Woody Lamonte|first1=G.|year=2002}}</ref> 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 [[immortality|immortal]] demigod often has [[tutelar]]y status and a [[religious cult]] following, while a [[death|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.

==Etymology==
[[File:Robert Wilhelm Ekman - Väinämöinen’s Play.jpg|thumb|[[Väinämöinen]], the central character in [[Finland|Finnish]] [[folklore]] and the main character in the [[national epic]] ''[[Kalevala]]'' by [[Elias Lönnrot]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Siikala|first1=Anna-Leena|title=Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia|publisher=Finnish Literature Society|year=2013|isbn=978-952-222-393-7}}</ref> is an old and wise demigod, who possesses a potent, magical singing voice.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Siikala |first1=Anna-Leena |title=Väinämöinen |url=https://kansallisbiografia.fi/kansallisbiografia/henkilo/5435 |website=Kansallisbiografia |access-date=29 July 2020 |date=30 July 2007 |archive-date=26 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126102812/https://kansallisbiografia.fi/kansallisbiografia/henkilo/5435 |url-status=live }}</ref> Picture of the ''Väinämöinen's Play'' by [[Robert Wilhelm Ekman]], 1866.]]
The [[English language|English]] term "[[wiktionary:demi-|demi-]]<nowiki/>god" is a [[calque]] of the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{Lang|la|semideus}}, "half-god".<ref name="OED">{{cite book|title= [[Oxford English Dictionary]]|year= 1961|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|location= UK|volume= 3|page= 180}}</ref> The Roman poet [[Ovid]] probably [[Derivation (linguistics)|coined]] ''semideus'' to refer to less important gods, such as [[dryad]]s.<ref name="Weinstock">
{{cite book
| last1= Weinstock
| first1= Stefan
| title= Divus Julius
| url= https://archive.org/details/divusjulius00wein
| url-access= limited
| date= 1971
| publisher= Clarendon Press
| location= Oxford
| isbn= 0198142870|page= [https://archive.org/details/divusjulius00wein/page/n57 53]
| edition= Reprinted
| quote = [...] 'semideus' [...] seems to have been coined by Ovid.
}}
</ref>
Compare the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''hemitheos''. 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 {{lang|la|semideus}} and daemon.<ref name="OED" /> Since then, it has frequently been applied figuratively to people of extraordinary ability.<ref name="Collins">{{cite web |title=demigod |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/demigod |access-date=2 August 2013 |website=Collins English Dictionary |publisher=Collins |archive-date=11 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711204633/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/demigod |url-status=live }}</ref> 

==Classical==
In the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] world, the concept of a demigod did not have a consistent definition and associated terminology rarely appeared.<ref name="Talbert">{{cite journal|last1= Talbert|first1= Charles H.|title= The Concept of Immortals in Mediterranean Antiquity|journal= Journal of Biblical Literature|date= January 1, 1975|volume= 94|issue= 3|pages= 419–436|doi= 10.2307/3265162|jstor= 3265162|issn= 0021-9231}}</ref>{{qn|date=December 2019}}

The earliest recorded use of the term occurs in texts attributed to the [[archaic Greek]] poets [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]]. Both describe dead heroes as {{lang|grc-Latn|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.<ref name="Hansen">{{cite book|last1= William|first1= Hansen|title= Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans|date= 2005|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= New York|isbn= 0195300351|page= 199}}</ref> Instead, those who demonstrated "strength, power, good family, and good {{typo|behavi|or}}" were termed [[hero]]es, and after death they could be called ''hemitheoi'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nagy|first=Gregory|title=Greek Mythology and Poetics|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-150-173-202-7}}</ref> a process that has been referred to as "heroization".<ref name="Price">{{cite journal|last1= Price|first1= Theodora Hadzisteliou|title= Hero-Cult and Homer|journal= Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|date= 1 January 1973|volume= 22|issue= 2|pages= 129–144|jstor= 4435325|issn= 0018-2311}}</ref> [[Pindar]] also used the term frequently as a synonym for "hero".<ref name="Lid&S">{{cite book|last1= Liddell|first1= Henry George|last2= Scott|first2= Robert|title= [[A Greek–English Lexicon]]|date= 1894|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|edition= 5th|page= 596}}</ref>

According to the Roman author [[Cassius Dio]], the [[Roman Senate]] declared [[Julius Caesar]] a demigod after his 46 BCE victory at [[Battle of Thapsus|Thapsus]].<ref name="Dio">{{cite book|last1=Dio|first1=Cassius|title=Roman History|at=43.21.2}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Fishwick">{{cite journal|last1= Fishwick|first1= Duncan|title= The Name of the Demigod|journal= Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|date= January 1, 1975|volume=24|issue= 4|pages= 624–628|jstor= 4435475|issn= 0018-2311}}</ref>

The first Roman to employ the term "demigod" may have been the poet [[Ovid]] (17 or 18 CE), who used the Latin {{lang|La|semideus}} several times in reference to minor deities.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Charlton T.|title=[[A Latin Dictionary|An Elementary Latin Dictionary]]|last2=Short|first2=Charles|date=1980|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=9780198642015|edition=Revised|location=Oxford|page=767}}</ref> The poet [[Lucan]] (39-65) also uses the term to speak of [[Pompey]] attaining divinity upon his death in 48 BCE.<ref name="Lucan">{{cite book|title= The Civil War|author= Lucan|volume= Book 9}}</ref> In later antiquity, the Roman writer [[Martianus Capella]] ({{floruit}} 410-420) proposed a hierarchy of gods as follows:<ref name="Capella">
{{cite book|last1= Capella|first1= Martianus|author-link=Martianus Capella|title=The Marriage of Philology and Mercury|title-link=The Marriage of Philology and Mercury|at= 2.156}}
</ref>

* the gods proper, or [[Olympian gods|major gods]]
* the ''[[Genius (mythology)|genii]]'' or [[Daemon (classical mythology)|daemones]]
* the demigods or ''semones'' (who dwell in the upper atmosphere)
* the ''[[Shade (mythology)|manes]]'' and ghosts of heroes (who dwell in the lower atmosphere)
* the earth-dwelling gods like [[faun]]s and [[satyrs]]

==Celtic==

The [[Celtic religions|Celtic]] warrior [[Cú Chulainn]], a major protagonist in the Irish [[national epic]] the ''[[Táin Bo Cuailnge]]'', ranks as a [[folk hero |hero]] or as a demigod.<ref>
{{cite journal
| editor1-last          = Macbain
| editor1-first         = Alexander
| editor1-link          = Alexander Macbain
| title                 = The Celtic Magazin
| year = 1888
| url                   = https://books.google.com/books?id=5WZJAAAAMAAJ
| publisher             = A. and W. Mackenzie
| publication-place     = Inverness
| publication-date      = 1888
| volume                = 13
| page                  = 282
| quote                 = 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.
}}
</ref> He is the son of the [[Tuatha Dé Danann |Irish god]] [[Lugh]] and the mortal princess [[Deichtine]].<ref>Ward, Alan (2011). The Myths of the Gods: Structures in Irish Mythology. p.13</ref>

In the immediate pre-Roman period, the Celtic Gallaceian tribe in Portugal made powerful, large stone [[Gallaecian warrior statues |statues of deified local heroes]], which stood on hill forts in the mountainous regions of - what is today - [[Northern Portugal]] and [[Galicia (Spain)|Spanish Galicia]].[[File:MuseuNacArqu-GuerreirosLusitanos.jpg|thumb|In the 1st century CE, [[Celts]] in the north of Portugal built [[Gallaecian warrior statues|statues of deified local heroes]] which stood as guardians over hill forts.]]

==Hinduism==
{{More citations needed|date=February 2021}}
In [[Hinduism]], the term demigod is used to refer to deities who were once human and later became ''[[Deva (Hinduism)|deva]]s'' (gods). There are two notable demigods in [[Vedas|Vedic Scriptures]]:

[[Nandi (bull)|Nandi]] (the [[Vahana|divine vehicle]] of [[Shiva]]), and [[Garuda]] (the divine vehicle of [[Vishnu]]).<ref name=williams21>{{cite book|author=George M. Williams|title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC |year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=21, 24, 63, 138}}, Quote: "His vehicle was Garuda, the sun bird" (p. 21); "(...) Garuda, the great sun eagle, (...)" (p. 74)</ref> Examples of demigods worshiped in [[South India]] are [[Madurai Veeran (Hinduism)|Madurai Veeran]] and [[Karuppu Sami]].

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 [[Yama (Hinduism)|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 in Hinduism|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 [[Svayam Bhagavan|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 (hero)|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.<ref name="myth">{{cite book|last=Yuan|first=Haiwang|title=The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales From the Han Chinese|publisher=[[Libraries Unlimited]]|year=2006|isbn=1-59158-294-6}}</ref>

Chen Xiang is nephew of Erlang Shen, birth by his younger sister [[Huayue Sanniang]] who married with a mortal scholar.<ref name="myth"/>

==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 prowess.

==Anitism==
{{Main article|Philippine mythology}}
In the indigenous religions originating from the [[Philippines]], collectively called [[Philippine mythology|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,<ref name="ReferenceA">Notes on Philippine Divinities, F. Landa Jocano</ref><ref>Philippine Myths, Legends, and Folktales | Maximo Ramos | 1990</ref> Tala, the Tagalog star goddess,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Hanan, the Tagalog morning goddess,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Apo Anno, a Kankanaey demigod hero,<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1081535/benguet-community-races-against-time-to-save-apo-anno|title = Benguet community races against time to save Apo Anno|date = 5 February 2019|access-date = 16 February 2020|archive-date = 16 February 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200216030908/https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1081535/benguet-community-races-against-time-to-save-apo-anno|url-status = live}}</ref> Oryol, a Bicolano half-snake demi-goddess who brought peace to the land after defeating all beasts in Ibalon,<ref>Three Tales From Bicol, Perla S. Intia, New Day Publishers, 1982</ref> Laon, a Hiligaynon demigod who can talk to animals and defeated the mad dragon at Mount Kanlaon,<ref>Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths, Damiana L. Eugenio, UP Press 1993</ref> Ovug, an Ifugao thunder and lightning demigod who has separate animations in both the upper and earth worlds,<ref>Beyer, 1913</ref> Takyayen, a Tinguian demigod and son of the star goddess Gagayoma,<ref>Cole M. C., 1916</ref> and the three Suludnon demigod sons of Alunsina, namely Labaw Dongon, Humadapnon, and Dumalapdap.<ref>Hinilawod: Adventures of Humadapnon, chanted by Hugan-an and recorded by Dr. F. Landa Jocano, Metro Manila: 2000, Punlad Research House, {{ISBN|9716220103}}</ref>

==Polynesian==
{{Main article|Polynesian narrative}}
===Samoan===
{{Main article|Samoan mythology}}
===Tongan===
{{Main article|Tongan narrative}}
===Māori===
{{Main article|Māori mythology}}
[[Māui (Māori mythology)|Māui]]

===Hawaii===
{{Main article|Hawaiian religion}}
[[Māui (Hawaiian mythology)|Māui]]

==See also==
* [[Chinese demigods]]
* [[Christ myth theory]]
* [[Greek hero cult]]
* [[Greek mythology]]
* [[List of demigods]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Demigods}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Demigods| ]]
[[Category:Greek mythology]]