A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in

preformationism In the history of biology, preformationism (or preformism) is a formerly popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves. Instead of assembly from parts, preformationists believed that the form of living things exis ...

as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions. The term lends its name to the cortical homunculus, an image of a person with the size of the body parts distorted to represent how much area of the cerebral cortex of the brain is devoted to it.

History

Alchemy

upParacelsus is credited with the first mention of the homunculus in ''De homunculis'' (c. 1529–1532), and ''De natura rerum'' (1537). During medieval and early modern times, it was thought that homunculus, an artificial humanlike being, could be created through alchemy. The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...

(1493–1541). ''De natura rerum'' (1537) outlines his method for creating homunculi: The fully grown homunculus was supposedly greatly skilled in "art" and can create giants, dwarves, and other marvels, as "Through art they are born, and therefore art is embodied and inborn in them, and they need learn it from no one." Comparisons have been made with several similar concepts in the writings of earlier alchemists. Although the actual word "homunculus" was never used,

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

believed that the concept first appeared in the ''Visions of Zosimos'', written in the third century AD. In the visions, Zosimos encounters a priest who changes into "the opposite of himself, into a mutilated ''anthroparion''". The Greek word "anthroparion" is similar to "homunculus" – a diminutive form of "person". Zosimos subsequently encounters other anthroparia in his dream but there is no mention of the creation of

artificial life Artificial life (ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline ...

. In his commentary, Jung equates the homunculus with the

Philosopher's Stone The philosopher's stone is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver; it was also known as "the tincture" and "the powder". Alchemists additionally believed that it could be used to mak ...

, and the "inner person" in parallel with

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. In Islamic alchemy, '' takwin'' () was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, and is frequently found in writings of the Jabirian corpus. In the alchemical context, ''takwin'' refers to the artificial creation of life, spanning the full range of the chain of being, from minerals to prophets, imitating the function of the

demiurge In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the Demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. Various sects of Gnostics adopted the term '' ...

. One set of instructions for creating animal life found within the Jabirian ''Kitab al-Tajmi'' involves finding a vessel shaped like the animal and combining the animal's bodily fluids within it, then placing the vessel at the center of a model of a

celestial sphere In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, ...

as heat is applied to it. Some of the alchemists believed that these methods originated somewhere in India or Southeast Asia. The homunculus continued to appear in alchemical writings after Paracelsus' time. The '' Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz'' (1616) for example, concludes with the creation of a male and female form identified as ''Homunculi duo''. The allegorical text suggests to the reader that the ultimate goal of alchemy is not chrysopoeia, but it is instead the artificial generation of humans. Here, the creation of homunculi symbolically represents spiritual regeneration and Christian soteriology. In 1775, Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein, together with Abbé Geloni, an Italian cleric, is reputed to have created ten homunculi with the ability to foresee the future, which von Kufstein kept in glass containers at his

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Dr. Emil Besetzny's Masonic handbook, ''Die Sphinx'', devoted an entire chapter to the ''wahrsagenden Geister'' (scrying ghosts). These are reputed to have been seen by several people, including local dignitaries.

Folklore

References to the homunculus do not appear prior to sixteenth-century alchemical writings but alchemists may have been influenced by earlier folk traditions. The mandragora, known in German as ''Alreona'', ''Alraun'' or ''Alraune'' is one example; Jean-Baptiste Pitois's ''The History and Practice of Magic'' makes a direct comparison to the mandragora in one excerpt: The homunculus has also been compared to the

golem A golem ( ; ) is an animated Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...

of Jewish folklore. Though the specifics outlining the creation of the golem and homunculus are very different, the concepts both metaphorically relate man to the divine, in his construction of life in his own image.

Preformationism

Preformationism is the formerly popular theory that animals developed from miniature versions of themselves.

Sperm cell Sperm (: sperm or sperms) is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail k ...

s were believed to contain complete preformed individuals called "

animalcules Animalcule (; ) is an archaic term for microscopic organisms that included bacteria, protozoans, and very small animals. The word was invented by 17th-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to refer to the microorganisms he observed i ...

". Development was therefore a matter of enlarging this into a fully formed being. The term homunculus was later used in the discussion of conception and birth. Nicolas Hartsoeker postulated the existence of animalcules in the semen of humans and other animals. This was the beginning of spermists' theory, which held that the sperm was in fact a "little man" that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child, an effective explanation for many of the mysteries of conception. It was later pointed out that if the sperm was a homunculus, identical in all but size to an adult, then the homunculus may have sperm of its own. This led to a ''

reductio ad absurdum In logic, (Latin for "reduction to absurdity"), also known as (Latin for "argument to absurdity") or ''apagogical argument'', is the form of argument that attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absur ...

'' with a chain of homunculi " all the way down", an idea also known as the homunculus fallacy. This was not necessarily considered by spermists a fatal objection, however, as it neatly explained the

Genesis creation narrative The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity, told in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. While the Jewish and Christian tradition is that the account is one comprehensive story, modern scholars of ...

's claim that it was "in

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

" that all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins during the

original sin Original sin () in Christian theology refers to the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall of man, Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image ...

. The spermists' theory also failed to explain why children tend to resemble their mothers as well as their fathers, though some spermists suggested that the growing homunculus assimilated maternal characteristics from the womb.

Terminological use in modern science

The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines such as

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

as a teaching or memory tool to describe the distorted

scale model A scale model is a physical model that is geometrically similar to an object (known as the ''prototype''). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small protot ...

of a human drawn or sculpted to reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the

somatosensory cortex The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bod ...

(the

sensory homunculus A cortical homunculus () is a distorted representation of the human body, based on a neurological "map" of the areas and portions of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, and/or sensory functions, for different parts of the ...

) and the

motor cortex The motor cortex is the region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, motor control, control, and execution of voluntary movements. The motor cortex is an area of the frontal lobe located in the posterior precentral gyrus immediately ...

(the motor homunculus). Both the motor and sensory homunculi usually appear as small men superimposed over the top of precentral or postcentral

gyri In neuroanatomy, a gyrus (: gyri) is a ridge on the cerebral cortex. It is generally surrounded by one or more sulcus (neuroanatomy), sulci (depressions or furrows; : sulcus). Gyri and sulci create the folded appearance of the brain in huma ...

for motor and sensory cortices, respectively. The homunculus is oriented with feet medial and shoulders lateral on top of both the precentral and the

postcentral gyrus In neuroanatomy, the postcentral gyrus is a prominent gyrus in the lateral parietal lobe of the human brain. It is the location of the primary somatosensory cortex, the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch. Like other sensory area ...

(for both motor and sensory). The man's head is depicted upside down in relation to the rest of the body such that the forehead is closest to the shoulders. The lips, hands, feet and sex organs have more sensory neurons than other parts of the body, so the homunculus has correspondingly large lips, hands, feet, and genitals. The motor homunculus is very similar to the sensory homunculus, but differs in several ways. Specifically, the motor homunculus has a portion for the tongue most lateral while the sensory homunculus has an area for genitalia most medial and an area for visceral organs most lateral. Well known in the field of neurology, this is also commonly called "the little man inside the brain". This scientific model is known as the cortical homunculus. In medical science, the term homunculus is sometimes applied to certain

fetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Pren ...

-like ovarian cystic

teratoma A teratoma is a neoplasia, tumor made up of several types of biological tissue, tissue, such as hair, muscle, Human tooth, teeth, or bone. Teratomata typically form in the tailbone (where it is known as a sacrococcygeal teratoma), ovary, or test ...

e. These will sometimes contain hair, sebaceous material and in some cases

cartilaginous Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. Semi-transparent and non-porous, it is usually covered by a tough and fibrous membrane called perichondrium. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints ...

or bony structures. In a recent article published in the peer-reviewed journal Leonardo "The Missing Female Homunculus” by Haven Wright and Preston Foerder revisits the history of the Homunculus, sheds light on current research in neuroscience on the female brain, and reveals what they believe to be the first sculpture of the female Homunculus, done by the artist and first author Haven Wright, based on the current research available.

In popular culture

Early literature

Homunculi can be found in centuries worth of literature. These fictions are primarily centred around imaginative speculations on the quest for artificial life associated with Paracelsian alchemy. One of the very earliest literary references occurs in

Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne ( "brown"; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a d ...

's '' Religio Medici'' (1643), in which the author states: The fable of the alchemically-created homunculus may have been central in

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

's novel ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'' (1818). Professor

Radu Florescu Radu Florescu (23 October 1925 – 18 May 2014) was a Romanian academic who held the position of Emeritus Professor of History at Boston College. His work on Vlad Dracula includes a series of bestselling books that he co-authored with his colle ...

suggests that Johann Konrad Dippel, an alchemist born in Frankenstein Castle, might have been the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein. German playwright

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

's '' Faust, Part Two'' (1832) famously features an alchemically-created homunculus. Here, the character of Homunculus embodies the quest of a pure spirit to be born into a mortal form, contrasting Faust's desire to shed his mortal body to become pure spirit. The alchemical idea that the soul is not imprisoned in the body, but instead may find its brightest state as it passes through the material plane, is central to the character.

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...

wrote under the pen name of Homunculus.

Contemporary literature

The homunculus legend, ''Frankenstein'' and ''Faust'' have continued to influence works in the twentieth and twenty-first century. The theme has been used not only in

fantasy literature Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fan ...

, but also to illuminate social topics. For instance, the British children's writers Mary Norton and

Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was a British author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus (novel), Black Narcissus'' in 194 ...

used homunculus motifs in their work, expressing various post-war anxieties about refugees, persecution of minorities in war, and the adaptation of these minorities to a "big" world. W. Somerset Maugham's 1908 novel ''The Magician'' utilises the concept of the homunculus as an important plot element. David H. Keller's short story "A Twentieth-Century Homunculus" (1930) describes the creation of homunculi on an industrial scale by a pair of misogynists. Likewise, Sven Delblanc's ''The Homunculus: A Magic Tale'' (1965) addresses alleged

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...

and the Cold War industrial-military complexes of the Soviet Union and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. In German children's author

Cornelia Funke Cornelia Maria Funke (; born 10 December 1958) is a German author of children's fiction. Born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she began her career as a social worker before becoming a Book illustration, book illustrator. She began writing no ...

's book, '' Dragon Rider'', the protagonists meet and are aided by a homunculus created by an alchemist. The homunculus, and

broadly, is seen as more of a magical phenomenon in the story, however, rather than necessarily having a symbolic meaning.

Other media

Homunculi appear in fantasy based television, film, and games in a manner consistent with literature. Examples can be found in numerous media, such as the podcast '' Hello From The Magic Tavern,'' the films ''

Homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has root ...

'' (1916), ''

Bride of Frankenstein ''Bride of Frankenstein'' is a 1935 American Gothic science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film ''Frankenstein''. As with the first film, ''Bride of Frankenstein'' was directed by James Whale starring ...

'' (1935), '' The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' (1973), ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' episode '' The Talons of Weng-Chiang'' (1977), the made-for-television movie '' Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'' (1973) and its theatrical remake (2011), ''

Being John Malkovich ''Being John Malkovich'' is a 1999 American surrealist fantasy comedy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, both making their feature film debut. The film stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, wit ...

'' (1999), Guillermo del Toro's '' The Devil's Backbone'' (2001), Shane Acker's '' 9'' (2009), Philipp Humm's '' The Last Faust'' (2019), Yorgos Lanthimos' '' Poor Things'' (2023), television shows (such as ''Bloodfeast'', '' American Dad'', ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

'' (season 2, episode 1) (2015), '' Smiling Friends'' (season 1, episode 5) (season 2, episode 5), and ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady for CBS. It aired from September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019, running for 12 seasons and 279 episodes. The show originally centered on five charact ...

'' ((season 3, episode 3), played by

Johnny Galecki John Mark Galecki (born April 30, 1975) is an American actor, In television, he played Leonard Hofstadter on ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019) and List of Roseanne and The Conners characters#David Healy, David Healy in ''Roseanne'' (1992–1 ...

), fantasy role-playing games (such as ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

''),

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s (such as ''

Ragnarok Online ''Ragnarok Online'' (, ''Rageunarokeu Onrain'' marketed as ''Ragnarök'', and alternatively subtitled ''The Final Destiny of the Gods'') is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Gravity (Korean company), Gravity based ...

'', '' Valkyrie Profile'', '' Shadow of Memories'', '' The Legend of Heroes'' series, '' Cabals: Magic & Battle Cards'', ''

Genshin Impact ''Genshin Impact'' is a 2020 action role-playing game produced by MiHoYo, MiHoYo/HoYoverse. The game features an anime-style open world environment and an action-based Role-playing battle systems, battle system using Classical element, element ...

'', '' Bayonetta 3'', '' Master Detective Archives: Rain Code''), and the

Metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on Nonlinear gameplay, nonlinear exploration and guided progression with a need to acquire key items to enter certain areas. The term is a blend word, partial blend ...

Dead Cells ''Dead Cells'' is a 2018 roguelike-Metroidvania game developed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire (company), Evil Empire, and published by Motion Twin. The player takes the role of an amorphous creature called the Prisoner. As the Prisoner, the pla ...

, books (such as '' The Secret Series'' and '' Sword of Destiny'' or '' Seventy-Two Letters'' by Ted Chiang), graphic novels (such as '' Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense'') and manga (such as '' Akihabara Dennō Gumi'', ''

'', '' Stone Ocean'', ''

Fullmetal Alchemist is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga, manga anthology magazine ''Gangan Comics#Monthly Shōnen Gangan, Monthly Shōnen Gangan'' between July 2001 and June ...

'', ''

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is a Japanese light novel series written by Yoshinobu Akita. It was adapted into manga, two anime television series and a Orphen: Scion of Sorcery, video game. As of December 2019, the novels had over 14 million copies in ...

'', '' Fate/Zero'', and '' Gosick'').

Notes

External links

*
Homunculus
article from The Mystica. {{Alchemy Alchemical concepts Paracelsus Literary motifs Narrative techniques Legendary creatures Monsters Mythic humanoids category:Witchcraft