Homunculus

A homunculus (/hoʊˈmʌŋkjʊləs/; Latin for "little man") is a representation of a

small human being. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-
century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed
human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and
alchemic traditions.

Contents
History
Alchemy
Folklore
Preformationism
Philosophy of Mind
Terminological use in modern science
Representations in art and entertainment
Early literature
Alchemical processes were
Contemporary literature
symbolically illustrated using images
Other media
of humans and animals inside
See also vessels. This contributed to the
Notes legend of the homunculus.[1]
(Pretiosissimum Donum Dei, 15th
References
century.)
External links

History

Alchemy
The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541). De natura rerum (1537) outlines
his method for creating homunculi:

That the sperm of a man be putrefied by itself in a sealed cucurbit for forty days with the highest degree of
putrefaction in a horse’s womb, or at least so long that it comes to life and moves itself, and stirs, which is easily
observed. After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body. If, after this, it be fed
wisely with the Arcanum of human blood, and be nourished for up to forty weeks, and be kept in the even heat of the
horse’s womb, a living human child grows therefrom, with all its members like another child, which is born of a
woman, but much smaller.[2]

Comparisons have been made with several similar concepts in the writings of earlier alchemists. Although the actual word
"homunculus" was never used, Carl Jung 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".[3]
The Greek word "anthroparion" is similar to "homunculus" – a diminutive form of "man". Zosimos subsequently encounters other
anthroparion in his dream but there is no mention of the creation of artificial life. In his
commentary, Jung equates the homunculus with the Philosopher’s Stone, and the "inner
man" in parallel with Christ.[4]

In Islamic alchemy, Takwin (Arabic: ‫ )ﺗﻜﻮﻳﻦ‬was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, a

notable one being Jābir ibn Hayyān. In the alchemical context, Takwin refers to the
artificial creation of life in thelaboratory, up to and including human life.

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 man. Here, the creation of homunculi symbolically
represents spiritual regeneration andChristian soteriology.[5]

In 1775, Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein, together with Abbé Geloni, an Italian
cleric, are reputed to have created ten homunculi with the ability to foresee the future,
which von Kufstein kept in glass containers at his Masonic lodge in Vienna. 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 Paracelsus is credited with the
first mention of the homunculus in
people, including local dignitaries.[6][7]
De homunculis (c. 1529–1532),
and De natura rerum (1537).
Folklore
References to the homunculus do not appear prior to sixteenth-century alchemical writings; however, alchemists may have been
influenced by earlier folk traditions. Themandragora, known in German asAlreona, Alraun or Alraune is one example.

In Liber de imaginibus, Paracelsus however denies that roots shaped like men grow naturally. He attacks dishonest people who carve
roots to look like men and sell them as Alraun. He clarifies that the homunculus’ origins are in sperm, and that it is falsely confused
.[8]
with these ideas from necromancy and natural philosophy

The homunculus has also been compared to the golem 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.[9]

Preformationism
Preformationism, a theory of heredity, claimed that either the egg or the sperm (exactly which was a contentious issue) contained
complete preformed individuals called "animalcules". 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, who held the belief that the sperm was in fact a "little man" that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child.
This seemed to them to neatly explain 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
with a chain of homunculi "all the way down". This was not necessarily considered by spermists a fatal objection however, as it
neatly explained how it was that "in Adam" all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins. The spermists'
theory also failed to explain why children tend to resemble their mothers as well as their fathers, though some spermists believed that
.[10]
the growing homunculus assimilated maternal characteristics from the womb environment in which they grew

Philosophy of Mind
Terminological use in modern science
The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines such as psychology as a
teaching or memory tool to describe the distortedscale model of a human drawn or sculpted to
reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the somatosensory cortex (the "sensory
homunculus") and the motor cortex (the "motor homunculus"). Both the motor and sensory
homunculi usually appear as small men superimposed over the top of precentral or postcentral
gyri 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 (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
A tiny person inside a sperm
lips, hands, feet, and genitals. The motor homunculus is very similar to the sensory as drawn by Nicolaas
homunculus, but differs in several ways. Specifically, the motor homunculus has a portion for Hartsoeker in 1695
the tongue most lateral while the sensory homunculus has an area for genitalia most medial
and an area for visceral organs most lateral.[11][12] 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-like ovarian cystic teratomae. These will sometimes
contain hair, sebaceous material and in some casescartilagous or bony structures.[13]

Representations in art and entertainment

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's Religio
Medici (1643), in which the author states:

I am not of Paracelsus minde that boldly delivers a receipt to make a man

without conjunction, ...[14]

The fable of the alchemically-created homunculus may have been central in Mary Shelley's
novel Frankenstein (1818). Professor Radu Florescu suggests that Johann Conrad Dippel, an
alchemist born in Castle Frankenstein, might have been the inspiration for Victor
19th-century engraving of
Frankenstein. German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part Two (1832) Goethe's Faust and
famously features an alchemically-created homunculus.[15] Here, the character of Homunculus
Homunculus embodies the quest of a pure spirit to be born into 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.[16] William Makepeace Thackeraywrote under the pen name of Homunculus.[17]

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, but also to illuminate social topics. For instance, the British children's writers
Mary Norton and Rumer Godden 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.[18] 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 misogyny and the Cold War industrial-military complexes of the Soviet Union and
NATO.

Other media
Homunculi appear in fantasy based television, film, and games in a manner consistent with literature. Examples can be found in
numerous mediums, such as the films Homunculus (1916), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), the
television movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Being John Malkovich (1999), Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone
(2001), and the big-screen remake ofDon't Be Afraid of the Dark(2011), fantasy role-playing games (such asDungeons & Dragons),
video games (such as Valkyrie Profile, Cabals: Magic & Battle Cards), books (such as The Secret Series), graphic novels (such as
Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and manga (such as Homunculus, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fate/Zero, and Gosick).

See also
Cartesian theater Karzełek Soul
Doppelgänger Mind-body dichotomy Telesphorus (mythology)
Fastachee Nuno Tulpa
Golem Simulacrum
Homunculus argument Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

Notes
1. Newman, William R. (2005).Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the quest to perfect Nature
, pp. 164–236.
University of Chicago Press.
2. Grafton, Anthony (1999).Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe
. MIT Press.
pp. 328–329.
3. Jung, Carl (1967). Alchemical Studies. p. 60.
4. Jung, Carl (1967). Alchemical Studies. p. 102.
5. Grafton, Anthony (1999).Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe
. MIT Press.
pp. 321–338.
6. Besetzny, Emil. (1873). Die Sphinx, pp. 111–157. Vienna.
7. Hartmann, Franz. (1896).The Life of Paracelsus, p. 306. London. (http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/life_of_paracelsus.ht
m) accessed 13 March 2014
8. Grafton, Anthony (1999).Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe
. MIT Press.
pp. 331–332.
9. Campbell, Mary Baine."Artificial Men: Alchemy, Transubstantiation, and the Homunculus"(http://rofl.stanford.edu/no
de/61). Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts
. 1 (2).
10. "Epigenesis and Preformationism"(https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epigenesis/)
. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. October 11, 2005.
11. Saladin, Kenneth (2012).Anatomy and Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function, 6th Edition
. McGraw-Hill.
12. "BrainConnection.com - The Anatomy of Movement"(http://brainconnection.positscience.com/topics/?main=anat/mo
tor-anat). Brainconnection.positscience.com. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
13. Yong Ho Lee, Y.H, Kim, S.G., Choi, S.H., Kim, I.S. & Kim, S.H. (2003). Ovarian mature cystic teratoma containing
homunculus: A case report.Journal of Korean Medical Science, no. 18: pp. 905-907. Article as PDF (http://jkms.kam
s.or.kr/2003/pdf/12905.pdf)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110722140946/http://jkms.kams.or .kr/2003/pdf/
12905.pdf) 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine.
14. Thomas Browne. Religio Medici. 1643. Part 1: 35
15. See Poet lore; a quarterly of world literature1889 p. 269ff A Faust Problem: What was the Homunculus?(https://arc
hive.org/stream/poetlorequarterl13bost#page/268/mode/2up)and Faust by Goethe Faust p. 350ff (https://archive.or
g/stream/fausttragedytran00goetuoft#page/352/mode/2up/search/Homunculus)
16. Latimer, Dan (1974). "Homunculus as Symbol: Semantic and Dramatic Functions of the Figure in Goethe's Faust".
MLN. The Johns Hopkins University Press.89 (5): 814. doi:10.2307/2907086 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2907086).
17. John Bull and his wonderful lamp: a new reading of an old tale(https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011984771)by
Homunculus.
18. Dubosarsky, Ursula (2006). "Post-war place and displacement in Rumer Godden's "The Doll's house" and Mary
Norton's "The Borrowers" " (http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/76602). CREArTA. pp. 103–107. Retrieved July 3, 2012.

References
Montiel, L (2013). "Proles sine matre creata: The Promethean Urge in the History of the Human Body in theest". W
Asclepio. 65 (1): 1–11. doi:10.3989/asclepio.2013.1.
Weiss, JR; Burgess, JB; Kaplan, KJ (2006). Fetiform
" teratoma (homunculus)".Arch Pathol Lab Med. 130 (10):
1552–1556.
Watson JD, Berry A. DNA: The Secret of Life. New York, New York: Random House; 2003.
Abbott, TM; Hermann, WJ; Scully, RE (1984). "Ovarian fetiform teratoma (homunculus) in a 9-year-old girl".Int J
Gynecol Pathol. 2: 392–402. doi:10.1097/00004347-198404000-00007.
Kuno, N; Kadomatsu, K; Nakamura, M; Miwa-Fukuchi, ;THirabayashi, N; Ishizuka, T (2004). "Mature ovarian cystic
teratoma with a highly differentiated homunculus: a case report". Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 70: 40–46.
doi:10.1002/bdra.10133.
Florescu, Radu (1975). In Search of Frankenstein. Boston: New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0-8212-0614-1.
Gregory, Richard L. (1990). Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing(4th ed.). Princeton: Princeton University
Press. ISBN 0-691-02456-1.
Gregory, Richard L. (ed.) (1987).The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-
866124-X.
Maconius, S. (1980). The Lore of the Homunculus. Red Lion Publications.
Ryle, Gilbert (1984) [1949]. The Concept of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN 0-226-73295-9.
Waite, Arthur Edward (ed.)(1976) [1894]. The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus
Bombast, of Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus the Great(2 vols. ed.). Berkeley: Shambhala.ISBN 0-87773-082-2.

External links
Media related to Homunculus at Wikimedia Commons

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