History Main / AnthropomorphicPersonification

* [[Creator/DanteAlighieri Dante]]'s ''Literature/VitaNuova'' treats Love as if it were a flesh and blood king, one who forced Beatrice [[AndShowItToYou to take the poet's hear]]. There's a significant segment of Dante's commentary dedicated to establishing that he has the ArtisticLicense to speak in such a fantastical way by citing writers like Creator/{{Virgil}} and Creator/{{Ovid}}.

* Newspaper cartoonists sometimes represent the new year as a newborn baby (and sometimes the old year as an old man) when producing cartoons to mark the turn of a new year.

* ''Literature/SzamankaOdUmarlakow'': Some demons, such as Bad Luck, bring the idea they personify (such as bad luck) to the person they bond with, whether they want or not. Judging how Bad Luck ended up with Ida, they bring their ideas to themselves as well.

* In the fourth ''Literature/SpellSinger'' novel, Jon-Tom is captured by a giant eagle. Who is rallying an army of birds who uncomfortably give very familiar salutes. It turns out that the eagle was the Nazi Emblem, which after the Nazis were defeated ended up in the fantasy world as an actual eagle, and is stated to be the personification of Nazism. Luckily Jon-Tom through manipulation turned the birds against each-other, and the entire army was attacking the Eagle as Jon-Tom escapes.

* ''Art/{{Fortezza}}'' by Creator/SandroBotticelli is a personification of the Christian cardinal virtue of Fortitude. That's why she's armored but looks regal. She will soldier through anything and that determination is seen as admirable.

* The fat giant killed by The Guy in Music/{{Disturbed}}'s "Land of Confusion" video is either Anthropomorphic Personification of big corporations, industry, economy, rich elites, {{Greed}} or just all of it, people still discuss that matter.
* The Music/{{Vocaloid}}s are the Anthropomorphic personifications of software. Specifically, each one represents a particular voice synthesis program designed for the use of singing. They take the form of {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}} {{Idol Singer}}s.
* "Thanks, Earthquake" by Music/DriftlessPonyClub is partially about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin praising the anthropomorphic personification of Earthquakes.]]
* The in-song narrator of "I Write the Songs" by Music/BarryManilow claims "I’ve been alive forever, and I wrote the very first song. I put the words and the melodies together, [[IAmTheNoun I am Music]], and I write the songs."

* "My Boots" by Music/{{Lights}} is a song about Canadian winters. Many have mistaken it for being about [[LesYay a relationship]].
-->''You might know if you're from around here what goes on from half of the year.\\
Have you seen the queen of the castle paint this city from ear to fear?\\
If the air was meant to be glitter, it might not take all yours away.\\
When she sings she's a heavy hitter.\\
When she comes you'll ask her to stay.''
* "Can't Feel My Face" by Music/TheWeeknd is about drug use but is written in a way that personifies it similar to [[LyricalDissonance having a girlfriend]].
* "Me and My Girlfriend" by Music/TupacShakur is about a man and his gun. It's frequently mistaken for a romantic song.
* "My Sweet Prince" by Music/{{Placebo}} is about heroin use however it sounds like a song about a man uncomfortable with his romantic feelings for another man.
* Music/LouReed's "Perfect Day" personifies the protagonists drug use in a way that makes it sound like a love song. The only sign of the actual meaning are the lines "(...) You make me forget myself. I thought I was someone else, someone good.", which is often missed by people and thus the song [[MisaimedFandom gets misinterpreted very often]].
* Music/DanielAmos's ''Music/FearfulSymmetry'' has a story in the liner notes where the AuthorAvatar meets a man who represents the entire physical universe. This man is old and dying--and eagerly looking forward to being created anew.
* Music/PoetsOfTheFall has MonsterClown Hamartia, the sinister jester mascot of ''Twilight Theater's'' [[http://poetsofthefall.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PotF_-_Twilight_Theater-550x550.jpg album art]] and VillainProtagonist singer of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di7NMssrqsE Daze]]," personifies the concept of the TragicMistake, and finds watching others make them a source of fun.
* Cecilia Vennersten's ''Stogens rå'' is about a romance between a lonely man and the forest calm. According to the song, forest elves adviced her against it, because it would make her less reliable.
* "Dead Hand" by Music/{{Ferry}} is sung from the perspective of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand Dead Hand]], a Russian nuclear weapons system from the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. The video depicts Dead Hand as a [[CheerfulChild cheerful little girl]] in a Soviet-era school uniform.
* [[Music/MFDoom MF DOOM]]'s song "My Favorite Ladies" sees the rapper recall his flings with various women, [[LoveIsADrug each of whom is a personification of a different drug.]]
-->''She said, "You need to stop messin' with that white girl,\\
She fuckin' with your head and got your heart in a tight curl"''
* "Ebeneezer Goode", the controversial 1992 single by British dance band The Shamen, is an [[OdeToIntoxication ode to ecstasy use]], with the titular Main/LifeOfTheParty character being a personification of the drug. The song infamously reached number one in the UK charts during the BBC's drug awareness week.
-->''Eezer Goode! Eezer Goode!''[[note]]Geddit? [[DrugsAreGood "E's are good."]][[/note]]\\
''He's Ebeneezer Goode!''

* In many variants of tale type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom" (a subtype that pertains to the tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", to which ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche'' belongs), after the heroine loses her enchanted/cursed husband, she travels to the houses the Sun, the Moon and the Wind (or to the houses of the four cardinal winds, in others) and their respective mothers. The luminaries and the winds are depicted as male, and their mothers, when the heroine reaches their houses, warn her their sons may devour her. However, they warm up to her and point her the way to her husband.

* In many variants of tale type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom" (a subtype that pertains to the tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", to which ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche'' belongs), after the heroine loses her enchanted/cursed husband, she travels to the houses the Sun, the Moon and the Wind (or to the the houses of the four cardinal winds, in others) and their respective mothers. The luminaries and the winds are depicted as male, and their mothers, when the heroine reaches their houses, warn her their sons may devour her. However, they warm up to her and point her the way to her husband.

* One public information film has a crisis personified as a teenage girl.

** Thrust is personified as a strong muscle man throwing a plane foreward.

* ''Art/VenusCupidFollyAndTime'': Every character in the painting is an embodiment of a specific abstract concept. Although which concepts they each represent tends to depend on the scholar making the analysis.

* Christian iconography also uses many other anthropomorphic representations -- thus medieval churches may include sculptures showing the mortal sins and cardinal virtues in human shape. The latter also can be seen on some tarot cards: Temperance (woman with two cups), Strength (woman with a pillar) and Justice (blindfolded woman with a pair of scales and a sword).

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': The Archangels and Demon Princes are, for all intents and purposes, Anthropomorphic Personifications. They all but embody the concepts they and their servants try to promote and see reality through that lens. There are also lesser angels and demons that personify concepts that fit under the sphere of influence of the Archangel or Demon Prince they serve, for example the Archangel of Lightning (which also encompasses technology in addition to its literal meaning) is served by the Angel of Networks, and the Demon Prince of Fire is served by the Demon of Explosives, who is served by the Demon of Unexpectedly Short Fuses.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Incarnations are a rare creature type representing the living, physical embodiments of specific concepts and emotions. They are distinct from Elementals, which are living manifestations of natural forces and substances instead of philosophical concepts, and Gods, which are generally much more powerful and hold much broader purviews. They are also all named after the specific thing they embody, such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/lrw/37/purity Purity]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/bbd/215/vigor Vigor]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/afc/113/anger Anger]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/lrw/107/dread Dread]], or [[https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/67/subtlety Subtlety]].
** In the story, Worldsouls are the semi-sentient embodiments of all life on a given plane, with their state reflecting the state of life on their plane. Nissa Revane, a druid planeswalker, specializes in communing with these worldsouls. The named worldsouls include Gaea, the worldsoul of Dominaria worshipped as a goddess, Mat'Selesnya, the worldsoul of Ravnica who serves as de jure guildmaster of the Selesnyan guild (represented in absentia by the Trostani dryads), [[https://scryfall.com/card/mma/182/progenitus Progenitus]], the worldsoul of Alara taking the form of an enormous hydra, and [[https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/164/o-kagachi-vengeful-kami O-Kagachi]], the first kami and worldsoul of Kamigawa (seemingly replaced by its offspring, [[https://scryfall.com/card/neo/23/kyodai-soul-of-kamigawa Kyodai]]). Nissa has also communed with the unnamed worldsouls of Amonkhet, whom she describes as wounded and broken; Innistrad, whom she describes as hostile; Zendikar, who embraces her as its guardian; and Kaladesh, which she describes as structured and orderly and may be represented by the flow of aether through the plane. There are also the AmbiguouslyCanon Soul of [plane] cards, which reflect the culture of the plane more so than just its life; [[https://scryfall.com/card/c18/223/soul-of-new-phyrexia Soul of New Phyrexia]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/m15/78/soul-of-ravnica Soul of Ravnica]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/m15/163/soul-of-shandalar Soul of Shandalar]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/m15/34/soul-of-theros Soul of Theros]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/c19/182/soul-of-zendikar Soul of Zendikar]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/c20/137/soul-of-innistrad Soul of Innistrad]]. Finally, there have been cases of worldsouls that outlive their planes and latch onto planeswalkers, such as the one haunting Davriel Cane.

* ''Roleplay/{{Communication}}'' presents the Mortal Concepts: beings beyond comprehension that are the literal embodiment of a concept that is present throughout the entire {{Multiverse}}. The ones stated (but not all seen) so far are: Benevolence, Loyalty, Love, Hope, Entropy, Fate, Order, Freedom, Destruction, Structure, Arrogance, Death, Anarchy, and Space.

* ''Theatre/Hamilton'' has an ensemble member called "The Bullet" as the personification of violent death. She's the first character to die on-stage, executed for espionage, carries the actual bullets that miss Hamilton the first time but hit him the second, is the last person to interact with John Laurens before he dies, helping him kill a redcoat, and tells Philip where to find George Eaker (before Eaker kills him in a duel). However, her actress has suggested that she used her abilities as Violent Death to slow down time enough for Hamilton to say what he needs to say before he dies.