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Popular shapeshifting creatures in myths and legends are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), the kitsune or were-foxes of Japan, and the gods, goddesses, and demons of numerous mythologies, such as Loki from Norse mythology or Proteus from Greek mythology. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants.
Although shapeshifting to the form of a wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy, and such creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes, those terms have also been used to describe any human-animal transformations and the creatures who undergo them. Therianthropy is the more general term for human-animal shifts, but it is rarely used in that capacity.
Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, skin-walker, mimic, therianthrope, and were.
Almost every culture around the world has some type of shapeshifting myth, and almost every commonly found animal (and some not-so-common ones) probably has a shapeshifting myth attached to them. Usually, the animal involved in the transformation is indigenous to or prevalent in the area from which the story derives. It is worthy to note that while the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous myths about animals that can transform themselves as well.
Examples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's The Odyssey, and Apuleius's becoming a donkey in The Golden Ass.
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Notable mythological shapeshifters
* Bouda -- hyena-men of Africa
* Encantados -- according to stories from Brazil, they are "the enchanted ones," creatures from an underwater realm, usually dolphins with the ability to change into humans
* Kitsune -- werefoxes of Japan; werefox myths abound from other countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, and even the United States, but "kitsune" refers specifically to the Japanese variety
* Loki -- Trickster god of the Norse pantheon
* Nahuales -- In Mexican lore, shamans that have shapeshifting abilities, usually turning into coyotes, wolves or jaguars
* Nagas -- snake-people of Asian countries, especially India & Nepal; may appear either as transforming between human and snake, or as a cross between the two (such as the upper torso being human and the lower torso being serpentine); some Nagas may also assume the form of dragons
* Manakeet -- a mythlogical creature that appears in the video game Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Takes the form of a human who can transform into a dragon at will.
* Proteus -- a Greek sea god who was capable of changing his form to avoid being captured
* Runa-uturungu -- werejaguars from Argentina (regional name), also spelled runa-uturuncu
* Selkie -- Seal-maidens of Irish/Scottish myth.
* Thunderbirds -- huge birdlike creatures described in the lore of several Native American tribes; some thunderbirds turn into human beings
* Vampires -- corpses who can turn into wolves and/or bats
* Wendigo -- a shapeshifter from Canadian legend
* Werewolves -- humans who turn into wolves
* Yaguareté-abá -- werejaguars from Argentina (regional name)
* Zmei -- Romanian mythological creatures, similar to Ogres
* Zeus -- Head of the Greek pantheon, who routinely transformed into various animal forms and had sexual congress with human women to beget half-god mortals.
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Shapeshifting in fiction
Shapeshifting can be a rich symbolical and narrative tool and shapeshifting fiction has been around at least since the days of ancient Greece. Today, the theme appears in many fantasy and science fiction stories. Both occasionally feature races of shapeshifters, and both magic and technology can be used to impose a change in form.
The word "transmogrification" has been popularized by the eponymous device used in Calvin and Hobbes
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