Caliban is a figure from Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1611). Set in an enchanted island, somewhere in the Mediterranean, the play opens with a tempest at sea battering the ship of the King of Naples, which is returning from the wedding of the King's daughter in Africa. The ship wrecks upon the island, which has been occupied by the magician Prospero.

Caliban is both a native of the island and a deformed slave of Prospero. At times, Caliban is presented as a savage, a sort of creature of the earth, partaking of the qualities of the brute. In particular, Caliban's lust for Prospero's daughter harmonizes well with the European image at the time of the "Wild Man" figure as an erotic and undisciplined being.