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Lycanthropy
A
condition in which people change into animals, which many cultures around
the world believe in. This belief dates back into antiquity, and usually
the most dangerous animal in the area — tigers in southern Asia and
Japan, the hyena or leopard in Africa, the cat in England, and the bear
and wolf in Europe and northern Asia — is connected with it. Also, the hallucination
(either by the influence of psychotropic drugs or by mental disease) that one
can be transformed into an animal. The term comes from the Greek
lukos, ‘wolf' and anthropos,
‘man', and stories of such a metamorphosis are present in Greek myth and European
folklore.
In Greek
mythology, Lycaon (a legendary king of Arcadia) tried to trick Zeus
into eating human flesh, but he was caught and changed into a wolf as
punishment. Apparently this myth was associated with an ancient cult in
which a sacrifice including human flesh was prepared by the performing
priests, and whoever tasted it was supposed to change into a wolf. These
rituals were held annually at Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia.
In ancient
Rome there was also a superstitious
belief that the power of magic and spells could transform a man into a
wolf.
The werewolf
superstition prevalent in
late medieval Europe usually involved transformation of a human into a wolf
under the influence of the full moon, nightly incursions into the woods to
attack and eat animals and people, and regression into human form. It was
also a common belief at that time that witches could
transform themselves into animals in order to wander at night and attack and devour humans
to satisfy their blood lust, and then return to human form.
Related
video:
The World of Hammer - Mummies,
Werewolves & the Living Dead.
Werewolves & Apparitions.
Werewolves Madmen & Gore.
Related
books:
A Werewolf
Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories.
The Werewolf of
Paris.
Vampire and
Werewolf Stories (The Story Library Series).
Werewolf Book:
The Encyclopedia of Shapeshifting Beings.
Werewolf
Storytellers Handbook.
Werewolf: The
Dark Ages.
Witchcraft,
Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts.
Find
more related products.
Further info:
A Case of Lycanthropy.
Werewolf Legends from
Germany.
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