The Greek Origins of Lycanthropy: A Mini-Essay

     The concept of lycanthropy reached a zenith between the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries (read about the legal trials of lycanthropes here). Derived from the Greek lukos, meaning wolf, the term began to appear in scholarly texts toward the end of the 1500s, including Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft published in 1584.[1] Although Scot and his contemporaries heatedly debated the causes of lycanthropy, the notion itself remained rather universal: the lycanthrope was a hapless individual who transformed into a wolf and terrorized local villages. In fact, the belief was not new to European cultures and much of the lore surrounding this transmogrification spawns from Greek mythology, namely the tale of Lycaon.[2] 
     Akin to many myths, variations of the tale exist; however, the basic story is relatively similar. Lycaon, the king of Arcadia and the son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, challenges the authority of Zeus by inviting him to a grand feast, were a human – rather than the traditional cow, goat, pig, or sheep – is sacrificed in the god’s honor and served at the party. Angered by the action, Zeus punishes Lycaon by transforming him into a wolf.[3] In some renditions, including that contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the sacrifice is a random slave or hostage and both Lycaon and his offspring are transformed into wolves. In other versions, Lycaon butchers his son Nyctium, who is returned to life by Zeus and made king of Arcadia following his father and sibling’s conversions.[4] Despite the slight differences, the overall theme remains the same: Lycaon and his family commit an animalistic crime and are punished for their brutality by becoming vicious animals themselves. The concept, C. Scott Littleton emphasizes, reinforces Greek perceptions regarding the distinction between civilized humanity and barbarous animals.[5] Indeed, it is a premise which continues to surround the lycanthrope mythology. In both seventeenth-century France and modern society, the lycanthrope is often viewed as an individual whose refined human state is overcome with animalistic urges. In the case of Lycaon and his offspring, this barbarity is done willingly and their subsequent alterations are a castigation for that. For the criminals of Scot’s era, it is a demon-delusion which has forced them to stray from their Christian ways and, as Scot and his peers argued, requires compassion and professional treatment.

Works Referenced

Gallagher, David. Metamorphosis: Transformations of the Body and the Influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses on Germanic Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009.

Littleton, C. Scott. Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. Vol. 6. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2005.

Otten, Charlotte, ed. A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1986.

Sconduto, Leslie. Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2008. 
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[1] Otten, 115. 
[2] Sconduto, 9-10. 
[3] Littleton, 824. 
[4] Gallagher, 311. 
[5] Littleton, 824.