The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves Read Online Free PDF Page A

night as he slept.
     
    After a recent victory, Lycoan had taken a hostage from the Molossians. He had the prisoner brought to him, slit the poor man’s throat, and cooked his flesh. When Zeus sat down at the banquet table, Lycoan presented him with a plate of cooked human flesh. Zeus, the all-knowing god, immediately knew what had been placed before him. He was disgusted by what Lycoan has done. Enraged by this blasphemy, he brought Lycoan’s entire home crashing down. Everyone within its walls was killed—all but Lycoan. Zeus had an even worse fate in store for Lycoan.
    The Savage Truth
    According to one guide manuscript that was written in the second century C.E. by Pausanias, a Greek travel writer, Lycoan brought a baby as a sacrifice to the altar of Zeus. As a result, Zeus cursed him for his savagery by turning him into a wolf.
    The king fled from the presence of Zeus. As he ran, however, grey hair began to sprout all over his body. Zeus transformed him into a giant wolf (though some later versions claim he became half-man and half-wolf). For his violent and savage behavior, Zeus cursed Lycoan to live as a beast for the rest of his days.
    The Curse
    Most versions of the Lycoan myth state that Zeus transformed the cruel king Lycoan into a large wolf. However, many artistic depictions of the myth portray King Lycoan during the middle of his transformation. As a result, such depictions show Lycoan as a man with a wolf’s head or in some other half-man, half-wolf state. It is not impossible that such depictions have influenced the common portrayal of the man-wolf hybrid that we now consider when we think of a werewolf.

Lycoan’s Legacy of Lycanthropy
    According to the writings of a Greek physician and part-time travel writer by the name of Pausanias, the Arcadian people, the descendents of Lycoan, were required to hold ritual sacrifices to Zeus for many years. However, these sacrifices were in no way designed to appease the anger of the Thunder God. Apparently, they were only designed to keep Zeus’s wrath somewhat at bay. This ritual sacrifice was called Lykaian (also spelled Lycaean ) Zeus, roughly meaning “The Lycoan to Zeus.”
     
    First the Lykaians, presumably descendents of King Lycoan, were presented before an altar on Mount Lycoan. Once certain rituals and sacrifices were completed, Zeus would show that he had accepted the offering by inflicting the curse of Lycoan upon one of the present Lykaians. Unlike their terrible ancestor’s curse, however, there appears to have been a method for reversing the transformation. If the cursed individual, while a wolf, abstained from eating human flesh for no less than nine years to the day of the initial transformation, he or she would turn back into a human being.

The Anthus Family
    Pliny the Elder, also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus, was a writer and Roman officer who lived from around 23 C.E. to 79 C.E. In his manuscript Historia Naturalis, Pliny wrote of the Anthus family, quoted from an encounter that had originally been documented by a man named Euanthes. The Anthus clan lived in Arcadia (the same home as the Lykaians), and they were the descendents of a man named Antaeus. According to one myth, Antaeus was eaten by his father’s horses, which had gone mad from hunger. However, it is uncertain if this myth had anything to do with the Anthus family’s cyclical lycanthropic rites.
    The Curse
    The story of the Anthus family is strikingly similar to that of the Lykaians. In truth, this may be an account of a similar Arcadian lycanthropy ritual. Some believe it is possible that Pliny, who was a Roman and thus spoke Latin, somehow confused or attempted to Latinize the name Lykaian and, as a result, landed on the name Anthus. However, it is also important to note that the two stories also bear striking differences. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the Lykaian and Anthus clans were one and the same.
    According to Pliny’s tale, the male members of the Anthus