The Book of Were-Wolves | Page 4

former condition."
But the most remarkable story among the ancients is that related by
Ovid in his "Metamorphoses," of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, who,
entertaining Jupiter one day, set before him a hash of human flesh, to
prove his omniscience, whereupon the god transferred him into a
wolf:-- [1]
[1. OVID. Met. i. 237; PAUSANIAS, viii. 2, § 1; TZETZE ad Lycoph.
481; ERATOSTH. Catas. i. 8.]

In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant His jaws were
bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted For blood, as he raged
amongst flocks and panted for slaughter. His vesture was changed into
hair, his limbs became crooked; A wolf,--he retains yet large trace of
his ancient expression, Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid, His
eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury.
Pliny relates from Evanthes, that on the festival of Jupiter Lycæus, one
of the family of Antæus was selected by lot, and conducted to the brink
of the Arcadian lake. He then hung his clothes on a tree and plunged
into the water, whereupon he was transformed into a wolf. Nine years
after, if he had not tasted human flesh, he was at liberty to swim back
and resume his former shape, which had in the meantime become aged,
as though he had worn it for nine years.
Agriopas relates, that Demænetus, having assisted at an Arcadian
human sacrifice to Jupiter Lycæus, ate of the flesh, and was at once
transformed into a wolf, in which shape he prowled about for ten years,
after which he recovered his human form, and took part in the Olympic
games.
The following story is from Petronius:--
"My master had gone to Capua to sell some old clothes. I seized the
opportunity, and persuaded our guest to bear me company about five
miles out of town; for he was a soldier, and as bold as death. We set out
about cockcrow, and the moon shone bright as day, when, coming
among some monuments. my man began to converse with the stars,
whilst I jogged along singing and counting them. Presently I looked
back after him, and saw him strip and lay his clothes by the side of the
road. My heart was in my mouth in an instant, I stood like a corpse;
when, in a crack, he was turned into a wolf. Don't think I'm joking: I
would not tell you a lie for the finest fortune in the world.
"But to continue: after he was turned into a wolf, he set up a howl and
made straight for the woods. At first I did not know whether I was on
my head or my heels; but at last going to take up his clothes, I found
them turned into stone. The sweat streamed from me, and I never

expected to get over it. Melissa began to wonder why I walked so late.
'Had you come a little sooner,' she said, 'you might at least have lent us
a hand; for a wolf broke into the farm and has butchered all our cattle;
but though be got off, it was no laughing matter for him, for a servant
of ours ran him through with a pike. Hearing this I could not close an
eye; but as soon as it was daylight, I ran home like a pedlar that has
been eased of his pack. Coming to the place where the clothes had been
turned into stone, I saw nothing but a pool of blood; and when I got
home, I found my soldier lying in bed, like an ox in a stall, and a
surgeon dressing his neck. I saw at once that he was a fellow who could
change his skin (versipellis), and never after could I eat bread with him,
no, not if you would have killed me. Those who would have taken a
different view of the case are welcome to their opinion; if I tell you a
lie, may your genii confound me!"
As every one knows, Jupiter changed himself into a bull; Hecuba
became a bitch; Actæon a stag; the comrades of Ulysses were
transformed into swine; and the daughters of Prtus fled through the
fields believing themselves to be cows, and would not allow any one to
come near them, lest they should be caught and yoked.
S. Augustine declared, in his De Civitate Dei, that he knew an old
woman who was said to turn men into asses by her enchantments.
Apuleius has left us his charming romance of the Golden Ass, in which
the hero, through injudicious use of a magical salve, is transformed into
that long-eared animal.
It is to be observed that the chief seat of Lycanthropy was Arcadia, and
it has been very plausibly suggested that the cause might