In a moonlit graveyard somewhere in southern Italy, a soldier removes his clothes in readiness to transform himself into a wolf. He depends upon the clothes to recover his human shape, and so he magically turns them to stone, but his secret is revealed when, back in human form, he is seen to
carry a wound identical to that recently dealt to a marauding wolf. In Arcadia a man named Damarchus accidentally tastes the flesh of a human sacrifice and is transformed into a wolf for nine years. At Temesa Polites is stoned to death for raping a local girl, only to return to terrorize the people
of the city in the form of a demon in a wolfskin.
Tales of the werewolf are by now well established as a rich sub-strand of the popular horror genre; less widely known is just how far back in time their provenance lies. These are just some of the werewolf tales that survive from the Graeco-Roman world, and this is the first book in any language to
be devoted to their study. It shows how in antiquity werewolves thrived in a story-world shared by witches, ghosts, demons, and soul-flyers, and argues for the primary role of story-telling-as opposed to rites of passage--in the ancient world's general conceptualization of the werewolf. It also
seeks to demonstrate how the comparison of equally intriguing medieval tales can be used to fill in gaps in our knowledge of werewolf stories in the ancient world, thereby shedding new light on the origins of the modern phenomenon. All ancient texts bearing upon the subject have been integrated into
the discussion in new English translations, so that the book provides not only an accessible overview for a broad readership of all levels of familiarity with ancient languages, but also a comprehensive sourcebook for the ancient werewolf for the purposes of research and study.
Author(s): Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 288
City: Oxford
Cover
The Werewolf in the Ancient World
Copyright
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Abbreviations
Note on Orthography and Translations
Note on Conventions in Relation to the Alexander Romance
Introduction
The Ancient Werewolf Introduced: Petronius
Terms and Definitions
Folklore First: the Project of the Book
Why Werewolves?
1: The Curse of the Werewolf: Witches and Sorcerers
Homer’s Circe
Herodotus’ Neuri
Virgil’s Moeris
The Strix-witch (i): Witches, Screech Owls and Werewolves in Early Imperial Latin Literature
The Paradigm of the Strix-witch
The Paradigm of the Bawd-witch
Tibullus’ Bawd-witch
Propertius’ Bawd-witch Acanthis
Ovid’s Bawd-witch Dipsas (?) and Medea
Petronius’ Niceros and Trimalchio
The Strix-witch (ii): Apuleius’ Thessalian She-wolves
Lupulae
Pamphile’s Transformation into an Owl
Meroe and Panthia as Lamias
The Thelyphrons
The Curse of the Werewolf
Magic and Werewolfism in Medieval Texts
Conclusion
2: Werewolves, Ghosts, and the Dead
Wolves and Death in Greece and Italy
Wolves and Death in the Greek world?
Etruscan Aita-Calu
The Etruscan Tityos Painter’s Wolfman
The Faliscan Hirpi Sorani of Soracte
Herodotus’ Neuri (again)
Virgil’s Moeris and Tibullus’ Bawd-witch
Petronius’ Niceros
Phlegon of Tralles’ Red Wolf and the Talking Head of Publius (potential case)
Marcellus of Side’s Medical Lycanthropes
Pausanias’ Hero of Temesa
Philostratus’ Dog-demon of Ephesus
Later Comparanda
Conclusion
3: The Werewolf, Inside and Out
Inside and Out (i): Carapace and Core
Human Carapace around a Wolf Core
Hairy Hearts
Wolf Carapace around a Human Core
The Identifying Wound
Inside and Out (ii): Ingestion
From Man to Wolf
From Wolf to Man
Inside and Out (iii): Civilization and the Wilderness Beyond
Inside and Out (iii): Civilization and the Wilderness Beyond Into the Woods
Across the Water
Conclusion
4: Werewolves and Projected Souls
Werewolves and Projected Souls: Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern
The Medieval Period (i): Latin and Irish Texts
The Medieval Period (ii): Werewolves, Were-bears, and Projected Souls in Norse Texts
The Early Modern Period (i): Western Europe
The Early Modern Period (ii): Livonia
The Modern Period
Werewolves and Projected Souls in the Ancient World
Werewolves and Innkeepers: a Kaleidoscoping of Werewolf-tale Motifs
Conclusion
5: The Demon in a Wolfskin: a Werewolf at Temesa?
The Sources
The Proverb
Some Scholarship on Euthymus and the Hero
Differentiation (i): Pausanias’ Narrative vs Callimachus—Death and the Maiden
Differentiation (ii): Pausanias’ Narrative (Pausanias-A) vs Pausanias’ Picture (Pausanias-B)—the Other Tale of the Hero of Temesa
Serpentine Monsters
The Hero in the Wolfskin: a Werewolf?
Conclusion
6: The Werewolves of Arcadia
The ‘Primary’ (or Primordial) Aetiological Myths Focusing on Lykaon
The Lykaon Myth: Discussion
Lad Sacrifice, the Anthid Maturation Rite and the Tale of Demaenetus/Damarchus: the Sources
Some Initial Observations on the Sources
The Sources for Human Sacrifice, the Anthid Rite and the Tale of Damarchus: Centripetal and Centrifugal Approaches
The Anthid Rite as a Maturation Rite
The Problem of the Nine-year Period (and the Timings of Transformations)
The Traditions of the Anthid Maturation Rite and the Tale of Damarchus Disaggregated
Reconstruction of the Anthid Rite and its Werewolf Imagery
Reconstruction of the Tale of Damarchus
The Function of the Damarchus Tale: the Werewolf-athlete, Guilty or Otherwise
The Damarchus Tale: Priorities, Logical and Chronological
Conclusion
Conclusion: The World of Ancient Werewolves and their Stories
APPENDIX A: Homer’s Circe as a Witch
APPENDIX B: Cynocephali
APPENDIX C: False Werewolves: Dolon and the Luperci
Dolon
Luperci
References
General Index
