Lycaon, the beginning of Lycanthropy in Greek myth

[Kyriakos]

I recently read of the myth of Lycaon, who was supposed to have been a dark-age of Greece king of Arcadia (part of the Peloponnese above Sparta).

The myth has multiple accounts, but i will only post a link to the wiki site ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_(Arcadia) ) and refer to my favorite of those.

According to that Zeus was travelling in Arcadia, dressed as a peon, meaning to test Lycaon and his sons hospitality (according to the Xenios Zeus custom, one had to be hospitable to strangers).
However Lycaon managed to recognize that it was Zeus, and wanted in turn to test him. To do so he mixed his food with human flesh, possibly of one of his sons, Nyctimos. Lycaon meant to see if Zeus was indeed omniscient.
The result was that Zeus was outraged, threw the food off the table, killed all of the other sons of Lycaon, tranformed Lycaon into a wolf, and finally ressurected Nyctιmos.

I find the myth to be particularly powerful. I read some more on it, since i plan to base a story possibly on the legend of Lycaon.
It appears that he was said to be the founder of the cult of Lycaeos Zeus (wolven Zeus), a cult of light, which symbolically was argued to be why in the myth he killed his son Nyctimos (Nyctimos means "the darkness of the night" in greek) : the light overcomes the darkness.

However other scholars have argued that Lycaon was a pre-olympian deity, and identified Lycaon Zeus with the remains of that pre-olympian order, which probably included human sacrifice. At any rate the myth places Lycaon before the great flood (The flood of Deykalion), in the abyss of greek mythology.

*

I recall reading a story about a lycanthrope when i was 14, and it made a great impression on me. I tried to find it in the future, i was pretty sure it was to do with a character named Gabriel-Earnest, and indeed i found a story with him, only upon reading it i got the impression that it seemed alien to me. I remembered one part of the story that impressed me greatly, but did not seem to find it in that one.

Now i plan to write about some person who is afraid of a wolf, and the phobia dates to a double source, a real encounter with a lycos, and also the reading of the myth of Lycaon.

If you wish you can help, or just post anything rellevant with Lycaon in this thread (or other lycanthropic tales in greek or other ancient mythology). Personally i feel this myth is one of the most violent, and also most poetic i have ever read. And i will try to go into that, if there is any interest in the thread

I leave you with a famous drawing of the transformation of Lycaon into a wolf:

 

[Berzerker]

if this myth was pre-flood wouldn't it have related myths from earlier peoples? I dont focus on this line of myth but I haven't seen many like it.

Zeus wasn't omniscient? Sounds like Yaw in the Garden

Or did he know what was up and got mad?

 

[Kyriakos]

It is argued that he was omniscient, and thus knew it was human flesh he was being served. Of course one could wonder if being omniscient he did not already know that Lycaon would try to test him, and therefore had no reason to be enraged.
However greek Deities are depicting human traits, and we all know that one can know (or heavily suspect) something will happen, and still feel rage when it does.

Lycaon also is said to have founded the city of Lycosoura, and also the Lycaean games, which possibly predated the attic counterparts. The Peloponnesos, of course, was a clear center of pre-classical Greece, with the famous city of Mycenai, Tiryns and others in the region. Many myths are placed there

 

[Traitorfish]

if this myth was pre-flood wouldn't it have related myths from earlier peoples? I dont focus on this line of myth but I haven't seen many like it.

The flood is also a myth...

 

[Leoreth]

Maybe he meant the Atlantean flood? That would at least make some sense.

 

[Traitorfish]

I know he meant the Greek floods, I just don't know why he thinks that an imaginary event would have any influence on the actual distribution of mythologies.

 

[Kyriakos]

Definitely the myth is at least in name about the pre-Deykalion era flood. As is known many ancient cultures have the myth of a great flood, and Greek was no different in that respect.

But i too do not see why the myth of Lycaon should include specific refference to pre-hellenic peoples. I see the point that possibly it refers to a period at least bordering that when Greece was inhabited by pre proto-Greeks, but surely it examines that period as a fable, and from the obvious point of view of the Hellenes.

That said i noted that Lycaon could indeed be the Lycaeos Zeus, who seems to have been a bridge between the worship of Zeus as what it became later on, and the pre-dodecatheon worship.

 

[Phrossack]

I was confused to learn that (at least, in the version I read) Zeus killed all the other guests, even those who honored him and recognized him as Zeus before the test, while sparing the one who wronged him. Granted, Lycaon was turned into a wolf, but that's not so bad.

 

[Berzerker]

The flood is also a myth...

I know he meant the Greek floods, I just don't know why he thinks that an imaginary event would have any influence on the actual distribution of mythologies.

The Flood happened, but people all over the world experienced it in different ways and even different times. But it was so unique it has become the one and only Great Flood. For the Tlingit, it happened ~14 kya - and the timing with meltwater pulse 1A at 14.6 kya aint a coincidence. Imagine how people living on the Bering land bridge reacted to their continent sinking under the sea, or the peoples of the Sunda Shelf running for mountains that would become islands. Look at sea rise as the ice age ended and you'll see the Flood aint no myth.

Now, as to why I asked - some myths are local and some are everywhere. The Flood myth is everywhere because of its impact, but why are similar creation myths everywhere too? The older the myth, the more widespread, generally...

 

[Kyriakos]

I was confused to learn that (at least, in the version I read) Zeus killed all the other guests, even those who honored him and recognized him as Zeus before the test, while sparing the one who wronged him. Granted, Lycaon was turned into a wolf, but that's not so bad.

In the version i examined Zeus kills all of Lycaon's sons, apart from (possibly) Nyctimos, since he has been served as food to Zeus, and is ressurected afterwards.
Still it is not clear why he gets transformed into a wolf. Maybe because wolves eat human flesh, and it is a refference to possible pre-classical era human sacrifices? Also i am not sure if the name Lycos (Wolf) originates from Lycaon, or if Lycaon was named after a wolf.

 

[Berzerker]

how many sons were killed by Zeus? If this was pre-olympian are the Titans involved?

 

[Traitorfish]

The Flood happened, but people all over the world experienced it in different ways and even different times. But it was so unique it has become the one and only Great Flood. For the Tlingit, it happened ~14 kya - and the timing with meltwater pulse 1A at 14.6 kya aint a coincidence. Imagine how people living on the Bering land bridge reacted to their continent sinking under the sea, or the peoples of the Sunda Shelf running for mountains that would become islands. Look at sea rise as the ice age ended and you'll see the Flood aint no myth.

Now, as to why I asked - some myths are local and some are everywhere. The Flood myth is everywhere because of its impact, but why are similar creation myths everywhere too? The older the myth, the more widespread, generally...

That's grand, but even if this hypothesis is correct, it in no way implies that the traditional location of an even before a local "Great Flood" implies that the myth itself originates prior to this generalised "Great Flood", any more than the traditional location of the birth of Odin before the formation of Earth implies that Norse mythology dates back more than four billion years. What you have is a (possible) shared origin for various deluge myths, not actual history.

 

[Kyriakos]

how many sons were killed by Zeus? If this was pre-olympian are the Titans involved?

I read that Lycaon had tens of sons, and either they were all killed, or one was left (in the case that Nyctimos was sacrificed and later ressurected).

As for the great flood, in greek it is known as the Cataclysm of Deykalion. Deykalion (Deukalion or Defkalion in english) was the sole person to survive the flood, along with his wife. Interestingly the flood seemed to have been said in myth to have started due to Zeus' anger at many bronze age people, including Lycaon. I now read in wiki that they belonged to the Pelasgian group.

Also, Deykalion was the son of Prometheus, and this means that no titans were involved in the flood, since it is all a post-prometheic (ie post titanomachia) myth. It does seem to be though in the age when the Olympian order was still young, and the old ways persisted.

 

[Berzerker]

That's grand

spare me the sarcasm or save it for the other forum

but even if this hypothesis is correct, it in no way implies that the traditional location of an even before a local "Great Flood" implies that the myth itself originates prior to this generalised "Great Flood", any more than the traditional location of the birth of Odin before the formation of Earth implies that Norse mythology dates back more than four billion years. What you have is a (possible) shared origin for various deluge myths, not actual history.

It "implies" the event happened before their Great Flood...that gives us a time frame for the myth. But I said people all over the world experienced the great flood and often at different times depending on geography. If this myth is really that old then it should have a wider distribution, and it may have. Thats why I asked the person who started the thread. Many of the Roman and Greek myths have eastern origins, even some of their gods came from the east.

As for the analogy, if Odin had a celestial counterpart like so many other deities, then the birth of "Odin" could refer to the cosmology of their creation myths. But the Norse "world tree" represents the 9 worlds. The Toltec and Inca (and the people who made the Nazca lines) also had 9 worlds in their cosmology. I've seen Siberian shamans holding ceremonies before 9 altars representing a version of their "Heaven". Chichen Itza represents the world mountain (same concept as the cosmic tree), 9 levels with "God" on top in his heavenly abode. There is no apparent reason for such widespread distribution of that cosmology, but it appears to be very old - pre-Flood even. Unless of course various "culture bearer" myths are true and this cosmology was distributed by a people ala Tower of Babel more recently.

 

[Traitorfish]

It "implies" the event happened before their Great Flood...that gives us a time frame for the myth. But I said people all over the world experienced the great flood and often at different times depending on geography. If this myth is really that old then it should have a wider distribution, and it may have. Thats why I asked the person who started the thread. Many of the Roman and Greek myths have eastern origins, even some of their gods came from the east.

The events never actually happened. You can tell, because it has werewolves in it. Thus, all we can is that the Greeks believed it to pre-date their mythological deluge, not that it actually pre-dated any historical flood event.

As for the analogy, if Odin had a celestial counterpart like so many other deities, then the birth of "Odin" could refer to the cosmology of their creation myths. But the Norse "world tree" represents the 9 worlds. The Toltec and Inca (and the people who made the Nazca lines) also had 9 worlds in their cosmology. I've seen Siberian shamans holding ceremonies before 9 altars representing a version of their "Heaven". Chichen Itza represents the world mountain (same concept as the cosmic tree), 9 levels with "God" on top in his heavenly abode. There is no apparent reason for such widespread distribution of that cosmology, but it appears to be very old - pre-Flood even. Unless of course various "culture bearer" myths are true and this cosmology was distributed by a people ala Tower of Babel more recently.

I don't see why we should assume that comparable symbolism implies a shared origin, given that we're dealing with cultures that appear to have no particular relationship to each other. That seems like a more, rather than less, complicated answer to how parallel beliefs might emerge. (The number three certainly seems to have a ubiquitous significance, far more than can be explained by any latter-day Babel, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise that three-threes, i.e. nine has developed a symbolic significance in multiple independent cases.)

 

[Kyriakos]

The fact that it has events which seem supernatural if read literally does not negate, though, the possibility that the myth has an allegorical meaning. Already there are many strange things going on in it, not less the one mentioned here as well, that Lycaon was not killed but became a wolf. This is not a gennesis myth of wolves, to claim it was meant poetically, or at least strictly as an embelishment in the tale.
Almost all allegories appear to have holes in them if read literally. This is true for Lycaon's story too. I wonder how ancient Greeks viewed wolves. The term Lycos is not really revealing (at least not to myself) since it does not seem to break into any ohter terms.

But we can assume (perhaps not without risk) that the wolf was seen as a dangerous animal, which dines occasionally on human flesh. So it may indeed be a myth about anthropophagia (consuming of humans).

 

[Berzerker]

I was under the impression a wolf/man legend exists in the Balkans but was probably based on a medical condition, like the circus wolf boy. That had a much more recent origin but its possible the myth was based on something like it.

The events never actually happened. You can tell, because it has werewolves in it. Thus, all we can is that the Greeks believed it to pre-date their mythological deluge, not that it actually pre-dated any historical flood event.

I dont know if this is a werewolf, didn't Zeus turn him into a wolf? But I wouldn't go so far as to claim no basis for the myth, dont you think its strange all these peoples had a flood myth when we've confirmed massive flooding did occur? Did they just make it up or did they maintain oral traditions of the time the world's seas rose ~400 ft in 2-4 ky? If our seas had risen that much since Jesus we'd be having a more modern flood myth - about one, a Great Flood. Now if this wolf myth has limited range it may still be a corruption of some older myth with a wider distribution, but if that aint the case then its local and possibly not even pre-Flood.

I don't see why we should assume that comparable symbolism implies a shared origin, given that we're dealing with cultures that appear to have no particular relationship to each other. That seems like a more, rather than less, complicated answer to how parallel beliefs might emerge. (The number three certainly seems to have a ubiquitous significance, far more than can be explained by any latter-day Babel, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise that three-threes, i.e. nine has developed a symbolic significance in multiple independent cases.)

Under sumerian cosmology or astrology the #3 was the trinity of gods - An(Anu), and his sons Enlil and Ea/Enki. The "sky" was divided up among these 3 trebling the Zodiac with the usual 12 occupying the central band. And if three threes has relevance to 9, why? Do four fours and five fives make 16 and 25 significant? According to Toltec cosmology 9 "Lords of the Night" ruled the sky, not 3 3s... The Inca depicted 9 worlds in their creation myth separated into 2 groups of 5 and 4, and ~1500 years before them the Nazcans drew their sacred monkey looking down between hands of 5 and 4 fingers - its the same cosmology. No 3 3s involved...

And I haven't even started in with the #7 or #12...

Another shared feature between Incan and Toltec cosmology - "Heaven" according to the Toltecs had 12 levels but their creator occupied 2 levels, so Heaven actually had 13 levels with the Creator occupying 2 leaving 11 other heavenly levels not occupied by the Creator.

The Inca gave us a picture of their heaven - 9 worlds in 2 groups of 5 and 4, the Sun and Moon, and their Creator occupying 2 levels. The Incan "Creator" is an ellipse... Thats 11 with a Creator occupying 2 levels, their Creator even divides the 2 groups of worlds just like the Monkey at Nazca. Dante's cosmology had 9 levels I believe, and that was based on earlier Roman and Greek cosmology who got their stuff mostly from Mesopotamia and Egypt. There were 9 worlds before "creation" began in the Enuma Elish too... After creation, 11 "worlds" with a 12th - the creator traversing a "Heaven" that, as the Bible says, divided the waters.

These cosmologies from around the world are far too specific to not be shared...