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practice of the ver sacrum. 270 One is reminded of the Hirpi Sorani’s pursuit of the wolves who
had stolen their sacrifice.
These Italic priests and tribes were not the only wolf-men of classical antiquity; stories of
men physically taking on the shape of a wolf also emerge from classical literature. By looking at
myths and tales related to lycanthropes, we may gain a further understanding of the rituals
practiced by the priests. 271 The story of Lycaon was adopted by the Romans and preserves the
tale of the first werewolf, or versipellis “skin changer,” in which Jupiter punishes Lycaon for
attempting to serve him human flesh as a meal.
But at the same time, Lycaon set out a table, I with my vengeful flame
Brought the house down on household gods worthy of such a master;
Lycaon himself fled and finding the silent fields
Howls and tries to speak in vain: from itself
His mouth gathers foam and with his usual desire for slaughter
He turns against the flock and even now he rejoices in bloodshed.
His clothes change into shaggy fur, and his arms into legs.
He becomes a wolf and preserves traces of his old form,
The same grey hair, the same savage face,
The same eyes burn, and his countenance is that of bestial fury. 272
In this passage, Jupiter curses Lycaon by transforming him into a wolf so that his savage and
bestial inner nature is reflected by his outer form. This myth may be meant to explain why the
practice of lycanthropy is associated with the cults of both Lycaean Zeus and Apollo and their
worship on Mt. Lycaon in Arcadia. (The resemblances between this Apollo and the Apollo of
Mt. Soracte can surely be no coincidence.) Pausanias records the practices of these werewolf
cults in his Guide to Greece.
For example, they say that since the time of Lykaion, some man becomes a wolf
at the sacrifice of Lykaion Zeus, but that the change is not for the whole of his
life. When he is a wolf, if he abstains from eating human flesh, he again takes on
270 Richardson 1997, 93. For the Hirpini see Salmon 1989, 225-35.
271 Buxton (1964, 67) would separate werewolfism from lycanthropy by distinguishing between the “belief that
people are able to turn into wolves” and a “psychotic disorder according to which one believes that one has oneself
turned into a wolf.” This delineation seems unnecessary, and throughout this work, I shall refer to both as
lycanthropy.
272 Ov. Met. I.230-9. Latin Text taken from Ovid Metamorphoses Books I-VIII, Vol. 3, edited by G.P. Goold, Loeb
Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 199, p. . (Translation by Author.)
quod simul inposuit mensis, ego vindice flamma / in domino dignos everti tecta penates; / territus ipse fugit
nactusque silentia ruris / exululat frustraque loqui conatur: ab ipso / colligit os rabiem solitaeque cupidine caedis /
vertitur in pecudes et nunc quoque sanguine gaudet. / in villos abeunt vestes, in crura lacerti: / fit lupus et veteris
servat vestigia formae; / canities eadem est, eadem violentia vultus, / idem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est.
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