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Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. We've been discussing the roots of werewolf traditions both in prehistoric human history and in ancient mythology and literature.
Based on my readings, I think it's safe to say that werewolf traditions emerge from various elements in human history and the human psyche, taking on different forms depending on time and location, and most importantly, influencing later traditions, legends, folktales, and of course fictional takes as well.
When we look for specific examples of early or even the earliest literary examples of werewolves, it really depends on how narrowly or widely we refine our search. For instance, the oldest surviving work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, features the wild man and possible beast man Enkidu. And there's certainly some crossover from here into later werewolf traditions, but to be clear, Enkidu, not a werewolf.
More interesting, as Daniel Ogden brings up in The Werewolf in the Ancient World, the Epic of Gilgamesh does feature reference to the goddess Ishtar having turned humans into various beasts, including a wolf. Much later, though still ancient to us, Homer's The Odyssey from the 8th century BCE refers to the witch Circe, transforming humans not only into pigs, her specialty, but into wolves as well.
These are both cases of transformative witchcraft, and while Ogden contends that stories like this certainly feed into werewolf traditions, we'd be going overboard to single either out as a true case zero for literary or mythic lycanthropy.
Focusing on the importance of temporary and even deliberate transformation with connection between the two forms, Ogden points to a tale that is often singled out as the most obvious werewolf story from the ancient world, one appearing in the satiricon of Gaius Petronius Arbiter from the late 1st century CE. The Latin satire contains a story told by the character Nicaros at a banquet, and it roughly goes as follows.
Back when the freedman Nikaros was still a slave, he fell in love with the wife of an innkeeper and would sneak off to her whenever he could. One night when the master of the house was away, Nikaros persuaded the current house guest, quote, a soldier as brave as Orcus, to accompany him on the midnight journey. Shortly afterwards, they found themselves in a necropolis amongst the tombs where the moon shone down on them like the midday sun.
And then Nicaros observed the soldier in a most shocking and remarkable act. He took off all his clothes, neatly piled them up, urinated in a circle around them, and then transformed into a wolf.
The wolf howled and ran away. And when Nikros tried to touch the clothes that the soldier had left within the circle of urine, he found that the clothing had turned to stone. In fear, he hurried on to see the innkeeper's wife, whose name was Melissa, and she told him that if he'd arrived earlier, he could have helped them, for a wild wolf had attacked their livestock, draining their blood before they were able to drive the beast away with a spear to the neck.
Nicaros began his way home after that, passing where the clothing had been stacked but finding only splashes of blood there, and when he finally reached his master's house, he found a doctor attending to the soldier who had suffered a grievous neck wound.
Now we can easily identify the key attributes of temporary, deliberate transformation with connection between the two forms, as well as various flourishes that would remain popular in werewolf fiction up through modern times.
Thus, it's pretty definitive. Furthermore, Ogden contends that this one is, quote, one really good corking story, which is key because the tale first and foremost serves as entertainment, with humorous wrinkles concerning the storyteller, while also somewhat reflecting popular beliefs and the contemporary appetite for fantastic tales infused with the supernatural. In short, it's a werewolf story doing what werewolf stories have always done, and that is entertain.
Visual depictions are less definitive, as we often lack the full context of what we're looking at. Is it a mere wolf? A human disguised as a wolf? Or merely wearing a wolf's pelt? There are various stopping points before we arrive at full werewolf, even as we contend with images tied to known tales such as the Satyricon or the myth of Lycaon. Therianthropic figures can likewise mean various things.
Still, acknowledging all of this, some images do read strongly as werewolf, at least to us modern viewers across the gulf of time. Consider the 6th century Etruscan Pontic plate, which seems to depict a furry bipedal humanoid with a wolf's head. The context is unclear, though probably linked in some way to Hercules and the centaur depicted elsewhere on the plate.
The theory anthropic figure here may represent death or the wolf-man combination here may reference the god Faunus who in Ovid's Metamorphosis attempts to rape Hercules while Hercules is dressed in his lover Ampheles clothing. We're reminded in all of this that the werewolf is a monster. It is a thing, a form that illustrates various ideas, observations, and comparisons.
And any of these ideas, observations, or comparisons may essentially summon an image comparable to the werewolf completely on their own, detached in whole or in part from any particular werewolf tradition. That's it for now, but next week we will continue our journey and we will turn our attention to the female werewolf.
Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Anomalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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