The werewolf in the ancient world / Daniel Ogden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ogden, Daniel, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Folklore--Greece.

Folklore.

Folklore--Rome.

Werewolves--History--To 1500.

Werewolves.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 pages) : illustrations (colour).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, England : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

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. This text 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 conceptualisation 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.

Contents:

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

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

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

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?

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: 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.

Notes:

This edition also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-259629-2

0-19-259628-4

0-19-188860-5

OCLC:

1197724775