See any werewolves, lately?
Published on Jun 12, 2006 at 4:56 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under moon, sky lore.
Actually, I’ve never seen any werewolves, nor vampires for that matter, even though I keep similar hours. My theory is that lots of coffee keeps them away. Surely, the fact that they don’t really exist has nothing to do with my not seeing them!
Yesterday was Full Moon, and so I thought that I might say a word or two about lycanthropy, or werewolfism. Every now and then, I think that I’ve heard it all, and then someone asks me a question that blows my mind. I got one of those last fall after doing a public lecture. Someone asked me about how the Moon causes someone become a werewolf. At first, I thought that they were joking around and trying to start a conversation about favorite B grade horror movies. Nope. They were dead serious. It took a moment for me to realize that, and then I was sort of speachless. Someone would actually believe that, today, in the Twenty-first Century? Then, I recall that only a decade ago a cult decided to commit mass suicide to go visit the aliens in their flying saucer that was following a comet. Yep. Given that, I am not surprised to find people who really believe in vampires and werewolves.
According to legend, anyone can become a werewolf. All it takes is a ritual accompanied by a few magic words. You can do it yourself, or cast a curse on someone else. And of course, if you get bitten by a werewolf, you are doomed to follow suit. You have to be bitten by a vampire to become one, so becoming a werewolf is more common, by far. The techical term for becoming a werewolf, or for any human becoming an animal is lycanthropy. Yes, I was surprised to find that there is actually a technical term for something that doesn’t exist! The term comes from the Greek legend of Lycaon, king of Ardadia. Apparently, Lycaon decided to show his followers that Zeus, the king of the gods, was not really omniscient. To test, Zeus, Lycaon invited him to dinner, and then served a meal consisting of human flesh, to see if Zeus could tell what it was. Well, Zeus did know what was going on, and so he punished Lycaon with turning him into a wolf. The human mind of Lycaon, imprisoned in the wolf’s body, was unable to come to grip with the animal urges and the inability to speak or otherwise communicate with others, and he was driven mad. As a rabid wolf, he attacked humans in a rage driven by his madness.
Most legends of lycanthropy involve the Full Moon. People turn into werewolves on the night that the Moon is full, and often only if the light of the Moon illuminates them. Some werewolf legends don’t even require magic incantations or the bite of another werewolf, only the light of the Moon. Apparently in some parts of Europe, simply sleeping outdoors with the light of a Full Moon shining on the face on a Wednesday or Friday is all it takes to turn into a werewolf.
To kill a werewolf, a silver bullet through the heart does the trick. Before they had guns, you had to pierce the heart with a silver blade. Silver chains would bind a werewolf until it became human again. In human form, you could kill the werewolf any way that you kill a human. Many people were put on trial for being werewolves (either by their own black magic, or through a curse put upon them). The usual result of a guilty verdict was hanging, beheading, or burning at the stake. If the trial did not yield a definite verdict, then a test to see if a person were a werewolf or not was to peal off their skin and see if the wolf hair were there below the skin. No one so treated was found to be a werewolf, but they unfortunately died anyway.
Now, as for reality, there does exist a mental disorder in which someone can believe that they are an animal. As recently as the 1970’s there was a case of a woman who believed that she turned into a wolf at night. She’d take off her clothes and crawl around on hands and knees growling at people and howling at the Moon. In the Bible, in the book of Daniel, king Nebuchadrezzar is afflicted with a madness and lives as an animal for seven years. Of course, in neither case, nor in any others with this disorder, did the person actually become an animal. They simply thought that they were one.
There is a medical disorder called hypertrichosis that results in its victims growing massive amounts of thick body hair. The disorder runs in families, and so is the result of a genetic defect. It often begins to manifest itself at puberty, and can affect either men or women, generally with devastating psychological results. Fortunately, this disorder is very rare. I am told that it is often accompanied by sensitivity to light. That makes it similar to porphyria, another photosensitivity disorder. With porphyria, intense light, particularly sunlight, can induce redness, irritation, and even sores on the skin. With severe cases, the skin sensitivity can cause sores so bad that death can result. This is probably behind the origin of some of the vampire legends. Victims of less severe forms of the disorder have been known to grow thick beards to cover the skin and the skin sores. Perhaps this, too, is behind some of the werewolf legends. I don’t really know, since mythology is quite a bit out of my area of expertise.
Anyway, I thought that this might make for a bit of a diffeent post.
-Astroprof
You Were Wrong on January 4, 2007 at 7:34 pm: 1
i have a comment about this though as u said mythology isnt ur area of expertise it doesnt take much reasearch to find out that werewolves are NOT lightsensitive they unlike theyre vampire counter parts can go out in the sun like normal human beings and only at night/in the light of the fullmoon(in some cases at will)do they turn in to werewolves. So if you made a mistake about that whats to say you havent made a mistake aboutthe whole idea of werewolves and vampires so i leave with this note LET PEOPLE BELIVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIVE.(I’m not angry im just proving a point)
Thomas on August 2, 2007 at 12:53 pm: 2
interesting and provocative thoughts
vodd on October 3, 2007 at 10:54 am: 3
i see mortals have gianed a interest in the dark part of the world yes we exist in one form or another like humans we to have evolved vampires are mortal warewolves are mortal yes we may heal more rapidly but that is all i am a premier born vampire i am stronger then most but not all i don’t drink blood but my food intake is much more then normal if you don’t believe search premier vampire give it a try if you look at facts nothing in this world can be proven but vampires and warewolves have been around sinse the begining
someone on January 18, 2008 at 9:22 pm: 4
I have read some of what you said and to be a lycanthrop you dont need to be bitten it takes more than that and its not magic it is a genetic problem that has lasted years yes it has been worped by time and it has been a strange turn from what it realy is but we do exsist