The gate of the year

Figure above:

Painting on a plate of Etruscan manufacture, from Vulci, dating to the VI century B.C., now in the Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome. At the centre is shown a “wolf-man”, around which can be recognized Heracles, with his club and bow, Deianeira and the Centaur Nessus.
The wolf was associated, in the ancient Greek world, with the particular mental condition produced by the intervention of a character, known as Lyssa, “wolfish rage”. In Homer, this term is employed with reference to two main warriors, pertaining to opposite sides: Ector and Achilles. It signifies the impetuous power during the battle, which renders the warrior particularly courageous and fearful. This fury and fierceness were both associated with the wolf behavior. Euripides put this demon on the scene of his tragedy dedicated to Heracles, where he acts precipitating the hero into a folly which led him to kill his own children. Falling in prey of Lyssa meant thus to be turned temporarily into a wild being, to be dominated by a destructive force, typical of the warrior (Comba 1992, p. 235-236).

[Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]

Figure below:

View of the Mount Lykaion, in Arcadia, with the remains of an altar dedicated to Zeus Lykaios. In this sanctuary, initiation rituals were performed, of which some indications can be detected in various sources. It seems that, during the ritual, human flesh was served mixed with that of other animals: those who should have tasted this food were believed to turn into were-wolves (lykánthropoi). Abandoned their clothes, they swam across a pond and lived for nine years among the mountains, in the shape of wolves. The tenth year the initiates crossed again the pond and became men again. They could then rely on a new and mysterious strength, permitting them to win in the athletic competitions, such as the prestigious Olympic games. It was narrated, indeed, of a certain Demenetos from Parrhasia, in South Arcadia, who was winner in the boxing competitions at Olympia, that he had, during the rituals in honor of Zeus Lykaios, eaten the viscera of a child and had been transformed into a wolf (Pliny, Natural History, VIII, 82).

[Source: http://lykaionexcavation.org/about/excavating-at-the-birthplace-of-zeus]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Figure above: Painting on a plate of Etruscan manufacture, from Vulci, dating to the VI century B.C., now in the Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome. At the centre is shown a “wolf-man”, around which can be recognized Heracles, with his club and bow, Deianeira and the Centaur Nessus. The wolf was associated, in the ancient Greek world, with the particular mental condition produced by the intervention of a character, known as Lyssa, “wolfish rage”. In Homer, this term is employed with reference to two main warriors, pertaining to opposite sides: Ector and Achilles. It signifies the impetuous power during the battle, which renders the warrior particularly courageous and fearful. This fury and fierceness were both associated with the wolf behavior. Euripides put this demon on the scene of his tragedy dedicated to Heracles, where he acts precipitating the hero into a folly which led him to kill his own children. Falling in prey of Lyssa meant thus to be turned temporarily into a wild being, to be dominated by a destructive force, typical of the warrior (Comba 1992, p. 235-236). [Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/] Figure below: View of the Mount Lykaion, in Arcadia, with the remains of an altar dedicated to Zeus Lykaios. In this sanctuary, initiation rituals were performed, of which some indications can be detected in various sources. It seems that, during the ritual, human flesh was served mixed with that of other animals: those who should have tasted this food were believed to turn into were-wolves (lykánthropoi). Abandoned their clothes, they swam across a pond and lived for nine years among the mountains, in the shape of wolves. The tenth year the initiates crossed again the pond and became men again. They could then rely on a new and mysterious strength, permitting them to win in the athletic competitions, such as the prestigious Olympic games. It was narrated, indeed, of a certain Demenetos from Parrhasia, in South Arcadia, who was winner in the boxing competitions at Olympia, that he had, during the rituals in honor of Zeus Lykaios, eaten the viscera of a child and had been transformed into a wolf (Pliny, Natural History, VIII, 82). [Source: http://lykaionexcavation.org/about/excavating-at-the-birthplace-of-zeus]