Are there literary attestations of werewolves in the Classical period?

1. What do werewolves symbolize in literature?
2. Where did the werewolf myth originate?
3. Who was the first werewolf?
4. What is the mythology of werewolves?

What do werewolves symbolize in literature?

Often associated with untamed energies, trickery or deceit, and the underbelly of primal human instincts, the werewolf can be interpreted as the struggle between (and the integration of) both "good" and "evil" within a human being - the inescapable and uncontrollable nature of our raw emotional urges, whether sexual, ...

Where did the werewolf myth originate?

The earliest surviving example of man-to-wolf transformation is found in The Epic of Gilgamesh from around 2,100 BC. However, the werewolf as we now know it first appeared in ancient Greece and Rome, in ethnographic, poetic and philosophical texts.

Who was the first werewolf?

According to the legend, Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, angered the god Zeus when he served him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. As punishment, the enraged Zeus turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves.

What is the mythology of werewolves?

A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope ("wolf-man"), is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shape shift into a wolf or an therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. via a bite or scratch from another werewolf).