61 replies to this topic

[SubjectDigamma]

The word Lycan comes from Lycaon


In Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who in the most popular version of the myth tested Zeus by serving him a dish of his slaughtered and dismembered son in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient. In return for these gruesome deeds Zeus transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, and killed Lycaon's fifty sons by lightning bolts, except possibly Nyctimus, who was the slaughtered child, and instead became restored to life.
Despite being notorious for his horrific deeds, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero: he was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games.According to Hyginus, Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene. The Arcadian town Nonakris was thought to have been named after the wife of Lycaon.

So do u see Lycan/Lycaon

[SubjectDigamma]

Stories of men turning into beasts go back to antiquity. In parts of ancient Greece, werewolf myths, stemming from prehistoric times became linked with the Olympian religion.

Lycanthropy (werewolfism) was named for Apollo Lycaeus, "Wolfish Apollo," who used to be worshipped in the famous Lyceum or "Wolf-temple" where Socrates taught. Apollo was mated to Artemis as a divine Wolf b**** at Troezen, where she purified Orestes with the blood of nine sacrificial victims. Pausanias said Apollo was originally an Egyptian deity, deriving his name from Up-Uat (Ap-ol), a very ancient name of Anubis.

In another myth, Lycaeus, or Lycaeon, was a Pelasgian wolf-king and father of Callisto, who reigned in a nine-year cycle as spouse of the Ninefold Goddess, Nonacris. Lycaon, decided to trick Zeus. He fed Zeus a banquet of meats in which he had included human flesh. Zeus became incensed, transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, but allowed him to keep his human mind so to be always aware of his doom and killed his fifty sons by lightning bolts (except possibly Nyctimus).

In Arcadia, Mt. Lycaeus was the place for the cult of the Wolf-Zeus. Every year, gatherings took place at which the priests were said to prepare a sacrificial feast that included meat mixed with human parts. According to legend, whoever tasted it became a wolf and could not turn into a man unless he abstained from human flesh for nine years.

Virgil said the first werewolf was Moires, spouse of the trinitarian Fate goddess (Moera), from whom he learned secrets of magic, including the necromantic knack of calling up the dead from their tombs. Virgil is familiar with transformation of human beings into wolves. In the novel Satyricon, written about year 60 by Gaius Petronius, one of the characters recites a story about a man who turns into a wolf during a full moon.

The Roman Pliny the Elder, quoting Euanthes, says that a man of Anthus' family was selected by lot and brought to a lake in Arcadia, where he hung his clothing on an ash tree and swam across. This resulted in his being transformed into a wolf, and he wandered in this shape nine years. Then, if he had attacked no human being, he was at liberty to swim back and resume his former shape. Probably the two stories are identical, though we hear nothing of participation in the Lycaean sacrifice by the descendant of Antaeus. Herodotus in his Histories tells us that the Neuri, a tribe he places to the north-east of Scythia were annually transformed for a few days.

In Astronomica, Hyginus describes the victim of Lycaon as being Arcas, son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon. When saved and restored to life, Arcas was brought up to be a hunter. By mistake, he hunted himself and his mother (for the moment transmogrified to a bear) into a temple where entrance was punished by death. Both were saved by Zeus to constitute the constellations Arctophylax and Greater It is to be observed that the chief seat of Lycanthropy was Arcadia, and it has been very plausibly suggested that the cause might he traced to the following circumstance: The natives were a pastoral people, and would consequently suffer very severely from the attacks and depredations of wolves. They would naturally institute a sacrifice to obtain deliverance from this pest, and security for their flocks. This sacrifice consisted in the offering of a child, and it was instituted by Lycaon. From the circumstance of the sacrifice being human, and from the peculiarity of the name of its originator, rose the Warewolf


^___^

[Wolfman 1993]

SubjectDigamma, on 31 December 2012 - 04:20 AM, said:

Stories of men turning into beasts go back to antiquity. In parts of ancient Greece, werewolf myths, stemming from prehistoric times became linked with the Olympian religion.

Lycanthropy (werewolfism) was named for Apollo Lycaeus, "Wolfish Apollo," who used to be worshipped in the famous Lyceum or "Wolf-temple" where Socrates taught. Apollo was mated to Artemis as a divine Wolf b**** at Troezen, where she purified Orestes with the blood of nine sacrificial victims. Pausanias said Apollo was originally an Egyptian deity, deriving his name from Up-Uat (Ap-ol), a very ancient name of Anubis.

In another myth, Lycaeus, or Lycaeon, was a Pelasgian wolf-king and father of Callisto, who reigned in a nine-year cycle as spouse of the Ninefold Goddess, Nonacris. Lycaon, decided to trick Zeus. He fed Zeus a banquet of meats in which he had included human flesh. Zeus became incensed, transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, but allowed him to keep his human mind so to be always aware of his doom and killed his fifty sons by lightning bolts (except possibly Nyctimus).

In Arcadia, Mt. Lycaeus was the place for the cult of the Wolf-Zeus. Every year, gatherings took place at which the priests were said to prepare a sacrificial feast that included meat mixed with human parts. According to legend, whoever tasted it became a wolf and could not turn into a man unless he abstained from human flesh for nine years.

Virgil said the first werewolf was Moires, spouse of the trinitarian Fate goddess (Moera), from whom he learned secrets of magic, including the necromantic knack of calling up the dead from their tombs. Virgil is familiar with transformation of human beings into wolves. In the novel Satyricon, written about year 60 by Gaius Petronius, one of the characters recites a story about a man who turns into a wolf during a full moon.

The Roman Pliny the Elder, quoting Euanthes, says that a man of Anthus' family was selected by lot and brought to a lake in Arcadia, where he hung his clothing on an ash tree and swam across. This resulted in his being transformed into a wolf, and he wandered in this shape nine years. Then, if he had attacked no human being, he was at liberty to swim back and resume his former shape. Probably the two stories are identical, though we hear nothing of participation in the Lycaean sacrifice by the descendant of Antaeus. Herodotus in his Histories tells us that the Neuri, a tribe he places to the north-east of Scythia were annually transformed for a few days.

In Astronomica, Hyginus describes the victim of Lycaon as being Arcas, son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon. When saved and restored to life, Arcas was brought up to be a hunter. By mistake, he hunted himself and his mother (for the moment transmogrified to a bear) into a temple where entrance was punished by death. Both were saved by Zeus to constitute the constellations Arctophylax and Greater It is to be observed that the chief seat of Lycanthropy was Arcadia, and it has been very plausibly suggested that the cause might he traced to the following circumstance: The natives were a pastoral people, and would consequently suffer very severely from the attacks and depredations of wolves. They would naturally institute a sacrifice to obtain deliverance from this pest, and security for their flocks. This sacrifice consisted in the offering of a child, and it was instituted by Lycaon. From the circumstance of the sacrifice being human, and from the peculiarity of the name of its originator, rose the Warewolf


^___^

I'm actually reading a book that touches base on all of this lol

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Pliny the Elder isn't the best source, as he also thought strapping a pedgeon to you head solved headaches amongst other fascinating ideas.

[orangepeaceful79]

Werewolves are BS.  Just people who can't separate the fantasy of crap they read on the internet and junk they watch on TV from reality.  Lycanthropy is a medical diagnoses reserved for those people actually disturbed enough to believe they can shapeshift into wolves and other animals.  Nuttery at is finest.

[JGirl]

orangepeaceful79, on 31 December 2012 - 05:33 AM, said:

Werewolves are BS.  Just people who can't separate the fantasy of crap they read on the internet and junk they watch on TV from reality.  Lycanthropy is a medical diagnoses reserved for those people actually disturbed enough to believe they can shapeshift into wolves and other animals.  Nuttery at is finest.

when i opened this thread entitiled 'the truth about lycans' i totally expected the OP to be a blank reply box.
true story.

[little.wolf96]

orangepeaceful79, on 31 December 2012 - 05:33 AM, said:

Werewolves are BS.  Just people who can't separate the fantasy of crap they read on the internet and junk they watch on TV from reality.  Lycanthropy is a medical diagnoses reserved for those people actually disturbed enough to believe they can shapeshift into wolves and other animals.  Nuttery at is finest.

Although you are right about the Lycanthropy being a medical condition and or mental disorder, I completely disagree.
If anything, the belief of any shape shifting beings are along the lines of religion. But that is to an extent.
I'm talking about REAL religion. Not worshipping a book/movie series because you're an adolescent teenage girl.

I mean the groups of people, such as the Native Americans, that have believed in them since the beginning of time and that these creatures exist. They were taught since infancy to love and respect them, and saw them as something spiritual or proof of some higher power.

There is a fine line between believing in something you saw on the television, and something you believe because you're own beliefs since birth.

Have an open mind.

[King Fluffs]

Wearer of Hats, on 31 December 2012 - 05:30 AM, said:

Pliny the Elder isn't the best source, as he also thought strapping a pedgeon to you head solved headaches amongst other fascinating ideas.

I would have loved to have been a doctor back then.

I'd make people do all sorts of unusual stuff.

[DieChecker]

SubjectDigamma, on 31 December 2012 - 04:16 AM, said:

The word Lycan comes from Lycaon


In Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who in the most popular version of the myth tested Zeus by serving him a dish of his slaughtered and dismembered son in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient. In return for these gruesome deeds Zeus transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, and killed Lycaon's fifty sons by lightning bolts, except possibly Nyctimus, who was the slaughtered child, and instead became restored to life.
Despite being notorious for his horrific deeds, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero: he was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games.According to Hyginus, Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene. The Arcadian town Nonakris was thought to have been named after the wife of Lycaon.

So do u see Lycan/Lycaon

I can very much see the term/word lycan coming from Lycaon. But, the problem is that there is 2000 years of history written down, and no where is the term lycan used to describe a man-wolf creature. That started with the movie Underworld. The term/word lycanthrope is used extensively, but that is a different word.

Just as elephant is a different word from "phant". If phant came into common usage, then it would be true to say the word came from elephant, but that would not mean that people 500 years ago refered to elephants as phants.

Oh, and Lycaon is supposedly a mythical figure, not a historic figure. There is not even a century pinned down as when he was supposed to have existed.

The word Lykaia is also a suspect in the origins of the lycanthropy myth.

Edited by DieChecker, 31 December 2012 - 08:54 PM.

[orangepeaceful79]

little.wolf96, on 31 December 2012 - 07:59 AM, said:

Although you are right about the Lycanthropy being a medical condition and or mental disorder, I completely disagree.
If anything, the belief of any shape shifting beings are along the lines of religion. But that is to an extent.
I'm talking about REAL religion. Not worshipping a book/movie series because you're an adolescent teenage girl.

I mean the groups of people, such as the Native Americans, that have believed in them since the beginning of time and that these creatures exist. They were taught since infancy to love and respect them, and saw them as something spiritual or proof of some higher power.

There is a fine line between believing in something you saw on the television, and something you believe because you're own beliefs since birth.

Have an open mind.

There is a difference between having an open mind and letting one's brain fall out on the floor.  Anything having to do with werewolves and shapeshifting is fiction.  Pure and simple.

[little.wolf96]

orangepeaceful79, on 31 December 2012 - 09:03 PM, said:

There is a difference between having an open mind and letting one's brain fall out on the floor.  Anything having to do with werewolves and shapeshifting is fiction.  Pure and simple.

I agree. But how do we know what is fiction and what isn't?
Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.
For example, no one has seen the deepest parts of the ocean, but we know its there.
We can't see the air we breathe, but we know its there.
Not to mention, there are hundreds of new species of animals found everyday. Diseases we don't understand yet, biology we can't yet explain. Just because we know alot does not mean we know it all.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

little.wolf96, on 02 January 2013 - 06:27 AM, said:

I agree. But how do we know what is fiction and what isn't?

Well we can start with what's possible - breaking and reforming bones is impossible, furthermore, the process would generate enough heat to cook organs.

Quote

We can't see the air we breathe, but we know its there.

We can prove it exists, it's so simple I can do it with five year olds.

[little.wolf96]

Wearer of Hats, on 02 January 2013 - 07:34 AM, said:

Well we can start with what's possible - breaking and reforming bones is impossible, furthermore, the process would generate enough heat to cook organs.


We can prove it exists, it's so simple I can do it with five year olds.

Again, those are just THEORIES. How do we know how much heat it generates? Have we tested this?
Or did we come to this conclusion through theories of other scientists and or medical experts?
If so, can years of training to become a medical expert really conclude he is an expert on the subject?
As for breaking and reforming bones... We never had it happen to us, so what makes you so sure it will work out in that order?
We've never seen the process as it happens, so we don't know.

Yes, we can prove oxygen exists. But we have to look hard, using advanced technology, am I right?
Before we had the technology to see this, did we know that this was how the world worked? Did we know that such elements exist?

See where I'm getting at here?

I'm not proving or disproving. We are simply sharing theories, and beliefs.
All I am saying is, you can't prove something we know nothing about.

Edited by little.wolf96, 02 January 2013 - 07:50 AM.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

quite right, I can't prove their aren't invisible faeries in my garden. Now, there are gardeners who've studied my garden and they didn't see anything, so there could very well be invisible faeries ib my garden, because we can't prove something we know nothing about.


Alternatively, we can make a judgment based on what we know CAN and DOES happen and exist. And because you and I have not experienced something, because noone has experienced something does not mean it either does or does not exist, but rather it means we have to use what we know in order to understand it. And what we know says it's impossible.

[Kazahel]

orangepeaceful79, on 31 December 2012 - 09:03 PM, said:

There is a difference between having an open mind and letting one's brain fall out on the floor. Anything having to do with werewolves and shapeshifting is fiction. Pure and simple.

I explained another side to the myths and legends of shapeshifting in this thread here years ago... http://www.unexplain...topic=168524

There is even a mention/link to my technique I posted back in 2006, which some who are into this kind of thing might find interesting.