Werewolves

The legend of the werewolf is a legend that transcends cultures and speaks to a perpetual human fascination with shape-shifting, lycanthropy, and the personal battle framed in terms of good versus evil. According to the tradition, werewolves are human beings who shape-shift into bestial wolf form. Although these transformations can be intentional and purposeful, common legend holds that werewolves are under a spell or curse caused by the bite of another werewolf. The modern werewolf story, derived from legendary sources, has changed significantly over the centuries.

The word werewolf, traced to its 11th-century Anglo-Saxon origin, means “man wolf.” One of the oldest references was captured by the Roman poet Virgil who, in his eighth Eclogue (42–37 BCE), tells a story of voluntary transformations of humans into wolves, achieved by means other than being bitten by another werewolf. In Ovid's Metamorphosis (8 CE), the god Jove punished King Lycanon of Arcadia with bestial transformation. Later still, in the Satyricon by Petronius (27–66 CE) we read of a werewolf that sustains bodily wounds that remain even after the transformation back to human is complete.

Over time, as is typical of legends, the characteristics of werewolves have changed; modern writers have created new creatures that resemble but are in varying degrees different from the earliest described werewolves. The werewolf was popularized in the 1941 film The Wolf Man; writer Robert Siodmak reduced centuries of myth and folklore to represent what are now popular cultural beliefs. In his rendition, the werewolf was an innocent victim who was cursed through a werewolf attack. Other beliefs include the following: Werewolves change shape from human to a wolf at the coming of each full moon; in the werewolf state, the human is unaware of his or her actions and loses consciousness of time; in this condition the werewolf enacts the hunt and slaughter of innocent humans, whether for sport or for sustenance. Injuries that a werewolf sustains while in wolf form linger even in human form. A werewolf is repelled by wolfsbane, which is an attractive but poisonous perennial herb of the buttercup family. Werewolves can live eternally. Silver bullets kill werewolves, who then return to human form upon death.