Deviation Actions
Description
I have come a long way since my first Bestiary page about the Yale: panthaleon.deviantart.com/art/…
This time I designed the whole thing myself. Picture, latin text, lettering and medieval abbreviations.
Translation:
The Lycanthropus is a man who can take on the shape of monstrous wolf. It has a ravenous appetite and is much more dangerous than a common wolf.
The name, Lycanthropus, of Greek origin, is altered in Latin. For in greek it is Lukanthropos. It is not a genuine word, because it is in part corrupted. For the Greek word comes from Lycaon. Lycaon was the first king of Arcadia who served Zeus the roasted Flesh of his own son. As punishment was turned into a wolf. Lycaon was the first werewolf.
Saint Eduinus says of the Lycanthropus that it is the vilest kind of creature.The werewolf is a rapacious beast and craves blood.
He can be found in the Baltics and Sweden. Herodotus also told of warriors from Scythia who put the fur of a wolf around ther shoulders and are then able to take on the form of a wolf.
Pliny the Elder talks in his Natural History of members of the Anthus clan in Arcadia who would chose amongst themselves who of them would become a werewolf. They would remain in this condition for nine years. If they have abstained from human flesh during this time they could become human again.
The werewolf hunts most often during the full moon. He searches for remote farms and devour anything that lives there. Whatever they seize does not survive.
The werewolf disdains to eat the Previous day's meat and turns away from the remains of its own meal.
To become a werewolf a man has to drink a special potion and recite a demonic incantation.
The wolf's eyes shine in the night like lamps because the works of the Devil seem beautiful and wholesome to blind and foolish men.
For what do we mean by the wolf if not the Devil? What by the man, if not sin?