Concept in Definition ABC

The werewolf in horror movies is a lycanthrope. He is a very striking fictional character for his tremendous force and brutality. The sinister aspect of him is equally threatening.

The origin of the term and the legend of Lycaón

The term lycanthropy comes from the Greek, specifically from lykos, which means wolf, and anthropos, which means man. With this term the Greeks referred to the mentally ill who considered themselves wolves. These individuals became mythological characters in the literature Greek.

One of the best known stories is that of King Lycaon, the first werewolf in history. King Lycaon ruled in Arcadia and committed all kinds of atrocities that eventually reached the ears of the gods. One day Zeus went to the king's court to learn first-hand about Lycaon's cruelty.

After verifying that he was a bloodthirsty and violent king, Zeus punished him and transformed Lycaon into a wolf for the rest of his days. Thus, the punishment of Lycaon is considered the first episode of the werewolf stories.

The myth of the werewolf from ancient times to the present

The stories of these monstrous beings go back to ancient times. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that any individual can have the fantasy of carrying the spirit of an animal within.

Among the ancient Greeks it was believed that a person would forever become a wolf if he was fed wolf meat combined with human meat. During the Middle Ages there were several executions of supposed werewolves

Stories of wolf-like men are very suggestive. These beings have extraordinary strength and are capable of generating intense fear in others.

The werewolf is not the only version of human and animal, as there are also mermaids, centaurs or satyrs. In the present the combination of human and animal has been embodied in the world of superheroes, such as Spiderman, Batman or Wolverine himself.

In the field of medicine

In some disorders Psychiatric individuals are convinced that they can transform into some kind of animal. This metamorphosis is unreal, but the patient firmly believes in it. In psychiatric terms, lycanthropy does not refer exclusively to the werewolf, but can be other types of animal species, such as the dog or the lion.

Consequently, from a strictly medical point of view, lycanthropy has a clinical explanation, since it is a syndrome that has been described in the medical literature and that is considered as a psychopathological delusion in which the individual has a perception of himself deformed. This delusion is known as therianthropy and refers to the belief on the transformation in any animal. If the individual is convinced that he is a wolf, it is lycanthropy.

Photos: Fotolia - jossdim / uklanor