A Few Trivias About Werewolves

                                                                                                                                                       Artwork from Magic The Gathering

The earliest examples of the werewolf legend can be found in Greek mythology. King Lycaon was

transformed into a wolf as a result of sacrificing a baby to Zeus. Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who tested Zeus by serving him the roasted flesh of a guest from Epirus in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient.

Zeus found out King Lycaon's vile sacrifice so he transformed the king into the form of a werewolf and killed Lycaon's fifty other sons with lightning bolts. The slaughtered child, Nyctimus, was restored to life.

In spite of the legend as depicted by Hollywood horror movies, one does not become a werewolf after being bitten or scratched by a werewolf. According to ancient traditions, a person will become a werewolf if: 

1.) He’s a power-hungry sorcerer who has the ability to change into a wolf through the use of black magic.

2.) Any person who was cursed by a sorcerer through incantations, spells or potion. 

Included with the curse is a sudden rage in which the person transformed into a werewolf will be filled with disgust at their acts of slashing, ripping, and often ingesting the flesh of their human victims, but they were powerless to resist such gruesome and murderous desires while they remained under the spell that had been placed upon them.

According to some ancient text, if you want to become a werewolf, you have to completely disrobe yourself and apply an oil made from fats of a recently deceased baby and a special mixture of herbs. He must also wear a belt made of human or wolf skin in his waist, then cover his body with wolf pelt. To accelerate the process, he should drink beer mixed with blood while reciting a magical 

incantation.

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It was the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury who associated the transformation of a werewolf with the appearance of the full moon, but this concept was rarely associated with the werewolf until the idea was picked up by modern fiction writers.

Also, the popular idea that one becomes a werewolf after having been bitten or scratched by such a creature of the night originated not in ancient tradition but in the motion picture The Wolf Man (1941). Werewolf deterrents as sprigs of garlic, wolf bane, and the deadly silver bullet were also not from ancient traditions but came from classic werewolf stories in books and movies.