Werewolf

For sure everybody of you knows the frightening werewolf creature, at least from Harry Potter or the famous werewolf group game. Also the people in ancient Greece gave him their own name: The lykanthropos (from lykos=wolf, anthropos=man). But was this creature “invented” in ancient Hellas as well?

It is hard to belive that the system of the famous werewolf game was once reality. In the Middle Ages, werewolfs were feared as much as witches and were executed in the most brutal ways, mostly burning was thought to kill a werewolf effectively. It was beliefed that a man transforms into a wolf at full moon while he loses his mind and tries to kill and eat humans. By and by, the metamorphosis becomes more frequent and with this the man, or the woman, loses the ability to act reasonable. You could be infected by a wolf bite and turn into a werewolf yourself. Probably this belief was due to the fact that in the Middle Ages really a lot of wolfs lived in the forests. Maybe it was also connected with rabid animals who could infect humans by biting them. One recorded trial occurred in Germany in 1591. A man named Stubbe was believed to turn into a werewolf when he puts on his belt and to kill and eat humans. In fact, Stubbe has been a serial killer who attacked mostly young girls. The most horrifying crime was that he killed his own son and ate his brain. Also nowadays, some people clame to have seen a werewolf like in the village Halsham, England in 2016 and many books and movies are about this frightening creature. You can decide yourself if you believe in them or not...
The Middle Ages were definetely the climax of the werewolf paranoia. But do you think this creature was also present in Ancient Greek mythology? Guess and check on the solution button on chiosradio.gr!