| Lycaon | |
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 Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf; engraving by Hendrik Goltzius. | |
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Real Name |
Lycaon |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia who, in the most popular version of the myth, killed and cooked his son Nyctimus and served him to Zeus, to see whether the god was sufficiently all-knowing to recognize human flesh. Disgusted, Zeus transformed Lycaon into a wolf, while Nyctimus was restored to life.
In Astronomica, Hyginus describes the victim of Lycaon as being Arcas, son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon. Restored to life, Arcas was brought up to be a hunter. His mother was subsequently transformed into a bear, whom Arcas pursued without realizing her true identity; they strayed into a temple where entrance was punished by death. Zeus saved them both by turning them into the constellations Arctophylax and Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
Despite being notorious for his horrific deeds, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero: he was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games. According to Gaius Julius Hyginus (d. AD 17), Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene.
Lycaon was the son of Pelasgus and either the Oceanid Meliboea or Deianira, daughter of an elder Lycaon. His wife was called Cyllene, an Oread nymph who gave her name to Mount Cyllenê though sometimes she was regarded as his mother instead. In some accounts, the Arcadian town Nonakris was thought to have been named after his wife. Lycaon was also known to have had at least three daughters: Callisto, Dia and Psophis. According to the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Lycaon has 50 sons. An alternate list of Lycaon's sons is given by Pausanias. According to his account, almost each of them founded a city in Arcadia and became its eponym.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Lycaon from before Janurary 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed here:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Metamorphoses
- Bibliotheca
- Fabulae
- Astronomica
- Suda
Notes[]
- Ovid's version of Lycaon's story is considered one of the origins of the modern Werewolves.