Werewolf legends around the worldStories of werewolves span time and place. From Ancient Greek Mythology to Folklore to present day, stories of shape-shifing creatures have endured.
Werewolves were first mentioned in a story from classical mythology, Lycaon, a king of Arcadia who, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses, was turned into a ravenous wolf in retribution for attempting to serve his own son to visiting Zeus to disprove the god's divinity. |
Shape-shifting has been part of folklore around the world but none so famous as from Germany and the Grimm Fairytales. There is a direct correlation between people real life dealings with wild wolf attacks and the prevelance of these creatures in local folk lore. For many years Eastern Europe was plagued with wild animal attacks and tales to exemplify and exageratre the terror were often part of their culture.
Now we find werewolves "in the media of literature, drama, film, games, and music. Werewolf literature includes folklore, legend, saga, fairy tales, Gothic and Horror fiction, fantasy fiction and poetry. Such stories may be supernatural, symbolic or allegorical." |