Olympos. From that time forth, according to Pliny, a noble
Arkadian was each year, on the festival of Zeus Lykaios, led
to the margin of a certain lake. Hanging his clothes upon a
tree, he then plunged into the water and became a wolf. For
the space of nine years he roamed about the adjacent woods,
and then, if he had not tasted human flesh during all this
time, he was allowed to swim back to the place where his
clothes were hanging, put them on, and return to his natural
form. It is further related of a certain Demainetos, that,
having once been present at a human sacrifice to Zeus Lykaios,
he ate of the flesh, and was transformed into a wolf for a
term of ten years.[64]

[64] Compare Plato, Republic, VIII. 15.

These and other similar mythical germs were developed by the
mediaeval imagination into the horrible superstition of
werewolves.

A werewolf, or loup-garou[65] was a person who had the power
of transforming himself into a wolf, being endowed, while in
the lupine state, with the intelligence of a man, the ferocity
of a wolf, and the irresistible strength of a demon. The
ancients believed in the existence of such persons; but in the
Middle Ages the metamorphosis was supposed to be a phenomenon
of daily occurrence, and even at the present day, in secluded
portions of Europe, the superstition is still cherished by
peasants. The belief, moreover, is supported by a vast amount
of evidence, which can neither be argued nor pooh-poohed into
insignificance. It is the business of the comparative