Lycaon

It really is.

He names it after King Lycaon of Arcadia from Greek mythology.

So according to the myth, Lycaon wanted to test whether the god Zeus was truly omniscient.

Right.

Yeah.

And the Roman poet Ovid wrote the famous story of King Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf by Jupiter as a punishment for serving him human flesh.

Right, the origin of the word lycanthropy.

Exactly.

In some versions, Zeus is angered by the brutality of humanity during the Bronze Age.

In another famous story, a king named Lycaon tests Zeus by serving him a terrible meal, sometimes said to include human flesh.

Zeus recognizes the insult, destroys Lycaon's house with thunderbolts, and sees in the king's crime a reflection of wider human corruption.

The human race, he decides, has become violent, arrogant, and godless.

So Zeus considers destroying it.

In Ancient Greece, apparently people believed that someone could be transformed by eating the meat of a wolf and a human mixed together.

This story is similar to the tale of King Lycaon.

He attempted to trick the god Zeus into eating human flesh.

Zeus wasn't pleased and turned the king into a wolf as punishment.

In Ancient Greece, apparently people believed that someone could be transformed by eating the meat of a wolf and a human mixed together.

This story is similar to the tale of King Lycaon.

He attempted to trick the god Zeus into eating human flesh.

Zeus wasn't pleased and turned the king into a wolf as punishment.

Like a lichen?

Lycaon.

Li- Lycian?

Lycaon.

Lyce-

All right.

There it is

... that I couldn't say before.

There is a fixed time for each Nurian, at which they change, if they like, into wolves and back again into their former condition.

But the most remarkable story among the ancients is that related by Ovid in his Metamorphosis of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, who, entertaining Jupiter one day, set before him a hash of human flesh to prove his omniscience, whereupon the god transferred him into a wolf.

In vain he attempted to speak.

From that very instant his jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted for blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter.

The natives were a pastoral people, and would consequently suffer very severely from the attacks and depredations of wolves.

They would naturally institute a sacrifice to obtain deliverance from this pest and security for their flocks.

This sacrifice consisted in the offering of a child, and it was instituted by Lycaon.

From the circumstance of the sacrifice being human, and from the peculiarity of the name of its originator, rose the myth.

What?

In Greek mythology, King Lycaon, Lycaon, who served Zeus human flesh, was punished, and you guessed it, by being [laughs] turned into a wolf.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, lycanthropy comes from the Greek words for wolf, lyco, and man, anthrop- anthropos, used by ancient physicians to describe a mental illness when people believed they were wolves.