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2017: a Werewolf Odyssey, Or a Study of the Werewolf Myth from Rome to Today

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2017: a Werewolf Odyssey, Or a Study of the Werewolf Myth from Rome to Today 2017: A WEREWOLF ODYSSEY, OR A STUDY OF THE WEREWOLF MYTH FROM ROME TO TODAY By ANASTASIA IORGA AN HONORS THESIS PRESENTED TO THE CLASSICS DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SPRING 2017 © 2017 Anastasia Iorga 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5 BACK TO THE FUTURE: WEREWOLF EDITION......................................................................7 The Werewolf as the Monster in the Modern Age....................................................7 The Werewolf as the Victim in the Middle Ages....................................................11 The Werewolf as the Shape-Shifter in Folklore......................................................16 I WAS A ROMAN WEREWOLF..................................................................................................22 The Werewolf in Classical Antiquity.....................................................................22 The Werewolf as Fiction........................................................................................26 The Werewolf as Fact.............................................................................................29 A Roman and His Werewolf...................................................................................32 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................34 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................37 3 ABSTRACT From the ancient tyrant Lycaon to the A-list actor Benicio del Toro, the werewolf has been a monstrous presence in historical record and Hollywood entertainment. The timeless monster is found in classical texts ranging from Herodotus’ The Histories to Petronius’ The Satyricon, and it continued to be referenced well into the the modern age. The werewolf myth has changed since its classical origins, but the untamed and lawless nature of this creature has remained the same. The wildness of the werewolf is in contrast to the qualities of a respectable citizen in classical society. Therefore, it is ironic that two venerated figures in Roman history, Romulus and Remus, were raised by a she-wolf. Studies have noted this dichotomy and asserted it as a reflection of the contemporaneous world. Others have noted the psychological implications of the endurance of this myth on the individual and society as a whole. Based on classical depictions and later interpretations, it is likely that, in the Roman world, the werewolf myth acted as a portrayal of the darkest parts of the human psyche manifest into physical form, serving as both a warning and an excuse for those who erred from the Roman way of life. 4 Introduction The Greeks and Romans have a convoluted history that reflects how deeply ingrained the mythological was in their daily lives. Mythology to them was reality, and their artwork and literature exemplifies the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Their lives are full of references to tales from the age of heroes and gods, and where their gods and heroes were revered, their villains and monsters were infamous. One such monster is the werewolf, although the classical world had several different names for the creature, such as the Greek lycanthropos. The lore surrounding the classical werewolf is just as vast as it is variable, ranging from historical references to a group of people that change into a wolf once a year to tales of a wicked man that was punished with a wolf form. There is not even a consistent name for such a creature, and the etymology behind these names are just as inconsistent. But despite the confusion surrounding its origins and history, the werewolf is a dominant and persistent creature with a past that is heavy in mythology and a future even heavier in muddled interpretation. The werewolf is an iconic monster in the horror genre of the modern day. The fictional species has gone from nightmare, à la The Wolf Man, to romantic interest, à la Twilight, and everywhere in between. Hollywood has designed the werewolf in a plethora of ways with costumes ranging from a combination of wolf and human to simply full wolf, and the lore is just as adaptable. For example, the lore surrounding silver has been adapted to turn the metal from lethal kryptonite to a mere nuisance or the result of a game of Telephone that originated with a famous werewolf hunter named Argent, the French word for silver (a clever twist found in MTV’s Teen Wolf). Hollywood has a fascination with this mythological creature, considering its persistent presence from 1913 with The Werewolf to today with the latest of the Underworld movies. People know the werewolf just as much as they know the vampire or the unicorn, but 5 Hollywood’s werewolf is very different from the werewolf of Medieval England and Renaissance Europe. The werewolf mythology that existed after the end of the Classical Age and before the rise of Hollywood had the monsters under different names and with different characteristics. Religion permeated the lore surrounding the werewolf, given that there is even a lasting connection between the monster and the devil. Specifically, the Anglo-Saxon term “were-wulf” is used synonymously with the devil in legal documents associated with King Cnut.1 Some versions of the werewolf in this time even describe the werewolves as sorcerers that created an ointment and enchanted girdle that, when they put these on, turns them into murderous wolves, with the help of the devil of course.2 The wolf is considered to be such a demonic animal, with “unbridled cruelty, bestial ferocity, and ravening hunger,”3 that even the holy texts refer to it as such. This imagery is common throughout time, given some exceptions here and there, and the core of the beast remains the same as well. The werewolf maintains most of its foundation well into the modern day, although changes have been made to either demonize or humanize the fictional creature based on trends in media. Examples of these trends can be found in the Twilight era, where monsters of all kinds began to appear more humanized, and in the 1980’s, where horror films used werewolves to represent the metaphorical repercussions of puberty and moral deviance. Other examples can be found in early Hollywood, particularly in black and white cinema with the revolutionary work of Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man and other werewolf films.4 Studies have been performed to analyze how these trends in media might reflect the society of that time, looking at Freudian 1 Montague Summers, The Werewolf in Lore and Legend (New York, NY: Dover, 2003), 4. 2 Summers, The Werewolf, 3. 3 Summers, The Werewolf, 65. 4 Rick Worland, The Horror Film: An Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), 70. 6 concepts, like repression, masculinity, and egos, and common themes, like political and societal commentary. These studies play a key role in understanding the persistence of certain mythological monsters, such as the werewolf. They show that despite the many changes the myth has undergone, the werewolf is still popular today where many other mythological monsters, like the chimera or manticore, have fallen to the wayside for the most part. The werewolf is a creature that represents the complete opposite of what a society expects of its citizens, providing a dichotomy of the moral righteousness of the human and the insatiable wickedness of the wolf. In the classical world, Roman citizens were subject to social scrutiny and moral limitation, particularly in the age of the empire where the emperor Augustus promoted Rome’s own version of the nuclear family ideal. Thus, given the classical world’s intermingling of myth and reality, it is possible that the werewolf was used in a way similar to how we use the boogeyman today. In a classical context, at least among the Romans, it is likely that the werewolf myth served as a reflection of the less desirable facets of the human psyche manifest into a paradigmatic physical form, acting as something like a warning or parable. Back to the Future: Werewolf Edition The Werewolf as the Monster in the Modern Age Hollywood has something of a love story with the horror genre, and mountains of books have been published recapping the history of Hollywood horror, detailing the feats of directors, costume designers, and lead actors alike. The horror genre has become so iconic that it inspired horror films about itself, such as the Scream films, satirical slasher movies that successfully combined irony and gore to create a cult classic. Universal Studios has a show and museum dedicated to the costume designs of its early horror films, such as The Wolf Man and The Phantom of the Opera. While this study is not about the Hollywood werewolf, it is important to 7 note the effect entertainment media has had on the werewolf myth. Hollywood’s horror genre begins with the growing popularity of gothic literature in the late eighteenth century, leading to the immortalization of creatures like the vampire, the werewolf, and Frankenstein’s monster, and it ends with the Hollywood feature film that we are familiar with today, 3D effects and all.5 By adapting ancient mythology into a modern environment, many have argued that the monsters introduced
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