Werewolves, these bloody offspring of satanic forces, are known to almost everyone according to fairy tales and legends. The special term “therianthropy” has even been invented to transform people into wild, vicious animals. Most of the stories about werewolves are devoted to people turning into bloodthirsty wolves, such people are called lycanthropes.
It is in the Greek myths that one of the most ancient references to the transformation of man into a wolf is contained. According to legend, the Arcadian king Lycaon decided to play a trick on Zeus who was visiting him. The joke was quite in the spirit of those times that today's dreamers call "golden".
Human life had no value then. Lycaon served Zeus on the table a dish prepared from his own son, killed by Lycaon. The Arcadian tsar had fifty sons and, apparently, did not really care for them. However, Zeus became terribly angry and turned Lycaon into a wolf forever. It is from this legend that the term "lycanthropy" is taken.
However, those who are now called werewolves do not always wear wolf's clothing. In ordinary life, these are ordinary people, often modest and inconspicuous. Only in special circumstances: a full moon, extreme danger, a desire for revenge, or just to drink blood, they turn into terrible monsters.
It is interesting that the image of the wolf as an enemy of humanity was not always demonized. In ancient legends, wolves are often noble creatures that help gods and people. Suffice it to recall the legend about the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, who were fed by a she-wolf.
Presumably the demonization of wolves dates back to the European Middle Ages. Then, ravaged by internecine wars, Europe lay in ruins. In the courtyards and buildings of ruined castles and villages, there were bodies left without burial. The number of deaths increased by terrible epidemics, sometimes taking away all local residents. The wolves feasted at this table, laid for them by death itself.
It is to this period that most of the legends about the appearance of werewolves belong. The psyche of people, overloaded with suffering and poorly mastered church dogmas, could not stand it, and in some villages lycanthropy took on the character of an epidemic. People began to sincerely believe that they were turning into wild beasts and tearing their own kind to bloody pieces.
Neighbors who had not yet completely lost their minds hunted them in order to become one of the next victims of this mass insanity.
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A great contribution to these gloomy events was made by the Catholic and various Reformed churches, the latter also had their own versions of the Inquisition. Wild accusations, predetermined trials and bloody executions became the norm in medieval Europe. However, in a humane desire not to shed blood, werewolves, like other sorcerers, were usually sentenced to be burned.
Accused of witchcraft, there was practically no chance of salvation. The investigation was accompanied by savage torture until he confessed. One of the "exposed" werewolves admitted that his wolf skin was hidden inside himself. In order to verify these testimonies, it was decided to cut off the arms and legs of the defendant. The skin was not found, and it, the rarest case, was acquitted. True, he died of blood loss earlier.
With the softening of European morals, the number of these executions gradually decreased, and the mental health of society as a whole stabilized. Nevertheless, scary stories about evil and bloodthirsty half-wolves, half-people are still one of the favorite elements of folklore. They are supposed to be told in a tragic whisper in the rapidly approaching twilight.
According to these stories, there are three ways to transform a normal person into a werewolf: the witchcraft of an evil wizard, the bite of another werewolf, or a genetic relationship, so to speak. The werewolf child is also a werewolf. Moreover, in the latter case, especially if only one of the parents was a werewolf, he may not know anything about his curse and turn completely unexpectedly for himself.
Werewolves never get sick, their wounds heal right before our eyes, conventional weapons are powerless against them. In fact, they have limited immortality, that is, a werewolf can be killed, but you should be well prepared for this. According to legends, for this you need to chop off his head, or inflict a severe wound in the heart, strangle, drown, or in another way block the access of oxygen to the brain. In addition, three round silver bullets help, or one, but exactly in the heart. Bullet wounds made from obsidian do not heal on werewolves.
Apparently, the methods of murder associated with the death of the brain in legends indicate that the people have long guessed about the causes of lycanthropy. Which are more likely to be found in the brain destroyed by the disease than in the hidden wolf's skin.
Scientists have long been researching the various manifestations of lycanthropy. In the Mexican city of Guadalagara, there is a Biometric Research Center dealing with these issues.
The main research of the Center is centered around the Asievo family. This family has long been related only to each other, and the reasons are on the surface - Asievo's bodies, including palms and feet, are covered with thick hair. This attack did not escape the women of the family. Scientists conducted a genetic study, which showed that abnormalities at the genetic level arose in the ancestors of the family in the Middle Ages, and closely related ties increased and consolidated them. Asievo live in a remote village, where the rest of the inhabitants are afraid and hate them.
In the Ukrainian White Church in a special boarding school, seventeen-year-old Vitya is being held. In normal times, he is quite kind and affectionate, and even smarter than most of the other pupils. However, not the best heredity and the ordeal of childhood left an indelible mark on him. The boy lost his mother early, and was brought up in an orphanage. Later he was handed over for adoption to a family of Orthodox Baptists, during this period a terrible thing happened.
Waking up one day, he began to talk about the fact that he immediately needed to go to the forest, where his "brothers" were waiting for him. The attempts of the adoptive parents to keep him led to a terrible scandal, the boy even grabbed a knife. After that he was returned to the orphanage, where he is kept under medical supervision. In moments of exacerbation, he gets on all fours, scrubbing the floors, howling. The rest of the mentally disabled pupils think he is having so much fun. The child himself, after undergoing soothing medical procedures, does not remember anything about it.