changes into a wolf; the Lykaonids for their part are struck at the same time as he is,
or else some of them are struck while others are transformed into wolves. Several
sources add that, to punish the human race, Zeus sent a devastating flood. Amongst
the retributions inflicted on Lykaon and his sons, it should be noted that metamor-
phosis into a wolf is presented as a punishment equivalent to the thunderbolt or
flooding.
The theme of Lykaon’s metamorphosis into a wolf and the werewolf traditions of
Mount Lykaion have been subject to diverse interpretations (Jost forthcoming (b)).
First it was considered to be the etiological myth of a cult of a men-wolves who
worshiped a wolf-god or that of a brotherhood of men-wolves who had a wolf for
token (e.g., Jeanmaire 1939:558–65). Then explanations began to focus on the
notion that metamorphosis into a wolf was equivalent to a symbolic death in a rite
of tribal initiation (e.g., Bonnechere 1994:85–96; Burkert 1983:84–93). The most
recent explanations turn on the idea of bestiality. Lykaon is an ambivalent character: a
civilizing hero, he ‘‘founded the city of Lykosoura on Mount Lykaion, he gave Zeus
the epithet Lykaios and instituted the Lykaia games’’ (Pausanias 8.2.3). The human
sacrifice he offers to Zeus Lykaios has a double significance: holy, it founds a rite;
sacrilegious, it incurs punishment. Zeus chooses to punish Lykaon’s impiety by
turning him into an animal that similarly symbolizes wildness. The bestiality into
which Lykaon is plunged illustrates the contrast between the civilization that he had
established and the wild world to which his action brings him. Lykaon the king is the
first civilized man and Lykaon the wolf is an animal, a wolf, the symbol of the world of
the animals in contrast to mankind and its institutions. In the figure of Lykaon human
behavior and animal behavior contrast with each other in succession. Henceforth, the
gods refuse commensality with men and Lykaon’s ‘‘transgression’’ is punished by a
‘‘regression’’ into the condition of a wild animal, the wolf (e.g., Forbes Irving
1990:90–5; Jost forthcoming (b)).
Another animal transformation is that of Demeter and Poseidon, who of their own
volition temporarily took on the form of horses. The story took place at Thelpusa and
at Phigalia, but its impact extended beyond this region and spread across the whole of
Arcadia. ‘‘The people of Thelpusa were the first of the Arcadians by whom Poseidon
was surnamed Hippios,’’ recalls Pausanias (8.25.7), as we have seen. Accordingly, the
Thelpusa story served as an etiology for the naming of Poseidon Hippios throughout
Arcadia.
The myth was localized beside the Ladon: ‘‘When Demeter was wandering,’’
Pausanias records (8.25.5–7):
as she searched for her daughter, Poseidon, if we may believe the tale, pursued her, seized
with a desire to have sex with her; and so she transformed herself into a mare and began
to graze, mingling herself with the mares of Onkos, but Poseidon understood that he
was being tricked and had sex with Demeter after having himself taken on the form of a
stallion. At the time Demeter had been enraged by what had happened. But in due
course she had wanted, it is said, to lay aside her anger and take a bath in the Ladon.
Following this, the goddess received her epithets: because of her anger, that of ‘‘Erinys’’
(since ‘‘to cherish one’s anger’’ is termederinueinin Arcadian), and then that of
‘‘Lousia’’ because she ‘‘bathed’’ [louein] herself in the Ladon... Demeter, as it is told,
bore to Poseidon a daughter, whose name it is not customary to utter to the uninitiated,
and the horse Arion.The Religious System in Arcadia 275