The King of the Werewolves
Greek writers, Plato and Pausanias, mention human sacrifice occurring on Mt. Lykaion (which translates to Wolf Mountain) in Greece.
An archeological team who had been working on the site for over a decade had found no evidence of this. This changed in 2016, when human bones were found among thousands of animal bones.
Mt. Lykaion is purported to be the birthplace of Zeus, the leader of the Greek pantheon of gods. The Mt. Lykaion Survey and Excavation Project has been excavating at what is known as the Sanctuary of Zeus for over a decade.
As befits a sacrificial location an altar was found at the mountain's summit made of ash, and measuring 100 feet in diameter. Unsurprisingly the team found thousands of sheep and goat bones that had been sacrificed to Zeus, even though it's believed this altar was used previous to the belief in Zeus — as early as 5,000 years ago and at least 1,000 years before the early Greeks began to worship the god Zeus.
During an excavation in 2016, the bones belonging to an adolescent, missing the top of his skull was found. His entire skeleton was carefully laid out in a stone-lined grave that dates back 3,000 years.
Dark rumors of human sacrifice had surrounded this area, but until this discovery it was only an unsubstantiated story.
Pausanias visited this mound which was guarded by Doric columns with golden eagles atop, He wrote: “On this altar they sacrifice in secret to Zeus Lykaios. I was reluctant to pry into the details of the sacrifice; let them be as they are and were from the beginning.”
Despite his distaste for the bloodletting that had occurred at this site, he did record an ancient story passed down, which told of a king who had sacrificed a human baby and poured its blood upon the altar. This king then transformed into a wolf. Pausanias was not the only one to claim that both animals and humans were sacrificed to Zeus.
Another legend told the story of Lycaon, a king who ruled Arcadia and who the nearby mountain was named for. It was told that he challenged Zeus, claiming that he was not an all powerful god. In order to prove his claim, King Lycaon killed his own son Nyctimus, and served the cooked meat to Zeus, hoping he would break the taboo set down against eating human flesh. Zeus was not fooled and in retribution against the arrogant king, brought his son back to life, and made Lycaon into a wolf. Was this the first werewolf?
Ovid described the transformation of King Lycaon thus:
…He tried to speak, but his voice broke into
an echoing howl. His ravening soul infected his jaws;
his murderous longings were turned on the cattle; he still was possessed
by bloodlust. His garments were changed to a shaggy coat and his arms
into legs. He was now transformed into a wolf.
This fate of Lycaon created an ancient cult, which met at the mountain every decade on the mountain to conduct secret rites. Ceremonies supposedly involved human sacrifice, in which all the members would be served a meal, but only one plate was actual human flesh. This cannibal was fated to become a wolf, unless he could refrain from eating more human flesh until the next gathering.
Buried at the foot of a sacrificial altar, was this boy a gruesome attempt to gain the favors of the gods?
Also found on an altar was a rock crystal seal with the image of a bull (1500-1400 B.C.). What was the connection to the Minoan isle of Crete?
Pausanias wrote of the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, which lies 23 miles NW of Mt. Lykaion, about what is known as an “ash altar”:
It has been made from the ash of the thighs of the victims sacrificed to Zeus … The first stage of the altar at Olympia, called prothysis, has a circumference of one hundred and twenty-five feet; the circumference of the stage on the prothysis is thirty-two feet; the total height of the altar reaches to twenty-two feet. The victims themselves it is the custom to sacrifice on the lower stage, the prothysis. But the thighs they carry up to the highest part of the altar and burn them there. The steps that lead up to the prothysis from either side are made of stone, but those leading from the prothysis to the upper part of the altar are, like the altar itself, composed of ashes.
Centuries of sacrifices created a 5-foot sediment pile. In the center of this ash altar a stone-lined cist, oriented east-west was built, and within were the bones of an adolescent male, which had stones covering his pelvic region. The cranium was missing. It’s estimated he was buried in the 11th century B.C. This discovery is highly unusual, especially a burial made within an existing altar.
There were other instances of human sacrifice ancient Greece. The pharmakos was a human chosen to represent evil at moments of crisis or disaster. In some instances this person could be seen as a scapegoat. Usually a criminal, slave, or a deformed man was used as pharmakos. "The most deformed of all, the most unpleasant and mistreated by nature, maimed and lame man, such sort ... they sacrificed."
The chosen individual was dressed in "holy garments" and adorned with sprigs, then they were walked away from the city as expulsion. Outside the city, they were killed by stoning, burning or thrown off a cliff into the ocean.
The Greek were not alone in sacrificing humans to appease the gods. In the Battle of Cannae fought in 216 B.C., the Carthaginians led by Hannibal annihilated the Roman army. After the terrific defeat two Greek couples and two from Gaul were buried alive under the Forum Boarium as a plea to the gods. The Forum Boarium was the cattle market of Rome. The site housed the Temple of Hercules Victor, and the Temple of Portunus.
The Romans did have a history of ritual murder. They drowned hermaphroditic children, and vestal virgins who had sex were immured alive in a special chamber.
So who was this deity, male or female, that was worshipped on this mountain top? Why would a sacrificial victim, if indeed he was one, be the only human to be interred on an altar. Was he perhaps the King of the Werewolves?