Lycaon (mythology)

Jupiter and Lycaon. Museo del Prado

In Greek mythology, Licaon (Greek: Λυκάων) was a king of Arcadia and the son of the native Pelasgus, whom he succeeded. His mother is one of the nymphs, either the Oceanid Melibea, or the oréa of Cilene and even Deianira, daughter of another Lycaon.

Licaon was a cultured and religious king, much loved by his people, whom he helped to abandon the wild life they had led until then. He founded the city of Licosura, one of the oldest in Greece, and in it he erected an altar to Zeus Lyceum. But his passionate religiosity led him to perform human sacrifices, which degenerated his subsequent metamorphosis. Ovid affirms that he reached the point of sacrificing all foreigners who came to his house, thus violating the sacred law of blessed hospitality.

Dutch engraving, attributed to Hendrick Goltzius, for an edition of 1589 of Metamorphosis of Ovid: Lycaon transformed by Zeus.

Having learned of this aberration, Zeus posed as a pilgrim and stayed in Lycaon's palace. He was prepared to kill the pilgrim, but, alerted by some divine signs, he wanted to make sure beforehand that he was not a god, as his fearful subjects claimed. For this he had the meat of one of his victims or of a slave cooked, and served it to Zeus. This flew into a rage and transformed Lycaon into a wolf, and then burned down the palace that he had witnessed so much cruelty.

Another version of the myth states that Lycaon was the father of many children (some authors say as many as fifty) by different women. Others say that Lycaon's wife was one of the eponymous nymphs, or Cylene, or Nonacris. The sons of Lycaon were famous for their insolence and impiety, and their crimes reached the ears of Zeus, who disguised himself as an old beggar and went to the palace of the lycaonides to see if the rumors were true. they were true. The young princes had the audacity to murder their own brother Níctimo and serve their entrails to the guest, mixed with those of animals. Zeus discovered the deception and enraged turned everyone into wolves, struck them down with his lightning or they had to go into exile forever, according to the versions. He then restored Nyctimus to life, who succeeded his father in the kingdom of Arcadia.

According to the Mythological Library of Pseudo-Apolodorus, it was during the reign of Níctimo that Deucalion's flood occurred, caused precisely by Zeus's anger at the impiety of the sons of Lycaon.

Suidas offers another version of the story: in order to make his people more pious, Lycaon had spread the rumor that Zeus would often visit him incognito. To prove it, the sons of Lycaon were the ones who killed a child and mixed his meat with that of the oxen prepared for sacrifice to the god, and he struck them down with lightning. It was then that Lycaon, who was innocent, instituted the lupercalia.

Variants of the myth

• Apolodoro says the Lycaonids overcame all men in pride and impiety. Zeus presented himself to them under the look of a laborer to test them. They offered him their hospitality, dismembered a native child and offered him, instigated by Menalo, the eldest brother. Zeus, disgusted, knocked down the table in the place now called "Trapezunte" (from τραπ "mesa"), and struck Lycaon and his children except the youngest, Nictimo, because Gea, stepping up, grabbed Zeus' right hand and calmed his wrath.
• Tzetzes adds that the victim was one of the sons of Menalo, the son of Lycaon.
• Pausanias is more tragic, as he says that Lycaon instantly transformed into wolf after sacrificing a child on the altar of Zeus and sprinkling blood on him.
• In the opinion of Licophron, Lycaon and his sons all became wolves for having devoured Nictimo. Licofron extrapolates the characteristics of Lycaon and his sons to all the arcadians in general.
• Higino in the Fables He says that Jupiter came as a guest with Lycaon, and so he took advantage to seduce his daughter Calisto; in the end he only transformed into a wolf to Lycaon. In the Astronomy Instead he describes the victim as the Arcade itself, and Zeus to save him and his mother, he catalysed them.
• I hate to say that Lycaon distrusted and mocked Zeus' divine nature when he appeared to him. To prove whether he was really a god or a mortal, Lion served Zeus the flesh of a prisoner. He also tried to kill the god while he was sleeping. It was then when Zeus collapsed his home and transformed into a wolf, Lycaon, who fled unpaid.
• La Suda He tells us that Lycaon was a righteous king, but that the Arkish people killed one of the Lycaonids to prove Zeus' deity.

Offspring of Lycaon

Lycaonides

Mythographic sources cite at least three daughters of Lycaon:

• Calisto - mother of Arcade; others believe her one of the nymphs
• Day - mother of Dríope
• Psophide - eponymous

Most famous Lycaonids

For reigning in lands yet to be civilized, some of the impious sons of Lycaon were famous for founding numerous cities, either in Arcadia or in their forced exile after a visit by Zeus. Of the many children that Lycaon had, these are the names that have endured, in most cases because they are eponyms of the cities they founded, which appear in parentheses.

• Acaco (Acacesio)
• Alfer (Alifera)
• Aseatas (Asea)
• Bucolion, which was visited by Zeus in the form of a villager
• Carisio (Carisia)
• Chrome (Cromos)
• Daseatas (Dásea)
• Eleuter, who was innocent of the crime of Nictimo.
• Enotrio o Enotro (Enotria, Italy)
• Stemphale (Syllphale)
• Fígalo (Figalia), which some consider indigenous
• Hemon (Hemon)
• Helison (Helisonte)
• Hereeo (Herea)
• Hipso (Hipsunte)
• Lébado, who was innocent of the crime of Nictimo.
• Licio (Licoa)
• Macareo (Macaria)
• Mantineo (Mantinea), who was the father of Aglaya
• Menalo (Ménalo)
• Nictimo, the firstborn of the lynids and the one who initially held all power.
• Orcomeno (Orcomeno and Metidrio)
• Oresteo (Orestasio)
• Palas or Palante (Palantio)
• Pereto (Peretes)
• Peucetio (Peucetia)
• Sumateo (Sumatia)
• Tegeates (Tegea)
• Tireo (Tirea and Tireo)
• Tocno (Tocnia);
• Trapezunte (Trapezunte, founded in the place where they gave Zeus the bowels of his brother)
• Tricholone (Tricolone)

Other Lycaonids

The rest of the Lycaonids are either not eponymous for Arcadian places, or are secondary figures about whom little more than their names is known. The list includes, namely: Acontes, Ancior, Archebates, Canetus, Carterón, Caucón, Ceteo, Cinero, Clítor, Coretonte, Aegeon, Eumetes, Eumon, Evemon, Phaso, Phineus, Physio, Phtius, Genector, Haliferous, Harpaleo or Harpallic, Helix, Hopleus, Horo, Leon, Lino, Macednos, Mecisteo, Meleneo, Parrhasius, Plato, Policus, Porteo, Protoos, Socleus, Teleboas, Thesprotus, and Titanas.

Interpretations

Robert Graves has his interpretation of Lycaon. He tells us that the fable of Zeus and the entrails of the child is not so much a myth as a moral anecdote expressing the distaste felt in the more civilized parts of Greece for the ancient cannibalistic practices of Arcadia, which were still carried out in the name of Zeus, considering them "barbarous and unnatural" (Plutarch: Life of Pelopidas). The Lycaonian rites, which according to the author, never received the approval of Zeus, were apparently intended to prevent wolves from preying on herds and herds by sending them a human king. "Lycian" means "of the she-wolf", but also "of the light", and the lightning bolt in the Lycaon myth demonstrates that the Arcadian Zeus began as a sacred rain-making king.