History -
Taken From WikiIn Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who in the most popular version of the myth tested Zeus by serving him a dish of his slaughtered and dismembered son in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient. In return for these gruesome deeds Zeus transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, and killed Lycaon's fifty sons by lightning bolts, except possibly Nyctimus, who was the slaughtered child, and instead became restored to life.
Despite being notorious for his horrific deeds, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero: he was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games. According to Hyginus, Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene.The Arcadian town Nonakris was thought to have been named after the wife of Lycaon
This gave rise to the story that a stallion was turned into a wolf at each annual sacrifice to Zeus Lycaeus, the Lupercal, but recovered his true form if he abstained from starborn flesh for nine years. The wolves seem to be holding to their side of the bargain; there has been no documented proof in the past 150 years that any wild, healthy wolf has killed a starborn.
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