Scene depicting Herakles attacking Nessos pursuing Deianeira. At center infernal Wolf-man, probably a daemon. Heracles armed with club and bow chases Nessos. The centaur escapes pursuing Deianeira who frightened by the hybrid creature is running away. Inside the central tondo there is the enigmatic figure of the wolf-man. According to some scholars, this figure represents the soul of a man bound to the world of the dead. The Etruscan demonizing conception transforms this figure in a man-wolf, a daemon-wolf. Therefore the “monster” could be identified as a restless soul: primarily the spirit of people who had not received a ritual burial, or who had died violently or prematurely. It must be admitted that the visual elements of the decoration on this plate do not clarify the link between the wolf-man and the other figures present in the outer zone of decoration. The wolf-man is oriented in the same direction as Herakles, Nessos, and Deianeira, moving counterclockwise, but his position in the tondo isolates him from the other narrative. It is difficult to say if he is meant to be viewed as somehow related to the scene surrounding him, or, if he belongs to a separate mythological context. Perhaps the running wolf-man could be interpreted as an indication of the fate of the characters in the outer register and read a chthonic symbolism into this figure. Nessos brings about his own death because he attempts to rape Deianeira; Herakles slays him using arrows which had been dipped in the blood of the Lernean Hydra. Deianeira in turn slays Herakles with a cloak soaked in Nessos’ poisoned blood.
Wayne L. Rupp, Shape of the Beast
Etruscan Pontic Plate Height 9.4 cm, diameter 20.0 cm. Attributed to the Tityos Painter Circa 520 BC From Vulci Rome, Villa Giulia, Museo Nazionale Etrusco
Photo credit: Egisto Sani
Weird take by Rupp here since there’s an obvious character this could be, who is exactly what you’d think: a werewolf.
Our modern concept of the werewolf is from a very specific cult myth, like this is our oldest quintessential werewolf thing, which most people might not know but Rupp should.
The word “lycanthropy” isn’t a new word, Greeks had this term. The concept is from a cult of Zeus on Mount Lykaion. King Lykaon of Arcadia was turned into a wolf by Zeus after he killed his own son and served him to Zeus, is the basic story. But then there was also a cult that had ceremonies and stuff related to this.
Some Pausanias:
“Lykaon (Lycaon) brought a human baby to the altar of Zeus Lykaios (Lycaeus), and sacrificed it, pouring out its blood upon the altar, and according to the legend immediately after the sacrifice he was changed from a man to a wolf (lykos) …
All through the ages, many events that have occurred in the past, and even some that occur to-day, have been generally discredited because of the lies built up on a foundation of fact. It is said, for instance, that ever since the time of Lykaon a man has changed into a wolf at the sacrifice to Zeus Lykaios, but that the change is not for life; if, when he is a wolf, he abstains from human flesh, after nine years he becomes a man again, but if he tastes human flesh he remains a beast for ever.”
There’s also some spooky zone where you don’t cast a shadow on the mountain and if you go in there you’ll die within the year. Anyway. Maybe that’s who this represents.
As for why, the perspective client might have some tie to the cult or the region.
There’s another Lycaon that Heracles killed, this could be a conflation of the two.
Also: werewolves are rad as hell. Sometimes people put pictures of things on things simply because they are cool.
