The Curse of the Wer.. - Site de Thomas - Free

I N T R O D U C T I O N
Shifting shapes of the werewolf
A werewolf is a human being who changes into a wolf. Accounts of
such beings have circulated in Europe since classical antiquity, and
the causes and characteristics of the phenomenon or condition sometimes
termed ‘lycanthropy’ have long been debated in Western culture.
Although genuine belief in werewolves persisted into the twentieth
century, various scholarly explanations of belief in the phenomenon
have also been advanced. Physicians, for example, have considered
lycanthropy to be a disease of the mind and body since ancient times.
Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, at the height of the
witch-hunts (when a number of alleged werewolves were sentenced
to death), the focus of debate concerning the phenomenon shifted
from a medical perspective to ecclesiastical questions about whether
the Devil could empower an actual transformation or merely the illusion
of transformation. Throughout this period a number of medical
scholars maintained that the condition was a form of madness or
melancholy, but it was not until the late seventeenth century that this
view regained widespread credence. The Enlightenment rejection of
superstitious or occult beliefs in favour of Reason lent further weight