And Lycaon the son of Pelasgus devised even wiser things than his
father. For he founded the town Lycosura on the Mountain Lycæus, and
called Zeus Lycæus, and established a festival to him called the
Lycæa. I do not think the Pan-Athenæa was established by the Athenians
earlier, for their games were called Athenæa till the time of Theseus,
when they were called Pan-Athenæa, because when they were then
celebrated all the Athenians were gathered together into one city. As
to the Olympian games--which they trace back to a period earlier than
man, and in which they represent Cronos and Zeus wrestling, and the
Curetes as the first competitors in running--for these reasons they may
be passed over in the present account. And I think that Cecrops, king
of Athens, and Lycaon were contemporaries, but did not display equal
wisdom to the deity. For Cecrops was the first to call Zeus supreme,
and did not think it right to sacrifice anything that had life, but
offered on the altar the national cakes, which the Athenians still call
by a special name, (_pelani_). But Lycaon brought a baby to the altar
of Lycæan Zeus, and sacrificed it upon it, and sprinkled its blood on
the altar. And they say directly after this sacrifice he became a wolf
instead of a man. This tale I can easily credit, as it is a very old
tradition among the Arcadians, and probable enough in itself. For the
men who lived in those days were guests at the tables of the gods in
consequence of their righteousness and piety, and those who were good
clearly met with honour from the gods, and similarly those who were
wicked with wrath, for the gods in those days were sometimes mortals
who are still worshipped, as Aristæus, and Britomartis of Crete, and
Hercules the son of Alcmena, and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and
besides them Castor and Pollux. So one might well believe that Lycaon
became a wolf, and Niobe the daughter of Tantalus a stone. But in our
day, now wickedness has grown and spread all over the earth in all
towns and countries, no mortal any longer becomes a god except in the
language of excessive flattery,[19] and the wicked receive wrath from
the gods very late and only after their departure from this life. And
in every age many curious things have happened, and some of them have
been made to appear incredible to many, though they really happened,
by those who have grafted falsehood on to truth. For they say that
after Lycaon a person became a wolf from a man at the Festival of
Lycæan Zeus, but not for all his life: for whenever he was a wolf if
he abstained from meat ten months he became a man again, but if he
tasted meat he remained a beast. Similarly they say that Niobe on Mount
Sipylus weeps in summer time. And I have heard of other wonderful
things, as people marked like vultures and leopards, and of the Tritons
speaking with a human voice, who sing some say through a perforated
shell. Now all that listen with pleasure to such fables are themselves
by nature apt to exaggerate the wonderful, and so mixing fiction with
truth they get discredited.
[19] _e.g._, as used to the Roman Emperors, _divus_.