The role of predators in Mythology

In Indian mythology, the wolf is described as demonic. Furthermore, the wolf is portrayed as thievish, deceptive and false. In India, the demons were named after the wolf. In Christianity the wolf was even equated with the devil: Jesus Christ advised against false prophets dressed in sheep’s clothing which in fact were wolfs. Numerous myths from Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia tell about the creation of the wolf by the devil. During the creation of the wolf, the devil relied on the help of God and it was God’s will that the wolf kills sheep and goats.

• Transformed: During the Middle Ages, the belief was widely accepted that men would transform into werewolves. The werewolf, a creature from the devil, obsessed, half human and half animal, roamed the streets at night and, "drank the still warm blood, gorged the bowels from its innocent victims during orgies of satanic cruelty". The belief in werewolves already existed in the ancient world, but during the Middle Ages this belief grew to be much stronger. Mostly women and children became victims of werewolves which, in reality were men that felt and acted like wolves while under the influence of drugs and rituals. It was believed that with the help of the Malleus Maleficarum (the hammer of the witches) in 1489, one could not only recognize witches but also werewolves, which resulted in countless men being burned to death on bonfires as so-called werewolves. To contemporaries it was clear that one would turn into a werewolf through an evil spell or as a punishment for a serious sin.
• Outlawed: The word wolf is widely common in the Indo-European roots of language and often not only stands for the animal but describes in the old Germanic languages the bandit, murderer, slayer, defied criminal, the banned and the evil ghost. In particular, the Old High German word "warg" was equated with evil itself. Outlaws were called "wolves" and the verdict "thou art a warg" declared the condemned as officially excluded, and forced to live in the wilderness. It was said to be forbidden to provide the "warg" with food and shelter. Even a condemned man’s own wife was not allowed to care for him, otherwise she herself would be condemned as a "warg" (Grimm 1887).
• Worshipped: Many different cultures worshipped the wolf. For the Egyptians the wolf symbolized the god of the empire of the dead. The Mongols saw in the wolf their first ancestor and for the Romans the wolf was the symbol for Mars, the God of war. The combination of the wolf with war was not meant to be negative but, instead, correlated it to the glorious death of a warrior or emperor. Furthermore, the fighting heroes were compared with furious wolves. Examples of wolf worshipping can be found in the combination of proper names with the word wolf attached: Wolfgang, Wolfdietrich, Wolfram, Wolfhart. The wolf is also worshipped as the protector of human beings. The most famous myth may be the one of Romulus and Remus, the founders of the city of Rome, who were abandoned as small children. A wolf found them and raised them as her own cubs. The Luperkaliefest (celebration in honor of fertility) is celebrating this myth, during which the female wolf is worshipped each year as the symbol for motherly sacrifice and fertility. The "Jungle book" has a similar theme as the main character, "Mowgli", is raised by wolves.