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Arkadia, Arkadian League, c. 430 - 420 B.C.
The epithet Lykaios ("wolf-Zeus") is assumed by Zeus only in connection with the archaic festival of the Lykaia on the slopes of Mount Lykaion ("Wolf Mountain"), the tallest peak in rustic Arcadia. Zeus had only a formal connection with the rituals and myths of this primitive rite of passage with an ancient threat of cannibalism and the possibility of a werewolf transformation for the ephebes who were the participants. Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast. According to Plato (Republic 565d-e), a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.SH34088. Silver hemidrachm, BCD Peloponnesos 1462/1465, Williams Arcadians O188/R200, VF, toned, fine style, Mantinea mint, weight 2.730g, maximum diameter 15.7mm, die axis 60o, obverse Zeus Lykaios seated left, holding scepter, eagle flying left; reverse head of Kallisto left, A-P-K-A (clockwise from lower left), all within incuse square; very rare; SOLD
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