This is my first article here from a long time and my very first one in English. So I decided to choose a topic which is interesting for me and I hope that you will find it interesting as well. To make a research about the facts around it was amazing journey back in the history of the ancent times, middle ages, science and nowadays.
They say that each of us is an animal with instincts, with a predator mind and a Cherokee legend says that in each of us are living two wolves - good and bad, the one who survives is the one who we feed. I think everybody can associate himself/herself with an animal or at least has a favourite one. My favourite one and the one I adore is the wolf. These amazing creatures are legendary because of their spine-tingling howl, which they use to communicate. Especially when a lone wolf wants to attract the attention of others. The thing which really surprised me is their way of living and especially how they are taking care of each other. May be some of us can take an example from this amazing creature.
They are really trying all the time to keep the pack together and to support each other. Even when there are pups in the pack, the other members are taking care of them while the parents are hunting. Another interesting fact is the long hostory that wolves and humans have. Though they almost never attack humans, wolves are considered one of the animal world's most fearsome natural villians. May be the human beings are mostly afraid of the animals who are closer to their own nature. Honestly I don't think that human nature can be compared to any other animal, we are the most cruel predators on this planet. So as I said, our history with the wolves is very long, going trough fear, worshipping, even friendship. So let's see who are the wolves during the ages and nowadays.
First of all the wolf started to be idolized because he is a symbol of lot of things, which inspired great worriors, kings and leaders in the human history. As a predator, the wolf is associated with a worrior and also he is a symbol of distruction and strength, on other side in many cultures and in the Bible he is associated with the devil.
His characteristics which led him to be idolized are a lot. He is the only animal earth which is actually brave enough to face an animal which is stronger than him. And if he is weaker than his enemy, he substitutes the strengh for bravness, tenacity and dexterity. If he looses the battle he dies quetly, turning his face to the enemy. First of all the wolf is a symbol of freedom and independence. They represent the free will and the ability to escape. They are also known for their adaptation skills, evolution powers and intelligence. In every battle the wolf is fighting till victory or death. The wolves are also famous with their monogamy and the fact that they are bringing up their pupies by their own. They are also a symbol of justice, ambition and the lone wolf is a embodiment if the wild spirit surviving on his own.
This animal is very often associated with the spiritual world and this is one of the resons why the wolves are worshipped in some regions and cultures. Wolves are wild animals that they are not easily domesticated and when they appear as spirit guides, they could be an invitation to free your mind and to express yourself more. The wolf totem is a reminder to keep your spirit alive and trust your instincts to find the way that will best suit you. The wolf is also often in some people's dreams and this means that you need to change your path in life and try not to put so many barriers infront of your own dreams. According to a lot of legends the wolf is the most powerfull animal in the spiritual world. The white wolf is extremly famous in the spiritual practice because according to the beliefs they can live in several dimentions, the spiritual and the material. Sometimes they even appear in our lives to show us how to build bridges between the worlds.
Because if all these virtues there are wolf cults all over the world from the very beginning of the human history.
The cult of the wolf can be found in Ancent Egypt, where the egyptian people has a wolf hod, Wepwawet, who's name meant "he who opens the road" or "opener of the ways". Probably this has something to do with the fact that the wolf is a symbol of freedom. He led kings in battle, and his image was carried trough the streets of his town, Assuit, during a great annual feast. One inscription from the Sinai states that Wepwawet "opens the way" to king (pharaoh) Sekhemkhet's victory. Overtime the connection to war, led to Wepwawet also been seen as one who opened the ways to, and trough, Duat, for the spirits of the dead. He is sometimes confused with
one who has gone up from the horizon, perhaps as the "opener", the god of the Sun. Later Wepwawet assists at the Opening of the mouth ceremony (a ritual which they made to mummies and statues) and guides the deceased into the netherworld or the Underworld. He is also well known because of his All-seeing-eye or the eye of Horus which is very popular nowadays because it is symbol of some secret societies, it is also called "The eye of God".
In Greece the wolf is a very important figure in the folklore and it appears in a lot of myths and legends. Mount Lyjaion is a mountain in Arcadia where an altar of Zeus was located. Zeus Lykaios was said to have been born and brought up on it, and was the home of Pelasgus and his son Ljycaon, who is said to have founded the ritual of Zeus practiced on it's summit. This seems to have human sacrifice, and a feast in which the man who recieved the portion of a human victim was changed to a wolf, as Lycaon had been after sacrificing a child. Also in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar had the power to turn enemies into wolves. Hecate, the goddess of Death, was shown as wearing wolf heads. The greek people had great respect for the wolf and decreed that any man who killed one had to pay for the funeral of the animal. According to Roman tradition wolf was responsible for the survival of the future founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus. The twin babies were ordered to be killed by their great uncle Amulius. The servant ordered to kill them, however, relented and places them on the banks of the Tiber river. The river gently carried the cradle and after they were found by a she-wolf known as Lupa ( in Latin means 'wolf'). The two children, Romulus and Remus grew up into strong men because the she-wolf took care of them.
In the mythilogy of the turkc and mongolian people, the wolf is a revered animal. The shamanic turkic people even believed they were descendants of wolves. The legend of Asena tells of how the turkic people were created. In China a small Turkic village was raided by Chinese soldiers, but one small baby was left behind. And old she-wolf with the name Asena found the baby and nursed him, then the she-wolf gave birth to half-wolf, half-human cubs, from whim the turkic people were born. In modern Turkey the old myths about the wolves inspired extreme-right nationalist groups known as "Grey wolf". Ancent people believed that the wolf was thought to possess spiritual powers. So we can see that actually in ancent time people actually sometimes were seeing animals like gods and prefered to believe in the power of nature and what she created, and actually this is what oater the church called heresy. In Mongolia people believed that the wolf is a luck symbol especially for males. They even used wolves for their madicine and believed the intestines of the wolf can cure some health problems.
The wolf in India
Wolves are occasionally mentioned in hindu mytholigy. In the harivamsa, Krishna, to convince the people of vraja to migrate to vrindsven, creates hundreds of wolves from his hairs, which frighten the inhabitants of vraja into making the journey. Rijrsava is blinded by his father as punishmend for having given 101 of his family sheep to a she-wolf, who is turn prays to restore his sight. May be exactly this legends somehow inspired the movie "101 dalmatians".
The japanese people believed that they were born from the union of a wolflike creature and a goddess. In Japan some farmers worshipped wolves and even left food near their dens. Talismans and charms with wolves were used to protect against fire and some desease and they even used them to help some couples to have children. Okami is the japanese name for the creature commonly called the japanese wolf (Canus Lupus hodophylax). In the folklore, the wolf was associated with the mountains and the people from japan said: "The wolf can hide even if there is only a single reed". They also believed that when a traveler gets lost a wolf shows him his way home. Japanese people were thinking that the wolf can judge between good and bad.
The norse people called the wolves "corpse-trolls" and they gave a special position in their poetry and folklore but usually with negative connotations. They believed that whoever lost in the fight, the wolf is always the winner. They also believed that there was a time called "wolf-time", a world dominated by all kinds of evel forces. The image of the wolf was also consirered fitting to describe a dangerous man. In norse mythology Fenrir is a monstrous wolf. There is a edda (ballads from the 13-th century) where is said that because prophecies and fortelling great troibles from Ferir, the gods bound him and as a result he bit the hand of one of the gods. Ferir still appears in the norse literature and in some tales. In Finland the wolves are feared and even hated and there is a symbol of distruction. The word for wolf in Finland is "a useless thingie". Wolves have always been hunted and killed by finnish people because they think that the wolves are predators, killing more than they manage to eat.
The wolf in Bulgaria
In old times the people in Bulgaria, (which is the country I come from) believed a lot in legends, myths and the spiritual world. They were thinking that the wolf is a part of the dark forces and they associate him with the devil, the winter and the death. There are lots of dualistic legends about the wolf and they come from the middle ages when bulgarian people believed that the wolf is created by the Devil and the dog is made by God. At the same time they believed that he was the greatest enemy of vampires, demons and other supernatural creatures. In these legends they also say that the wolf who was created by the Devil, was brought back to life from God and after that he attacked the Creator of the universe. In the legends it is also said that a she-wolf gaves birth only one in a lifetime. To protect themselves from the wolves people in Bulgaria even have a celebration in their honor and also parts of the wolf, like teeth or bones were used for some magic rituals.
Obviously the whole wolf worshipping in Romania comes from Romulus and Remus, who are the founders of Rome and we already described this legend. Lup/lupul = wolf\ the wolf in romanian; lip/lupu = to die/dead in etruscan; lupira (romanian) =lucta (latin) = fight, there are a lot of words in romanian which contains the word for wolf. In a lot of cultures including the romanian one the people associated the wolf's mouth with the woman's reproductive organs. It is because of the magic act of pulling the children through the wolf's mouth, which is mentioned in some tales, in the context of birth ritual. Also romanian people worshipped the goddes from the roman mythology-Diana. She is the goddes of the hunt, the moon snd birthing and usualy she is associated with wild animals and she can also speak with them.
In the images Diana is usually walking together with a wolf. The idea of a man who turns into a wolf is very famous and there are a lot of romanian legends about warewolves. Here this is called Lycanthropy. Mount Lucaeus was a scene of a yearly gathering at which the preasts were said to prepare a sacrifical feast that included meat with human parts. There is also a connection between the wolves and Vlad Tepes (Dracula). The Bathory family from Transylvania had a crest showing a dragon encircling a wolf teeth and bitting its tail and this was a symbol of immortality. Vlad was wearing a medallion with this symbol. There is also a momument in Romania which represents the she-wolf who saved Romulus and Remus. The capitoline Wolf Statue (romanian: Statuia Lupoaicei) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania is located on Eroilor Boulevard, in the city centre. However, Romania, and escpecially Bucharest seems to be a place where people really believed that werewolves excist and they worshipped wolves in different way. There is even a legends which says that in ancent times in the lands of Romania there was a princess who was from a wolf bloodline and could turn into a loup garou (werewolf). This legend is represeted in the movie "Blood and chocolate" which was filmed in Bucharest and which actually inspired me to write this article.
The wolf in the United States, Hollywood and the modern world
A Cherokee tale tells the story of the dog and the wolf. Originally, Dog lived on the mountain, and Wolf lived beside the fire. When winter came, though, Dog got cold, so he came down and sent Wolf away from the fire. Wolf went to the mountains, and found that he liked it there. Wolf prospered in the mountains, and formed a clan of his own, while Dog stayed by the fire with the people. Eventually, the people killed Wolf, but his brothers came down and took revenge. Ever since then, Dog has been man’s faithful companion, but the people are wise enough not to hunt Wolf anymore. In the modern world the wolf became very popular figure in te movies and inspired a lot of stories about werewolves and humans who turns into wolves. There are interesting real cases when a person really believed he is a werewolf. These stories inspired the directors to make movies about this phenomenon. May be the most famous story is about a man who was killed because he was thinking he has a shapeshifter. This is the story of Peter Stumpp.
During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials of history. After being stretched on a rack, and before further torture commenced, he confessed to having practiced black magic since he was twelve years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into "the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws." Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.
The symbol of the wolf is used in lots of movies even the ones which are not actually about the supernatural. The fresh example is the movie "The wolf of Walt street" where the main character is associated with the animal because he manages to be on the top by being a real figher and managing to be stronger than the competition. There is no sense to tell you all the movies that involve wolfs, here are just the most popular: "Underworld", "Blood and chocolate" ( we already mentioned this one), "Red riding hood", "Wolf", "Cursed", etc.
The wolf in the human world and the human-wolf relations
Years ago the goverment paid humans to slaughter wolves any possible way. This period of deadfull hunting was called "bounty hunting". Wolves have had a bad history with humans. During the middle Ages there were a lot of wolf-huntings. Over the last few centuries, almost every culture has hunted wolves to extinction. The first written record of the wolf's persecution was in the sixth century B.C. when Solon of Athens offered a bounty for every wolf killed. The last wolf was killed in England in the 16th century under the order of Henry VII. And an interesting fact is that the cruel Henry VIII was called the Wolfman because of his cruelty.
The well-known children fairytales may have had an impact on the hatred of wolves and the beginning of bounty hunting. In most of the fairy tales the wolf happen to turn out as the bad guy. Some people are still against the wolves because they are scared about their animals in the ranches. On the other hand lots of people realized that the wolves are not that dangerous and they even made a organizations to protect them. Their idea is that humans and wolves after all are not that different and they can live together because there are a lot of similarities between them. Some familiar similarities are wolves are mammals, wolves are born from theirs mother, they depend on mother's milk, adults protect the young ones and teach them how to depend on themselves.
This may be explains how later the human beings domesticate the wolf and he became "our best friend". It's quite hard to imagine a wolf sitting next to us on the sofa while we are watching TV, or playing with our kid at the backyard or sleeping next to us in the bed, isn't it? Well, that's how it actually happened, the fearsome predator became our friend. The origin of the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) began with the domestication of the Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) several tens of thousands of years ago. Genetic and archaeological evidence shows that humans domesticated wolves on more than one occasion hundred of years ago. Comparing dog and wolf DNA, new research published in Nature suggests that dogs possess an evolved set of genes that help them more effectively break down carbs and starches than their ferocious, wild ancestors. It's why our cuddly pals are more likely to go for a dog biscuit than, well, our throats. To trace the change in dog brains, scientists have first had to work out how dog breeds are related to one another, and how they’re all related to wolves. The scientists from the Chinese Academy of Scense have come to the conclusion that wolves started their transformation into dogs in East Asia.
After he dogs split from wolves thier genes began to evolve in a different direction. On the other hand according to the New York Times dog brains have become exquisitely tuned to our own. Scientists are now zeroing in on some of the genes that were crucial to the rewiring of dog brains. Their results are fascinating, and not only because they can help us understand how dogs turned into man’s best friend. They may also teach us something about the evolution of our own brains. Some of the genes that evolved in dogs are the same ones that evolved in us. So nature must be really brilliant making this friendship possible and step by step trough centuries and at the end the beast became our fellow. They sleep in our houses, we feed them, take care of them, they become a part of our families even if before we were scared of them. Now we even found that we are not that different and that Nature has it's own reasons for everything.
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