Lycaon

Family: mortals · Role: impious king · First appears: Fable 6

Life events

• Jupiter reveals Lycaon’s previously unknown plot against him to the assembled gods.(Fable6)
  • With: Jupiter
  • “And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has formed a plot against {even} me”
• The gods unanimously approve vengeance against Lycaon.(Fable6)
  • With: Jupiter
  • “All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for vengeance on one who dared such {crimes}.”
• Lycaon plotted to kill Jupiter in his sleep to test whether he was truly a god.(Fable7)
  • With: Jupiter
  • “He then makes preparations to destroy me, when sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death;”
• Lycaon murdered a Molossian hostage and prepared the body as food for the feast.(Fable7)
  • With: hostage
  • “with the sword he cuts the throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the Molossians,”
• Jupiter destroyed Lycaon's house with avenging flames.(Fable7)
  • With: Jupiter
  • “I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house upon the household Gods,”
• Lycaon fled into the countryside and was transformed into a wolf.(Fable7)
  • “His garments are changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf,”

Fable 6

• enemies with Jupiter “And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has formed a plot against {even} me, who own and hold sway over the thunder and yourselves?”

Fable 7

• enemies with Jupiter “He then makes preparations to destroy me, when sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death; this mode of testing the truth pleases him.”
• with Jupiter (Jupiter punishes and transforms Lycaon.) “The God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf.”
• child: Nyctimus (Nyctimus is identified as Lycaon's son.) “Other writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his grandson, that was slain by him.”
• younger kin: Arcas (Arcas is identified as Lycaon's grandson.) “Other writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his grandson, that was slain by him.”

Fable 8

• with Jupiter (Jupiter punishes Lycaon.) “Jupiter, not thinking the punishment of Lycaon sufficient to strike terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, on account of the universal corruption, to extirpate them by a universal deluge.”

Fable 22

• with Arcas (Lycaon is Arcas's maternal grandfather.) “Behold! Arcas, the offspring of the daughter of Lycaon, ignorant of who is his parent, approaches her, thrice five birthdays being now nearly past;”
• child: Parrhasus “Parrhasius was the name of a mountain, a grove, and a city of that country and was derived from the name of Parrhasus, a son of Lycaon.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.