THE HISTORY OF THE WOLF IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Description

This study of the wolf is primarily that of the wolf of Biblical metaphor and medieval legend, rather than the wolf of reality. Yet, it demonstrates for students and teachers alike how the wolf of reality underwent a long-term demonization in western culture, largely as a result of the literary wolf. It accomplishes this first, through a close investigation of the pertinent passages of the Scriptures and select references in the works of the Church Fathers. The study then examines details from two sources with the classical tradition, Aelians On the Nature of Animals and select fables of the Aesopian tradition. This is followed by a descriptive survey of later medieval works: the so-called beast epics, the Physiologus (in its Christian recension), and the illustrated bestiaries. The book explores evidence for the wicked wolf in the early and later Middle Ages. The conclusion cites the continuing wolf terror in Western Europe as exacerbated by the heyday of the werewolf phenomenon and points to hopeful signs for the conservation of the wolf. In all, this work shows how the diabolical wolf only a symbol in the Gospels developed, grew much larger than life, and persisted through late antiquity (when a new term, luparius, was coined for the hunters of the real wolf) and throughout the Middle Ages; and that the agent of the Devil was not at all assisted by the observations of naturalists or encyclopedists like Aelian or Isidore of Seville, nor by the image of the greedy but stupid wolf of Aesop. The book is enhanced by photographs, including eight photos of actual wolves by professional photographers. A very select bibliography provides a starting point for the study of the wolf in western civilization, and includes both patristic and medieval works, along with modern works.