Λυκάων δὲ ὁ Πελασγοῦ τοσάδε εὗρεν ἢ ὁ πατήρ οἱ σοφώτερα· Λυκόσουράν τε γὰρ πόλιν ᾤκισεν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ Λυκαίῳ καὶ Δία ὠνόμασε Λυκαῖον καὶ ἀγῶνα ἔθηκε Λύκαια. οὐκέτι δὲ τὰ παρʼ Ἀθηναίοις Παναθήναια τεθῆναι πρότερα ἀποφαίνομαι· τούτῳ γὰρ τῷ ἀγῶνι Ἀθήναια ὄνομα ἦν, Παναθήναια δὲ κληθῆναί φασιν ἐπὶ Θησέως, ὅτι ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων ἐτέθη συνειλεγμένων ἐς μίαν ἁπάντων πόλιν.
ὁ δὲ ἀγὼν ὁ Ὀλυμπικὸς—ἐπανάγουσι γὰρ δὴ αὐτὸν ἐς τὰ ἀνωτέρω τοῦ ἀνθρώπων γένους, Κρόνον καὶ Δία αὐτόθι παλαῖσαι λέγοντες καὶ ὡς Κούρητες δράμοιεν πρῶτοι—τούτων ἕνεκα ἐκτὸς ἔστω μοι τοῦ παρόντος λόγου. δοκῶ δὲ ἔγωγε Κέκροπι ἡλικίαν τῷ βασιλεύσαντι Ἀθηναίων καὶ Λυκάονι εἶναι τὴν αὐτήν, σοφίᾳ δὲ οὐχ ὁμοίᾳ σφᾶς ἐς τὸ θεῖον χρήσασθαι.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ Δία τε ὠνόμασεν Ὕπατον πρῶτος, καὶ ὁπόσα ἔχει ψυχήν, τούτων μὲν ἠξίωσεν οὐδὲν θῦσαι, πέμματα δὲ ἐπιχώρια ἐπὶ τοῦ βωμοῦ καθήγισεν, ἃ πελάνους καλοῦσιν ἔτι καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς Ἀθηναῖοι· Λυκάων δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν βωμὸν τοῦ Λυκαίου Διὸς βρέφος ἤνεγκεν ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἔθυσε τὸ βρέφος καὶ ἔσπεισεν ἐπὶ τοῦ βωμοῦ τὸ αἷμα, καὶ αὐτὸν αὐτίκα ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ γενέσθαι λύκον φασὶν ἀντὶ ἀνθρώπου.
καὶ ἐμέ γε ὁ λόγος οὗτος πείθει, λέγεται δὲ ὑπὸ Ἀρκάδων ἐκ παλαιοῦ, καὶ τὸ εἰκὸς αὐτῷ πρόσεστιν. οἱ γὰρ δὴ τότε ἄνθρωποι ξένοι καὶ ὁμοτράπεζοι θεοῖς ἦσαν ὑπὸ δικαιοσύνης καὶ εὐσεβείας, καί σφισιν ἐναργῶς ἀπήντα παρὰ τῶν θεῶν τιμή τε οὖσιν ἀγαθοῖς καὶ ἀδικήσασιν ὡσαύτως ἡ ὀργή, ἐπεί τοι καὶ θεοὶ τότε ἐγίνοντο ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, οἳ γέρα καὶ ἐς τόδε ἔτι ἔχουσιν ὡς Ἀρισταῖος καὶ Βριτόμαρτις ἡ Κρητικὴ καὶ Ἡρακλῆς ὁ Ἀλκμήνης καὶ Ἀμφιάραος ὁ Ὀικλέους, ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτοῖς Πολυδεύκης τε καὶ Κάστωρ.
οὕτω πείθοιτο ἄν τις καὶ Λυκάονα θηρίον καὶ τὴν Ταντάλου Νιόβην γενέσθαι λίθον. ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ δὲ—κακία γὰρ δὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ηὔξετο καὶ γῆν τε ἐπενέμετο πᾶσαν καὶ πόλεις πάσας—οὔτε θεὸς ἐγίνετο οὐδεὶς ἔτι ἐξ ἀνθρώπου, πλὴν ὅσον λόγῳ καὶ κολακείᾳ πρὸς τὸ ὑπερέχον, καὶ ἀδίκοις τὸ μήνιμα τὸ ἐκ τῶν θεῶν ὀψέ τε καὶ ἀπελθοῦσιν ἐνθένδε ἀπόκειται.
ἐν δὲ τῷ παντὶ αἰῶνι πολλὰ μὲν πάλαι συμβάντα, τὰ δὲ καὶ ἔτι γινόμενα ἄπιστα εἶναι πεποιήκασιν ἐς τοὺς πολλοὺς οἱ τοῖς ἀληθέσιν ἐποικοδομοῦντες ἐψευσμένα. λέγουσι γὰρ δὴ ὡς Λυκάονος ὕστερον ἀεί τις ἐξ ἀνθρώπου λύκος γίνοιτο ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ τοῦ Λυκαίου Διός, γίνοιτο δὲ οὐκ ἐς ἅπαντα τὸν βίον· ὁπότε δὲ εἴη λύκος, εἰ μὲν κρεῶν ἀπόσχοιτο ἀνθρωπίνων, ὕστερον ἔτει δεκάτῳ φασὶν αὐτὸν αὖθις ἄνθρωπον ἐκ λύκου γίνεσθαι, γευσάμενον δὲ ἐς ἀεὶ μένειν θηρίον.
ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ Νιόβην λέγουσιν ἐν Σιπύλῳ τῷ ὄρει θέρους ὥρᾳ κλαίειν. ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἄλλα ἤκουσα, τοῖς γρυψὶ στίγματα ὁποῖα καὶ ταῖς παρδάλεσιν εἶναι, καὶ ὡς οἱ Τρίτωνες ἀνθρώπου φωνῇ φθέγγοιντο· οἱ δὲ καὶ φυσᾶν διὰ κόχλου τετρυπημένης φασὶν αὐτούς. ὁπόσοι δὲ μυθολογήμασιν ἀκούοντες ἥδονται, πεφύκασι καὶ αὐτοί τι ἐπιτερατεύεσθαι· καὶ οὕτω τοῖς ἀληθέσιν ἐλυμήναντο, συγκεραννύντες αὐτὰ ἐψευσμένοις.
Pelasgus’ son Lycaon outdid his father in the ingenuity of the schemes he projected. For he built a city Lycosura on Mount Lycaeus, he gave to Zeus the surname of Lycaean, and he founded the Lycaean games. I maintain that the Panathenian games at Athens were not founded before the Lycaean games. For the Panathenian games used to be called the Athenian games ; and the name Panathenian is said to have been given them in the time of Theseus, because they were then celebrated by the whole Athenian people gathered into a single city. I here leave the Olympic games out of account, because they are traced back to a period earlier than the origin of man, the legend being, that Cronus and Zeus wrestled at Olympia, and that the first who ran there were the Curetes. In my opinion Lycaon was contemporary with Cecrops, king of Athens, but the two were not equally sage in the matter of religion. For Cecrops was the first who gave to Zeus the surname of Supreme, and he refused to sacrifice anything that had life; but he burned on the altar the national cakes which the Athenians to this day call pelanoi. Whereas Lycaon brought a human babe to the altar of Lycaean Zeus, and sacrificed it, and poured out the blood on the altar; and they say that immediately after the sacrifice he was turned into a wolf. For my own part I believe the tale: it has been handed down among the Arcadians from antiquity, and probability is in its favour.
For the men of that time, by reason of their righteousness and piety, were guests of the gods, and sat with them at table; the gods openly visited the good with honour, and the bad with their displeasure. Indeed men were raised to the rank of gods in those days, and are worshipped down to the present time. Such were Aristaeus, and the Cretan damsel Britomartis; and Hercules, the son of Alcmena; and Amphiaraus, son of Oicles ; and, moreover, Pollux and Castor. So we may well believe that Lycaon was turned into a wild beast, and Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, into a stone. But in the present age, when wickedness is growing to such a height, and spreading over every land and every city, men are changed into gods no more, save in the hollow rhetoric which flattery addresses to power; and the wrath of the gods at the wicked is reserved for a distant future when they shall have gone hence.
In the long course of the ages, many events in the past and not a few in the present have been brought into general discredit by persons who build a superstructure of falsehood on a foundation of truth. For example, they say that from the time of Lycaon downwards a man has always been turned into a wolf at the sacrifice of Lycaean Zeus, but that the transformation is not for life; for if, while he is a wolf, he abstains from human flesh, in the ninth year afterwards he changes back into a man, but if he has tasted human flesh he remains a beast forever. In like manner they say that Niobe on Mount Sipylus sheds tears in summer. I have also been told that the griffins are spotted like the pards, and that the Tritons speak with a human voice, though others say they blow through a pierced shell. Lovers of the marvellous are too prone to heighten the marvels they hear tell of by adding touches of their own; and thus they debase truth by alloying it with fiction.
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