THE PACK Message Boards

Well, let me explain. In my mythos, a type of shapeshifter can only be considered a were-whatever if it's powers are derived from a host god. The werecats have Bast, but I have no idea what the hell the werewolves would have. ANd no, I'm not using Fenrir. That would be a cliche, and I have a very different concept for Fenrir in mind.

Odin. Berserkers and Ulfhednar (wolf warriors) prayed to Odin for their battle rage. Either Odin or Zeus Lycaon (older Arcadian version of Zeus).

You could try Gok Tengri (or Tanri, the contemporary spelling), an old deity of the Turkic people. A little known fact is that the wolf was the mythological ancestral animal and guide of the Turkic people.

Gok Tengri sounds interesting, but I can't find very much info on him on the internet.

Apollo and Zeus.

Zeus created the first greek werewolf.
and Apollo would sometimes have a wolf head.

In Egypt you have Wepwawet"sp" A god of war and wind who was either a wolf or a jackal (jury out on alot of these canine gods).

Then you have the four brother wolf gods on the Pacific Northwest United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asena

maybe Romulus and Remus?

Yes, that is the wolf, but I would recommend using the monoteistic god of the ancient Turks, since the wolf herself a)would be too obvious and b)has political connotations.

Have any links to some info on him Doruk Golcu?

Heh, sorry, I thought I had already posted this... must be getting old

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengriism

It says on Tengri's page that the Turks associate him with a snow white goose. So as a god associated with werewolves... that might not work.

Polyphemus was the original Greek demi-God shapeshifter. He was also a monster...who didn't like humans, other than for dinner-as dinner.

Romulus and Remus were mortals who founded Rome. However, Lupera, or Lupa was the semi-divine b**** that nursed them as babies.

Fenrir and Sygin were the Hell wolves of the Norse-BUT Odin was the God of the Wulfen Warriors that were a part of the Norse world, and Zeus Lycaeon was a Wolf-"Zeus the Wolf-spirited".

Wepawet was most likely a Jackal, like Set. There is an outside possibility that the Wepawet was an African Wolf from the modern Ethiopian regions (almost extinct, nowdays).

Many European religions associate the Wolf with the North Wind, and the deities that represented that wind were often Wolf-headed.
Many old religions also associate the female full moon with the Wolf.

North American Indians also made a divinity of the Wolf, especially the northern Pacific Rim peoples.

That's it: I'm dry.

Here are some websites:

1) http://aton.ttu.edu/Central_Asias_New_Dastans.asp

>CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY (Oxford)Vol. 6, No. 1, 1987. Pp. 75-92. >CENTRAL ASIA'S NEW DASTANS, H. B. Paksoy


>The Wolf Motif From Ergenekon and Oghuz Kagan . . . .

>Ergenekon is the name of a valley which became a secluded homeland to the Gok-Turks . . . . [A] she-wolf rescues a Gok-Turk warrior who has been mutilated by the enemy and takes him to Ergenekon. There, conceiving sons from him, they repopulate this oymak . . . . The population of the oymak becomes so large that Ergenekon can no longer hold it . . . .

>The wolf is the tamga (the seal) and gok-boru (blue wolf), the uran (war cry, password) of the Gok-Turk tribal confederation. Moreover, the Gok-Turks displayed the head of the wolf on their standards and banners . . . .

2) http://hare.bio.miami.edu/hun/wolf.html

3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_mythology,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asena

what about Anubis the egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife he was also know as Inpu (variously spelled Anupu, Wip, Lenpw, ect.) it would fit with the werecat's Bast them both being part of the egyptian pantheon

In many native cultures, many different animals were considered borderline divine themselves, like the native american animal totems.
For example, only a couple centuries ago, it was common here in Finland to call bear by some pseudonym, because it was though that if the bear heard its real name, it would come and see who was calling for it.

So, if everything else fails, you could just call it the Wolf Spirit or something. Seems plausible.

I used to pray to Apollo Lycaeus, the patron of the Delphic Oracle. He was good, but kind of remote, like a benevolent uncle who's always away on business. Also, I think He got a bit of wisdom after seeing how the Olympians used to jack with mortals and treat them like trash. He's gone past deity and towards a more primal, universal energy...otherwise known as Nirvana, if you don't mind a bit of syncretism.

I went through a stage where I prayed to Shiva and Ganesh as the Lords of Beasts (as opposed to animals), but I didn't quite jibe up with the Hindu zeitgeist. The Indic peoples regard wolves as conniving bastards and craven thieves; Wolf is NOT liked in the Subcontinent. (Now you see what a chance Rudyard Kipling was taking by having his protagonist Mowgli raised by wolves)

These days, I follow my Iroquois and Shawnee ancestors' lead and just pray straight to Wolf. Not exactly a deity, more like an archetype. Wolf is hir own energy, and wolves are a physical expression of Wolf energy. Like Psychick Warriors ov Gaia tell us, "Return to the source."

RedEye wrote:Wepawet was most likely a Jackal, like Set.

I thought Set was another type of canine animal, other than a jackal? Often you see his form referred to as "the Set animal", since it doesn't quite look like any known canine. Anubis on the other hand, is clearly of the Jackal.

Set has been generally identified as either:

The Southern or Lesser Jackal, a carrion eater and known to attack small children. The so-called Lesser Jackal actyally LOOKS like some Hyaena family member.
The Egyptian Horned Viper. Very poisonous, related more to the Mamba than the Sidewinder (which is also horned in some cases).

Set was Chaos Under Control. One of his cognomen was W'sspt-Amu* or Desert Storm. Occasionally, Set decided that being nice was for sissies and brought grief to Egypt. He was also Patron of a line of Pharos, the Seti line. He was both revered and feared in the Middle Kingdoms era.
*no, I can't pronounce it either. I think it sounds like a sneeze.

Okami wrote:what about Anubis the egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife he was also know as Inpu (variously spelled Anupu, Wip, Lenpw, ect.) it would fit with the werecat's Bast them both being part of the egyptian pantheon

I agree, Anpu would work.
(The Correct spelling is Anpu)