Incarnation

The myth of the werewolf underwent another mutation toward the end of the fifteenth century. In addition to being converted into a symbol of demonic evil, the werewolf incarnated in living persons, with a first and last name. It is the only one of the mythic wild personalities that was actually persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, tried, and executed. Even though the homo sylvestris, sylvans, fauns, pygmies, satyrs, and nymphs were spoken of, none of those mythical beings fell into the hands of the criminal justice system or the Inquisition. The difference is due to metamorphosis: it was easy to trap persons in their human form, accused of being sorcerers and witches, but impossible to trap wild men incapable of mutating, given that they only existed in the mythical imagination. The only wild men that also embodied living men were the hairy anchorites of the Egyptian desert, such as Paphnutius and Onuphrius, but of course they were not persecuted; to the contrary, they were considered venerable saints.