Of Wolf and Man

For millennia it was accepted, based on everyday observation, that all celestial bodies orbited the Earth. We were at the centre of the perceived universe and the objects that filled the heavens all appeared to exert influences upon all living things. Astronomy and astrology were inseparable and every religion endorsed and reinforced the status quo.

After several centuries of fiddling with lenses and the roasting of heretical unfortunates it transpired that the ancients had been right in only one regard: the moon alone revolves around our planet. The remaining celestial clutter serves only to emphasise our cosmic insignificance. Beliefs about the moon's influence persist. It may be difficult to accept that our daily lives might be affected by some unimaginably distant star, but the size, proximity and constant presence of the moon offer a final link to a mystical dimension and to past beliefs. Shakespeare, who had a lot to say about our satellite, put it thus: We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion.'
Folklore has it that, under a full moon, wolves howl, cats prowl, humans lose self-control, the elderly become confused and the mentally ill become agitated. In Britain, the 1824 Lunacy Act stated that people were liable to go mad when the Moon was full. Author, Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was inspired by the true story of Charles Hyde, who committed a host of 'chilling deeds' at the time of the Full Moon. Shakespeare again, in Midsummer Night's Dream, has Titania credit the moon with responsibility for everything from medical problems to the changing seasons:

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set.

The supposed effects of the moon vary according to culture and mythology, but lunar effects on human behaviour are seldom considered scientific fact.
Lycanthropy is the delusional belief that one has turned into an animal, particularly a werewolf. In medieval Europe, it was commonly believed to be the result of witchcraft or magic. One current premise

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