versipellis
- I Lit.
- A In gen.: eccum Juppiter In Amphitruonis vertit sese imaginem ... Ita versipellem se facit, quando lubet, Plaut. Am. prol. 123: capillus fit, i. e. turns gray, id. Pers. 2, 2, 48 (230) (v. s. v. versicapillus).—
- B In partic., subst.: ver-sĭpellis, is, m., acc. to the superstitious belief of the ancients, one who can change himself into a wolf, a man-wolf, were-wolf, Plin. 8, 22, 34, § 80; Petr. 62 fin.; Ap. Met. 2, 22, 6.—
- II Trop., skilled in dissimulation, sly, cunning, crafty, subtle (ante and post-class.): vorsipellem esse hominem convenit, pectus cui sapit: bonus sit bonis, malus sit malis, Plaut. Bacch. 4, 4, 12 (651) Ritschl: quicum versipellis fio, Lucil. ap. Non. p. 38, 7: hortamen, Prud. Cath. 9, 91. —Comp., Porc. Latro ap. Cat. 9.
profert mendacia diabolus, qui recte appellatur ~is quia mala quae facienda suggerit bona esse pronuntiat et gaudia promittit aeterna eis quos ad inferni tormenta praeparat
num canem illum, ~em illum antiquum, foris vidisti, vel quis fuerit nosti?
demon in specie juvenis abuti consueverit quadam infelici muliercula in sua diocesi constituta. ‥ venit ‥ in nota effigie demon ~is
jam prenoverat ille ~is quod faciles habet motus femina ex sui sexus fragilitate
[Adam ] larvarica ‥ seductus cavillatione versipellis suasibilisque tergiversatione viraginis [sc. Evae ] pellectus
vultis esse ~es [gl.: ] aut milleformes in mendaciis, astuti in loquelis ‥ ?prættige
~is ille versute cogitabat quatinus ‥ provinciam ‥ dolo deciperet
gens varia, gens ~is et versuta; gens sola instabilitate stabilis, sola infidelitate fidelis
~is et versuta malitia
magister discipulum ‥ nequam et versutum et ‥ scelerosissimum vocitare solebat, tanquam ‥ provocans ~em ejus naturam et perversam recalcitrandi voluntatem
vix ‥ inveniri posset vel parva scripture particula in qua non posset fabricare calumpniam astucia ~is et impia
~is et dolosus ut vulpis
[natio Hibernica ] animo seva ‥ versupellis moribus
- 1. (pre- en postklass.) zich veranderend;
- 2. (Laatl.) (metaf.) sluw, geslepen, listig; II. subst. is m (postklass.) weerwolf.
“Turn-skin.” One who changes his skin; thence, one who transforms himself, or is transformed, into another person's figure, as of Iupiter into Amphitryon (Plaut. Amphitr. 121. Prol.); and so a wily, dissembling fellow who can assume any character (id. Bacch. iv. 4. 12). But the term designates more especially a man transformed into a wolf—a “were-wolf” (loup-garou). Thus, in an ancient legend of Arcadia, every member of a certain family was changed into a wolf for nine years, and after that period resumed his original shape (Pliny H. N. viii. 22). Belief in were-wolves is very ancient. Herodotus (iv. 105) says that among the Neuri, a semi-Scythian people, each man became a wolf for a few days every year —a story repeated by Mela (ii. 1). Vergil in the Eighth Eclogue makes his enchanter, Moeris, do the same. It is supposed that the notion arose from the stories of the “wolf-boys” of India, of whom Mowgli, in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, stands to the modern reader as a type. The best were-wolf story in ancient literature is that told by Petronius (ch. 62). See also Herz, Der Werwolf (1862); and Baring-Gould's Book of Werewolves (1866).