Werewolves and rabies

One of the most obvious ways to become a werewolf is to get attacked by a werewolf. It seems the most common in films and literature. A person who survives being attacked by a werewolf becomes infected by the same curse. A werewolf is mostly treated like a contagious disease and also a condition. The whole concept is very similar to how viruses behave, but mostly it's part of modern werewolf lore. It almost parallels the idea of getting bitten by a vampire that will turn someone. Yet the bite from a werewolf isn't just that alone, it can also be from the saliva or a scratch from a werewolf. The origins may come from reality and the most horrible of all diseases passed from animal to human, which is rabies. 

There was an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, written in 1855, about a young woman in France who was mauled to death by her husband on their wedding night. The groom died soon afterwards. It was mentioned that sometime before the wedding, the man was bitten by a "strange dog" who passed on the infection. This was a tragic case of a man with rabies, who caught the disease after being attacked by an infected animal. There are many stories about people infected by rabies, which wasn't fully understood in times passed, so there was once the supernatural attached to it.

The historian Eugen Weber has said that the French peasantry feared "wolves, fire and mad dogs". The latter meaning dogs with rabies. For those living in the countryside it would've been one of the most terrifying things to encounter. Some scholars believe that the myth of werewolves was inspired by frightening true events about rabies because of its behaviour. The disease itself is fatal. Once a person has been infected with rabies, they go through various incubation phases, before declining in health and losing all sense of humanity, drooling, fevers, breathing problems, hallucinations and violent outbursts. Its as though a person loses a part of themselves. When rabies is too progressed, the victim won't be responsive to medicine. Its as though the rabid person became a werewolf.

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Full moon wolf flowers

One of the most oddest ways to become a werewolf is by using special flowers called lycanthropus flowers. These are found in the Balkans, and can be white and yellow. This superstition has a lot of background in modern culture, although it's been accepted as werewolf lore. The idea of these flowers is found in "Teen Wolf" belief system. There is an interesting page about the Lycanthropus flowers on the Teen Wolf Universe Wikia, which shall be linked below.

Lycanthropus flowers

In the previous decade, scientists discovered a "werewolf plant" or Ephedra Foaminea. These are golden coloured flowers shaped like tiny wolves with pointed ears looking as if they're ready to pounce. These awesome werewolf plants are active during the full moon, because it's that time when they turn sweet and attract nocturnal insects. The pollen looks like sugar crystals at night, or the gleaming eyes of wolves! 

There are more different commonly known flowers associated with wolves and werewolves both. Lupine is considered a wolf flower, named after Lupus, a Latin name for "wolf". It's often a bright blue flower and looks pretty but its so poisonous. For centuries people blamed the death of their livestock on both wolves and eating lupine plants. While it's a noxious flower, it's also healthy for the soil and gives life back into the earth. 

There is another poisonous plant often associated with werewolves and this is Wolf's Bane or Aconitum. Other names for this deadly flower is "blue rocket," "leopards bane," "women's bane," "monkshood," "devil's helmet" and "queen of poisons." It's got dark green leaves with a lot of tiny sharp fangs/ The flowers range from white, cream, blue, red, yellow, grey and purple. It's believed that wolf's bane grew from the drooling mouth of Cerberus, monstrous dog of the Underworld. The foam from dogs infected with rabies is said to be as deadly as the flower, and then linked with werewolf lore as it's been one of the weapons to use against werewolves.     

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