The wolf and the devil

Greek folk horror stories

Version 1 (from Achaea)

The devil made the wolf, but he couldn’t make it get up and walk. Then he saw Christ, and told him that he’d made a thing, but he couldn’t make it get up and walk.

Then Christ said to the devil: “Come on then, show me.” And when Christ saw the wolf, he said to it: “Get up and eat your father.” And immediately the wolf got up and ate the devil, and this is why we call the devil “the wolf-eaten one.”

Version 2 (from Kozani, Macedonia)

When God made man, the devil made the wolf, but he couldn’t animate it. And to educate the rebel, God ordered the wolf to come to life and eat its maker. But the wolf only managed to eat one of the devil’s legs, and that’s why the devil is lame and they call him “one-legged” and “the wolf-eaten one.”

Since then, the wolf can see [the devil] and is permitted to eat him; but even though the devil is one-legged, because he is air [lit. an elemental of air], he avoids the wolf and can protect himself. But he’s always in danger of being eaten if he meets a wolf; and if the wolf catches him, he eats all of him, apart from his kneecap.

And if anyone finds that bone, there is much he can do with it.

Version 3 (from Macedonia)

When God made the world and mankind, the devil boasted that he was also good enough to make something living. But what he made was a wolf, not a man. Only it was not alive, and the devil didn’t know how to put life into it. So after he tried and didn’t manage it, he asked God what to do to animate his creature.

And God said: “It’s easy, if you only say to your creature ‘get up and eat me,’ and it will come to life straight away.” The devil did as God said and said to his creature “Get up and eat me!” Immediately the wolf came to life, got up, and lunged at the devil to eat him. The devil ran away in fright, and as he ran, he fell into a river before him. But as he put his one foot in the water, the wolf arrived and grabbed the other and ate it.

And that’s why the devil was left with only one leg, and since then he’s called “one-legged” and “lame” and “wolf-eaten.”

Nikolaos Politis, Traditions: Studies on the Life and Language of the Greek People, Athens, Historical Publications, 1904; trans. by Sasha Chaitow © 2024

About these wondertales

Nikolaos Politis, Greek folklorist (1852-1921)

In the late 19th century, Greek folklorist and philologist Nikolaos Politis systematised early folklore collection and study in Greece by recruiting teachers, doctors, and priests from around the country and asking them to record the wondertales told in their region, complete with regional dialect. He wanted all possible expressions of traditional folk life: oral tradition (songs, proverbs, blessings, narratives etc), descriptions of social organisation, everyday life (clothing, food, household), professional life (agricultural, animal husbandry, seafaring), religious life, justice, folk philosophy and medicine, magic and superstitions, folk art, dance, and music.

He gathered these artefacts of Greek folk life and applied ethnographic and comparative methods of his day to their study. Politis published comparative studies in relation to other Balkan nations as well as to the myths and histories of antiquity. Though his methods were relatively simplistic and are now outdated, his collections form a valuable corpus of records and have been exhaustively studied by later scholars as the field in Greece became more sophisticated.

In this series of snippets, I aim to translate a handful of his most interesting or amusing stories since they have never been translated into other languages. They are presented as-is, with minimum commentary where it is needed for context. Many of these deserve commentary and analysis; this will form the topics of longer-form article in due course.

Read more about why they’re called wondertales in the first section of my article here.