The Werewolf, also known as Lycanthrope, is quite simply a man who turns into a wolf at night (full moon only of course). He typically turns jungle savage and devours animals, people or corpses but returns to human form with the first rays of the rising sun. Check out these pictures of visual interpretation of the famed Werewolf, who changes shape at Twilight of the full moon and brings horror to the night.
Lycanthropy is defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome which involves a delusion that the affected person can or has transformed into an animal, or that he or she is an animal. The word lycanthropy, comes from the Greek word lukos, which means wolf; and the Greek word anthropos, which means man. The word is now connected to the supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shapeshift into wolves. This myth ultimately has an unknown specific origin, though there are many hypotheses most are based somewhat from the actual documented mental disorder mentioned earlier.
Some werewolves change shape at will but most who have acquired the condition after being bitten by one change shape involuntarily, under the influence of a full moon.
According to the legend, werewolves are distributed all over Europe, particularly France that was afflicted with many reports of werewolves in the 16th century.