Lycaea
（
τὰ Λύκαια). A festival celebrated in honour of Zeus on
the Lycaean Mount in Arcadia. In the sacred enclosure on its highest peak, where, according to
popular belief, no object cast a shadow, there was an altar of heaped-up earth, and before it
two columns with gilt eagles on top of them, looking to the east. At the festivals, probably
celebrated every ninth year, the priests, who alone were allowed to enter the precincts,
offered mysterious sacrifices to the god, including a human sacrifice. These were said to have
been instituted by
Lycaon (q.v.), and were kept up
till the second century A.D. The man who had been chosen by lot to perform the sacrifice was
afterwards compelled to flee, and wandered about for nine years; like Lycaon, in the shape of
a wolf, so the people believed. In the tenth he was allowed to return and regained his human
form—i. e. the taint was removed. Besides the festival there were also athletic
contests. See Pausan. viii. 38.
