What is the Kóryos Lykeios?

The *kóryos is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word, equivalent to the German Männerbund, which refers to brotherhood of young male warriors. It is typical throughout Indo-European cultures, from the Maruts of Indian myth to the Ancient Greek ephebos (Gr: ἔφηβος) and Spartan krupteía (Gr: κρυπτεία). It is believed that such war-bands were central to the spread of Indo-European culture, with companies of spirited young men pushing into borderlands in search of plunder, adventure, and an escape from settled life.

One of the most common symbols of the *kóryos, one which is nearly universal across Indo-European cultures, is their identification with wolves (Gr. Λύκειος).

“The reconstructed war-bands consisted of shape-shifting warriors, in a symbolic and metaphorical sense, wearing animal skins to assume the nature of wolves or dogs… The idealized attributes of the *kóryos were borrowed from the imagery surrounding the wolf: violence, trickery, swiftness, great strength, and warrior fury. By identifying with the wild animals, *kóryos members perceived themselves as physically and legally outside the human world, and therefore no longer restrained by human taboos. When returning to their normal life, they would feel no remorse for breaking the rules of their home society, because they had not been humans or at least were not living in the cultural space of the host society when those rules were broken.” [Source]

It is such comradery and spirit of adventure, one which is “beyond good and evil” as Nietzsche would say, that the Kóryos Lykeios stands for.

The coin which serves as a logo for this website is identified from Laranda, Lycaonia, ca. 4th Century BC.