Werehyena

Persian manuscript of hyena

Werehyenas are mythological creatures capable of assuming the form of hyenas. They appear in the legends and stories of various cultures of Africa and Eurasia, particularly in Arabian, Middle Eastern, Berber, Ethiopian, Somali, Persian, and Indian mythology.

Like the usual werewolves in European folklore, werehyenas are therianthropic shapeshifters. Although normally the werehyenas are humanoid creatures who acquire the ability to turn into hyenas, on other occasions they are hyenas who disguise themselves as humans.

Types of Werehyenas

Qori Ismaris

In Somalia, it is traditionally believed that Qori Ismaris ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.

WereHyena by Odingraphics

Bouda

In Ethiopia, it is traditionally believed that every blacksmith, whose trade is hereditary, is really a wizard or witch with the power to change into a hyena. These blacksmith werehyenas are believed to rob graves at midnight and are referred to as bouda (also spelled buda). They are viewed with suspicion by most countrymen. Belief in the bouda is also present in Sudan and Tanzania, as well as Morocco, where some among the Berber people regard the bouda as a man or woman who nightly turns into a hyena and resumes human shape at dawn. Many Ethiopian Christians characterize Ethiopian Jews as being bouda, accusing them of unearthing Christian corpses and consuming them; the commonality of blacksmithing as a traditional profession for Jewish men in Ethiopia may be a reason for the connection between the two beliefs.

Bultungin

In the Kanuri language of the former Bornu Empire in the Lake Chad region, werehyenas are referred to as Bultungin which translates into "I change myself into a hyena". It was once traditionally believed that one or two of the villages in the region was populated entirely by werehyenas, such as Kabultiloa.

Aldabue

Al-Doumairy, in his Hawayan Al-Koubra (1406), wrote that hyenas are vampiric creatures that attack people at night and suck the blood from their necks. Arab folklore tells of how hyenas can mesmerise victims with their eyes or sometimes with their pheromones.

Kaftar

Kaftar (کفتار) is Persian for "hyena" and refers to a mystical race of shapeshifters sighted around India's capital of New Delhi. A medical treatise written in Persian around AD 1376 in Delhi gives detailed prescriptions of a magical nature on how to deal with a man who can transform himself into a striped hyena. This demoniacal being, “half-man, half-hyena,” is called kaftar and has the habit of attacking and killing children.

Kambaltou

A Berber petroglyph depicting a wolf or lion-like creature

Kambaltou (Tifinagh: ⴽⴰⵎⴱⴰⵍⵜoⵓ) are shapeshifting creatures of Tuareg Berber mythology. They are described as creatures that look like the cross between an ape and a hyena.

Popular Culture

• In DC Comics, Firestorm villain Hyena is an example of a werehyena and there had been different versions of this character.
• The Monsters episode "One Wolf's Family" features a werehyena named Stanley.
• The 1994 film The Heart's Cry features a werehyena.
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Pack" featured creatures similar to the werehyena.
• Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels urban fantasy series features clan of werehyenas.
• The 2011 film Hyenas featured some werehyenas.
• The 2021 fantasy novel Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen features werehyenas.