The present study is a meticulously annotated survey of two distinct yet related ‘medical’ problems of antiquity and beyond, namely lycanthropy, or the belief one could be transformed into a wolf, and the nocturnal oppression of an incubus or sexual demon, a maleficent creature whose mode of attack is to lie upon the chest of the sleeper and cause a sensation of impending cardiac arrest (with understandable anxiety and nervous tension). One of the great strengths of M.'s volume is its consideration not only of relatively obscure medical texts, but also a fresh and informed examination of certain literary passages that have been perhaps surprisingly understudied in recent critical works on authors as disparate as Aristophanes and Ovid. Lovers of Soranus and Artemidorus will find much to please them. Certain relevant magic papyri are also considered with attention and skill. Lengthier passages of Greek and Latin are translated, though not (understandably) the frequent citations of single words and shorter excerpts in the text and notes.

The origin of M.'s monograph is a 2009 Newcastle upon Tyne thesis, ‘Premodern histories of Lycanthropy and Ephialtes’. The published version is a German translation of the original with some modification and expansion (it is unclear why the order of presentation of the material in the dissertation was reversed here, though the title still reflects the original sequence). M. has produced what is now the most useful available introduction to these mysterious phenomena of anxiety-related disorders, complete with a detailed survey of relevant ancient and patristic testimonia, and an especially detailed bibliography of both editions cited and relevant modern literature.

The myth of Lycaon and other Arcadian werewolf lore receives the expected special and extended attention. The consideration of the celebrated Petronian tale of the werewolf is surprisingly brief, as is the study of the Virgilian lycanthropic lore of the eighth eclogue and of the Circe passage at the beginning of the seventh book of the Aeneid. Consideration of the strange Servian notes on the Virgilian Arruns and the firewalkers on Soracte, Apollonian devotees who are told to imitate wolves, would have been welcome; elsewhere the speculation has been raised that the lore may point to a lycanthropic reading of Virgil's Camilla. Especially useful is M.'s detailed examination of the vocabulary of both lycanthropes and other nocturnal denizens, with close study of both Pliny the Elder and Isidore. Interspersed throughout the volume are summary accounts of the connections of various Olympians (especially Zeus and Artemis) to the quasi-medical phenomena under consideration. The bibliography here is vast and any treatment is likely to be spotty in its coverage; one might have wished for more consideration of Apollo and his association with lupine lore.

In some ways, then, M.'s study offers two books in one; the stronger of the two sections is on lycanthropy, in part because the ‘Ephialtes’ material seems to beg consideration of the larger context of dream phenomena and nocturnal visitations. The thesis origins of the book are apparent throughout; lists and charts abound, though it is clear that concerns for space limited the amount of material that could be included. The temptation throughout is to be exhaustive, even in the matter of such perhaps extraneous topics as appearances of the werewolf in film and other arts; M. might have found interesting the short-lived British television production of The She-Wolf of London (1990), one of the rare popular treatments of the subject that considers lycanthropy as a serious object of academic study (literary sources are the overwhelming concern of the volume, though other media are treated with more or less passing interest). As often with revised dissertations, the reader can be overwhelmed by this mass of material and yearn for more analysis and less queuing of passages and citations; none the less, future researchers on nervous phenomena in ancient literature will be grateful for M.'s herculean labours. In general the strongest parts are those concerned with antiquity; the extensions of the study into later centuries, especially the nineteenth and twentieth, offer scant coverage of the relevant material in comparison with the book's treatment of the ancient and patristic sources. So too the witch craze of pre-modern Europe offers a vast subject that can receive only the most cursory of treatments.

Scholars of ancient medicine and literature with interests in these perennially popular topics will find in M.'s volume a convenient and useful primer and handbook for their work. The subject matter is difficult because of the need for mastery of fields as disparate and complex as medicine (especially psychiatric) and religion (along with a fair dose of dream interpretation). M.'s book is a sound introduction to a vast set of problems, even if much remains to be done to explore the rich and engaging tradition of nocturnal visitors and the havoc they have wreaked with the sleep and well-being of so many in European literature and art.