Empedocles believed he had passed through many forms, a bird and a fish among others. Lucian's story was of a Pythagorian cock which had been a man, a woman, a fish, a horse, and a frog, and of all states he thought that man was the most deplorably wretched of the animals. After anointing himself with enchanted salve from Thessaly, Lucian was transformed into an ass and worked for seven years under a "gardiner, a tyle man, a corier, and suchlike." At the end of the period he was restored to human shape by nibbling rose leaves.
Dionysius was believed to assume the form of a goat or of a bull, and Cronius was said to take the form of a horse. Epona was a horse-goddess, and Callisto in an Arcadian myth was changed into a bear. Citeus, son of Lycaon, laments the transformation of his daughter into a bear. Iphigenia at the moment of sacrifice was changed into a fawn. Osiris was mangled by a boar, or Typhon in the form of a boar;—just as in the tale of Diarmuid and Grainne, the former's foster brother was transformed into a boar.
The sorceress Thessala was able to call up strange animal ghosts:
"Here in all nature's products unfortunate;
Foam of mad dogs, which waters fear and hate;
Guts of the lynx; Hyæna's knot unbred;
The marrow of a hart with serpents fed
Were not wanting; no, nor the sea lamprey
Which stops the ships; nor yet the dragon's eye."
Lucan.
In Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" Puck is gifted with the power of transformation. He says,
"Sometimes a horse I'll be, sometimes a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometimes a fire,
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, dog, bear, fire, at every turn."
He had also the power to transform others into animals, and seeing Bottom studying the part of Pyramus, plays a trick upon him:
"An ass's nole I fixed on his head."
"Bless thee, Bottom," says Quin, seeing his companion transformed in this manner, "Bless thee! thou art translated." But Titania, herself under a spell, becomes enamoured of the vision. "So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape," she cries, and she desires to stick musk-roses in his sleek smooth head, and kiss the fair, large ears." Fortunately Oberon orders Puck to restore Bottom to his normal shape before much harm is done.