Also called The She-Wolf, Lupa Capitolina.
Their story
Livy tells how the twins Romulus and Remus were left by the Tiber, and a she-wolf, coming to drink, gave them her teats beneath the fig tree called Ruminalis. The shepherd Faustulus found them and raised them with his wife Acca Larentia. Livy also mentions a sceptical version in which lupa, meaning she-wolf, was slang for Acca herself. The cave of the Lupercal on the Palatine was honoured as the spot.
Best times to give to them
- Lupercalia, 15 February
- Parilia, 21 April
- Larentalia, 23 December
What they like being given
- Milk
- Incense
- A fig
How to honour them
- Honour those who fostered or raised you.
- Pour milk under a tree for her.
- Support wolf or wildlife charities.
How they can help you
- Adoptive and foster families
- Protection of children
- Courage
Symbols
- she-wolf
- fig tree
- twins
- cave
The famous Capitoline bronze may be medieval rather than Etruscan.
Sources
- Livy 1.4
- Ovid, Fasti 2
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.79
More Roman beings
- Picus Woodpecker king and prophet of Latium