She-Wolf

VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF CHRIST = 'ANCIENT' ROMULUS, DESCRIBED BY LIVY AS LARENTIA, A WOMAN BY THE NAME OF 'SHE-WOLF'. The infants Romulus (partially Christ) and Remus (partially John the Baptist) having happily escaped death, despite the order of the 'evil king', live alone, secluded from the rest of the world, suckled by the she-wolf. Sometime later a certain shepherd finds and rescues Romulus and Remus. Titus Livy communicates the opinion of the ancient authors that 'THE SHE-WOLF WAS IN FACT A WOMAN'. A shepherd 'brought the children home and LET HIS WIFE LARENTIA RAISE THEM UP. Others think that Larentia was called a 'SHE-WOLF' amongst the shepherds.''[483], v.1, p.13. A historian Sextus Aurelius Victor says that the twins were given to 'a woman Acca Larentia, and this WOMAN was called SHE-WOLF for selling her body… Thus are called the women who sell themselves for profit, that is why a place where they live is called LUPANAR' [726:1], p.176. Baby Jesus, aka Romulus, was but of course suckled not by a she-wolf, but a woman Mary, his mother. Only the later authors began to be confused in the description of the biblical events. Why was the story of a she-Wolf, suckling the infants Romulus and Remus, so popular? The she-Wolf with two infants even became in a sense a symbol of 'ancient' Rome.

In the book [НОР] we have analysed a famous 'ancient' storyking Aeneas carries out on his back his father Anchises, holding a relic, and leads his son Ascanius by the hand from burning Troy. His wife Creusa is walking by Aeneas' side. In fact this is a vague reflection of the biblical flight into Egypt of Joseph with his wife Mary and the Baby Jesus. Notably Jesus and Mary were traveling on donkey's back. It appears that later writers called Mary Mother of God Anchises. A man Joseph was recast as a woman Creusa. The biblical donkey was renamed Aeneas. At that the total number of characters was left unchanged. There were four of them originally, and four of them remained. But the writers mistakenly mixed up their names.

The 'most ancient' Roman story of the Capitoline Wolf (i.e. a woman called Larentia), her husband and two babies (Romulus and Remus) – is another distorted version of the same biblical story of the flight into Egypt of Joseph with Mary and Jesus travelling on donkey's back. Except that the biblical donkey was transferred under Titus Livy's pen into the Roman SHE-WOLF. The later 'ancient' authors heatedly discussed the reason A WOMAN Larentia, i.e. Virgin Mary, as we understand now, was called A SHE-WOLF. They purported that in Latin LUPA means a she-wolf, and in common parlance it also meant 'a whore' [483], v.1, p.507, meaning a woman who according to Titus Livy 'gave herself to anyone' [483], v.1, p.13. However, it is possible that the Latin LUPA originated from the Slavonic LEPO, LEPYI, LYUBO, meaning BEAUTIFUL. Then everything becomes clear. The Virgin Mary was called BEAUTIFUL, i.e. LEPAYA, LEPO. Later, when the core of this matter was forgotten, the 'ancient' authors of the XVI-XVII cc. tendentiously changed the respectful Slavonic LEPAYA, LEPO into 'Latin' = a shewolf, a whore, after which they began to seriously analyse the 'transformation' of a woman into a she-wolf. The fact that in Russian the word LEPO, if read backwards (from the right to the left), as do the Arabs or Jews, for example, could have been confused with a word LECHERY, and cold have led one to believe that the subject they referred to was a wanton and immoral woman, could have played its part in the cunning blackening of the woman's reputation.

Titus Livy's 'story' in its spirit turns out to be rather close to the style of the Old Testament [2v]. But then it is worth remembering that in the Judaic version of the biblical events it was insistently repeated that Mary Mother of God was a victim of rape. Many authors discussed 'the Jewish version of the illegitimate birth of Jesus from a certain philanderer' [307], p.302. Generally the Judaic tradition cast Christ and Virgin Mary in a negative light [307], [ЦРС] So Titus Livy's words that a woman Larentia = She-Wolf, who suckled Romulus (and Remus) was a whore giving herself to anyone, fit the negative Judaic reflection of the biblical events well.

The Roman legends of Romulus and Remus partially absorbed the biblical details about Christ and John the Baptist. According to the Gospels they were second cousins [298:1], p.14, were childhood friends, grew up and were raised together. They were often depicted in the Mediaeval paintings next to each other in the form of two infants [ЦРИМ] ch.1. On many old pictures apart from Virgin Mary and the two infants next to her (i.e. Jesus Christ and John the Baptist) – THERE IS NO ONE ELSE THERE [ЦРИМ] ch.1. Possibly that is why an 'ancient' myth about a 'SheWolf' and the infants – Romulus and Remus - raised by her, has emerged.

The Virgin Mary was symbolically presented as a 'She-Wolf'. Romulus is the reflection of Christ, Remus is the reflection of John the Baptist. In [НОР] we suggested that a legend of a 'She Wolf' absorbed into itself an image of the Russian Volga River which 'nursed' Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome ('with its own milk'). In a figurative, but very clear sense. As Volga 'nursed' Yaroslavl, a new capital of Russia-Horde on its banks, and also it 'raised' two of its founders. It is also appropriate to remember a famous Biblical expression: 'a river flowing with MILK and Honey' (The Exodus 3:8). In the Russian fairy tales 'land of MILK and honey' (MILKY rivers – Land of Milk and Honey) is often mentioned. For a good reason it is said in the Christian tradition: 'The Blessed Virgin Mary, who brought forth for us the bread of life, is the true promised land, FROM WHICH FLOW HONEY AND MILK' [298:1], p.9. So there prevailed an image of a river flowing with milk. From this image it is not too far to arrive at the 'river feeding with milk'. At the beginning of the XIII century Ioann-Aeneas fled to Russia, the motherland of his ancestors. During the same epoch Andronicus-Christ (aka Romulus or Remus, aka Andrey Bogolyubskiy) repeatedly stayed in Russia with his mother Mary Mother of God, the symbol of whom was a 'She-Wolf'. Mary originated from Russia, that is why in times of danger she and her son returned there, to her motherland, possibly with a young John the Baptist = Remus. Mary could have also been called the 'She-Wolf' because in the Russian language the words 'VOLGA=VLAGA' meaning (VOLGA RIVER = MOISTURE or WATER) and VOLK (meaning WOLF) sound similar and could have been confused. On fig.21. it is shown a famous sculpture of the Capitoline Wolf. In [5v2], ch.3:9, we explore when this Et-ruscan stature was made. The historians refer it to the V century B.C. Under the she-wolf there are bronze figurines of the two twins Romulus and Remus sucking her milk. But such depiction could have not appeared earlier than the XV century. It turns out, as the historians acknowledge themselves, that the figurines

of the twins are made between the years 1471 and 1509! So the She-Wolf, most likely, is also made in the XV century. At the same time as the figurines of the children, and not two thousand years before they were made.

Anatoly Fomenko