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Roman she-wolf
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Wolf-headed god (?), 3rd c. AD
A wolf- (or dog-)headed deity on this Roman limestone relief from the 3rd century AD, depicting some form of offering scene.
A syncretic, hybridised deity, taking up characteristics from different deities: a wolf head, crowned with sheaves of wheat, and holding a key,
the snake-like legs perhaps more an indicator of the cosmic warrior god Abraxas
(but he is usually represented
with the head of a lion or cock, together with sword and shield; also, other depictions from the Roman empire of snake-like monsters, e.g. from the Jupitergigantenreiter in Eastern Gaul); the rest of the god is human, clothed in animal skin; in his right hand, he holds a key, and in his left hand, a caduceus and sheaves of wheat (the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, together with the ram depicted on the left), and also some 'poppies'(? - healing quality?).
A bearded man kneeling at the right, presenting a loaf of bread on an offering table, its support with a lion head and a feline paw. (There are some Greek representations of a ketos, "sea monster", with a head resembling perhaps a wolf, notably the unique represenation of Perseus, Andromeda and Ketos on a Corinthian black-figure vase of the 6th century [coincidence? Corinth is not fa away from Arcadia...] (for vase painting, cf. Woodward, Perseus, 1937 and S.R: Wilk's Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, p. 53).
But at the end of the day, we do not know what kind of deity we are dealing with here: wheat, key, caduceus, poppies,... - does seem to be rather benign: fertility and propserity? and the offering is also rather harmless: a load of bread. (Sorry, though thoroughly checked when auctioned at Christies, and deemed genuine, we do not seem to know where the stele was found).
Isis & Wolf
also see Wolf Deities in EGYPT
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Italy - Etruscans
This representation from an Etruscan urn is similar to the depiction above, only the wolf is now a "wolf man", human body with wolf head. And the humans' actions are also clearly different. Is this really a representation of the same myth as some have suggested? Is it really a "wolf" emerging from the "underworld"?
On these urns depicting a 'monster' (Olta?) coming out of a 'well', also see Chierici Armando 1994, "Porsenna e Olta, riflessioni su un mito etrusco", MEFRA 106/1, 353-402,
doi : 10.3406/mefr.1994.1851. Near East
Watch it on YouTube to switch on sounds and to like: https://youtu.be/FQTcz3qKdys
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