THE NURSING SHE-WOLF AND THE GODDESS OF SUCKLING

In the infancy narrative of romulus and remus, the wolf does not prey on any of the protagonists. The true predator, in this legend, is the war god Mars, who raped a virgin in her sleep, impregnated her, and then took off. To be fair to this otherwise deadbeat father, he sends a couple of animal associates – the she-wolf and the woodpecker – to watch over his two sons. It is bloody business to rape a virgin, and bloodier still must have been Rhea Silvia's delivery of the twins. Blood flows at the twins' conception: A virgin, whether raped or willing, usually bleeds at the moment of deflowering. Blood flows at the twins' birth: Human birth is always bloody. Blood flows again, more unpredictably this time, when the city is founded: Romulus, it is known, slayed his own brother Remus and remained Rome's sole founder. Blood signifies violence (sometimes) and pain (usually) but also the historical necessity of Rome's birth through the hurt of the woman who facilitated the event and the death of our hero's antagonist – who also happens to be, alas, his only brother. Blood, however, is not the only bodily fluid that visibly flows in this story of early Rome: Without the milk of the she-wolf – milk meant for wolf cubs but eagerly sucked down by two ravenous human babies – Rome's founder surely would have succumbed.