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註釋This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter iv the wolf-deity in italy The wolf-cults of Italy present the appearance of a religious survival from a remote time. Of an actual wolf-god, we find far fewer manifestations than in Greece. Yet in the realm of magic, augury, and popular superstition, the wolf was more conspicuous and more highly venerated in Italy than was any other animal.1 Since an outgrown religion regularly lingers, often through many centuries, as a superstition or a magic practice, the widespread belief in the uncanny power of wolves indicates that at some time the wolf was important in Italian religion. The actual cults connected with the wolf are those of the obscure deity Soranus, of Mars, and of the little-known Lupercus or Luperca, who was named by some ancient scholars as the deity of the Lupercalia.2 In studying these wolf-cults, we shall seek to learn whether they originated among the Ligurians or the Aryans of Italy, and whether the ceremonial acts were similar to those performed in Greece in honor of the chthonic wolf, or akin to the rites of Olympian gods. That will give us a basis to interpret the ritual of the Lupercalia. Near Rome, in the country of the Faliscans, was a wolf-cult that was associated with Soranus, the god of Mount Soracte. The ritual combined the features of a fire-cult and a wolf-cult. Every year the priests performed a rite in which they walked through blazing coals, and yet were not burned.3 Fire-cults were rare in the religion of either the Greeks or the Romans. This particular one seems the natural product of the location, for the land of the Faliscans was volcanic, with numerous chasms whence issued pestiferous fumes.4 In this region, consequently, fire was the prime manifestation of the earth-spirit. Hephaistus, too, the...