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MAZZONI, Cristina, She-Wolf. The Story of a Roman Icon. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (...), 2010. XIV,282p. Paperback. ''Lupus est homo homini.' (Plautus, Asinaria 495). This famous quotation, through its various translations, perfectly encapsulates the themes explored in Cristina Mazzoni’s new book. Man is a wolf to other men - as Plautus undoubtedly meant it - but a wolf can also be interpreted as a human being in particular circumstances. In both Italian and Latin the word lupa can describe a she-wolf or a prostitute, either a ferocious animal or a female human of voracious sexual appetites. This paradox has informed interpretations of the legend of Romulus and Remus since antiquity, where the she-wolf figures as animal, mother, and whore simultaneously, and the complexity and ambiguity of this formative being have given her long life as a symbol representing a myriad of concepts, individuals, and entities. Mazzoni sets herself the ambitious task of exploring the she-wolf in all her forms and interpretations, from the famous Lupa Capitolina to her appearance in modern art, archaeology, poetry, and literature. The organization that Mazzoni adopts for her daunting task is remarkably unique in privileging thematic and disciplinary divisions over chronological phases. The book is divided into three main sections, the first focusing on the Lupa Capitolina herself, the second on the literary depictions of the she-wolf in general, and the third on the she-wolf in the visual arts. Each large section is further divided into three chronological chapters: Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance, and Modern and Contemporary Times. This doubly tripartite organization provides the support for Mazzoni’s eclectic style, which includes complex scholarly applications of gender theory, metaphorical descriptions of the contours of the eternal city, and plain matter-of-fact reporting on historical trivia. As described in her preface, this unusual format is largely borne from Mazzoni’s background in comparative literature “in which the personal and professional cannot be disentangled from one another.” (xiii) Her interest in the subject is influenced both by her birth in Rome and her son’s bout with lupus, and thus her reaction to the material is both critical and emotional. (...) It is worth mentioning in this review focused on classicists that Mazzoni’s primary research interests are firmly post-classical, and as a result, the strongest sections of the volume deal with works from the 19th-century on. Furthermore, the sections focusing on textual analysis reveal her virtuosity in this arena, particularly on the themes of gender and allegory. (...) Filled with insightful gems of information and passages of lyrical and innovative prose, She-Wolf leaves the reader not simply with a vivid picture of the complexity of the lupa, but a sense of her presence in the fabric of Rome itself, both past and present.' (GENEVIEVE GESSERT in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.02.09). € 26.50 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9780521145664