air is sweet in this forest as we follow
earth’s ridge toward an Etruscan
hollow Diana running
alongside me
shrine of Demeter dug deep in soil
scraped from earth’s heart
smells of two millennia
underworld protection
whiff of ancient rust of grain
her figure in an alcove wheat stalk
visible in her hand I sniff stale air
damp walls
nightfall we camp in ancient caves
Diana seeks traces
of handprints spiral whorls
rounded forms
in the space between night and day
air from Aurora’s wings shivers
along my coat I curl into her belly
seeking warmth
rock temple holds us
through nocturnal hoots and howls
dawn birdcalls wake me
into saffron light
Notes
I wrote this poem while on a six-month Literature Residency in Rome. The purpose of the residency was to write the book Lupa and Lamb. I returned to Rome briefly last year and while I enjoyed revisiting some old haunts, it seemed to have lost some of its patina. Perhaps because of the huge numbers of visitors.
Lupa is the mother wolf of Rome. But she is much more than that and has associations with other historical and mythical figures: Ilia, Rhea Silvia, Acca Larentia, Diana, Artemis, Artemisia. The first four are really the same woman/wolf. Lupa means both ‘wolf’ and ‘prostitute’. Ilia/Rhea Silvia is raped by the god, Mars and when she becomes pregnant is imprisoned. Lupa, the she-wolf, finds Ilia’s twins who are raised by Acca Larentia (also known as Lupa). Diana, Artemis, Artemisia is identified as a goddess, the mistress of the forests, of wolves; she who runs with hounds. As Artemisia she is a herb and the artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was publicly scorned when she was raped. In this book, Lupa is sometimes a dog.
The reference to Aurora is to the Roman goddess of the dawn. And to Demeter, not far from Rome in Viterbo, there are Etruscan votive offerings to Demeter that date back to at least 1000 BCE.