On Indo-European wolf/dog personal names - relics of the Bronze Age wolf warrior cults. Initiates assumed the identity of a wolf and perhaps took on new names which persisted into Classical Antiquity and beyond: ‘Battle Wolf’, ‘Divine Hound’, ‘Dog Head’ (The One-Eyed God).
Wolf names and the Greeks. Lycurgus (Wolf’s Deed/Work) is the most interesting to me. Whether he was entirely real or not - I think not - the hypermilitarized Spartans clearly understood themselves to be following the law of the wolf … as revealed to them by a man with one eye.
Why the cultic connection with wolves? They work as a collective, exhibiting kindness to kin but berserk ferocity against enemies/prey. Whether fighting as a pack or on their own, they are the quintessential killer - the aspiration of the adolescent warrior.
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